GODS FIRST WORDS*
Studies on Genesis Historic, Prophetic
and Experimental
By G. D. WATSON
[*NOTE: Ten Chapters only have been selected.]
[Book Cover
Writing]
Subtitled Studies in Genesis, Historic, Prophetic and
Experimental, this overview of the first book of the Bible shows
that the first words contained in Genesis are enlarged and unfolded in a great
many different directions and applications throughout the rest of the Bible,
but the words themselves are never changed and they are never any more perfect
in the last book in the Bible than they are in the first.
In the beginning God (Genesis 1: 1). No other book in the universe could ever begin like
this except it were the book of God. These first words in the Bible prove that
the book has a divine author; that it is not an invention of the human mind,
for the very first expression is of such a character as to put it beyond all
the thinking of the natural mind. There is no attempt to prove the existence of
God, there is no prelude, but out from the vast eternity comes the simple,
sublime expression that God was at the beginning.
[PAGE
5]
Contents
1. Gods First Words Page 7
2. In the Beginning God (Gen.
1: 1). Page 10
3. God Created (Gen.
1: 1). Page 14
4. Old and New Creation Page 17
5. Evening and Morning Page 23
6.The Image of God Page 27
7. The First Plan of the
Kingdom Page 31
8. The First Bride Page 37
9. The First Steps to Sin Page 42
10. The First Effects of Sin Page46
11. The First Curse on Sin Page 50
12. The Way of Cain Page 55
13. Gods
14. The First Prophetic Judgment
Day Page 63
15. The First Type of the Holy
Spirit Page 67
16. The First Four Typical Men Page 71
17. The First
18. The First Pilgrim of Faith Page 80
19. Solar and Lunar Saints Page 85
20. The First Words on Priesthood Page 90
21. The First Words on Justification by Faith Page 94
22. Sarah and Hagar Page 99
23. The First Jew Page 102
24. The First Escaping from the Fire
Page 108
25. The First Words on the Second Birth
Page 114
26. The First Words on Purging Out the Old Leaven Page 117
27. The First Offering Up of the Beloved Son Page 123
[PAGE
6]
The First Plan of the Kingdom Page 128
The First Words on the Resurrection Page 120
29. Seeking a wife for Isaac
Page132
30. Isaac a Type of Christ
Page140
31. Jacob at
32. Jacob at Peniel Page 151
33. Josephs Two Dreams Page 154
34. Joseph and Jesus in Humiliation Page 160
35. Joseph and Jesus in Exaltation Page 164
36. The Twelve Names of
37. The Two Blessings of
the Twelve Tribes Page 175
[PAGE 7]
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CHAPTER 1
Gods First Words
Have you
ever thought of the first word that God ever spoke in the vastness of eternity?
It has been revealed to us in Scripture, namely, In the beginning was the Word,
and also In the
beginning God.
The first word that the infinite God ever spoke constituted the expression of
His eternal Son, the logos, Who existed from eternity in the bosom of the Father.
It is of necessity that God should know Himself, and this
knowledge which God has of Himself forms the personality of the eternal Son,
for God must know Himself from eternity; and hence the person of the only
begotten Son must of necessity be as eternal as the Father Himself. When the
Father spoke His first word, that was the expression of the person of the Son
of God, and all other words that God has ever spoken are through His eternal
Son and because of His Son and for His Son. In the true sense, when any one
speaks a word, it must be the expression of ones nature, the articulation of
the inward character which the speaker has.
The old theologians tell us that of necessity God spoke one
word and that word was His Son, and that Satan tried to counterfeit God and he
thought that he would imitate God in speaking a word, but when he uttered his word
it was a lie. This corresponds with the Words of Jesus, that the Devil is a
liar and the father of it; so that every lie in the universe has been
propagated from that first lie of which the Devil is the father. Just as truly
as God spoke His first word, which was infinite truth, and all the truth in the
universe proceeds from the truth of that primeval utterance, so every lie in
the universe proceeds from that first lie which the Devil spoke. In the deepest
and truest sense, nobody can speak a word contrary to the real inwardness of
his nature. The word must always precede the act in the order of nature.
[PAGE 8]
The creation is a product of Gods word, for He made all
things and upholds all things by the word of His power. When Solomon offered
that wonderful prayer at the dedication of the temple, he said that what God
had promised with His mouth He had fulfilled or accomplished with His hand (2 Chron. 6:
15).
Moses was commanded to put on the hem of the garment of the
High Priest a bell and a pomegranate round about the garment, but the bell came
first and the pomegranate came next. The bell signifies testimony, speech,
prophecy, and the pomegranate signifies fruit or action. Thus we see the word
came first and the fruit came next.
Jesus preached His first sermon in
Gods Word flows out from His very nature and is the
expression of the fulness of His character. The book of Genesis contains Gods first words in His
revelation to the human race, and these first words are the pattern and sample
of all other words in the Bible. I discovered some years ago that every
doctrine that is taught in the Scripture is first mentioned or referred to in
the book of Genesis, and that
this wonderful book is the seed bed of every growth in the entire scope of
divine revelation.
As we go through the Bible we find that the first words
contained in Genesis are enlarged
and unfolded in a great many different directions and applications, but the
words themselves are never changed and they arc never any more perfect in the
last book in the Bible than they are in the first. Gods words never need any
correction or any improvement, but only to be unfolded and applied as time and
generations go by.
It is a necessity in the creation that the verb must always
flow out of the noun, which is simply saying that every act of every creature
in the whole world must correspond with the name, that is, with the nature of
that creature. We say the sun shines, the wind blows, the bird sings, and so on
through all the ranks of created beings. But the light flows out from the
nature of the sun, and the song from the nature of the bird, and the lie flows
out from the nature of Satan, and [PAGE 9] so we say of Gods love, for of necessity the love
flows out from His name or His nature.
God cannot lie, because before He could tell a lie He must
first cease to be God, and as long as He is the God that He has been from
eternity, so long it will be impossible for Him to lie, because He must act out
the contents of His character. That which is true of God is true also of all
the creatures that He has made, for everything must express the contents of its
nature.
This proves that no man can speak out from his heart the
things of God in reality until he is born again and has the nature of God
imparted to his heart, and then it is out of that new spiritual nature that he
can speak and act the things of God. The apostle calls our sinful, fallen
nature the old man, and that old man can never speak the things of God, but of
necessity will speak the things that belong to the carnal mind. Hence we see
the infinite necessity of the new birth.
The birth we have from Adam will of necessity express the
things of Adam, and it is only when we are born from above, born of God, that
we can speak and act the things of God. As Gods first words revealed His inward
character, so we cannot speak our first words in the Holy Ghost until we have
an inward being produced by the Holy Ghost out of which we can speak and act
the things of Christ.
I want us, in these chapters, to go through the book of Genesis and pick out Gods first words on the
various subjects which are mentioned in this beginning of all books and all
revelation of God to man.
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[PAGE
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CHAPTER 2
In the Beginning God (Gen. 1: 1).
No other
book in the universe could ever begin like this except it were the book of God.
These first words in the Bible prove that the book has a divine Author - that
it is not an invention of the human mind, for the very first expression is of
such a character as to put it beyond all the thinking of the natural mind.
There is no attempt to prove the existence of God. There is no prelude. But out
from the vast eternity comes the simple, sublime expression that God was at the
beginning, and He was before the beginning, because He was there in all His
eternal perfections when the beginning started. The beginning did not make God,
but God made the beginning, proving that He existed from eternity.
The word God is in the plural form and signifies unmistakably the plurality in
the divine persons. The Hebrew word for God is El.
The plural form of that word is Elohim, which
is the term used in the first verse in the Bible. And then in the second verse
there is made known the person of the eternal Spirit, for it says, The Spirit of God moved, or more properly it should be brooded on the face of the
waters. So here we have
at the beginning of the Bible the doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity, the
three Divine Persons existing as one God, with one nature, one substance, one
eternity, one glory, one character, and yet in three distinct personalities.
God is an infinite divine communion. The Father is supreme.
The Son is generated from eternity in the bosom of the Father. The Holy Ghost
proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. There is only one Father, not
two Fathers, Who is un-begotten, supreme in everything. There is only one Son,
Who is generated or born eternally in the bosom of the Father. There is only
one Holy Spirit, not born, not generated, but proceeding eternally from the Father
through the Son. The Godhead is of one substance, but the three [PAGE
11] Divine Persons
are distinct in their mode of existence and in their expression and in their
personal offices. Hence when God said, Let us make man, there was a community of counsel and
of authority and a perfect cooperation of all the Divine Persons.
It is impossible for any human mind to conceive of how God
could exist from all eternity. In my younger years I have often tried to go back
in imagination and attempt to grasp how the ever living God could exist from
eternity without any beginning, but I never was able to apprehend an
un-beginning existence such as God has. The Psalmist attempted to grasp the
same thing, but he said it was too high for him, he could not attain unto it.
This proves that every created mind in the universe is
in-finitely below God in capacity. All that any created intelligence can do is
to lie at Gods feet and look up in adoring wonder and forever and ever admire
and worship that eternal, self-existent, all adorable God with absolute worship
and trust and abandonment to Him without ever being able to fathom His infinite
perfections, or to comprehend His un-beginning existence.
The very words, In the beginning God, show that He must come first in all
things in the universe, not only first in existence, but as His creatures it is
His right to be first in all things to us, first in our worship, our obedience,
our faith, our plans, our lives, first in all our difficulties, the first one
to be consulted, the first one to be honoured, the first one to be thanked, the
first one to be recognized; that at all times and in all places and under all
circumstances He should come first.
To worship God means a great deal more than prayer or service
or good works or faith; it is to he delighted with Him, to enjoy Him, to find
our supreme contentment in Him, and to feel in our hearts a sweet jealousy for
His honour and for giving Him the first place in all things.
The first name by which God is called is used clear through
the Bible. Often that name is unfolded into other names as we go through the
Scriptures. The different names that are unfolded from His first name are
according to the different stages in which He reveals Himself, and according to
the different relationships which [PAGE 12] He assumes toward the world and the human race. Just
as the Son of God proceeds by an eternal generation from the bosom of the
Father, so the other names of God proceed out from the bosom of that first
name, Elohim.
The second name that God takes is that of Jehovah, found for
the first time in Genesis 2: 4. The name Jehovah reveals God in relation to His own people,
and unfolds a more personal relationship between God and man. The root meaning
of Elo-him is omnipotence, almighty power; but the
root meaning of the name Jehovah is eternal, self-existent life, the One Who
has always lived and will live forever, a fountain of self-existent life.
The third name that God reveals Himself by is that of Adon,
found in Genesis
15: 2. The root meaning of this word Adon is that of a pillar, a supporter, a sustainer, to bear up, to protect, to
defend. This name belongs more especially to the Second Person in the Godhead,
the Son of God, and is prophetic of His relation to mankind as an incarnate
Saviour and Redeemer and Lord. This word Adon is also used in the Scriptures of human beings, but always in a lofty and
honourable sense, as husband, lord, protector, as where Sarah calls Abraham my lord; the word is Adoni and not Jehovah.
So this name first used in Genesis 15: 2 indicates the relation of the Son of God as Redeemer and
Supporter, a husband to His elect saints.
The fourth name that God reveals Himself by is that of
El-Shaddai, and occurs for the first time in Genesis 17: 1. The root of the word signifies an
exhaustless fountain, an ever flowing supply, sufficient for every need. The
word is sometimes used of a mothers breast which supplies nourishment for the
infant. This word, in a special way, sets forth the eternal procession and
outflow of the Holy Ghost from the heart of the eternal Father. The name
indicates God outpouring Himself into His people and corresponds with the
out-pouring of the Holy Ghost upon believers. This name was used for the first
time when God called Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect. God revealed to
Abraham that, in spite of the wickedness of his own nature, the Almighty God could supply him with a stream of divine life and strength and grace
sufficient to purify and make [PAGE 13] him to walk before God with
perfect integrity and uprightness of heart, and
possess an experience of pure love and charity by which he could please God.
As we study the successive giving of these names, we see how these
first words in the names of God indicate the progress of Gods revelation to
mankind, and also the progress of relationships unfolded between God and man,
and also the progressive steps in the life of faith and fellowship with God.
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[PAGE 14]
CHAPTER 3
God Created (Gen. 1: 1).
We have
first the name of God and then the act of God. John tells us that the Word was with
God in the beginning, and the Word was God,
and that all things which are created were created by
that Word. We
sometimes hear it said that God made the universe out of nothing, but we do not
find any such expression in the Bible. On the other hand, the Scriptures teach
us that the universe was formed by the word of God - God created all things out
of His word. In other words, His words became solidified and the vast creation
is the word of God made solid, firm, substantial. We read He spake,
and it was done; He
commanded, and it stood fast; and also we read that all things are
upheld by the word of His power. We also read that He sent His word and healed
them. The apostle tells us that the creation was not made out of pre-existing
materials or of things which do appear. As the eternal Son of God is the
outspoken Word of the Father, so the creation of the universe is the active
expression of the Son of God by the word of His power. We are told that the
Father made nothing, but made all things by His Son; so that the Son of God
stands in between the created universe and the person of the eternal Father.
The Son of God is the connecting link between the Father and the universe. The
creation is not God, but exists separate and apart from the person of God,
because it is a product of His work and not an essential part of His being.
There has always been a class of thinkers that never could
distinguish between the eternal existence of God and the created universe, and
we call them Pantheists, because the word pantheism
means that everything is a part of God. Mr. Emerson was the most celebrated
writer in recent times of the school of pantheism, and he never seemed able,
with all his brilliant intellect, to distinguish between a personal God and the
works of that God. In other words, many seem [PAGE 15] unable to discern between evolution
and creation. The Bible, from beginning to end, teaches creation as against
evolution. There is an infinite gap between a thing being created and being
evolved out of some previous substance. The question has often been propounded,
Which existed first, the hen or the egg? Creation teaches that the hen existed
first and she laid the egg, but evolution teaches that the egg existed first
and evolved the hen. The difference between these two theories is absolutely
infinite. God did not make the egg first, but made the hen first. Every word in
the Bible respecting creation affirms that God made the tree first and the tree
bore the fruit; that God made the animal first and the animal produced the
off-spring; that God made the fishes first and the birds and every creature and
that each creature, whether animate or inanimate, whether animal or vegetable,
produced its species after its kind. Hence the whole teaching of evolution is
absolutely atheistic and a denial of God and of creation and leads to every
form of falsehood in doctrine, in life, in morals and everything else.
Now let us remember that while God created the universe and
that its existence is not to be confounded with His own existence, yet
Scripture teaches that God pervades all things and upholds all things by His
presence and word and power. The Psalmist says, If I make my bed in hell [Sheol], God is there,
but God is not hell. However, He
pervades it with His presence; just as God is not the ocean, though He
pervades every atom with His presence; and God is not a man, though He pervades
every atom of our being with His presence. Electricity pervades every grain of
sand on the earth and every drop of water, but electricity is a distinct thing
from the sand and from the water.
God never created sin. He created an archangel named Lucifer,
and that archangel made himself the Devil, and was the father of lies and the
first sinner in the universe. God formed the constitution and faculties of
Lucifer, but God did not form sin. Hence we must distinguish between God
creating the universe and then between creatures forming a sinful character
contrary to God and against His [PAGE 16] will and pleasure.
When man became a sinner, it required a plan of redemption to
recreate in man a good, holy, spiritual life. It is just as impossible for a
sinful soul to evolve a holy nature and life out of itself as, it is for the
dust to evolve out of itself a living man. No one can have the life of Christ
in him except by a new creation, and the human heart can no more evolve out of
its fallen nature a holy life than a drop of water or a grain of sand can
evolve itself into an angel. The new birth and a clean heart must be by divine
creation and not by evolution from the fallen Adam. Hence Scripture says, Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me.
The passage in 1 Peter which says, Be ye holy, would be more literally expressed by
the words Be ye created holy, for the act of
creation is involved in the original words. No man can make himself holy, and
God does not require it; but God requires that we shall be willing for Him to
recreate us in holiness and righteousness. We can be willing for Him to make us
what we ought to be. Hence the [groaning] creation of God not only applies to the primeval creation, but also to the
new creation which is going forward under the redemption of Jesus Christ.
We shall see in succeeding chapters how the first creation is
a model for the new creation, and how God is at the present time at work on the
new creation under a plan of redemption.
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[PAGE
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CHAPTER 4
The Old and New Creation
In the
account that is given to us of the creation as described in the first chapter
of Genesis, we have a perfect pattern of the new
creation that is wrought out by the redemption of Jesus in the way in which God
creates the soul anew in a spiritual life in Christ Jesus. It is not only Gods
first words in the old creation, but also His first words concerning the new
birth and the formation of Christian character. Just as darkness was upon the
face of the deep before the Creator began to form the world in its proper
order, so there is darkness upon the soul of the natural man as he is born of
Adam; and as it is said the earth was without form and void, so in the spirit of the natural man
as he exists in a fallen, sinful condition, everything in his whole inner being
is without form and void and all the elements of his character are in a dark
and confused state of existence. Let us notice the steps in the creation of the
world and see how it agrees with the new life which a penitent believer
receives by faith in Christ.
1. On the first
day God said, Let there be light. This was before the sun, moon and stars had been
revealed in their distant forms, but there went forth through all the creation
an all-pervading illumination dispelling the darkness. This is the first step
that God takes in saving the soul; He sends forth the light of truth to put the
sinner under conviction, and to enable him to discern that he is lost and needs
a Saviour. Truth to the moral and spiritual nature is exactly what light is in
the material world. It is only by the light of truth that a sinner can discern
himself and see his sinful condition, and see the need of a Saviour. We are
told by St. John that Christ is the Light and that He gives light to every one
that is born in the world; so that we are sure that every human soul that comes
into this world has a measure of light imparted to it from the Lord Jesus Christ
by virtue [PAGE 18] of His incarnation and by virtue of His making atonement for
all mankind. We are not able to know how much light is given to every human
soul, only we are sure from the Word of God that no human being has ever
existed that did not have light imparted to it from the Lord Jesus Christ in
that measure which God sees is essential to meet the requirements of His plan
and His will.
2. On the second day or period of
creation God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from above from those waters
which are beneath. This firmament was a fixed division in the air, perhaps five or ten
thousand feet above the earth, which separated the lower and heavier measure of
air from the upper and thinner atmosphere in the upper regions of the sky. It
is very evident from Scripture and the discovery of the laws of nature, that
the greater part of the water that is now in the world was originally suspended
in the upper regions of the air above this dividing line of the firmament, and
that at the time of Noahs flood this firmament was made to break loose and the
vast ocean of waters that were held in the form of vapour in the upper regions
of the sky were let down upon the earth, causing the water on the earth in the
present state of the world to form the greater part of the worlds surface.
This firmament was a dividing line, separating the water which was in the form
of vapour from the lower water on the earth which existed in the form of liquid
sea.
This is what takes place in the process of salvation in
turning a sinner into a saint; that the Holy Ghost produces in the spirit of
the penitent a dividing line between the soul and its sins and enables the
seeking soul to see that its sins can be taken away, and that it is possible
for Jesus, by His salvation, to produce a separation between the sinner and his
sins. Sin is not an essential part of mans soul, for if that were so it would
be impossible for God to save the sinner, but sin is a perversion of the
dispositions of the heart and moral conception, and inward crookedness of
desire and affection which can be separated from the soul, so that the human
spirit can be made to exist as God originally intended it, and that the element
of sin is a foreign character introduced by Satan and does not properly belong
to the works of God. Thus we have here Gods first words [PAGE
19] on a life of
separation. Just as sin produces separation from God, so salvation through
Jesus produces a separation from sin; and this is the office of the spiritual
firmament, which God produces in the new creation, corresponding to the
firmament which He made to divide the waters on the second day of creation.
3. On the third day of creation God
said, Let the waters under the heaven, that is below the dividing line, be gathered
together in one place, and let the dry land
appear. This
shows us the third step in the process of salvation, namely, the gathering
together of the elements of mans mental and moral nature into one form or one
character in order that the true state of the soul may be made manifest. In
mans evil and unsaved condition, all the elements of his character are
scattered and confused, without harmony, without any proper government, without
any distinct self-recognition of its true state. Under the law of conviction
and the separating power of the Holy Ghost, there is a coming together of the
various parts of mans mental and moral nature by which he is formed into a
self-recognized, responsible subject of divine grace. We read that the prodigal
son, in his terrible condition, feeding swine, when he got under true
conviction it is said he came to himself, a distinct recognition of what I am now talking about.
Up to that time he did not have a proper recognition of himself, but under the
light of divine conviction his scattered thoughts and feelings and convictions
were gathered together. He was getting back into the spiritual zone of
recognizing who he was and where he was, and what he had been and what he wanted
to become.
It was upon this third day, after the seas had been gathered
together, that God commanded the dry earth to bring forth grass and herbs and
fruit trees. These were the lower forms of vegetable life and is, we say, unthinking
and unconscious or unintelligible to its forms of life. This is a picture of
the beginnings of those living forces in the conscience and the will and the
desires of the heart in the processes of salvation. We are so marvellously
constructed that we are not able to discern and analyze all the various
elements in our moral and spiritual being. But after we have entered into the
state of regeneration and received the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, [PAGE
20] we are then able
to look back and notice a great many things which took place in our soul while
passing through repentance and the new birth which we could not recognize at
the time we were passing through those conditions. There are forms of desires
and affection that spring up in the soul of the true penitent which are not
entirely spiritual on the one side, and they are not carnal on the other side,
but are the movements of our natural human feelings, our natural affections and
sympathies and the natural longings of the intellect after the things of God
which form a lower type of religious life, corresponding to the formation of
vegetables and trees in the natural world.
4. The fourth day the Lord said, Let there be
lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and
for seasons, and for days and years. And He made two great lights to rule
the day and the night, and He made the stars also. Here we have for the first time
in the process of creation the distinct formation and revelation of the sun,
moon and stars as specific bodies of light. Now while it was true that light
was the first thing in creation after the formation of the original atoms, yet
it was not until the fourth day that light was manifested in distinct orbs or
shining globes.
This corresponds exactly with the fourth step in the process
of the new creation and forming a believer in Christ Jesus. The sun corresponds
with the person of the Lord Jesus, and the moon corresponds with the Christian
church in the new creation, and the stars correspond to individual believers;
so that we see a perfect agreement between the orbs of light in the old
material creation and the distinct forms and bodies of light in the new and
spiritual creation.
A day with the Lord is a thousand years, but a day with man is
twenty-four hours; and so Moses tells us, referring to the past creation, that
a day with the Lord is a thousand years (Psalm 90 : 4). And then St. Peter tells us,
referring to the judgment day, that a day with the Lord is a thousand years.
Thus Moses, referring to the past, and Peter referring to the future, both
declare that with God a day is a thousand years. Now in conformity with these
statements, the Son of God was not born in human flesh and openly manifested [PAGE
21] as an individual
incarnate God to this world until the fourth day; that is, the fourth thousand
years of human history. Just as light was in the universe before the sun was
formed on the fourth day, so the light of God was in all human history for four
thousand years, from Adam to Jesus. But the close of the fourth thousand years
of human history, that is, the fourth day in the great work of the new
creation, the Son of God was revealed as a man and became the Light of this
world. Shortly after, the church was formed and manifested, corresponding with
the moon, and the individual saints were formed in the Christian dispensation,
corresponding with the stars. All this took place at the close of the fourth
day, that is, the fourth thousand years.
It is impossible that all these things should have taken place
by chance. The perfection of Gods plans and works burst out around us
everywhere when we study them in the light of His Word and providence and when
we form them into an arrangement of harmony.
This also corresponds with the fact of the new birth, that
when the penitent receives Christ as a present Saviour from all his sins, there
is manifested to the eye of his faith the person of the Lord Jesus as an
individual Saviour, bearing all his sins on the cross. There is light given to
the sinner in his first conviction, but that light is not formed into an
individual personal revelation of the Lord Jesus as a Saviour until the act of
saying faith, and then Christ appears to the eye of faith as a distinct orb of
saving grace, corresponding to the fact of the visible sun being manifested on
the fourth day of creation.
5. On the fifth day of creation there
was formed all manner of living creatures in the sea and fowls of the air. This
also corresponds with the fact that following the act of saving faith in
Christ, the affections of the heart and the mind are filled with the effects
and fruits of the new birth; for there is a complete change in the natural
affections and in the thoughts of the mind, showing how the new birth is
communicated to all the feelings and sentiments of the soul in all the
relationships of the domestic life, the social relations, the opinions of the
mind, the thoughts and imaginations of the intellect, which correspond to the
fowls that fly in the air.
[PAGE 22]
6. It was on the sixth day of creation that God made all kinds
of cattle and beasts of the earth, and concluded with the making of man in His
own image and giving him dominion and lordship over all the world and
everything in it. This corresponds with the fact that the new creation in the
soul must be concluded with the formation of Christ in the heart and the
enthronement of the Lord Jesus over the whole being as Lord of all. The new
birth is not an ultimate thing in itself, but throughout all Scripture, and
especially in the Epistles, we are taught that after the new birth has taken
place in mans moral nature there must be the enthronement of the Lord Jesus
Christ taking possession of the whole heart and soul and extending the
boundaries of His perfect love throughout the whole man. It is a great mistake,
both in Bible teaching and in experience, to think that the forgiveness of sins
or a change of heart is an ultimate matter in the Christian life, for always
and forever in the Christian religion Jesus must be the ultimate one, and the
new birth is a preparation for the perfect inward manifestation of the Lord
Jesus and His complete dominion in the heart. All the steps that a soul takes
in the process of salvation, from repentance to the perfection of love, are but
preparatory to divine union, to that perfect heart-oneness which God has
planned to exist between Christ and the believer.
Thus we see in the various six days of creation a perfect
outline of the process of the new creation in causing the natural darkness of
the sinner to pass away and bringing the believer into the state of a full
believer and state of divine oneness with Christ, which culminates in that blessed
God-Man having dominion over all things in our being to the glory of God the
Father.
* *
*
[PAGE 23]
CHAPTER 5
Evening and Morning
As we
study Gods first words in the book of Genesis we need to go a little slow and put things together in a
thoughtful and prayerful manner, and compare
Scripture with Scripture from the beginning to the end of the Bible, in
order that we may be most powerfully impressed with the utterances that come
out of the divine mind. We shall find the key to all Scripture in the book of Genesis. Infidels always begin by attacking
this book of Genesis, and yet they
themselves do not know why such is the case, for they are not aware that their
minds are acting under the guidance of Satan or of some demon, and the Devil
knows that if he can discredit the book of Genesis, it will undermine every other book in the Bible; but to a
true believer, led and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, the book of Genesis blazes with transcendent light in
every direction, whether toward God or toward man, and no part of the Bible is
more solid than the words we find in this first book of Scripture.
Have you ever noticed that in the first chapter of Genesis, in connection with each of the six
days of creation, every day concludes with the remark that the evening and
morning made the day? The evening and the morning were the first day, and so on to the last the evening
and the morning made the sixth day. Every uninspired man would have naturally written the morning
and the evening made the day, but God speaks just the opposite of the natural
man, and He always puts the evening first and the morning last. This is Gods
first word revealing the fact that He always
works from darkness to light, from sin to holiness, from sorrow to joy,
from poverty to wealth, from weakness to strength, from the natural to the
supernatural, from the earthly to the heavenly, from the uncertain to the true,
from doubt to faith, from the human to the divine, from the temporal to the
eternal, from the cursing to the blessing, from the [PAGE
24] mortal
to the immortal. The wheels of God never turn backward, but always and forever, from
worlds end to worlds end, His ever blessed footsteps march onward and upward in the revelations of Himself in His
dealings with His creatures in the steps of His great salvation. It is
enough to thrill our minds with everlasting gladness to watch the ways of God,
to notice the movements of His hands and
the onward sweep of His government.
We notice in the second verse of Genesis there was darkness upon the face of
the deep, and then we notice that the Spirit of God moved upon that darkness
and out of it came light, and out of the light came the sun, moon, and stars.
Now if you will go through the entire Bible you will find that we have here the
key to all Gods dealings. When Abraham had his great vision of sorrow and
darkness recorded in Genesis 15, when he saw a representation of the sufferings of his posterity in the
land of Egypt, we read that there was a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that
passed between the pieces of his sacrifice at the time when he felt a great
horror of darkness resting upon his soul. There was first the horror of darkness,
a picture of the terrible bondage of his children in Egypt; and then the
smoking furnace, a type of intense trial and the groaning and praying of his
posterity to God for deliverance; and then came the burning lamp, the bright
shining light, representing the deliverance of the Hebrews and their being
formed into a nation and becoming the shining lamp among the nations, to
illuminate mankind on the things of God.
Then in the case of Jacob, through that long, dark night in
which the Angel of Jehovah wrestled with him, we notice the struggle through
the dark night, but when the day was breaking over
the eastern hills and the light was spread around him he obtained the blessing
and went forward in perfect victory over his brother and over all his enemies.
And then we notice in the life of Moses how he fled from
[PAGE 25]
In the case of David who for fifteen years was chased as an
animal over mountains and amid the rocks and oftentimes there was only a step
between him and death, yet at last the day broke, the enemies were
slain and scattered and he ascended to his throne to feed the people of God
with the bread of knowledge.
In the case of Mordecai we notice first the awful oppression
under the wicked Haman and his going out in the street with a loud and bitter
cry because of the death sentence, and then the marvellous and instantaneous change of affairs in the downfall of Haman and the
enthronement of Mordecai, ruling the vast nation in tranquility and justice.
Then we see in the case of the blessed [Lord] Jesus the storm that gathered around His
closing days on earth and the darkness and agony of the garden, and on the
cross the supernatural darkness in which He died, and then three days after the glorious sunburst of - [His (see Matthew
12: 40,
cf. Acts 2: 31] - resurrection and power and honour
and victorious ascension to the right hand of God.
And in the coming [Great] tribulation there will be a period of unparalleled agony upon
this earth which will terminate with that dark day when the sun will not shine and
the moon will turn to blood, and in that darkness the antichrist and his armies
will go down unto death or the lake of fire; and it is followed
at once with the great day-break of Millennial glory and Christ standing on Mt.
Olivet and reigning in Jerusalem and filling the world with righteousness as
waters fill the sea.
And how true all this
is in our individual lives. What darkness and sorrow there is to our souls
when we are brought under conviction for our sins, and then we drink the
wormwood of penitential sorrow and eat the bitter herbs like the Hebrews at the
time of the Passover; but this is followed by the sweetness of pardon and the
light of divine love that springs up in the heart.
And also there are seasons of trial, sorrow, trouble, which
often come to Gods [redeemed] people, causing them to weep with anguish, to
agonize in prayer, to wait with long patience for the
mercy of God, for deliverance, for comfort; but at last to those who wait with patient faith, the shadows flee away, and His loving providence opens like [PAGE
26] a great sunflower
upon the soul, the storms pass away, and the tranquility and sweetness of Gods
fatherly care break out around the true - [faithful and enlightened] - believer and he then sees that
God has made everything work for his good.
In the case of Satan and sinners, they always go from bad to
worse. The natural man has his good things first and his bad things last, but
Jesus always plans to have the best wine at the last.
When we put all these things together and see how this is the
way God works forever and forever in the creation of the world, in the plan of
redemption, in the arrangements of
providence, in our individual lives,
these things furnish us with an infallible proof that God is always true to His
word, and always is better and better to our souls as we - [are determined, by His grace and forgiveness, to] - go on in our heavenly journey.
After six thousand years of human history, after
all the dealings that God has had with His people in all generations, it still
comes out in the end just exactly as we have it in Gods first words; it is
always the evening first and the morning last. Thus we can take heart and know
for a surety that if we identify
ourselves with the blessed Lord Jesus, we are going on forever and forever
toward an eternal - [Gk. aionios
i.e., age-lasting] - morning, a morning of light and glory that will
never be followed by a sunset.
* *
*
[PAGE 27]
CHAPTER 6
The Image of God
When God
said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, what do you
suppose He really meant? Does God have an image for sure and a real likeness? Shall
we go by the Bible, or shall we go by a man-made theology? Human theology
teaches us that God has no image, but the Bible denies it; so you can take your
choice between Scripture or human theology.
There is not one word in the Bible which teaches that God has
no image. On the other hand, there are many Scriptures which teach that God has
a form, an image, a likeness, and that image is revealed in Scripture. We are
commanded to make no image or likeness of God, but that does not prohibit God
from making an image of Himself. Every time that a man attempts to make an
image of God he makes a lie, something that is false, something that dishonours
God. When God makes an image of Himself, He makes something that is true, that
is worthy of the divine being, something that always conduces to Gods glory.
It is true that God is an infinite Spirit, existing from
eternity to eternity and possessing every moral and spiritual perfection which
it is possible for the human mind to conceive, and also many perfections which
lie beyond the thinking of the human mind. In this respect Gods essence and
presence through all space and through all eternity does not have any definite
form or shape that we can conceive of. While this is true, it is also true that
when God manifests Himself and reveals His personality, His word, His
character, His conduct, He takes a form which is in harmony with the glory of
His infinite nature.
We may say that electricity pervades every drop of water and
every atom of earth and air, and in that respect it has no special form or
shape, but at the same time wherever electricity manifests [PAGE
28] itself in
lightning or a storm of fire it takes a form and a shape in its manifestation.
Now this illustrates the nature of God, that in one sense He may exist through
all space without form, but whenever God reveals Himself to angels or men He
takes a form, and hence He has an image in His manifestation.
Now our next thought is, what is that form or image? We do not
have to go far to find the answer in Scripture. That image is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-Man, the man Christ Jesus. But where did God get the shape of a
man, with his head and body and arms, legs and feet and face and with the
marvellous make-up of the human faculties? The answer is, He got it from His
own self in the past eternity, millions of ages before Adam was made or before
men walked on this earth. From eternity the infinite God generated His only
begotten Son in His bosom and that Son was Gods manifestation to the universe
of His personality and character. And that Son had the same form back in
eternity in the bosom of God that He had when He walked on this earth and was
crucified on the cross and ascended to the right hand of God, and the same form
that He will have when He returns in radiant glory to chain the Devil and reign
on the earth and govern the universe throughout everlasting ages that are to
come.
The form of the Lord Jesus Christ was from eternity, before
ever He made Adam. And hence when He said, Let us make man in our image,
He fashioned the first
man of the human race according to the pattern and personal shape of the ever
blessed Son of God. Jesus said to the Jews, Before Abraham was, I am, for He existed before Abraham and before Adam. The first time that the Son
of God ever manifested Himself to the firstborn angels He had the same form
that He had when He made Adam and that He has today at the right hand of the
Father.
There are some catechisms in which the question is put about
man being made in the image of God, What did the
image consist of? The answer is, It consisted
of righteousness and true holiness. That is true, but that is not all
the truth by a long way. In the creation of Adam as recorded in Gods first
words there is nothing said about [PAGE 29] righteousness or true holiness, but the language is, Let us make
man in our image, and let him have dominion.
When we put together all the Bible teaching we find that Adam,
when he was formed, was in the image of God. Just as the eternal Father
contained within Himself from eternity the divine Son and the Holy Spirit, so
Adam, when he was first formed, contained within himself Eve and the child. Eve
was formed out of one of Adams ribs. She was in Adam from the time Adam was
made, but she was not manifested or revealed as a distinct person until God put
Adam to sleep and took his rib and built Eve; but none the less she was in
Adam, from the beginning of his existence. Eve was not born, she was not
generated, but she proceeded from the body of Adam. In like manner the Holy
Ghost was not born or generated, and Jesus tells us that the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father. The Holy Ghost is an eternal divine person flowing
out from the Father, without beginning, without ending.
The child begotten by Adam was in his
body from the time of his creation and hence was as old as Adam, of the same
nature and substance and character and attributes. The child was begotten and
born, a thing that cannot be applied either to Adam or to Eve. And here we have
a perfect image of the triune God, the three divine Persons, and also the mode
of their existence.
There is only one God, but in that Godhead there is only one
Father, and out from that Father proceeds the Holy Spirit, without being born
or begotten, and out from that Father comes the eternal Son, Who is
begotten and born. This is a perfect image of Almighty God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, one God, one substance, one eternity, one nature, one glory, but
three distinct and separate persons.
This is not all. In the human family there never can be but
three relationships without starting another family. There were Adam, and Eve
and the child. It does not matter whether it applies to one child or other
children, but these three primal relationships can never be increased without
starting another family. So here we have another feature in the image of God.
Hence there never can be any other God than the God we have revealed in the
Bible; there never can be but one eternal Father, one eternal Son and one
eternal Holy Spirit.
[PAGE 30]
Here is a fountain of everlasting joy for our souls, that we
have a God that never can change, never can be false, never can commit sin, a
God Whose infinite perfections fill eternity and all space and fill our little
lives. These great radiant divine perfections flow around us by day and by
night, from the beginning of our lives on to the end, like great bright shining
waters in which we can bathe our spirits by simple faith in spite of outward
circumstances. And we can look forward to the everlasting ages that are to come
and be glad that God has made a plan to recreate us in Christ Jesus, and
restore that blessed image of Himself which was lost in the fall, and cause us
to inherit in His image the very life and joy of God Himself.
Thus we have in the first chapter of Genesis Gods first word about His image. And
that first word holds good throughout all Scripture and will reach its highest consummation in the first resurrection, when
we shall be entirely like the Son of God, for we shall see Him as He is.
* *
*
[PAGE 31]
CHAPTER 7
The First Plan of the
Kingdom
We are
told in the Apocrypha that God does nothing except He does it by time and
number and measure. Everything that God does is according to some pattern which
exists in the divine mind. Hence when He arranged the creation of the world and
man He formed a plan of the kingdom which He would set up on this earth, of
which Adam and Eve were to be the co-regents overall the lower creation, and
that they should bring forth a race of rulers that should have dominion over
the material universe. The first word concerning this divine plan is found in
the language, And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth (Gen.
1:
26).
Have you noticed that in these words the first word God ever
uttered in connection with making man was that of dominion, which gives the
primeval thought in the mind of God that the human race was designed to be a
generation of rulers over all the lower works of God? The holiness of Adam and
his longevity and all the elements of his character as a child of God were
certainly included, but they were not mentioned, and the supreme thought was
that of dominion. The same idea was expressed just after the flood, when Noah
and his family came out of the ark, when God said to Noah, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of
you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and
upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the
seas; into your hand are they delivered
(Gen.
9:
2). Here we see the second beginning of
the race and the second expression of the supreme thought of being a ruler over
all the lower creation and every form of living creature in the world.
[PAGE 32]
In the 8th Psalm David repeats the same thought of the rulership of man over
all the lower creation when he says: Thou hast made man a little lower
than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory
and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all
things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field, and
fowl of the air and fish of the sea. This proof is repeated over and over again in many
forms throughout all Scripture. In the closing words of Revelation we have the same
thought when John says he saw thrones and the martyred saints sat on them, and
the power to judge the world was given unto them, and they lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20: 4-6).
Jesus tells us that at the judgment day He will say to the
righteous, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world (Matt. 25: 34). Now just look at it, that the kingdom which was
arranged at the creation of Adam has never been changed and never will change.
It goes on persistently in the purpose of God throughout all the generations of
mankind and the different dispensations of human history, and comes out in
the end of human probation in its full and perfect realization when the
resurrected and glorified children of God are to come into their inheritance
and take the dominion over all the works of God just exactly as it was planned
in the first chapter of Genesis.
This proves that Gods plans are as perfect at the beginning
as they are at the end,
and that His words are so absolutely pure and correct that they never change,
never break down, never fail of accomplishment, and that as the ages go by they are simply
enlarged into a wider application.
The next thought in connection with this plan of the kingdom
is to study the creation of Adam as the king of the world. And the Lord
God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul
(Gen.
2:
7). How many thousands of times foolish
sceptics and poor, ignorant, depraved men have tried to change these words of
the living God. Some so-called scientists that know nothing of the living God
or the Bible have taught that mans body was an evolution from some [PAGE
33] lower forms of
animal life, but this theory is
absolutely contradicted by the laws of all nature, by the Word of God, and by
all human history and the investigations of science. There is no such thing as one
species jumping over its boundaries and forming another species, for God
ordained that every animal and tree and plant should bring forth seed and
reproduction after its own kind. From that day to this no species of animal or
tree has ever leaped the bounds of its own nature to bring forth a monstrosity
of some other species.
On the other hand, those who have accepted only the teaching
of materialism have denied the true Bible doctrines of the human soul. The
Seventh Day Adventists and the Millennial Dawn teaching assert that man does
not possess an ever living human spirit, but that a human being consists of
nothing but a material body and the breath of atmosphere that is in the lungs
the same as any lower animal has. But in these first words concerning the
formation of man we see plainly that the body was formed out of the dust and
that the soul was formed out of the divine breath or the divine Spirit, proving
that the spirit [and soul] of man is
something separate and distinct from the body. While the body is taken from
the dust of the earth, the spirit of man is formed by the Holy Ghost.
The Apostle Paul shows us the contrast between the first man
Adam and the second man who was made a quickening, that is, a life-giving
Spirit. The living soul is a soul or a spirit-man within the body that is to
exist forever and ever, without one single hint of annihilation in the whole
Bible. But Adam had no power to communicate life to the dead. On the other
hand, Christ was a quickening Spirit, that is, He had power to communicate life
unto the dead, an intimate, divine authority over creation by which He can
raise the dead and regenerate a fallen, sinful man and put divine life in him,
which distinguishes Him as infinitely superior to a natural man.
Another fact concerning the original plan for the kingdom is
that Adam was to propagate a race of rulers. The idea of rulership is the most
dominant thought in all the Bible respecting the creation of man, both in his
original creation and in the plan of the redemption. When the day of rewards
shall come, Jesus says that He will say to His faithful servants, Thou hast
been faithful over a few things, [PAGE 34] I will make thee ruler over many things. And
then again He says in the parable of the pounds that the servant who had ten
pounds should have authority over ten cities, and the servant who had five
should have authority over five cities. And then in the messages that Jesus
gives to the seven churches He says: He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
power (or
authority) over the nations: And he shall
rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of
a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even
as I received of my Father. Just exactly as the eternal Father appointed His Son, the
Lord Jesus, to be the supreme King over the entire universe, over all worlds
and angels and men and demons, so in like manner Jesus affirms He will appoint to His overcoming servants authority over the nations that will live on this earth in the coming [millennial] age, or after
dispensations, as well as authority over all the lower animals and the material
things and laws of nature.
All these Scriptures have been so long perverted by false teaching, that they are to be fulfilled only in a
metaphorical or spiritual sense. Thus the Word of God has almost ceased to have
any real power upon the minds of professing Christians, because instead of
taking the Word of God in its true, literal meaning, it has been whittled off
into thin shavings of ghost smoke.
The Salvation that we receive through our divine Saviour,
consisting in its entirety of the new birth, sanctification, and the
resurrection from the dead, this salvation is only preparatory to the
[PAGE 35]
Another fact is, we must understand the expression where it is
said in the Scriptures, referring to Gods making of man. I have said that ye are gods. Now in what sense can it be true
that God made man to be a god? The words can only be understood by studying
these passages in which God created Adam, to be a ruler over all things in this
world. God planned that Adam should be a god to all the lower creations, and
that all animals and fishes and birds should worship him and obey him and
honour him up to their capacity, as he, in his capacity, should worship Jehovah
and love and honour and obey Him. The lower animals have souls, but they do not
have spirits. The lower animals can love and hate and learn and obey man, but
they do not possess a spiritual conscience, they do not have an inward spirit
nature by which they can touch God or know God, and hence man is to them a god.
If Adam had never sinned, all the lower animals would have been his loving and
obedient subjects and would have worshiped him, but when Adam became a sinner
he lost his dominion, his sceptre, and his throne, and then the lower animals
turned against him. But this perfect dominion is to be restored in the
resurrection of the just, and the glorified sons of God and all the lower
creation will be obedient and subservient to the glorified saints in the time
of what the apostle calls the restitution of all things.
Again, not only did God plan to make Adam the king of the
lower animals, but also over the forces of nature, such as air and water and
the natural elements in the physical world. Jesus when He walked on the sea did
not do so merely because He was God, but by virtue of His being a perfect,
sinless man, the second Adam, and by virtue of His natural dominion over the
laws of nature. He caused Peter to walk on the sea, and although it was only a
short distance, yet nonetheless he walked on the sea, which was a prophetic
indication of what will come to the sons of God in their glorified state when
they are risen from the dead.
Another fact in connection with this kingdom was that Adam, as
the first appointed ruler of the world, was divinely inspired to understand all
the laws of nature and the secrets in all the lower animals, so that when God
allowed him to give names to all the lower animals, he gave each creature an
appropriate name, corresponding [PAGE 36] exactly with the make-up and instincts of the animals.
The names Adam gave to them were exactly indicative of their make-up, proving
that he was a divinely inspired scientist.
And also Adam was an inspired prophet and foretold the facts
concerning the human species which have persisted down to the present hour.
When he said that a man would leave his father and mother and cleave unto his
wife, he certainly spoke by the Holy Ghost as a prophet, for he had never left
his father and mother to cleave to his wife, and how could he know that such
would be the case throughout all the generations of mankind except by the
inspiration of the Spirit of God? Luke tells us that the coming of Christ and
His kingdom and the reign of Jesus on the throne of David had been prophesied
ever since the world was made, which proves that Adam was a prophet and that he
foretold to his posterity not only the first coming, but also the second coming
of Jesus to reign as a King over this world.
Now only think of it, that when we give ourselves up to Jesus
and receive Him as a personal Saviour and are born again, we enter into this
vast original purpose of the infinite God and become members of that divine
kingdom which was originated from the foundation of the world. And if we are loyal servants to Jesus and are true to the trust He puts in
our hands, we are to be rewarded by having a place of
rulership in that kingdom which was started at the foundation of the world.
* *
*
[PAGE 37]
CHAPTER 8
The First Bride
Just as Gods plan for the kingdom was as perfect at the
beginning of the Bible as at the end of it, so God had a plan for the Bride of Christ, and that plan
was instituted at the creation of Adam and Eve and has remained unchanged
throughout all generations, and will be consummated in the winding up of human
probation. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept; and he
took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh
instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And
Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out
of
1. In the deep
sleep that God put upon Adam we see a prophecy of the death of Christ and how
His body was put to sleep, and out from the death of Christ there is formed the
Bride of the Lamb as definitely as Eve was formed from the rib of Adam. Our
salvation is procured only by the death of Jesus. How little this Scripture
truth is understood by many who think they are Christians. We are not saved by
the example of Christ, nor by His birth, nor by His miracles, but most
emphatically and only by His death; and if you will take all the Scriptures say
about the death of Christ, you will find they affirm most positively that we
are saved only by His death. If Jesus had suffered for us ten times more than
He did suffer and yet had not died, we could never have been saved. It was not
only His sufferings, but His suffering unto death that constituted the
redemption for human [PAGE 38] beings. And so in the deep sleep that God gave Adam we
have the foreshadowing of that deep sleep in death that Jesus entered into, out
of which comes our salvation and the formation of His church and His bride.
2. In forming a bride for Adam out of
his own bones and flesh we see a prophecy of the perfect oneness between Christ
and His true church. It is not a metaphorical oneness or a legal oneness, but
most emphatically a oneness of nature, of life, for the apostle says we are
members of His bones and of His flesh and of His body. The union of a true believer
with Jesus is not a mechanical union, but a living oneness, as the branch with
the vine, as the finger with the hand, a oneness of life and nature and
character.
3. In forming a bride out of Adams rib, we get another revelation
concerning her rank as his companion.
God did not take a bone out of Adams foot to be under him, nor a bone out of
his head to have authority over him, but a rib from his side, to be his equal,
his companion, his joint partner in life
and authority. This same truth holds good in the formation of a company of chosen saints in all ages to be the Bride
of Jesus Christ. God did not take the entire body of Adam, but only a chosen part of that body, a special
selection from a certain part
of the body, which was full of
prophetic instruction.
The teaching that the Jews are to form the Bride of Christ is
utterly unscriptural, because
It is also unscriptural to teach that all who are saved will
form the Bride of Christ, for every single Scripture bearing on this subject
goes to show that the Bride is a selected number from the countless millions who are saved.
If we search into every Scripture bearing [PAGE 39] on the subject of the Bride of
Christ, we will find that in all cases it is a rib taken from the heart or the centre of the body. The twelve tribes of
Now look at it: of the twelve tribes of Jacob, Levi was not
the first son or the last one, but the third son; that is, the rib, near the
centre of the twelve tribes. When God selected our earth as the planet on which
His Son should be incarnated, He did not select Mercury at the head of the
solar system, or
When God selected Palestine as the home for the twelve tribes
and the place where His Son should be born, you see He did not choose the birth
place of His Son in Lapland, at the top of the world, nor South Africa, at the
foot of the world, but He chose the land of Canaan, the rib, the heart of all
the various portions of the earth.
King David describes the royal bride in Psalm 45, but in that Psalm he mentions four classes of those who are saved in the
kingdom, the honourable women, who are one company, and the daughter of
Also in the sixth chapter of the Song of Songs there is a
description of the various companies that are in the kingdom, consisting of
four great ranks, for he says there are three score queens which form one company and four score concubines which form another company, and virgins without number which form another company. But
above all these he says my dove, my undefiled is the
choice one, or the elect one of her mother,
and this choice one is the bride.
When Jesus explained how His disciples were so happy in His
companionship in contrast with Johns disciples, who were sad, He said, My disciples are the
children of the bridechamber. And while Johns disciples were religious men and most certainly on the
way to Heaven, and among those that were saved, yet they did not take rank with those other disciples which He declares
were children of the bridechamber.
Thus if we study every Scripture in the Bible on the subject of the Bride, as well as
Gods plan for our earth in the solar system and Gods plan for the land of
Canaan in the geography of the earth, we find everything in the world points
one way - that the Bride of Christ is the rib taken from the
great body, is a chosen company of devoted souls in
all generations who are more closely united to Christ than others are.
It is this company that constitutes the elect wife of the King of the world,
and the company that will be His
helpmeet and His co-regents in the administration of His kingdom in
the ages that are to come.
Another fact we must not forget is
that after the fall there was a prophecy in the second name that was given to
Adams wife concerning things to come. Her first name was Woman, the Hebrew
word being Ishsha, which simply means the female
man. But after the fall, when God gave the promise of redemption and a new
creation and that the seed of the woman should bruise Satans head, then she
obtained the name of Eve. The word Eve signifies the mother of life, or more literally, the mother of the living
one, that is the mother of the incarnate Son of God.
[PAGE
41]
The name Eve occurs only four times in the Bible and the
number four is always that number indicative of the world, the earth, or
mankind. So that while Ishsha was her natural name, Eve is her redemption name.
As there was to be a second man to be the Saviour of the world, so there was to
be a second wife of redeemed and
glorified saints to form the helpmeet for the second Man, and as the
first Eve was taken as a rib from Adams body, so the second Eve, the glorified
woman of the elect saints, should be taken from the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Thus we see that the first words God ever spoke regarding a
bride for Adam have never been changed, but only enlarged and extended into the
new creation.
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[PAGE 42]
CHAPTER 9
The First Steps to Sin
In the
first and second chapters of Genesis we have Gods first words in relation
to creation and in relation to the plan of Gods kingdom, and in relation to the
formation and dignity of the first pair and their rank in the creation. With
the beginning of the third chapter we have
the first words respecting the temptation of Eve and the fall, and the various
steps by which our first parents fell from their natural state of holiness into
a condition of sin. These first words in regard to the steps of the fall reveal
to us the same order in the steps to sin that have taken place in all
generations with reference to temptation and the fall of people into the ways
of evil.
We learn from the Bible that Satan was the first sinner in the
universe, for Jesus says he was a liar and the father of lies. Hence we see in
the third of Genesis that sin and
temptation came from Satan. It would seem that Satans plan was to imitate God
by incarnating himself in the serpent and using the serpent as a medium of
communication with the first pair, and also as the instrument of leading our
first parents into sin. It is evident that originally the serpent walked erect,
for when he was cursed he had to crawl prone on the ground, showing that that
condition was not his original state. We are also told that the serpent was the
wisest of all the beasts of the field and was endowed naturally with the most
intelligence and the highest sensibility of any of the lower creatures. Satan
took hold upon the serpent because he was superior to all other animals in
order to more effectually tempt Eve to commit sin.
It would seem from some other passages in the Bible that before the world was made God had proclaimed to the angels His purpose to
incarnate His Son, and we are told by the apostle that when that plan was
made known, God commanded that all the angels should worship His incarnate Son.
It would seem that Lucifer, who was [PAGE 43] probably the highest of the angels, refused to worship
the incarnate Son of God, because he wanted to occupy the place of prime
minister of the universe himself. Because of this pride in him he lost his place
in Heaven and fell into the condition of the first sinner, by which he was
turned into the Devil. Now if we analyze the temptation and fall of Eve, we
will see the following points:
1. The very first step in the
temptation and fall was that she listened to the words of Satan as spoken to
her through the mouth of the serpent. And the serpent said: Ye shall not surely die: for
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil. This was
the first lie that was ever spoken to a human being in this world, and when Eve
listened to that lie, that formed the initial step in her temptation and
downfall. I have remarked in a previous chapter that the spoken word always
comes first, and then the act comes afterward. That truth is illustrated in
this account of the temptation, for we see that Eve first listened to the
serpent and then the act of disobedience came afterward. It was believing the
words of Satan that constituted the germ of temptation and sin. The first sin
always consists in believing a lie, or in perverting the truth, or in the
effort to make a lie seem true, which is all the same thing.
The Apostle Peter tells us that we are to escape or be
delivered from the evil in the world by believing Gods promises. Just as
believing a lie was the first step to sin, so it is by believing Gods precious
promises of truth that we are delivered from sin. The doubt in the heart or the
faith in the heart is always the first germ that produces evil or good. It is
sometimes said it does not matter what people believe if they only live right.
Such a remark can only be spoken by an ignoramus, because it is in the nature
of things that we live according to our faith. If anyone believes a lie he will
live lie, and the only way to live the truth is to believe the truth, for it is
always true forever and ever that character is the product of faith. Nobody can
live any better than he believes. So the first step to the fall of Eve was
listening to a lie and putting confidence in the words of Satan.
[PAGE 44]
2. The woman saw the tree. She
evidently not only looked at the tree, but fastened her gaze upon it, and the
longer she looked the more beautiful the tree and the fruit seemed to grow upon
her mind. First there was an admission of falsehood through the ear gate, and
then came an appeal through the eye gate.
3. She saw that the tree was good for
food. Here was an appeal to one of the natural appetites of the body. The
appetite of hunger in itself is not sin, nor even a temptation, but when the
thought is entertained in the mind of gratifying the appetite in an unlawful
way, then there is aroused the temptation which, if not turned away from, will
lead to sin.
4. She saw that the fruit of the tree
was pleasant to the eyes. Here was the calling forth of another sensation in
the mind in addition to that of natural hunger, for there was the awakening of
the sensation of the beautiful, and the attraction to ones mental taste and
imagination. This is exactly the same process of temptation in all generations
as the process takes place in the human mind.
5. She also saw that the fruit was
desirable to make one wise. Here was a still further step in the process of temptation,
because there was awakened a mental ambition after unlawful knowledge, the
desire to penetrate into the secrets of God or that intense awakening of the
faculty of curiosity to know things ahead of time that would conduce to vanity
and pride and self-exaltation.
In every kind of temptation that the mind is subjected to
there has to be the element of curiosity, and also that of intellectual pride
or ambition to know more than others know, or to get hold of some secret above
our station and above our natural ability. You will notice that all the wicked
cults of lying religions and systems of fraud lay claim to extraordinary wisdom
and profess to know secrets away beyond the plain revelations of God. This is
only in keeping with this original temptation, that the forbidden fruit had a
fascination in it and a promise to make one very wise.
6. The next step was the yielding of
the will, for we read that she took of the fruit and did eat. At this point in
the process the mental faculties had gone through their appropriate steps of
exercise leading up to the point of the consent of the will, and then followed
the [PAGE 45] overt act which was the embodiment of unbelief and disobedience.
There is another word that Eve mentioned in giving her account
to God which we ought to put down in this connection. When she gave her account
to God, she said that the serpent beguiled her and she did eat. But the word beguile signifies in the original that the
serpent made her forget, that is, that while
the process of temptation was going on in her mind she was so excited and
bewildered with the words of the serpent and the fascination of the fruit that
for the time being she forgot the words of God. This is exactly what takes
place in countless thousands of cases. When people begin to listen to the
tempter and entertain the temptation, the mind becomes so agitated and excited
that, for the time being, the Word of God is forgotten and the memory is
preoccupied with other things.
Now we see in this process that the action of the will is not
the first step, but the last step in the process of committing sin. All the
other steps, such as listening to a lie, gazing on the forbidden object, the
ambition to be over wise, the intensifying of the natural appetites, these
steps are preliminary to the decision of the will, which is the consummation of
the temptation into sin.
7. The crowning act of the fall of Eve
was communicating her sin to Adam, for it is said she gave unto her husband
and he did eat. There is
something awfully contagious in sin and it has a terrible power of
communicating itself, like an epidemic. Now just look at it: here we have the
oldest account in all the world of temptation and sin, and by analyzing these
words we get a perfect photograph and moving picture of the steps of the human
mind in listening to temptation and falling into sin. These original words at
the beginning of human history are as perfect as any process in all the
succeeding centuries, and they describe the exact progress by which people in
all generations are tempted and by which they fall.
* *
*
[PAGE 46]
CHAPTER 10
The First Effects of Sin
In the third chapter of Genesis we have a description of the first effects of sin in the
account of the fall of our first parents. The law of cause and effect has never
been changed from the creation of the world, and this is just as true in the
mental and moral nature of man as it is of the laws of the physical nature. Now
let us notice what the first effects of sin were upon Adam and Eve.
1. They discovered that they were
naked. I am convinced from the universal testimony of the Scriptures bearing on
the subject that before Adam and Eve fell they were enveloped in a mantle of
light and glory in such a way that they were not conscious of wearing any
clothes and at the same time were not aware of being naked, for their bodies
were enclosed in a mantle of light. In searching the Scriptures on this point,
we are told that God covers Himself with light as a garment, and not one word
can be found intimating that God is naked. And again, in every place in
Scripture where the angels are revealed they arc spoken of as wearing white
garments, and not one word even hints at their being naked. And then all the
Scriptures referring to the manifestation of the Son of God, either in the Old
Testament or after His resurrection, speak of Him as being dressed in white and
in long flowing garments down to His feet.
It is true that when Christ died on the cross He was stripped
of His garments, but that was because He took the place of a sinner, and on the
cross God treated Him as sin; for He not only took the place of a sinner, but
He took the place of sin. That accounts for the reason that the Father allowed
Him to be stripped of His garments, and that is the reason why He cried My God,
why hast thou forsaken me? because He then occupied the place of
sin. Now, on the other hand, there is not one word in all the Bible about Satan
or evil spirits having any clothes on, but every single passage bearing [PAGE
47] on that subject
implies that Satan and wicked spirits are naked, for never is there one word
about their having garments on them.
Now take all these facts and put them together and they show
plainly that the first effect of the sin of our first parents was their
discovery of their nakedness, which is the true condition of Satan and evil
spirits. Before Adam sinned he was not aware of having a conscience, because
the organ of conscience never comes into exercise except in connection with
sin. If the human race had never committed sin, they would never have been
aware of having a conscience, because conscience is an organ in mans moral
nature that never reveals itself in a state of true holiness and righteousness,
just as we are never aware of having the organs of a kidney or a liver or a
lung as long as we are in a state of perfect health, for those organs perform
their functions without any pain; but when they become diseased or in a wrong
condition then we are conscious of having them.
So here we have the very first effect of sin in its operation
in the human soul, the discovery of moral nakedness and the painful
consciousness of an inward sense of corruption and shame and guilt.
2. The next effect of sin was an effort
on the part of our first parents to conceal their shame and disgrace, and hence
we read that they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Here we
see the effort of poor, sinful nature to save itself, to conceal the sins of
shame and degradation by manufacturing a vegetable religion, a religion of
nature as a means of their deliverance from guilt and shame. This effect of sin
has descended through all the generations and is manifested throughout the world
at the present time in the natural effort of the human mind to form a religion
out of nature or natural elements as a substitute for genuine salvation.
The Seventh Day Adventists deny that they have an everlasting
spirit nature within them - that they possess only a human body with breath in
it. They think it is a sin to eat meat, and so they reduce everything in
religion to materialism and on a level with the vegetable creation. They think
that by eating vegetables and living on walnuts they will purify their physical
system, and that is the height of their religious conception. And so they
depend on a [PAGE 48] vegetable religion instead of a spiritual salvation
that works through the blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Hence we see the effect of sin on Adam and Eve in their making
fig leaves to be the first act of fallen man to form a religion out of nature
without any atoning blood connected with it.
3. The next effect of sin was being afraid
of God, for we read that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord among the trees of the garden. Before they sinned they had often met the
personal Jehovah walking in the garden and having communion with them in most
loving and tender fellowship, but the act of sin had produced within them the
sense of shame and fear and guilt by which they had broken their fellowship
with God; and so they were afraid to meet His face or hear His voice as in
former times. This proves that sin in the very nature of things must produce
banishment from God, not because God forsakes His creatures, but because His
creatures are afraid of Him and flee from Him. The carnal mind is always afraid
of holiness and is always uneasy in the presence of heavenly and holy
manifestations. No sinner in his natural condition could ever be induced to go
to heaven or to enter the precincts of holiness and heavenly glory. The very
nature of sin is to flee from God and make for itself a miserable hell, hid
away from the divine presence; and these first effects still persist in forming
the conduct of all sinners down to the present hour.
4. The next
effect of sin was self-defence, self-excuse, laying the blame on someone else!
We see that Adam laid the blame on his wife, but indirectly he laid the blame
on God, for he said: The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat. You
notice the words of Adam, were in self-defence and to exonerate himself from
any guilt in the transaction. And then Eve laid the blame on the serpent and
excused herself from sin by saying she had been so bewildered, beguiled, and
fascinated by what she had heard and seen that she forgot herself and did eat
of the tree. This effect of sin has descended through every successive
generation and today there is not a sinner or backslider in the whole world
that does not defend himself or excuse his conduct or lay the blame on [PAGE
49] some one else,
showing that at the taproot of the sinner there is self-defence, self-excuse,
for in the last analysis of all evil there is self.
All these points go to show that the
human race has never changed since the fall of Adam, and that in itself and of
itself it never will change. If the human race should live for millions of
ages, it would still be the same character it was the very day that Adam and
Eve partook of the forbidden fruit. Unless salvation comes from a higher
source, there is nothing in the nature of man that can ever produce a change of
heart or in any way lead the soul back to God.
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[PAGE 50]
CHAPTER 11
The First Curse on Sin
If we
put together the first curse God ever put on sin in this world as found in Genesis 3 and then the last curse as recorded
in the closing chapters of Revelation, we find that they correspond exactly and agree in every particular,
although thousands of years intervened between the first and the last. God does
not grow, but is absolutely perfect from eternity, and His words and works are
as perfect at the beginning as at the last. Gods judgment on sin gives us a revelation of His true character,
as radiant and bright in a display of His attributes as is His reward to the
righteous for well-doing. God is just as
good in punishing sin as He is in rewarding righteousness. If we saw the
divine character and conduct as the angels do, we would rejoice in Him and love Him and appreciate Him just as much
when He manifests His wrath against sin as when He manifests His love toward
goodness. It is an infallible proof of the corruption of
modern teaching when there is such an endeavour to do away with divine justice
in punishing sin.
All of the no-hell theology in this
world is based on a positive hatred to God, the despising of His character and the antagonism of His law.
If you will study the words in the third of Genesis you will find a perfect picture of
Gods feelings and conduct towards sin, and also a panorama of Gods
actions in the various steps in which He punishes sin, which is well worth our knowledge.
1. We see God searching out the sinner. And the
Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou? This proves that God had not forgotten Adam and that God
wanted to know where he was and all about his circumstances, and is an evidence
that God still loved Adam, had not forsaken him, had not utterly turned him
over into the hands of the Devil. The very fact that God searches out the
sinner is a proof of divine love.
[PAGE 51]
Adam has two names given to him. The
first is Adam, a Hebrew word which signifies a man of the earth or a man formed
of red clay. The second name is the Hebrew word Ish, which always signifies the spirit man,
the nobler man, the man that is capable of communion with God. When you read in
the Old Testament the word man, it
is sometimes Adam in the original and sometimes Ish.
The word Adam used four hundred times in the Old
Testament, and the word Ish is used eight hundred times in the Old Testament. When the
word man is used in the low sense of being a
sinner or a rebel, the original word is always Adam. But when the word man is used in a high or good or noble sense, the original word is always Ish, which in fact is one of the names
given to Christ.
When the wicked men of
2. After tracing the act of sin in Adam
to the woman and then to the serpent, God then began to pronounce His
judgments. And He began with the chief sinner, Satan, who had acted through the
serpent. You notice that God began His judgment upon the chief sinner and from
thence He descended down through man and into the products of the earth. There
are degrees among sinners and so there are degrees in judgments; and this is
brought out as perfectly in the first part of the Bible as in the last. When
God judges the righteous before the judgment seat of Christ, He will begin with
the best and wind up with the worst. On the other hand, when He judges the
sinners, He begins with the worst and winds up with the least. With the
righteous He begins by rewarding the ten-pounder, the
best man first; but on the other hand, when He judges the wicked He begins with
Satan, the serpent, and concludes with cursing the ground with briers and
thorns. This gives us an insight into the ways [PAGE 52] of God, that all His words and works
are conducted with the infinite fitness of things.
3. Now notice that in judging the
serpent God humiliated him down into the dust. The Lord said to the serpent, Upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. This proves that before that time the
serpent had walked erect, and his curse consisted in being thrown down to crawl
on the ground and take the form of the snake. The apostle tells us that the
chief sin of the Devil was his pride, and the appropriate punishment for that
sin was boundless humiliation and shame and degradation, to crawl on the earth
in the form of a snake. And thus we see the absolute fitness of the kind of
punishment God put on Satan, for the base humiliation was most fitting
punishment for his boundless pride. It would seem from the last words in Revelation that throughout eternity the Devil
will be compelled to take the form of a snake, and from various other
Scriptures it would seem that the ultimate form of those who take sides with
the Devil will be that of serpents. This is why John the Baptist spoke of the
proud sinners of his day as a generation of serpents.
4. The next curse was upon the woman,
which consisted in the multiplying of her conception and her sorrow in child
bearing. If we knew all the facts in the case, we would see there was a perfect
fitness between her sin and the kind of punishment that was placed upon her.
5. The next punishment was upon Adam,
which consisted of hard work to make a living out of the ground. The curse on
the woman was in the home life and in the bearing and raising of children, or
multiplied sorrows and anxieties of motherhood. On the other hand, the curse
upon man was out in the field, in the business life, in the struggle to make a
living and in the difficulties connected with the culture of the earth. How
significant it is that though six thousand years have passed away, these first
words still are carried out among all the generations of mankind, and down to
this hour this ancient form of the curse has never changed.
6. In the next place the curse
descended into the earth, for we read that it should bring forth thorns and
thistles. This proves that thorns and thistles were not a part of the original
creation, but that [PAGE 53] they were brought forth by the earth after the Fall.
When Jesus returns to reign on the earth, this curse will be lifted and instead
of the thorn, Isaiah tells us, there will spring up the fir tree, and instead
of the brier there will spring up the myrtle tree. Another prophet tells us
that righteousness shall drop down from the sky and truth shall spring out of
the ground. We see in this original curse that man and the earth are so closely
related to each other that they rise or fall in companionship. Everything in
the lower creation, including animals and fishes and birds and all the
vegetable kingdom, rises with man or falls with man, and God deals with the
earth and man exactly alike.
7. Another item in the first judgment
on sin is that of the two bruisings which are referred to in the conflict between
the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. There is a spiritual seed as
well as a fleshly and material seed. Jesus speaks of certain men as being
children of the Devil; they have in their hearts the seed of the Satanic
character. Again, we are told that the seed that Jesus plants is the Word of
God; so that the Word of God is the divine seed, and the lie of Satan is the
serpents seed. Each of these kinds of seed are reproductive in the souls of
men down through all generations. The serpent was to bruise Christs heel and
Christ was to bruise the serpents head. Here we see there are two great
bruisings to take place in this world between Jesus and Satan. Christ has
already had His bruising on
Now the time is drawing near when the
Devil will get his bruising, for you must remember that Satan has never yet been
bruised by the Lord Jesus, for he is still the prince of the powers of the air,
he is still working with marvellous power in the world and among the sons of
men. But when Jesus returns from the
wedding banquet on high with His glorified saints, He will then seize
upon the Devil and bind him and cast him into the abyss, that is, the hollow
place at the centre of the earth. That will be the time when Satan gets his
bruising, and that bruising will be upon his head, upon the highest part of his
nature.
[PAGE 54]
The glorified saints will take part in that bruising of the
Devil, for the Apostle Paul says the God of peace will bruise Satan
under the saints feet after awhile. When Joshua slew the five kings on the day that the sun
stood still, he brought those kings out from their hiding place, and made them
lie down on the ground, and called for his captains to come and put their feet
on the necks of those kings. At that time Joshua
prophesied that thus would God do to all the enemies of the Lord's saints.
So the day is coming when Jesus and His
glorified saints will put their feet on the head and neck of the Devil and have
him bound and cast into the abyss, which will be the bruising referred to
by Jehovah at the beginning of human history, and these words in Genesis 3: 15 will be literally accomplished.
How wonderful it is that we should have in the third of Genesis a picture of the judgment day, and of
the curse upon sin, and of the various degrees and kinds of punishment, all forming
an accurate prophecy of what will take
place in the winding up of human probation.
* *
*
[PAGE 55]
CHAPTER 12
The Way of Cain
The
Apostle Jude mentions three great typical sinners that represent all the
various kinds of sinners in the world throughout all generations. He speaks of the way of
Cain, and the error of
Balaam, and the gainsaying of
Korah. If we will
search into the conduct of these three great sinners, we will find that the Holy
Ghost has selected them as representatives of the three great forms of sin in
the world. Cain represents the world, and Balaam represents the flesh, and
Korah represents the Devil. In another passage the Holy Spirit classifies their
sin in the world under three heads of being earthly, sensual, and devilish. It
is impossible for anyone to commit a sin that does not range itself under one
of these heads. It was Balaam that
managed to seduce the men of
We have in the fourth chapter of Genesis an outline of the sins of Cain and how
he developed a character emphatically for this world. When Cain was born his
mother Eve thought he was the Messiah, for at his birth she said, I have gotten a man from the
Lord, but the original
signifies I
have gotten the Jehovah Man, the God-Man. You see God had promised that her seed should bruise the
serpents head, and she naturally expected that her firstborn would fulfil that
[PAGE 56] promise, and so she fancied that Cain was the God-Man, but he turned out
to be a murderer. The word Cain means
acquisition, to gain, to acquire wealth
and power and glory. Now notice the steps in this mans career as a great
representative sinner of the world.
1. Of course the first thing is he was
born in the image of his father Adam, which was a fallen, sinful nature. Adam
begot his son in his own likeness and after his image. It is true that this
word applies to Seth, but it just as truly applies to Cain, who was the
firstborn. The Scripture abundantly proves that all of Adams race inherited
his fallen, sinful nature. Jesus is the only man of the human race that had no
corrupt, evil nature in Him, because He did not have a human father, but was
conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the holy virgin. Scripture shows that
human depravity comes from Adam more properly than from Eve. It was not the
seed of man that should bruise the serpents head, but the seed of the woman.
And this puts an infinite difference between the humanity of Jesus and the
humanity of any other man. Hence Cain inherited the moral character of his
father, and this birth-sin which he inherited formed the basis or the seed corn
out of which came his subsequent life.
2. The next step in the way of Cain was
that of rejecting salvation by sacrificial blood and instituting a natural and
vegetable religion in the place of accepting salvation by the sacrifice of a
substitute. We read that in process of time Cain brought the fruit of the
ground as an offering to the Lord. The words process of time in the original are at the end of the days, that is, at the end of the week, on
the Sabbath, when the family gathered together for worship. Abel brought a
lamb, the fattest and best of his flock, for it is evident that God had taught
Adam and Adam had taught his children the way of worship and the offering of
sacrifice and all about the significance of the sacrifice and about the
prophetic import of a coming Saviour.
Cain deliberately rejected the sacrificial lamb and insisted
on presenting to God only the fruit of the ground. He thereby disclaimed any
need of a sacrifice for his sins, and set up for himself a religion of nature,
without the confession of sins or the need of a Saviour. He depended alone on himself and his own works as a sufficiency for
moral character, and thereby arrayed himself against [PAGE
57] the promised Son of God and the promised Saviour. Thus Cain became the father of all
the Unitarians and Christian Scientists and Mormons and Spiritualists and all
the anti-Christ cults of religion in the whole world. It was out of this rejection of salvation by the atoning blood that
came his envy and jealousy and murder and every other sin of his life. His
great sin did not consist in the fact that he was born with a fallen nature,
but in the fact that he rejected Gods
remedy for sin. Jesus emphasized in
His teaching that the great sin was in rejecting the remedy that God had
provided for sinners.
At the very beginning of human history we see as perfect a
setting forth of self-righteousness and rejecting of the atonement and the
various developments of sin as can be found in all successive generations. God
told Cain that there was a sin offering lying at his door, for the word sin in Genesis 4: 7 should be sin offering., and that if Cain would present
that sin offering, the sacrificial lamb, he would he accepted, but he despised
salvation according to Gods plan, and that became the inward cause in his
heart of all other forms of sin.
3. In the next place there sprang up
envy against Abel because Abels sacrifice was accepted, and this envy led to
murder. The passion of envy has produced more murders than
all other passions in the human heart put together. It was envy that sold Joseph,
that made Saul persecute David, that
made the princes try to kill Daniel, that
sold Jesus, and that has been the
passion producing murder in all generations.
4. In the next place Cain gave way to
despair and said his punishment was greater than he could bear, but the word
literally translated is My sin is too great to be pardoned. That was the language of unbelief,
because if he had accepted salvation by the sacrifice of another, he would have
found that the sin of murder could be pardoned the same as any other sin.
Murder was not the greatest of his sins, but the rejection of Gods plan of salvation was even greater than that of
murder.
5. In the next place we are told that
Cain went out from the presence of God. Here we have the self-righteous,
impenitent rejecter of the atonement parting company with the living God, [PAGE
58] and going out
from the divine presence to be forever banished from the favour of God.
6. In the next place we see Cain going
eastward and raising a large family and building a city and his children
inventing musical instruments. His whole life work consisted in trying to build
an earthly paradise of cities and parks and gardens and music and flowers and
earthly pleasure, earthly wealth, absolutely ignoring the living God and all of
Gods plans, having no prayer, no divine revelation, no communication with heaven, no faith in the great things of the future world. He was a man wholly devoted to the pleasures of this present world.
This is what the Holy Ghost calls the way of Cain. And now just look at it: it all
came from a self-righteous spirit that deliberately rejected the atoning blood
of the promised seed and undertook to set up a religion of nature in defiance
to the revealed religion through the Son of God. There are tens of thousands of
men living on earth today who are reproducing every form and feature of the way
of Cain, and in all these thousands of years the image of Adam, has never
improved and never would improve if the world should stand for millions of
ages.
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*
[PAGE 59]
CHAPTER 13
Gods
In the
fifth chapter of Genesis we have an
account of the death of all the first patriarchs, from Adam to Lamech, and in
the last verse we have the mention of Noah and his three sons, thereby giving
us in this one chapter the first ten names in the direct succession of the
human race. We may style this chapter the Westminster Abbey of the Old
Testament or Gods
The first age or dispensation of the human race extended from
Adam to the flood, and at the beginning of that dispensation we have the death
of Abel, and just before the close of that dispensation we have the translation
of Enoch, forming, as it were, the termini of that age. There are similar
things that belong to the present church age or dispensation, for at the
beginning of this age we have the death of Christ, and at the close of the
age will come the [select] Rapture or the translation of the righteous, who are caught up
to meet the Lord in the air. Thus the death of Abel and the death of Christ correspond with each other
at the beginning of the age, and the
translation of Enoch and the Rapture of the saints correspond at the close of
each age. If we search closely enough we will find that every successive
age or dispensation of human history has been patterned after the first age,
proving in all things Gods first words supply the key to all successive words.
Now if we study the names that are mentioned in this fifth chapter of Genesis, we find in the significance of those
names an unfolding of the successive facts connected with redemption.
1. The name Adam signifies a man of the earth, or
more literally red earth, which sets forth the doctrine of the Incarnation. As
God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he became a living and
everlasting soul, so God incarnated the personal and eternal Son [PAGE
60] of God into a
human body, born of the virgin Mary, and thereby sent into the world the second
Man, the second Adam. Thus the way God formed the first man was a picture of
the Incarnation which God proposed from eternity.
If we study the remarkable words in Proverbs 8: 22-31, we will see that those words refer to the Son of God, and that from
eternity there was a plan of divine incarnation in a man, for His delights were with the sons of men. The words
in verse thirty which read, Then was I as one brought up
with Him should be
translated Then
I was by Him as the world builder; that is, the Son was with the Father as the world builder
from the beginning, and this world builder was the delight of God the Father. Also it was His delight to dwell with
the sons of men, which explains the motive for the Incarnation. This
Incarnation was not a temporary thing to pass away, but is to last throughout
all future eternity.
2. The name Seth signifies a
substitute, and he was given that name because his mother said he took
the place of Abel, who had been slain. This was prophetic of Jesus Christ; that
as the second Man He was to be a substitute for sinners, to take the place of
Adam the first, and die for the human race. The substitution of Christ for the
sinner is one of the strongest doctrines set forth in the Bible, and these
higher critics or infidel preachers that represent the death of Christ only as
a moral force or as a martyr are a long way from the real Bible teaching. The
fact that Jesus died, the just for the unjust, and took the place of a lost
sinner on the cross, is abundantly proved by every passage in Scripture
referring to that subject. The prophet says that Christ made His
soul an offering for sin, which took place in the
3. The name Enos signifies mortality, or death, and
this name was prophetic of the death of Christ. He was not only a substitute,
as the word Seth signifies, but He must of necessity
pay the death penalty for sin, according to the words that eating the forbidden
fruit would be punished with death. The sufferings of Christ in [PAGE 61] themselves could not meet the perfect requirement of the law,
but those sufferings must terminate in death, and you will notice in the
Scriptures it is always the death of Christ that becomes the procuring cause of
our salvation. If Christ had suffered twice as much as He did suffer and then had not died, His sufferings
would not have saved us, because the necessity was placed on the fact that He died, the just for the unjust.
4. The name "Cainan signifies acquisition, to buy back,
to purchase a lost estate, and this is exactly what Christ accomplished by His
death. When Christ died, He paid the redemption
price sufficient for the saving of every human being, and also sufficient to
pay off the mortgage that Adam gave
to the Devil upon the earth, and by which He redeemed every single thing that
had been lost. Christ paid the sufficient price for saving the race from sin,
and for the resurrection of the dead bodies, and for the restoring the
earth to its primitive pure condition, and removing all the curse from the lower
creation, making ample provision for what the apostle calls the
restitution of all things.
5. The name Mahalalel signifies the
splendour of God, and was prophetic
of the glorious resurrection of Christ, by which He ernerged
from the grave, and from the land of shadows, and appeared in His glorified [and immortal] body,
and revealed to His followers the splendour of immortality and everlasting
life; and by that glorious resurrection He manifested forth the glory of the - [yet future
(see 2
Timothy 2: 18; cf. John 14: 2b, 3; Acts 2: 34; Romans 8: 18-23, R.V.)] - resurrection of His saints.
6. The name Jared signifies descending,
or pouring out, or coming down as a shower of rain from the clouds, and
sets forth in a most beautiful way the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, coming down from the ascended Saviour. The Holy Spirit existed and
operated through all of the past dispensations, from Adam to Pentecost, but
after Christ ascended He then sent down the Holy Spirit as the personal
Sanctifier and Comforter for His church, and gave the Holy
Ghost the authority to possess His People and
[to] distribute to them the nine gifts
of the Spirit.
7. The name Enoch signifies to
teach, to impart instruction, knowledge,
wisdom, and understanding. This name corresponds exactly with the work
that Jesus said the Holy Ghost would perform, [PAGE 62] that He would teach the disciples and
show them things to come and guide them into all truth, and comfort them under
all circumstances. Thus the name Enoch agrees exactly with the work of the Holy Ghost that He
should perform after Pentecost.
We see that Enoch was the seventh
from Adam and he did not die. This also was prophetic, that at the beginning
of the seventh day of human history, that is, the seventh thousand years, that the people of God would not die,
but pass into the Millennial age and be free from death. This
corresponds with the seventh day of
human history, and the seventh man
from Adam.
8. The name Methuselah signifies to
be released from death. After Jesus rose from the dead He announced
that He had the keys of death and
Hades, and the power to translate living saints without
dying. He told Peter that if He wanted to do so, He could preserve the
Apostle John alive without dying unto His second coming.
9. The name Lamech signifies a
conqueror, or an overthrower;
that is, one that subdues his enemies, and tears down any opposing kingdom.
This name agrees exactly with what Christ will do at His
Second Coming, when He will chain Satan and grind in pieces all the kingdoms of the world, and subdue the whole earth, and bring everything in the world under
His complete subjection.
10. The name Noah signifies rest,
and corresponds exactly with the
Millennial Age, which will be the
Sabbath Day of the worlds history, the
day of rest after the six days, or six thousand years of turmoil, strife, and misgovernment.
Now it is certain that these names were not given by chance,
but they were used by the Holy Ghost as prophetic of things to come in the age of salvation. Thus the first age
furnishes us with the key to unlock the great outlines of salvation in Christ
Jesus, from the Incarnation clear through to the time when Christ shall return
and reign on the earth and bring the age of peace and rest.
* *
*
[PAGE
63]
CHAPTER 14
The First Prophetic Judgment Day
If we study
the account of the flood as recorded in the sixth and seventh chapters of Genesis in connection with the words of Christ in Matthew, that His second coming will be like Noahs flood, we will
find an exact setting forth of all the outlines of the judgment day in the
record of the flood. I use the words Judgment day
in this connection concerning the judgment of the living nations more
particularly and not the judgment of the
wicked dead, which will take place after the thousand-year reign of Christ.
At the time of the flood there was a transition from the first to the second
age or dispensation, and that transition was accompanied with a great many
marvellous changes in the material creation, and in the animal system, and in
the habits of both man and beast. Let us
notice the various items about the flood and see how they correspond with the
things that will occur in connection with the coming of the Lord.
1. The people living on the earth had
filled up the cup of their iniquity, which was the occasion for the flood. If
we notice the words in the sixth of Genesis we see that the human race gave
themselves up to all manner of fleshly impurity and fierceness of spirit and
pride in every form, so that it became a necessity for God to wash the
inhabitants from the surface of the earth and start the human race over again.
There is a ripeness to sin just the same as there is to grain
or fruit, and God has taught us in His Word that He waits for sin
to reach a certain point of maturity before He sends judgment. He told Abraham that
his children could not at that time take possession of the land of Canaan
because the iniquity of the Amorites had
not yet been filled, showing that God waited for their cup of sin to get full
before He ordered their destruction by Joshua.
[PAGE 64]
This same truth will apply to the winding up of the church age
and the Second Coming of Jesus. Sin has many forms to take, and the shape of iniquity may
not be the same at the winding up of the church age that it was at the winding
up of the first age. But the iniquity of this age will reach its climax in an utter rejection of a supernatural
Saviour and a supernatural religion and everything will be reduced to material
science and human pride and the making a god out of humanity.
2. The ark was most certainly a type of
Christ as a Saviour. The Roman Catholics teach that the ark was a type of the
Romish church, but how can the church save the church? Noah and his family represent
the church that was saved in the ark, and if Noah and his family represent the
church, how can the ark represent the church? The whole heresy is based on the notion that the Romish church is a
saviour, which is the very spirit of anti-Christ. Just as the ark was
manifested as a saviour and Noah and his family went up into the ark, so at the
close of this age the Lord Jesus will be manifested from Heaven, and His [accounted
worthy to escape (Luke 21: 34-36; cf.
Rev. 3: 10.)] - people will be caught up through the air to meet Him, and they will
thereby be rescued from the judgments coming on the earth.
3. It was said in Genesis 7: 11 that Noah was six hundred years old
when he entered the ark, which corresponds with the fact that
the Second Coming of Christ will take place six thousand years after the
creation.
4. We read that when Noah and his
family entered the ark God shut him in, which is a significant fact that God alone knows who will be the ones that are prepared for translation
at the coming of Christ. And God alone will have
authority as to who shall be taken and who shall be left, and who they will be that are shut in
with Christ in the place of safety up in the heavens.
5. After the door was
shut, which is a picture of the [select] Rapture of the saints,
then the fountains inside the earth were broken up and the windows of heaven
were opened to let down the vast amount of waters that had been kept above the
firmament from the creation, and the
whole earth was in an upheaval and a letting loose of all the elements. It
is evident that at the time of the flood God
struck [PAGE 65] the earth with a
terrible blow and deranged all the ordinary laws of nature,
and knocked the earth at that time out
of its proper relation to the sun and the north star.
Before the flood we are told that the earth was watered by
heavy mists and dews and evidently there
was no rain or thunder or lightning or earthquakes or any severe winters or any
burning summers or any abnormal process in nature, but at the flood the whole
system of our world was knocked out of joint. This accounts for the fact
that the North Pole is not in proper range with the north star by several
degrees. It also accounts for earthquakes, tornadoes, storms,
abnormal winters, and scorching summers. It also accounts for the
actinic ray in the sunshine, which produces fermentation, and for all the
abnormal things that occur in the natural world. It seems evident to me that before
the flood the vast majority of waters now on the earth were held up above the
firmament in the form of mist, and that at the flood those waters were let
down, making the amount of water on the earth so much larger than that of the
dry land.
Now at the Second Coming of Christ the great tribulation will come on, and in the time of that
judgment period we are told in several places God will smite the earth and
Make it stagger like a drunken man, and at that time God will knock the
earth back into its normal relation to the sun and the north star; so that in the Millennial Age all the abnormal things that we now have will
pass away.
6. We read that the rain fell forty
days and forty nights, which I take as a prophetic intimation that the great
tribulation will last forty years. Many teach that the tribulation judgment
will last only seven years, but that is the length of time for the anti-Christ,
but the anti-Christ does not rise until towards the close of the great
tribulation. Forty is always the number
in Scriptures for judgment. It rained forty days, and
[PAGE 66]
7. While the nations on the earth were
being drowned in the flood, Noah and his family were safely shut in the ark and
floated above the waters. This is a picture of the security of
those - [selected, obedient, repentant and consecrated] - saints who are caught up to
meet the Lord in the air and of their being shut in with Christ while the
nations on the earth are undergoing the great tribulation. Noah and his family could not see the
terrible desolation of the flood, for there was only one window and that was at
the top; and so the raptured saints will
not see the awful tribulation that takes place on the earth. When the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea they
did not see the terrible destruction of the army of Pharaoh that pursued them,
because there was a great cloud placed between the Hebrews and the Egyptians.
Thus in all these cases the righteous
who are rescued from the judgments of God are not allowed to see the awful calamities put on the
wicked in the judgment.
8. When the waters subsided the ark
rested on a mountain, and this was a prophetic type of Christ returning
with His glorified saints after the tribulation judgment and standing on Mount
O1ivet, and taking possession of the world to
start the new dispensation of the [Millennial] kingdom of God, when
righteousness shall fill the earth as waters fill the sea.
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*
[PAGE
67]
CHAPTER 15
The First Type of the Holy Spirit
In the
eighth chapter of Genesis we have an account of Noah sending forth
two birds from the ark, the raven and the dove. The raven was sent forth first
and then the dove. The raven is a type of Satan, and the dove is a type of the
Holy Spirit, but Satan has his day first and God has His day afterwards. The
first time that the Holy Spirit is mentioned is in the second verse in Genesis, where we read that the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. The word moved should more properly be translated brooded. And hence the very first time that the
Holy Spirit is mentioned in Gods Word He
is spoken of as a bird, a dove, with His outstretched wings brooding over
the primeval elements of creation. And in this account of Noah sending
forth the dove we have the same thought as expressed in the first chapter, that
the Holy Ghost is revealed under the
emblem of a dove. When Jesus was baptized the Holy Ghost descended on Him
in the form of a dove. Here we have three separate manifestations of the Spirit
of God acting under the emblem of a dove, and we see from the beginning to the
end that Gods first word is never changed, but that all the operations of the Holy Ghost in later dispensations correspond
with the revelation of His work in the beginning.
When the raven was sent from the ark it went to and fro over
the waters, but did not return to the ark, which corresponds with the words of
Satan in the book of Job when
he told God that he was going to and fro in the earth, and also corresponds with the words
of the apostle that Satan is like a roaring lion going about, restless, seeking whom he may devour.
Jesus is compared to a lamb, and when the Devil attacks Christ or the saints he
is compared to a roaring lion because lions kill lambs. On the other hand the
Holy Ghost is compared to a dove, and when Satan is spoken of as antagonizing [PAGE
68] the Holy Ghost he
is then compared to a raven, because ravens kill doves. Hence we see the
perfect typology in Scripture as referring to Christ or the Holy Spirit or
Satan. The dove was sent forth by Noah on a special mission, to see if the
waters were abated from the earth, but nothing is said about the raven being sent forth on any
mission. We see that the dove made three visits out across the waters, which
are very significant of the ministry of the Spirit in the world and to
individuals.
1. The dove found no place for her foot
and hence at the close of the day returned to the ark. This sets forth the fact
that the Holy Ghost moved across the first dispensation, brooding over the
human race, to find, if possible, sufficient place in human hearts to establish
a church or a spiritual kingdom where He might lodge with human beings. It is
true that in the first dispensation, from Adam to the flood, there were
conspicuous cases of individual righteousness and doubtless multitudes served
God. But in all those generations the
service of God was confined to individuals, and there was no church formed and no law was given and no organized
religious movement such as were manifested in later dispensations. The
human race waxed worse and worse in sin, until the Holy Spirit left the world
and returned again to God and the judgment of the flood was sent to destroy the
race.
This also corresponds with the fact that with the individual
sinner the Holy Ghost broods over him and seeks to find a place for His foot in
the human soul. But when the sinner
persists in a life of wickedness and impenitence the heavenly Dove leaves him
and returns to God. So that
the first visit of Noahs dove out over the waters, without finding a place for
her foot, is significant both of the moral condition of the first age of the
race, and also of the condition of the
impenitent sinner.
2. In the second visit that the dove made
she found an olive leaf on the side of some mountain, and plucked it off and
took it back to Noah in the ark. This is a prophetic type of the visit that the
Holy Ghost made to the world in the Mosaic age, for in that dispensation He
found some signs of the kingdom of God
and signs of a new life coming into the world sufficient to furnish the
olive leaf for Him to [PAGE 69] pluck off. In the Jewish age there was established the
giving of the law, the formation of the kingdom of Israel, the sacrificial types
and prophecies concerning Christ and the raising up of great prophets and
priests and holy men, indicating the formation of a new religious movement
among men, corresponding with the olive leaf that appeared on the mountain side
at the subsidence of the flood. It is evident that the flood occurred in the
spring of the year, probably the first week in April, and the dove was looking
for something to build her nest with, that she might lay her eggs and raise her
young. Thus we may regard the Jewish dispensation as the springing up of a new
life in the human race by the giving of the law and the institution of a divine
religion among men.
This second visit of the dove also corresponds with the [Holy] Spirit brooding over the true penitent and bringing a new life into the
soul, corresponding with the olive branch of pardon and peace. It is always
springtime when a soul is converted in that individuals life. Thus the Holy
Spirit finds in the young convert
the dawning of a new life, of a new year, but still the
condition of the soul is not so thoroughly renewed as to furnish a permanent
place for the heavenly Dove.
3. The third time that the dove went
forth from the ark she found the ground sufficiently dry to build her nest and
remain there, and hence did not return to the ark any more. We must remember
that doves do not build their nests in trees, but on the ground, and this dove
was looking for a place on the ground sufficiently dry to build her nest. This
corresponds with the fact that after Christ died and rose again and gathered His [chosen] disciples in the upper room, the Holy Ghost was sent upon them. There
was in the hearts of at least one hundred and twenty of the disciples a condition sufficient to
receive the Holy Ghost to abide with them and make His
home in the hearts of the [those] saints. Hence
the Holy Ghost, the heavenly Dove, when
He came to the earth at Pentecost came to abide with the church through all
the dispensation down to the time of the Rapture, and this abiding of the [Holy] Spirit
in the world throughout the Gospel age corresponds with the third visit of
Noahs dove, when she [PAGE 70] found a place to lay her eggs and raise her young and
did not return to Noah anymore.
This also agrees with the fact that when the [regenerate] believer is
fully given tip to Christ and
receives Him as a perfect Saviour, he
is in a condition to
receive the Holy Spirit as the
abiding Comforter, to remain in
him and with him forever. Just as Noahs dove, after building her nest,
reproduced herself by raising her young, so the Holy Spirit, when He finds an
abiding place in the heart of the
perfect believer, will reproduce the life of
Christ in that soul. Just as the
Holy Spirit produced the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus and wrought out the will
of God in the life of Christ, so He has been sent down from the ascended
Saviour to enter our hearts and form
Christ within us, the hope of glory,
and repeat over again in a most marvellous way the life of the blessed Jesus, and
prepare us for our ascension at the
coming of the Lord just as He prepared Jesus for His ascension to the right hand of God the Father.
Now only think of it, the first time that the Holy Spirit is
mentioned in the Bible He is set forth as a dove, brooding over the dark
elements of primeval creation, and forming the elements into a world of harmony
and beauty and order, for Isaiah
says that it is by the Holy Spirit that the heavens
are garnished, and that first picture of the work of the Holy Ghost
goes right on through all creation and redemption and the various dispensations
of human history without any change in the significance of His work.
* *
*
[PAGE 71]
CHAPTER 16
The First Four Typical
Men
Have you
ever thought of the great significance of the four men that were preserved in
the ark at the time of the flood? The number
four is always that special number in Scripture that refers to the earth or the human race. Each
number in the Bible has a special significance of its own. As the number two always refers to covenants, testimony, and witnessing,
and the number three always refers
in some way to God, the three Divine Persons, so the number four always refers in some way
to the human or the world or things
relating to the destiny of mankind. Not only were those four men in the ark
significant of Gods purpose and plan in connection with redemption, but in
every instance where the four men are referred to there is always one major and three minors. We see that
Noah was the major member and his three sons were the minor members in that
illustrious and prophetic quartet. In the book of Daniel we have an account of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace,
and there appeared in visible form the
Son of God, making four, but the
Son of God was the major member and the three Hebrews were the minor members in
that wonderful company. At the transfiguration we see another setting forth of
this, illustration of four. Here
Jesus was the major member and Peter, James, and John were the minor members of
that illustrious company.
In the second chapter of Numbers
God gave to Moses a plan
for the formation of the twelve tribes into four armies, three tribes to each
army. The formation of those armies is significant of things connected with the
In the next place, we find that this number four agrees
exactly with the four Gospels. Matthew gives us the life of Christ as a king,
corresponding to the lion. Mark gives us the life of Christ as a servant,
corresponding to the ox. Luke gives us the life of Christ in His full humanity,
corresponding to the man. John gives us the life of Christ especially in His
deity, corresponding to the flying eagle. It is Luke that mentions more things
about the humanity of Christ than all the other Gospels, and it is John that
mentions more about the deity of Jesus than all the other Gospels.
These instances of a four-fold representation are carried
throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, and unto the Second Coming
of the Lord and the Rapture of the church, and the things portrayed in the
judgment day in the book of Revelation. The four living creatures mentioned in Revelation agree in every point with this four-fold
representation, from Noahs ark clear through the Bible. We should never read the four beasts, for the original word signifies the four
living ones. The word
there translated beast in the four
living creatures is the same word in the original where Christ says, I give unto you eternal life, and how absurd would it be to read
the words I give unto you eternal beast;
hence the word should always be read the four living ones. But when the word beast is used in Revelation 13 about the anti-Christ, there the Greek word is therion, which always means a wild,
ferocious beast.
The four living creatures mentioned in Revelation are not angels, but redeemed men. It
says in chapter
5 that they had been
redeemed by the blood of Christ from all nations and tongues and people,
proving that they are a company of saints that stand the very highest [PAGE
73] in the
God tells us in Ezekiel, in three places, that Noah, Job, and Daniel were the most
righteous men in the Old Testament, and Jesus puts John the Baptist up in the
same rank. So here we have that wonderful number four, representatives of the
great saints of God, of which John the Baptist was the major member and Noah,
Job, and Daniel were the minor members of that wonderful company.
Another significant fact is that in the book of Revelation, every time that the four living
creatures are referred to as performing any action, it is always something in
relation to the earth, but when the twenty-four elders are referred to as performing
any action, it is always in relation to things in Heaven. This proves that the
number four always refers to things belonging to the earth or to the human
race.
This is not all, but in matters connected with the Bride of Christ the number four
is very significant. In the forty-fifth Psalm David gives us a picture of Jesus and His Bride, for the first half of the Psalm is a picture of the
Bridegroom, and the second half is a picture of the Bride. Now in connection
with the bridal company, the Psalmist
mentions the queen, the bride
dressed in the gold of Ophir, and then he mentions three other companies of saved ones. He
speaks of the daughter of
The same truth is referred to in the Song of Solomon, sixth
chapter, where the prophet speaks of three score queens, who are a
company of saved ones, and fourscore concubines, who represent another company
of saved ones, and the virgins without number, who represent another company of
saved ones. But over and above all these there is mentioned My dove, my
undefiled, who is the elect one of her
mother, the chosen one of all.
Here we see that the [PAGE
74] elect one of all is the queen, the Bride of the Lamb, the major member. And then the other
three companies are the minor members.
The same truth is brought out again in Revelation 22: 17, in regard to sending forth invitations for human beings to
drink freely of the water of life. We see there are four invitations. The first
is from the Bride of Christ,
who stands next to the Holy Spirit. The Bride
says Come, and then in the second place, Let him that heareth say, Come, and then in the third place, Let him that
is athirst come, and
then in the fourth place, Let whosoever will
come and take the water of life. Here there are four invitations, but the Bride is the major member, and
the three others are the minor members in the company.
It would be absolutely absurd to say or to suppose that all
these things could happen by chance in the Bible. No; they are all divinely
inspired, and all refer to one and the same great subject. They are all
connected with redemption, with Gods plan of salvation among men, and set forth the various ranks in the
coming [Millennial] kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these things are set forth in a
prophetic form by the four men that were
saved in Noahs ark.
Here we see that God,s first words
relating to those four men in the ark go straight forward down through all
Scripture and all various dispensations, and come out in the end of the Bible
and in the end of redemption in a vast significance, setting forth the [promised coming (see Psalm
2: 8; cf. Psalm 47: 1-4, R.V.)] - kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to the human race.
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[PAGE 75]
CHAPTER 17
The First
We have in Genesis 11 the account of the first budding of
1. After the
decline of the posterity of Noah from the true service of God, it is said that
the men journeyed eastward, until they found the plain of Shinar, by the river
2. The next item in this account is
that of fallen, depraved men who had revolted from the God of their father
Noah, forming themselves into a human association. They said, Go to,
let us build a city. In this human association there was
no mention of the name of God, but the whole plan was a product of the pride
and vanity of heart depravity. From that day until this, human history has been
filled with all sorts of human associations and oath-bound societies and
confederations of men in every form of compact, and for every conceivable
purpose. And the great world-wide oath-bound associations which will reach
their climax in the days of the anti-Christ will be but the perfect heading up
and consummation of this wretched confederation of a human association which
instituted the beginning of
3. Notice the items that those
rebellious sinners mentioned when they said, Let us build us a city and a tower and a name. The city was the largest, and in
the city was to be a tower rising so high that God could not drown it with
another flood. On the top of the tower they were to put their name, which was
to be the climax of the whole rebellious ambition. Here we see the different
steps of ambition, and how it climbs up from the surface of the earth to a
point somewhere in the sky, that purposes to usurp the place of God and take
the place of the name of God. The whole structure was built on the earth, and
for the earth, and like the earth, without any reference [PAGE
77] to God, without
the mention of His name, but a vast scheme of boundless vanity. It was to be
anti-God, anti-Christ, and to be the consummation of everything that was in
fallen human nature.
In all this we see the beginning of that movement in human
history which will reach its climax in the days of the anti-Christ, and which
is now moving forward at a rapid pace in the various oath-bound labour unions
and other associations which utterly ignore the God of the Bible and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
4. Notice the material that they would
use in the structure of the city and the tower - namely, brick and slime. Where
5. We notice Gods judgment on this
vain enterprise of human pride. God came down and put a curse upon them in smiting
their vocal organs, or confounding their mental perception in the use of words,
and divided their speech so that they could not understand each other, and thus
had to quit building the tower. Here we see Gods first judgment on
[PAGE 78]
At Pentecost the Holy Ghost caused the disciples to speak in
seventeen different language so that the people gathered to
In the coming age, when Jesus reigns on the earth, we are told
in Zephaniah
3: 9 that the world will all speak one pure language. Hence after the great
6. We notice the name of Nimrod in
connection with the building of
Thus all the Babylons that are mentioned, from the tower of
Babel down to the judgment on Babylon in mystery in Revelation, always stand for apostasy, and the doom that comes on Babylon is the [PAGE 79] doom of the apostate. Thus in this case, as in all others,
Gods first words persist in their significance and go straightforward through
all history down to the end.
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[PAGE
80]
CHAPTER 18
The First Pilgrim of Faith
As we
approach the study of the life of Abraham and the marvellous teaching of his life,
we will find that in him there is given us a sample of the first words of God
in connection with a great many subjects. These include, for instance, Gods
first words concerning the pilgrimage of faith, justification by faith,
sanctification, complete sacrifice of self, and also concerning the
resurrection of the dead, and the everlasting home of the glorified saints in
the city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In studying the significance of the great characters
in the Bible, we find that each one is a whole world in itself of significance
and typology, but the teaching in the life of Abraham has a majesty and sweep
and extent of import which, taken in the whole from beginning to end, is not
surpassed by any character that has ever lived in the world.
The Scriptures mention in a very special way the faith of Abel
and Enoch and Noah, but in the case of Abraham we have the first instance of a
pilgrimage of faith, the beginning and the on going in the steps of faith, set
forth in a life journey from beginning to end. It is this life journey of faith that makes Abraham such an example for
the true believer. The Apostle Paul mentions this fact in a special way in Romans, that a true believer
who is to share the inheritance of this earth in the coming age must be one
that walks in the steps of the faith of Abraham. The words the steps of faith set forth the fact that we are on a
journey, that we arc pilgrims and
strangers in the earth in our present life. And if we walk in the steps of Abrahams faith, it will be well for us to notice those steps.
1. Abraham
was called to go out from one country
into a other country. The Lord said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will show thee. These are the key words that God
speaks to [PAGE 81] everyone who is called to follow Christ in a life of faith. There has to be a separation from the old
life in order that there may be an entrance upon a new life. There is always the negative and the
positive, the coming out from in order to the entering into.
Do you notice the three-fold separation, first from his
country, which was a large place, and then from his kindred, who were more
limited, and then from his fathers
house, that is, from the very home
in which he had lived. This three-fold separation shows us the perfect giving up of everything of our natural lives in order that
we may go with the Lord into His land and His life and His promises, and
finally into His glory. Every step in this three-fold separation was
getting closer and closer to the individual life and heart of Abram. This
three-fold separation was to be followed by the revelation to him of another land and another people and another
house that should he his forever. There was not only the giving up of
everything he had in life, but in connection with this there was presented something more attractive and more favourable: and
more lasting to take place of what he had to give up, for there was promised a land that the Lord would show him.
He was giving up mans country for Gods country, the human life for the divine
life, the earthly inheritance for a
future [millennial] and
everlasting [Gk. aionios] inheritance.
And this is exactly the lesson that God presents to everyone that is called to follow Jesus in a life of [obedience (see Acts 5: 32; cf.
1 John 3: 24, R.V.) and] - true faith.
2. We notice some
things that hindered Abram in making this journey of faith. When he left his
country in
3. We notice that when Abram reached
the
This journey of Abram through Canaan when he surveyed the land
is a part of the life of every true
believer as he goes forward in the steps of Abrams faith, following Christ toward the inheritance which is to come in
the resurrection of the just. How significant it is that every true life of faith must at first take
a survey of the promises before they become realized in the living experiences.
Faith, in the very nature of things, must be surveyor and navigator and
forerunner and discoverer, to spy out possibilities before they become
actualities in living fact. As in the case of the man with the measuring line
in his hand in Ezekiels vision, faith must go forward and make the various
measurements of a thousand cubits before the soul passes through [PAGE
83] the waters and
actually possesses the experiences of the ankle deep, the knee deep, and the
loin deep in the river of the spiritual life.
Abram is the first character mentioned in the Bible as being
the surveyor of prospective fields of inheritance. He is held forth as an
example of the true believer in studying the promises and surveying Gods plan
for us, in order to draw us on, that we may make the pilgrimage without
faltering clear down to the end.
4. There is much
significance in the use of two words in connection with this survey of the land
of promise. We first read, The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and
then in verse
seven we read that the
Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give
this land. In the
first place God
said, but in the second
place the Lord
appeared. In the first
instance there was a word spoken to Abrams inner sense, or the inner ear of
his mind, which he knew most surely was the voice of God, but in the next place
there was a divine form that appeared to him, which evidently was not less than
the pre-incarnate form of the Son of God, and thus giving him a vision of a
Divine Person. So here we see the double manifestation of Jehovah to Abram,
first in a word, and then in a living Divine form of a person.
Now this exactly agrees with the true pilgrim of faith in his
life journey, for always there is first the promise to the heart, and then the
manifestation by the Divine Spirit. How significant are the words of Jesus to
Martha and Mary, that if they would believe they should see. Said I not unto thee, that,
if thou wouldest believe thou shouldcst
see the glory of God? It is always believe first and see afterward. Here we have this great
truth mentioned for the first time in the life of Abram, that there must come
in the life of faith first the [divine] promise, and then the revelation. God spoke to
Eve the promise about her seed, and God gave to Mary the visible manifestation
of the blessed person of that promised seed. We are now living the life of
faith, but when Christ returns we shall see Him as He is, and be glorified like
unto Himself. Those who refuse to believe never get the open vision. It is
perfect faith in the spoken promise that prepares the soul for the open vision
of the blessed Persons.
[PAGE 84]
5. At the end of that first journey we
notice that Abram built an altar, and pitched a tent (Gen. 12:
7, 8). Here are two significant facts
concerning the pilgrimage of faith, for the building of the altar indicates
everything connected with worship and trust in a coming Redeemer, and the need
of being saved by a Divine Saviour. Then the pitching of a tent indicates
everything in connection with a pilgrimage, for the tent is suggestive of a
brief sojourn, with a view of going on to some other place. Abraham never built
a city, and so far as we can learn, he never built a house, but lived in a
tent. This was not accidental, but a part of Gods plan in using him as a
picture of the pilgrimage of faith, and as a type of all believers that should
come after him; that in our present condition we are pilgrims and strangers
going onward, looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. This record was not put in the Bible
for the sake of Abraham, for he had been gathered to his fathers hundreds of
years before this record was made, but it was put down in Holy Scripture for
our sakes who are living in this Gospel age.
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[PAGE 85]
CHAPTER 19
Solar and Lunar Saints
In the 13th chapter
of Genesis we have described for the first time
in the Bible the difference between solar and lunar saints, which forms the
patterns of all subsequent Scriptures bearing on that subject, and showing the
different ranks among those who are saved. Abraham was the solar saint, and he
dealt directly with God, receiving revelations from God and the communication
of the Word of God immediately into his mind, and walking and talking with the
infinite Jehovah without an intervening cloud or shadow or human agent. On the
other hand,
1. Here we have
for the first time the complete separation of Abraham from all mixture, not
only with the world, but also with weak or half believers. When Abraham left
The life of perfect faith, according to Scripture, must be a
life of complete separation, not only a separation from the world and from
sinners, but a separation in heart and
spirit from weak believers, from those who will only go a
part of the way in the [promises and] things of God. There was one separation at
2. The occasion for this separation was
a dispute between the servants of Abraham and
3. We see the perfect, unselfish faith
in Abraham when he gave
4. We notice in Lots choice a perfect
exhibition of that mixture of faith and doubt, of religion and selfishness,
which runs through all generations among those religious people who are mixed
in their heart and have the heavenly and the earthly mingled in one life. We
read that
Just notice the three words describing
5. Now look at Abraham and watch the
action of his soul under the guidance of perfect faith. It says that when
[* That is for as long as God will allow
the land to remain! (See 2 Pet. 2: 10, 11; 3: 10, ff. and Rev. 21: 1, R.V.)]
The Lord said to Abram, Lift up now thine eyes. Notice the contrast between the two ways of lifting
up the eyes, for
A sample of the difference between the solar and the lunar
saints is furnished by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he
speaks of believers who were really Christians, and they were babes in Christ,
but who were lunar saints. They attached their faith to stronger saints instead
of laying hold of the fulness of Christ. Some said, I am of Paul, and others said, I am of Peter, or I am of Apollos; showing that, like Lot, they derived
their religious motives and forces more from the great apostles than they did
from direct fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Those two classes of Christians
mentioned [PAGE 89] by
6. In connection with Abrahams
unselfish faith in looking to God alone,
notice the great promise concerning His seed. The Lord said to Abram, I will give all the land that thou seest to thy seed, and I will make
thy seed like the dust of the earth: so that if
a man can number the dust of the earth, then
shall thy seed also be numbered. This [divine] promise refers especially to the
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[PAGE 90]
CHAPTER 20
The First Words on Priesthood
The
first words in the Bible concerning priesthood are given in the 14th chapter
of Genesis in connection with Melchizedek. When
Abram returned from the slaughter of the kings, in which he recaptured the
people of Sodom, including Lot and his family, there met him Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who brought forth bread
and wine, and he was priest of the
most high God. He blessed Abram, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high
God, possessor
of heaven and
earth, and
Abram gave Melchizedek tithes of all the spoils (Gen. 14: 17-20). This incident occurred five hundred years before the institution of the Jewish
priesthood in the family of Levi, and shows how that the Gentile priesthood
was exercised many centuries before the Jewish priesthood, giving the priority to the Gentiles, and not to the Jews. This is worthy of our study.
Paul makes an argument that justification by faith occurred in
the life of Abram before the institution
of the Jewish system and before circumcision, by which he proves that
justification by faith was not a Jewish doctrine, but a Gentile doctrine, and
has priority over everything that is Jewish. The same thing is true concerning
the priesthood. Now in connection with this Paul tells us that Jesus was made a priest after the order or
rank of Melchizedek. He says that if Christ were on the earth He would not
be a priest, because He was not of the tribe of Levi, but that being
resurrected and ascended at the right hand of God, He is now a priest according
to the rank of Melchizedek.
Now you see that the Gentile priesthood existed five hundred
years before the Jewish priesthood did, and since the resurrection of Christ
the Gentile priesthood has been restored, so that the Jewish priesthood was a
parenthesis, coming in between the days of Abraham on the one side and the
resurrection of Christ on the [PAGE 91] other. Hence everything that was peculiar in the
Jewish priesthood has been done away, and the only priesthood that exists now
is that which existed before the Jewish system was started. So we have the
coming together of the first and the last priesthood, both being of the same
order or rank.
In the next place, let us notice this man Melchizedek, who was
king of
After many years of study I am
compelled to discard the old notion that the commentators hold about
Melchizedek, and I do not see any way to get around taking the words of Paul in
Hebrews as meaning literally what they say. He says that Melchizedek was without
father and without mother and without descent or pedigree from any other race
of beings, and without beginning or infancy of days, and that he never died,
but lived on without dying. Commentators have tried to get around these words
in all sorts of ways by making them refer only to the character of his
priesthood, but I do not see how it is possible to avoid taking these words
just as they read. Jesus, in speaking of John the Baptist, says that of men
that were born of women there had never been a greater than John the Baptist;
and Jesus, in the use of these words, intimates that there are men, or have
been men, that were not born of women. We know that Adam was not born of a
woman, and when the apostle tells us that Melchizedek had no father and no
mother, I believe the words mean exactly what they say, and that Melchizedek
was a man created and put into this world as a special minister of God in the
time in which Abraham lived. Nimrod had started a great kingdom in the building
of Babylon, which became the headquarters of the apostates after Noahs, flood,
and it would seem that God created Melchizedek and put him in this world in the
west to start a religious movement in opposition to Babylon in the east.
[PAGE 92]
It would seem that Melchizedek built the original city of
Another point worth knowing is that Melchizedek gave to
Abraham a new name for God, which Abraham had never heard before, and which, up
to this chapter, was never used in the Scripture, and that is the term most high God. This name, most high God, does not occur in the Bible until
in this chapter, and the name signifies the God over all the universe, over all
worlds and all ages and all orders and ranks of creatures. Abraham believed
that God was the supreme One of the universe before this, but he did not use
this expression. Melchizedek said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, but in a previous verse it is said
he was priest
of the most high God.
Then when Abram spoke to the king of
Let us in conclusion notice the contrast between
The contrast between Nimrod and Melchizedek is no greater than
the contrast between
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[PAGE
94]
CHAPTER 21
The First Words on Justification by Faith
We have
in the 15th chapter of Genesis the first words in the Bible on the subject of justification
by faith, which makes this one of the great epochal portions of Scripture
bearing on the revelation of the saving grace of God. Of course men had been justified
by faith from the very beginning of human history, for Abel received the
approval of God for his sacrifice, and Enoch had the testimony that he pleased
God, and Noah had been pronounced a man that was perfect in his generation. All
these and many others had believed in God, and had been justified and received
the perfect assurance of their salvation. But what I mean is, that this 15th chapter
is the first place in Scripture where the doctrine of justification by
faith is distinctly made known and recorded for the enlightenment of all
succeeding generations.
The word of the Lord came unto Abram
in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield,
and thy exceeding great reward. These words
about the shield and the reward must be taken in connection with what happened
in the previous chapter. Abram had many foes, for the armies that he had slain
up at Merom were his enemies, and then the king of
The word reward
must be understood in connection with the fact that Abram restored Lot and his
family back to their home in [PAGE 95]
Then follows the account of the promise of a son to Abram that
should be his true heir, but the birth of that son, as well as all other favours,
depended on the condition of Abrams
faith. And the Lord brought Abram forth abroad and said, Look now
toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. And
Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord
counted it, that is, his faith, to him for righteousness. This is the great
passage that the Apostle Paul uses so much in Romans in his argument on justification by faith. In this connection
we need to grasp a clear perception of the two kinds of seed that God promised
to Abram, the one referring to his fleshly posterity, and the other to his
spiritual posterity. In chapter 13, when Abram was separated from
Now in this chapter we have another great epoch in the life of
Abram, another magnificent step in his pilgrimage of faith, which entered
higher up into the spiritual life than ever before, and extended onward
throughout all ages into the future destiny of Abrahams spiritual posterity.
And hence in this passage we have the star seed
promised to Abram, that his children should be like the stars of heaven in multitude.
This promise of the star seed embraced only those who should
have the faith of Abram, that is, should be justified by faith and be partakers
of a heavenly and everlasting inheritance. No descendant [PAGE
96] of Abraham ever
took part in the inheritance of the star seed except those that were justified
by faith.
And also the promise embraces all the Gentiles who are
justified by faith, and, as Paul argues in Romans,
who become the spiritual children of Abraham by virtue of their faith in God.
This shows the distinction between the fleshly children of Abram that are to
inherit the land of Canaan, and be restored to that land in the coming age, and
those other spiritual children who share Abrahams faith in Christ and are
justified and partake of the heavenly inheritance, which embraces a place in the first resurrection, and in reigning with Christ over the whole world in the ages that
are to come.
Just as the stars are superior to the dust on the earth, so
the star seed of Abram are superior to the mere earthly seed, and have a much
higher rank in Gods plan concerning His kingdom in the ages that are to come.
Jesus said that many should come from the east and west and north and south and
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
Now notice how it is that the faith of Abram was accounted to
him for righteousness. Abram did not have any real righteousness in himself and
of himself, but when be, with all his heart, embraced the promise of Jehovah
that he should have a son of his own, God accepted that faith in the place of
righteousness, so that his faith was put down to his credit in the place of
righteousness. It was his faith, Paul says, that was imputed to him for
righteousness. This is the great secret of all justification, that men are to
utterly ignore their own righteousness, and receive the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus, as a personal Saviour, and on the condition of their faith in Christ
they are accepted as righteous, not because of their works, but because of
their faith.
In the next place we must remember that this justification by
faith took place before Abraham was circumcised, and while he was [PAGE
97] yet a Gentile, which
proves, as St. Paul argues, that justification by faith took place before
Abraham became a Jew, and while he was yet a Gentile. Hence justification by
faith was not a Jewish doctrine, but a Gentile doctrine. It applies to all the
Gentile nations that lie outside of the law of circumcision. Now you see as in
the case of Melchizedek being the first priest among the Gentile nations before
the Jewish priesthood was instituted, so the same is true of justification by
faith, that it took place while Abraham was yet a Gentile, and thus has the
priority over any special Jewish ceremony or covenant.
Now notice in the next place the witness to Abrahams faith,
for he had said, Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? The Lord commanded him to offer a sacrifice, and to
divide the pieces upon the altar, and to watch the sacrifice, that the fowls of
the air should not devour it. As Abram sat there and drove away the fowls from
eating the fresh meat on the altar, there came upon him a horror of darkness,
which was prophetic of the terrible bondage that his children should go through
for four hundred years in the
If we analyze our experience of repentance and saving faith,
And the sweet assurance of the Spirit to our justification, we find that all
the points were set forth in the process of Abrahams justification, and the
witness which sealed his faith and covenant. Faith is always tested and then honoured. There is first the
smoking furnace, and after that the burning lamp. This is Gods method in
dealing with His servants in all dispensations, both in His dealing with
nations [PAGE 98] and with individuals. At the transfiguration there was a cloud, but out of
that cloud there came a voice, This is my beloved Son. It ought to inspire us with boundless confidence in
every word of the Lord, that He arranges all things on one vast pattern, and if we stand true in the darkness, He will
send the light. If we will patiently
watch the cloud, out of it will come the voice. And if we, by the promises
of God, will drive the vultures away
from our sacrifice, by and by the sweet assurance will come.
There are millions in
The 15th chapter of Genesis and the writings of
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[PAGE 99]
CHAPTER 22
Sarah and Hagar
Just as
we have in the case of Abraham and Lot samples of the solar and the lunar saint,
so we have in the case of Sarah and Hagar corresponding samples of the solar
and the lunar church as brought out in the argument of
The first lesson we have from this history is the effort that
Sarah put forth to help God carry out His plan concerning giving Abraham a son.
God had promised for many years that Abraham should have a son, a true heir,
and that all the families of the earth should be blessed through that son.
After waiting many years Sarah formed a plan to help God carry out His promise.
But, as in all such cases, her planning brought trouble and disappointment. She
thought within herself, God has made a promise, but
God has failed to fulfil His word, and now I must step in and help God out of
His difficulty. And so you see in this chapter how she proposed to give
her servant maid to be a wife to Abraham in order to secure the promised son.
Sarah had not yet learned that great spiritual law, that it is by faith and patience that we are to inherit the
promises, as
mentioned in Hebrews 6: 12. Faith and patience are the two hemispheres in receiving the fulfilment of
Gods promises. Faith is instantaneous, [PAGE 100] but patience is gradual; faith is at
first joyful, but patience has to endure
much long-suffering; faith receives the promise, but patience is required to meet the conditions of the fulfilment.
It is always indicative of a child mind to want a promise fulfilled
immediately. When parents make a promise to a child, the child expects an
immediate fulfilment of the promise. This was the case with Eve when God
promised that her seed should bruise the serpents head. She naturally supposed
that her firstborn child was the promised Messiah, and when she saw her
firstborn she said, See, I have gotten the Jehovah
man.
Every true believer must go through the process of learning to wait patiently on the Lord for
the fulfilment of His word. And then how true it is that in the weakness of
faith we attempt to help God to do His part of the work. Rachel followed the
example of Sarah in this same matter of obtaining the promised children. Nature
always rushes speedily to obtain its purpose, but true faith waits on the Lord for the appropriate moment for Him to work.
When we attempt to do Gods part of the work, He will stand still and let us
work alone and fail; but when we resign
the work to God and stand still, then the Lord takes the work in hand and
brings it to pass. In a countless number of ways it comes out with us that
we toil all night and catch nothing; but when the darkness is past and Jesus
begins to work, then great and blessed results are speedily accomplished.
The first effect of Sarahs impatience about obtaining the
promised child was that her maid became indignant at Sarahs authority and
trampled upon the natural rights and authority of a mistress, so that Sarah
became despised in her eyes. It always happens that when we lean on nature instead of the promises of God we come to grief
and have to endure much humiliation.
The second effect of Sarahs impatience was to lose the
sweetness of her spirit and lay the blame on her husband, though she herself
had prompted him to the course of conduct which he had pursued.
The third effect of her impatience was to try to get rid of the evil in her own way, for it is said, she dealt hardly with her
servant maid, as if to
force Hagar into a condition of humility and obedience. We never can deliver
ourselves from the effects of our folly, [PAGE 101] and
there is no way to remedy the evil consequences but to leave them in the hands
of God and let Him manage us and take entire charge of both our folly and the effects
of it.
The next lesson from this chapter is that
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[PAGE 102]
CHAPTER 23
The Jew First
We have
another sample of some of the first words of God in Genesis 17, where we see how Abraham, who up to
that time had been a Gentile, passed over into the zone of entire
self-abandonment to God and became a Jew. The Apostle Paul gives us a
definition of what a Jew is when he says, He is a Jew who is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart. Circumcision is never a type in the
Bible of justification or the new birth, but always a type of the heart being
separated from the flesh, and being filled with the power of Divine love. This
is Pauls argument when he says that Abraham was justified by faith before he
was circumcised. So that this chapter in Abrahams life supplies us with
another epoch in his pilgrim journey from Ur of the Chaldees clear on through
to the city which he saw in a vision, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We have several remarkable words in
this 17th chapter which will
repay our study.
When Abraham was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared unto
him and said I am the Almighty God; walk
before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abraham fell on his face: and
God talked with him. This occurred five years after he received the clear, burning-lamp witness
to justification by faith, and hence we
have here steps in spiritual progress which are not to be confounded with the
grace of pardon. Let me call your attention to some special points in this
chapter.
1. Note the
contrasts between chapters 15 and 17. In chapter 15 it says, The word of the Lord came unto Abram, but in chapter 17 it says, The Lord (Jehovah)
appeared unto Abram!' There is some difference between
having the word of the Lord spoken to Abram in his inner being which he could
understand, and then having a [PAGE 103] Divine person and form which was none other than that
of the Jehovah Angel, the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form, appear
to Abram.
If this were the only case in Scripture of the kind, it might
not he so significant. But if you will go through the entire Bible, you will
find that God has made it a rule from the beginning of the world, to give His word and afterwards reveal His
person. This is a wonderful thing in Gods conduct with His people and well
worthy of our notice.
We see that when Jacob was at
And then when Moses was in the
The same was true in the life of Daniel, who heard the word of
God many times in his earlier life, but later on saw the same form of the Lord
Jesus standing on the bank of the river that John saw in the Isle of Patmos.
Jesus told His disciples that if they would believe in Him as perfectly as they did in God the Father, that He would reveal Himself to them and
manifest Himself to them by the Holy Ghost. This is all a parable of what is
now taking place, for in this Gospel age we believers must receive the Word of
God as His true, inspired Word. And if we believe this Word, the day is coming when He shall appear again, and we shall see Him,
face to face and be transformed into His likeness, both body and soul.
2. In the 15th chapter Abram was commanded to slay certain
animals and lay them on the altar as a sacrifice unto God. But in this 17th chapter he was commanded to use the sharp
knife in cutting his own flesh. By this he offered himself as a living
sacrifice to God, and passed into the zone of complete separation and the life
of pure faith and love. By this Paul says he was scaled by the rite of [PAGE
104] circumcision. In the first instance he offered animals in
sacrifice, but in this instance he
offered himself in sacrifice.
3. In chapter 15 Abram was a Gentile, and recognized the priesthood
service of Melchizedek, who was Gods great priest for all the nations of the
world. But in this chapter Abram, for the
first time in his life, becomes a
Jew and receives in his own flesh the seal of the Jewish covenant. By the
rite of circumcision he and his posterity were separated from all other nations
on the earth, not only by a special covenant relating to his dust seed of earthly posterity, and of
the star seed of his heavenly posterity, but
also a separation in body from all other
nations, which from that day to this
is the mark of a real Jew according to the flesh.
This transaction by which Abram became a Jew was for the
special purpose of separating one family from the earth in entire devotion to
God distinct from all other nations. It
was that they might set forth the truth of God to the world, and be a prepared
people to receive the true Messiah, and, if they had been true to their covenant, to be Gods missionaries
and teachers to all of the other nations.
It is by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and true circumcision of the heart that
a Christian believer enters into the state of a true spiritual Jew.
4. Up to this
time God had been known to Abraham as God and as Jehovah and the Most High God,
a name which he learned from Melchizedek, but now in this chapter another name
is given of God, and that is El-Shaddai, which we translate Almighty. This is the first time in the Bible that this name, Almighty God, is used, and it is very
significant. The Hebrew word El-Shaddai signifies the All-sufficient God. The original word signifies an
exhaustless fountain that pours itself out in everlasting fulness, without
stint, without limit, without the possibility of being exhausted. The root word
is used in various ways, as, for instance, sometimes it signifies a mothers
breast, supplying an abundance of milk for the infant; and it also is used to
signify a great spring gushing from the mountain side that never runs dry. The
word could also be translated the out-poured God,
corresponding to the idea of Pentecost, the outpouring of the fulness of the
Holy Ghost from the ascended Jesus, for Jesus is [PAGE 105] the infinite Fountain, and out of Him
is poured the everlasting river of the Holy Spirit.
Now please put this name, EL-Shaddai,
the All-sufficient God, the outpoured God, in connection with the other
words, Walk before me, and be
thou perfect. This
shows that Abram had no strength in
himself to accomplish such a thing or to enter into such a life, but that every step of that walk was to be
attended by this
It is beautiful to go through the Bible and notice the
different names by which God reveals Himself. Every name that God uses of
Himself reveals some new relation
between God and man, or some new degree
of manifestation of the Divine presence and character.
5. Let us notice
the significance of the word which is translated perfect, in Walk before me and be thou perfect. The word perfection
is never used in the Bible concerning the flesh, for the flesh is always in the
Scriptures judged to death and banishment. But the word perfect is used in the Bible in connection with faith and hope and love,
as where Paul speaks of perfect faith, and
[PAGE 106]
So far as we can judge from his life, Abraham was a perfect
believer before this 17th chapter, but we do not know the elements in his experience. But
whatever may have been the depth or the degree of his inner spiritual life
previous to this, here it would seem God settles the matter with Abraham. From
now on his heart is to be entirely
possessed with the honey of Gods love,
and his inner spiritual being is to be swayed by the Holy Spirit, liberated from the natural wax of his own
nature.
6. We have the change of Abrams name
to that of Abraham, which is only another feature in this great event in his
life by which he enters the zone of a true, sublime, spiritual Jew. The name
Abram signifies a father, and the word Abraham is in the plural form and signifies
a multiplied father, a high father, a father of many
nations. The changing of a name is
always indicative of a great change in ones nature, and it is never accidental. We can learn many things by the
instances in Scripture in which peoples names were changed.
The word Adam is a Hebrew
word and signifies a man of the earth, and
this is the first name used in Genesis 1: 26. Later on in Genesis 2: 23 the original word for man is Ish, which signifies the higher, the spiritual man, the man of a high personality.
This name was not given to Adam until after the formation of Eve out of his
rib, which is significant; for with the name Adam he was alone, but when his name
became Ish he was not alone, but had his wife with
him.
The word woman
was used of Adams wife, and the original word simply means a female man. But later on when God promised that her
seed should bruise the serpents head, she was called by a new name, Eve. This
signifies, the mother of the living one, that
is, the mother of the Messiah; so that the change of name had a wonderful
significance.
The change of Jacobs name at Peniel has become familiar to
all Bible students as a significant fact, marking an epoch in his religious
life by which he entered the realm of prevailing prayer and became a prince of
God. When Rachel was dying at the birth of Benjamin, she named her infant Benoni,
the son of my sorrow. But Jacob afterwards
changed his name to Benjamin, which means the son
[PAGE 107] at my right hand. This was of prophetic
significance, for Jesus on the cross was the Son of sorrow, and when He died in
sorrow, in a certain sense the old Jewish mother died also. But when Christ
rose and ascended to the right hand of God, He became in reality Gods
Benjamin, the Son at Gods right hand.
Saul of Tarsus was named after the first king of
And also in this connection the wife of Abraham had her name
changed from Sarai to Sarah. The word Sarai
means Jehovah is my Prince, but the word Sarah means princess,
showing that the princely character had now passed over from Jehovah to His
servant and handmaid. The Hebrew words Isra and Sarah
are the same words. Isra is masculine and means a prince and Sarah, is feminine and means a princess. When Jacobs name was changed to Isra-el,
it means a prince of God. The changing of
Sarahs name corresponds exactly with the change of Jacobs name, only the
suffix EI is not attached to the name of Sarah
as it was to the name of
Now if we put all these things together we will have a
constellation of spiritual truths that gather around this event in which
Abraham passed from a Gentile into a Jew, in which his spiritual life took
higher ground, and he entered into a more definite and heavenly covenant with
Jehovah. All this was needful to take place before the birth of Isaac, for it
was in Isaac that his seed should be called. And it was with the birth of Isaac
that there began to be that marvellous history which characterized the Jew as
distinguished from all other nations in the world, and also distinguished from
all other families that worshiped the true God.
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[PAGE 108]
CHAPTER 24
The First Escaping From the Fire
In the
destruction of
This world is to have two great world-wide baptisms, one of
water and the other of fire, and these two baptisms are typical of the baptisms
which God gives to His people. According as things are put down in the Bible,
God deals with earth and man just alike. The world and man are identified
together far beyond the ordinary conception of Christian people. The earth and
man rise together or fall together; they were created together, they were
cursed together, they were redeemed together, they will he judged together, and
the everlasting destiny of earth and man is associated together throughout all
coming ages.
Peter speaks of the two great baptisms of water and of fire.
The first baptism by water destroyed all the sinners from the earth, and the
second baptism by fire, we are told, will burn up the works, that is, the proud,
carnal works of men. This agrees exactly with the Scriptures, that by the
washing of regeneration our sins are taken from us, and then by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire our
own works of the carnal self are destroyed, setting us free from our own
works, which are of the flesh.
Now we have in this 19th chapter of Genesis the first instance recorded in the world of the Lords people
making their escape from the judgment of fire and being protected from that
awful curse. [PAGE 109] Jesus tells us that His second coming
will be like it was in the days of
1.
2. Just before the destruction of
3. There were three distinct classes of
people in relation to the destruction of
[PAGE 110]
Then there was a second class
represented by [regenerate]
You notice in the chapter that Jehovah Himself visited Abraham and talked with him, but the Lord sent two angels to deliver
In the third class of people we see the people of
If this were the only place in Scripture where these three classes
were set forth it might not signify so much, but when we find that this is only
the first place in the Bible setting forth these three classes, and that there
are many other places where the same facts are set forth, it is worthy of our
consideration. In the army that Gideon had there were three classes, for we see
there were twenty-two thousand that publicly confessed that they were cowards
and would not fight and returned home. Then there were ten thousand that
professed [PAGE 111] they had faith and courage and were willing to fight, but they
did not measure up to the requirements for the front rank soldiers. Then we see
in the three hundred a class of men that met the conditions, not only of heroism, but also of perfect
diligence and faith and obedience. They were the ones chosen for the
destruction of the Midianites, and are a
sample of the front rank believers who will take part with
Christ in the destruction of the armies of antichrist, as is prophesied in Isaiah 9: 4, 5.
We find another case of the three kinds of people in the
parables of Jesus concerning the pounds, for there we see the faithful ones in
the first class, the ten-pounder and the five-pounder, who received large rewards. And then in the next class we see the unfaithful servant
who hid his pound in a napkin and was condemned as an unbeliever. And then the
king called for those rebellious sinners, the people in the third class, and
they were condemned to be slain, as
will be the case in the final battle of Armageddon.
And then we see the three classes set forth in the words of
Jesus about the three kinds of branches, for some branches bore no fruit, and
some bore some fruit, and other branches were purged and bore much fruit.
Another historic case is found in connection with Israel, for
there we see that the Egyptians were drowned in the sea, and the weak,
unbelieving [and apostate] Israelites died in the wilderness, but the true and
faithful [and obedient] servants entered into Canaan and
possessed the land.
Now if you think that all these cases in which the three
different kinds of people are represented are an accident in the Bible, you are
surely a long way from grasping the mind of God.
4. We see that
Lot and his daughters must of necessity make their escape from
The rain did not begin to fall until after Noah and his family
were shut in the ark, and the fire did not fall on Sodom until after Lot made
his escape [to the cave], and the Roman armies did not destroy
Jerusalem until after the Christians had made their escape to some mountains on
the cast side of the Jordan. And Isaiah tells us that God will call for His
people and hide them in their chambers until the destruction or desolation is
past. So we may depend upon it that while it is true, as Jesus tells us, the true church may be on the earth during
the beginning of sorrows, or as the Greek has it, the preliminary birth pains, yet the real judgment day upon the
nations will not begin until the true spiritual [Holy Spirit filled] church has been caught away to meet the Lord Jesus in the air.
5. We must again notice the high rank of
Abraham in connection with the destruction of
And then again you notice that it was Abraham that prayed Lot
out of the fire, for it is said that God remembered Abraham, in connection with
delivering
Here we see in this first instance of the [faithful and obedient] people of the Lord being saved from judgment fire, a
sample and an outline of all those things that will take place at the second
coming of the Lord.
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*
[PAGE 114]
CHAPTER 25
The First Words on the Second Birth
In the
birth of Isaac we are given a perfect photograph of the new birth which we
receive by faith in Christ. If any one does not have clear light on the new
birth, and he will study closely the things mentioned in connection with the
birth of Isaac, he can gather a perfect and infallible picture of the Bible
doctrine of regeneration in such a degree that there need never be any
confusion or misunderstanding on the subject. The book of Genesis is filled
with samples and patterns of the way God does things from the beginning of the
creation clear down to the end of time, both of things in the natural world and
in the spiritual world in the old and the new creation. This record is given in
Genesis 21. Let us put together the following
points:
1. Isaac was the second child born in
Abrahams family and, as 1 have said, a perfect type of the second birth which
we receive by faith in Christ. Ishmael had been born about fourteen years previous
to the birth of Isaac. Paul tells us he was born according to the flesh,
according to the natural laws of generation. It required no faith, no special
prayer, no special divine intervention for the birth of Ishmael, for the whole
thing was of the flesh. I Iis birth is exactly such a
kind as we receive in our first birth from our parents, for it is entirely
natural, without any of the miraculous in it or without any supernatural grace
connected with it.
But in the birth of Isaac we have a sample of our second birth
which must of necessity take place after our first natural birth. The Apostle
Paul announces it as a fixed law in the ways of God, first that which is
natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. Hence we see there is a
necessity for our receiving a second birth after our natural birth. This is
emphasized in a wonderful way by the words of Jesus, that we must be born
again, born from above, born the second [PAGE 115] time. Without this second birth it is
impossible for us to see the
2. The birth of Isaac was brought about
in a supernatural way, above and beyond the ordinary laws of nature or of human
generation. We are told that Sarah was past age for bearing children, and hence
God produced a miracle in giving life to the dead organs of Sarahs body by
which she could become a mother. This is exactly what takes place in our second
birth when we are regenerated by the Holy Ghost through faith in Christ. Our
spiritual nature is dead in sin just as truly as Sarahs body was dead in old
age. And just exactly as God touched the organs of her body into youth for the
bearing of a son, so God by the Holy Ghost touches the dead organs of our
spiritual nature by which a new life is produced in us, a life of divine love,
a life of Christ which is above and beyond our natural Adamic life, a life that
is as superior to our flesh as Christ is superior to sinful man.
The new birth can never be an evolution or a development from
the natural man. Evolution or development can never change the nature of
anything or the substance or the life of anything, for it can never be anything
but the unfolding of that which is there originally. It is just as impossible
for a sinner or a man in his natural condition to develop within himself a
spiritual life, a new, divine life, as it is for an onion to evolve itself into
an orange, or for a bird to develop itself into an angel. Hence we have in the
supernatural power manifested by the birth of Isaac a sample of the exact kind
of supernatural power put forth in the regeneration of a penitent sinner by
faith in Christ.
3. The birth of Isaac was conditioned
on Abrahams faith. We have seen in a previous chapter that when God promised
Abraham a true son to be his heir it is said Abraham believed in the Lord, he
accepted the words that God spoke to him, and on the condition of that faith in
due time Isaac was born. This is exactly the case with us; it is by faith in
Christ as a condition that we receive our second birth wrought in us by the
Holy Spirit. Faith did not produce the life of Isaac, but faith was the
condition, and it was God Himself that produced the child. It is not our faith
that gives us the new birth, but our faith in Christ as a personal Saviour is
the condition [PAGE 116] upon which the Holy Spirit works in us that sweet and
marvellous change in our affections and desires which forms the greatest epoch
in our lives in this world.
It has been marked a long time ago that faith receives and
love gives. Faith takes in the promise and then love is born and pours itself
out. Faith takes in Christ and love pours itself out in serving Him, Isaac was born through faith, and then afterwards he poured himself out in service and laid down his own life on the
altar. Thus we see in every way we turn the picture around, that all
the facts connected with the birth of Isaac are reproduced in the second birth
which the believer receives by believing on the Lord Jesus.
4. From the hour that Isaac was born he
became the true heir of Abraham and had the dominion and the authority in the
home over Ishmael, who was the firstborn. This is exactly true of our second
birth, that from the time we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit our new birth
becomes the true heir. The life of Christ which comes into us by the second
birth has the dominion over our first birth, and over the things connected with
our first birth. It is by the new man which is born in us that we become the
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to a heavenly [and eternal] inheritance. If Isaac had never been born
Ishmael would have inherited everything that Abraham possessed; and so if we
are not born the second time we simply inherit the possessions of our father
Adam. But when Isaac was born there was
a change in the inheritance, and from that time on Isaac became the
true heir to inherit everything that Abraham had. Now in like manner when we
are born the second time, it is our new life that becomes the true heir, and we
are joined on to Christ to share His
inheritance in all the
possessions - [His (see Psalm 2: 8; cf. Psalm
47: 4, R.V.) - millennial &
eternal] - both in Heaven and in earth.
There is nothing in all the world that can take the place of
being born, for it is out of our birth that we possess our personality and our
gifts and our capabilities and our
destiny. And of all the things connected with being born nothing is so high
or great or has in it such capabilities and destiny as being born of God. It is
the great miracle of grace. It is the starting
point on the new creation. It is the seed corn out of which will come at
last the new heavens and the new earth.
* *
*
[PAGE 117]
CHAPTER 26
The First Words on Purging Out the Old Leaven
We have
in the 21st chapter of Genesis the first place in the Bible where the Scripture doctrine is
set forth on purging out the old fleshly leaven. The great Dr. Chalmers
preached a celebrated sermon on the expulsive power
of a new affection which for many years has been a classic in pulpit literature.
The incident recorded in this chapter, on expelling the fleshly child Ishmael
out of the family of Abraham, is a remarkable illustration of the expulsive
power of a new affection, or of what the Apostle Paul terms in his Epistle to
the Corinthians, the purging out of the old leaven that ye may
be a new lump. The
incident occurred when Isaac was about two or three years old, at the time that
he was weaned. It formed another epoch in the life of Abraham almost as
significant as the birth of Isaac.
At the birth of Isaac there was the incoming of a new life in
the home, a life characterized by supernatural marks, and a life of spiritual
force as a special gift from God. At the time that Isaac was weaned there was
the outgoing of an old life, a life that was fleshly in all its import and
power, without any elements in it of spirituality. The incoming of the new life
was a birth, but the outgoing life was a death in its significance. When the
new life comes in it is a sum in
addition, but when the old life goes out it is a sum in subtraction, and both of these parts of arithmetic were
wonderfully manifested in the records of this 21st chapter of
Genesis. In order to understand more clearly
the purpose of this incident, let us notice the following points:
1. We read that
Ishmael, who was at this time about fifteen years old, mocked the young child
Isaac, by which we understand that he teased the child. Perhaps he destroyed
his playthings, or made ugly faces at him, and in various ways manifested his
envy and jealousy against Isaac, because he was the true heir of Abraham and the child [PAGE 118] of Sarah. His mocking of Ishmael was
very significant from a spiritual standpoint because it is referred to in the
New Testament, and must be looked upon as one of the manifestations of the natural fleshly mind against a true
spiritual life.
You will notice it is not said that Isaac persecuted Ishmael,
but Ishmael persecuted Isaac, for it is always true that the flesh attacks and
persecutes the things of the [Holy] Spirit. There is not a single passage in the Bible where the spiritual
mind attacks and opposes the flesh, but it is always the flesh taking the
initiative and antagonizing the spirit.
When the Israelites were marching towards Canaan they were
attacked by the Amalekites, who were their cousins in the flesh, and the
Amalekites opposed the progress of
This truth runs through the entire Bible and into all the
experiences of Christian life. Whether it be in a family or a nation, or a visible church or human experience,
always and forever it is the evil, fleshly mind that attacks the good [understanding
of the spiritual] mind
and seeks to destroy the true spiritual life of Jesus. It was not God that ran away
from Adam, but Adam ran away from God. There is something in the character of
sin that makes it forever the antagonist of God and righteousness.
2. When Sarah observed Ishmael mocking
and persecuting her little son Isaac, it aroused all the godly and just
indignation of her upright and motherly heart to interfere and stop the
offender from trespassing upon the rights and the life and the happiness of her
child. This was all under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and God made it the
occasion for Sarahs taking the initiative in expelling the offender.
When Abraham returned home at the close of the day, Sarah said
to him that he must cast out the bond woman and her son, for [PAGE 119] the son of
the bond woman should not be heir with her son Isaac. Those
were the first words ever recorded in the Bible preaching the divine truth of expelling the carnal life and purging out the old leaven. Of
course the saints of God in previous generations had been delivered in various
ways from the fleshly nature, whether regarded in a domestic light or as a
religious experience. But it so turns out that the words of Sarah to Abraham on
expelling the fleshly child are the first words and the first time in all
history where the doctrine as taught by
Paul was announced as the will and plan of God.
You must remember it is in this connection that the Apostle
Paul, in Galatians, teaches us that Sarah at that time
became the representative of the true spiritual
I do not suppose that Sarah, in preaching that little sermon
to Abraham, had any conception of the magnitude of her ministry, and of the
immortal effects that her words would have on all subsequent generations.
Little did she dream that the great Apostle Paul would incorporate her words
into the New Testament, and make them standard words in the teaching of the Christian church. And because of her words she
was chosen as a representative of the glorified
church of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout all ages, and extending even into the New Jerusalem. When any one speaks under
the guidance of the Holy Ghost he never knows the significance of his words or
the vastness of their meaning.
It would seem that Abraham objected at first to the casting
out of Ishmael, and thus purging the leaven of the flesh out of his home. But
God spoke to Abraham and sanctioned the teaching of his wife and said, Hearken to the voice of your
wife in this matter of casting out the bond woman and her son. There is one case where God told the husband to obey his wife, and these
words were spoken two thousand years before the Apostle Paul told wives to obey their husbands. I
make no comments, I simply state facts, not to flatter Sarah or in the least to
change the words of the apostle, but because Sarah was voicing the great doctrine of the true spiritual
[PAGE 120]
3. It is enough to thrill the
understanding with great admiration to see how God has arranged the teachings of
Scripture in long lines of light from one end of the Bible to the other. The
word leaven is always used in Scripture to
represent the fleshly mind, the carnal reason, and it is never in a single place used to signify righteousness or love or
holiness. The apostle taught the
Corinthian church that one rotten apple would spoil the other apples in the
same box. He demanded that that church should purge out a corrupt [regenerate] member because he would
corrupt the church,
and says, Purge
out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump. In
several places the same thing is taught, that the leaven of the fleshly mind
must be put away, for it can never be improved or brought into the true service of God.
Now if you will look at that subject in the light of the Old
Testament you will be surprised to notice the perfect oneness of Gods Word
running through both the Old and New Testaments. If you will travel through the
great fruit orchards in
Now you take this sermon that Sarah preached to Abraham on
expelling the old leaven of a fleshly life, and see how it is set forth in
other Scriptures. We read, Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds:
lest the fruit of thy seed and the fruit of thy
vineyard be defiled (Deut. 22: 9). If different seeds are sown in the
garden in close proximity which have contrary elements in them, as, for
instance, the gourd and the tomato, the bloom of the plants will fertilize and
pollute the true nature of the plant and the fruit. Hence God taught the
Hebrews that in their garden they must learn
the lesson of separation, and not have contrary fruits in close proximity to
avoid any pollution of one with the other.
In the next verse it is said: Thou shalt not plow with an ox
and an ass together. The ox is a clean animal and works with a yoke on [PAGE
121] his neck, but
the ass is an unclean animal and works with a collar on his neck. You see, the
two animals are contrary to each other in their nature and in their walk and in
their mode of pulling the plow. This was not written on account of the animals
especially, but on account of the Israelites, that if they wanted to serve God [instead of themselves] they must not hitch up the old Adam
and the Lord Jesus to the same plow to carry on their religious farming. When
contrary elements are mixed it always works damage and especially damage to the
good side, whether in the heart or in the life or in business or in church enterprises.
In the next verse it is said: Thou shalt not wear a garment
of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen
together. Wool is
the product of an animal, and linen is the product of a vegetable, and you see
that they possess contrary natures. If you wash a piece of wool for years and
years you can never get all the grease out of it, and that is a type of the flesh, which can never be
delivered from its true essential nature. Linen is entirely free from grease
and is always used in Scripture as a
type of the working of the Spirit, as a type of grace separated from sin.
Many centuries later the prophet Ezekiel told the priests that
when they went to minister in the holy places they must not wear garments made
of wool, which would cause them to sweat, but they must be dressed in pure
linen. Sweat is a sign of the fall and sin, of bondage and slave labour. If
Adam had never sinned there would never have been any sweat from a human body,
because God mentioned the word sweat as a curse on Adam and a token of evil.
God wants us to worship Him in the spirit which agrees with
the garments of pure linen, and in the freedom of the spirit of love and faith
and hope, without the admixture of [religious tradition or] legality or bondage or religious
slavery. Thc unmixed garment is to set forth the pure and unmixed worship of the heart. At the close of Revelation we are told that the bride of Christ was dressed in pure linen, clean and
dazzling. There is no mention made of wool, but every word indicates the spiritual nature separated from the flesh.
Now just put all these things in the Bible in a straight row
and see what a magnificent picture it sets forth of serving God and worshipping
Him in a state of separation, and not having the service or [PAGE
122] the heart mixed
up with contrary elements; and we will see that this first sermon that Sarah
preached on separating the spiritual child from the fleshly child extends
throughout all Scripture without any change or modification in the Word of the
Lord.
How significant are the words that right in connection with
the expulsion of the carnal child it is mentioned that Isaac was weaned, and
that his father made him a great feast.
Every one of these thoughts are perpetuated through the Bible. In Psalm 131 it is set forth that the weaning of a
child from its mothers milk is a picture by which God teaches that the
believer is to give himself up in entire
devotion to the Lord. He is to have
his heart weaned from the things of this world so that it does not crave
the thing of earth or of the old self, but is so wearied from them as to be satisfied with the things of God and
with His will and His plan in our lives. The same truth is referred to by
the apostle in Hebrews 5: 12-14 where he shows the difference between
a baby Christian who feeds on milk and a strong, purified believer that is able
to eat solid food. The words strong meat are literally solid food, that is,
food that must be chewed in contrast
with liquid food which a baby drinks. Thus you see that the weaning of Isaac at
the time of expelling the old leaven was an incident teaching the believer advancing from a state of religious infancy
into the zone of a victorious [and overcoming] believer.
And then notice also the fact that Abraham made a great feast
for Isaac at the same time. Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would make a great
feast for His people. This doubtless referred to the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the infant church and giving
those believers a great feast of joy and gladness, although the prophecy of
Isaiah may have a still later fulfilment
in the final restoration - [of the Holy Spirits miraculous
gifts, (see 1 Corinthians 12: 8-10. cf. 14: 27-39; 15: 12, 22-25, R.V.)] of Israel in the kingdom period.
We see in conclusion that the first words that Sarah preached to
Abraham on purging out the old leaven hold steady throughout all Scriptures.
The final statement of apostolic teaching on that subject is of the same nature
and scope as those first words uttered by Sarah in the beginning of religious
doctrine.
* *
*
[PAGE 123]
CHAPTER 27
The First Offering Up of the Beloved Son
We have
in Genesis
22 for the first time in
the Bible a great picture of God offering up His beloved Son as a sacrifice for
the sins of the world. This account of Abraham offering up Isaac did not take
place for the sake of Isaac or for the sake of Abraham, but on account of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Father. Take away the offering up of
the Son of God and the whole history sinks into insignificance, and perhaps
incredulity. It is Christ that gives life and truth and significance to all
these histories that were arranged in a specially prophetic manner, setting
forth the things concerning Christ.
Where we read that God did tempt Abraham, it should read, God did test Abraham, that is, put him to a trial for the perfecting of Abrahams faith and character,
but more particularly as a pattern of
what God Himself would do in offering up His only begotten Son. The test of
a mans faith and obedience
is always in ratio to the mans character and person and capacity. That which
would be a great trial to one person might be a small trial to another. And so
God, in dealing with His servants, works on a large scale. He distributes the
testings and trials with infinite wisdom according to the magnitude of the soul
He is dealing with, and according to the vocation that the believer follows in
life, and in relation to the church and the
History does not record any greater test of a mans faith and
obedience in the whole world than that which was required of Abraham. And if we
are to measure the magnitude of Abrahams person and character and the place he
follows in the plan of God by the dealings that God had with him, we do not
find a greater character in human history than that of Abraham in connection
with the [PAGE 124] office and work that he followed. Let us notice some of the details in
this great picture of offering up the beloved son.
1. We see that Abraham took Isaac and
some servants along with him and travelled three days, until they came in sight
of
Now this is a truth brought out in subsequent portions of
Scripture, especially in the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus told His own
disciples that they would all forsake Him at the time He was crucified, and the
words of Christ were fulfilled. Now the disciples were true believers, and in a
state of grace, and on their way to the heavenly kingdom. We have many proofs
that they had been pardoned, and Jesus affirms several times that they were the
children of God, their heavenly Father. Yet none of those disciples had reached
a state of experience which enabled them to follow Christ all the way to the
cross. They could go a certain distance, up to the measure of their spiritual
strength, and beyond that they broke down and forsook the blessed Jesus before
reaching the cross. So that when we see Abraham leaving his servants at the
foot of the mountain it corresponds exactly with the disciples following Jesus a certain distance and then forsaking Him.
1. Abraham bound the wood and put it on
Isaacs shoulder for him to carry up the mountain to the place of sacrifice.
This agrees exactly with the fact that Jesus bore His own cross. Isaac carried
the [PAGE 125] very wood upon which he was to die and be burned, and so Jesus carried the
very cross on which He was crucified. In how many ways this fact sets forth the
truth that each [regenerate] believer is commanded by the Lord Jesus to take up his own cross and
follow Christ.
The cross may have a different form and consist of a different
thing for each believer, and what is a real cross to one might not be a cross
to another. But whether it is something material or spiritual, or something in
the believer or something in his circumstances, it is always something on which the believer is to die and yield up his
ambitions and plans and self-will. There
is to be a death, a real inward
death, upon that thing which constitutes our cross. That which was true of
Isaac: and of the blessed Son of God must
- [if we are to become
overcomers] - be true of all
genuine whole-hearted followers of Christ in this life of faith.
3. We notice that Abraham carried the
fire and the knife in his own hand, for there was a sufficient reason for not
letting Isaac carry the fire and the knife. This truth was carried out in the
crucifixion of Jesus, for it was God the Father that held in His own power the
fire and the knife in relation to the crucifixion of Jesus. The fire is a real
setting forth of Gods wrath and judgment against sin. Jesus took the place of
the lost sinner and, furthermore, He not only took the sinner's place, but
according to the original words in the Hebrew and Greek, He took the place of
sin itself. God dealt with His dear Son on the cross as if Hc
had been a bundle of sin. The apostle said He was made sin for us. Mark you, He was not made a sinner, for while He
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, He was not made a sinner. But He was
made sin, that is, He took the place of
sin, and He endured the burning
wrath of God against sin, which corresponded exactly with the fire that
Abraham carried, expecting to burn up his own son. The sharp knife that Abraham
bore was a setting forth of the law of God, for the law is compared to a
two-edged sword, or a sharp knife, and it was the sharp edge of Gods law that
pierced the blessed Jesus and caused His death. Thus we see that Abraham
performed the offices toward Isaac that God the Father performed toward His
dear Son in His sacrifice on the cross.
4. There is much significance in the
way that Abraham answered the inquiry of Isaac when he said, Father,
here is the fire and the [PAGE 126] knife and the wood,
but where is the sacrifice? If you keep underneath the veil that
covers Abrahams answer you will see that in his reply there is revealed the true
way of setting forth the love of God as the great power that draws us into the
crucifixion of self. If Abraham had replied to Isaac in a severe and rugged
manner that he intended to slay Isaac as a sacrifice it doubtless would have
been a premature shock to the young man and led to serious results. But Abraham
replied to Isaac in such a tender and gentle way, drawing his mind away from
self to God, and showing that God was a being of infinite love and providence,
and that at the right time God would
provide the appropriate sacrifice.
I think we can read between the lines and hear Abraham
preaching to Isaac as they ascended the mountain a marvellous sermon on
devotion to God, on loving God, on wanting to please Him to such an extent that
we should be willing to lay down our
lives for the Lord. By the time they reached the place of sacrifice Isaac
was perfectly willing to be bound and consented to be slain to fulfil the
purpose of God. Something like this must have been the case, because there is
no hint that Isaac rebelled against his father or refused to be bound, although
he was a lad of about fifteen years of age, and certainly old enough to resist
the father if he had not been filled with the same faith and love that the
father had.
Now this throws a stream of light on the offering up of the
blessed Jesus, because it was in a sea of tender, pure, boundless love in which
Christ offered up himself to die. Jesus did not have His eye on the rugged
cross or on the nails, but more especially He had His eyes on poor lost sinners
and on their need of a Saviour, and on the infinite love that the Father had
for a lost world, and on the infinite
joy that would come to Him as a result of dying for sinners. And so it was
the love side that Jesus saw in being offered up upon the cross. Have we lived
long enough to see [all] these
things, or to learn them, or to have them take possession of our hearts? Have we learned to approach the altar of
self-sacrifice, not from the raw head and bloody
bones standpoint, but from the side of tender compassion and love, with
our eyes on the love of God and the love of Jesus [PAGE 127] and love for souls and love for Christs coming and His
Kingdom and His glory that shall fill the earth?
It was love that led Abraham to preach such a tender sermon to
Isaac as not to frighten the child, but to win
him to a willingness to die. It was love that God the Father preached to
His dear Son which led Jesus to offer Himself up in a sea of compassion and
loving-kindness towards sinners. It is nothing but pure charity possessing our
hearts that will make us willing to give
up self, to expel the old leaven, to cast out the carnal thing, and to suffer not only without murmuring,
but with a peculiar, strange, heavenly
joy because we, like Jesus, can look
through the darkness to the joy that is set before us, the joy of being like Christ, the
joy of seeing Him as He is. All these things were magnificently set forth
in Abrahams offering up his beloved son. And all these things were set forth
in an infinite degree in God the Father offering up His dear Son to be the
Saviour of sinners. And in our measure and up to our spiritual capacity these
things will be repeated in our hearts and lives if we follow Jesus clear
through to the end.
* *
*
[Page 128]
CHAPTER 28
The First Words on the Resurrection
For the
first time in the Bible we have the doctrine of the resurrection set forth in
the words of Abraham to his servants, when he said to them that they should stay
by the asses and wait while he and Isaac went up to the mountain top and
worshipped, and then they would return again. Have you ever thought how in the
world could Abraham use such words when he was intending to slay Isaac and then
burn his body to ashes? In view of that fact how could he say that he and Isaac
would worship and return to the servants and go back to their home at
You see the word resurrection is not used in the book of Genesis, but there are other words which imply the resurrection, and there are
actions which signify and prophesy the resurrection, and these are equal to the use of the word resurrection. Now we are sure that the doctrine of
the resurrection was known to Adam and the early patriarchs clear down to the
days of Abraham. They all believed
that the dead would be raised. But what I mean is that Abrahams offering up of
Isaac is the first place in the Bible where the resurrection is definitely
referred to as an object of faith. You see Abraham believed a great deal more
than the record in Genesis tells us about, for the apostle
affirms positively that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the
dead after he had been slain and his body burned to ashes. And we know that the
apostle spoke by the Holy Ghost. So we have a point in Abrahams faith revealed
in the New Testament which is not mentioned in the Old Testament.
[PAGE 129]
In the next place Abraham not only believed that the dead
would rise again, but he believed in the first resurrection of the righteous as
against the resurrection of all men in general. We know this from the fact that
the apostle uses a little word in Hebrews which has often been overlooked by
commentators and Bible students. Here are two small words that are used in the
Greek Testament in reference to the resurrection, but they are very
significant.
Whenever the New Testament mentions the resurrection of the
dead in a general way, the Greek
speaks of the resurrection of the dead, using the little word ton, which we
translate of. This little word, the
resurrection of ton, of the dead, refers to
the resurrection of all men. On the
other hand, in every single passage where the resurrection of Christ and of the righteous are referred to the
little Greek word ek is always used, that is, the [select] resurrection out from the dead in contrast with the resurrection of [all] the
dead. The ek resurrection from the dead always indicates that certain persons will be resurrected and
leave other persons still dead, whose bodies -
[and souls (Acts 2: 27; cf. Psalm
16: 10.)] - remain in [and under] the earth. Hence we always read of Jesus being
raised from the dead and the righteous being raised from the
dead, and the first resurrection is from the
dead. Paul wanted to be conformed to Christ, that he might attain to the
out-resurrection, which is out from among the
dead, and not the resurrection of the dead
as it is put in our common English Bible in the third chapter of Philippians.
Now when the apostle says in Hebrews 11 that Abraham believed God would raise
Isaac he uses that word ek,
out from the dead, proving that Abraham believed in the resurrection out from
the dead, that is, the resurrection of
the righteous, which would take place before
the resurrection of the ungodly. This shows us the vast amount of truth
that God had revealed to Abrahams mind, a whole world of truth with regard to the sacrifice of the Son of
God, and the first resurrection out from among the dead, as well as the reign
of Christ on the earth, and the New Jerusalem, the final home of the glorified saints.
What a pity it is that so many commentators and Bible students
have failed to notice the difference
between the ek resurrection, out from the dead, and the ton resurrection of the dead. If [PAGE 130] those words had been noticed by all past Bible
scholars and properly understood, it would have given the church so much more light on the pre-millennial coming of Jesus, and on the
difference between the first resurrection of the saints, and the last
resurrection of the wicked.*
[* NOTE: Keep in mind the fact that not all who are wicked are unregenerate! See Num.
16:
26;
cf.
1 Cor. 5: 11-13,
R.V.]
Another truth expressed by Abraham in his words to his
servants should not he overlooked, and that is that the righteous dead, after being resurrected, are to come back with
Jesus and live on this earth. He said to his servants that I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and return.
He expected to kill Isaac and burn his body and see him resurrected from the
dead, and then they would both return to where the servants were, and go back
to their home. This certainly shows that Abraham had faith in the teaching that
the saints of God, after being resurrected, are to return back to this world.
That shows that the faith of Abraham in that direction extended away beyond the
ordinary faith of professing Christians.
There is another very significant passage in regard to the
I have spoken in previous chapters of the great significance
of Abrahams dust seed and star seed, and called attention to the fact that the
dust seed was promised first in relation to
Abrahams fleshly posterity owning
[* NOTE: There is a
vast distinction in both the character and time of those taken into
heaven before the Great Tribulation commences; from the time
when those who are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord...
(1 Thess. 4: 15,
R.V.) at its end. The left, at the end of the Great Tribulation, are a separate and distinct company of saints, from
those taken before the time when that select Tribulation will commence.
Furthermore, the Scriptures always uses the
expression the RESURRECTION
of the DEAD, because only
the DEAD (those whose souls are presently in Sheol / Hades - See Luke 16:
23;
cf.
Acts 7:
5ff.;
2 Tim.
2:
18,
R.V. - will be RSURRECTED after the living saints were
previously rapt (or translated) into Heaven for the Marriage supper. Therefore, TWO raptures of Gods saints will take place, the first
before
the Tribulation commences (Rev. 3: 10);
and the second, at its END (see Matt. 24: 29, 39; cf.
Lk. 21: 34-36), when our Lord Jesus returns to this earth,
to
establish His Messianic and Millennial Kingdom, and commence His reign
throughout all the earth in righteousness and peace.]
Can you see the beat of it, how the words of the Bible are so
placed with such exactness as to be infallible, not only in their truthfulness,
but also infallible in the order, the time and the place in which the words
occur and in which they will be fulfilled. In the time that is
past it has been the Jew first, putting the Gentile last. But in the future
dispensation the glorified believers in the church will come first and the Jew
that is living on the earth will come next. Hence this is the way the words are
placed in this 22nd.chapter of Genesis.
* *
*
[Page 132]
CHAPTER 29
Seeking a Wife for Isaac
We have in the 24th chapter
of Genesis
one of the most perfect prophetic types in the entire Old Testament of the way in which God the Father sends forth the Holy Spirit to search
out from the saved ones a special company to compose the Bride of the Lamb. It is a long chapter, and the
details that are recorded therein would never have been put in the Bible merely
as a piece of history or as a biography of Rebekah as the wife of Isaac. Such a
lengthy, detailed account would be out of all proportion to other subjects
which are mentioned in Scripture. But when we study the chapter as a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His Bride, and the things connected with His coming and His Kingdom,
then there is sufficient warrant for the lengthy account and all the little
particulars that are given. Everything is great in proportion as it relates to
Christ and constitutes a revelation of Him and His Kingdom. That is Gods first word in relation to searching
out a chosen company to form the Bride of the Lamb.
It is true in our lesson about Eve being the first bride we had
occasion to bring out some points in which Eve was a prophetic picture of
Christs wife, but that lesson occurred before the Fall and does not fit in the
same way that this lesson does in the 24th chapter.
This is a lesson in grace and not in primitive holiness in
[PAGE 133]
1. It was after Isaac had been offered
up as a sacrifice on
2. In the person of Eliezer, the
steward that had charge of Abrahams goods, we see a most beautiful type of the
Holy Spirit as the Steward of the household of God, having charge of all the
possessions that belong to Jesus, the heavenly Isaac. The word Eliezer means Gods helper,
and so the name and the service that he performed agree exactly. We read that Eliezer
had charge of all of Abrahams property and managed all his estate, and this is
what the Scriptures teach concerning the Holy Spirit. He has been sent to
administer on the estate of Christ, to be the Sanctifier and Comforter of
believers, to apply the atoning blood of Christ to the heart, to reveal the
Scriptures to the understanding, to teach and guide the [regenerate] believer into all spiritual
truth, and to have charge of Gods providence in the life of the believer.
3. Abraham gave orders to his steward not to take a wife for Isaac from the
It is after penitents are converted that the Holy Spirit makes
overtures to them concerning a perfect consecration, and the entering into a
covenant of entire devotion to God, and receiving Christ as a perfect Saviour
that they may enter into the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Thereby
they become candidates for the bridehood company, or, as Paul puts it, become espoused to the Lord Jesus to be His
wife at His second coming. Jesus teaches this when He shows the difference
between the disciples of John, who were just beginning the life of faith, and
His own disciples, whom He designates as children of the bridechamber. We must first be born again and be members
of Gods kindred in order that we may be candidates to receive the baptism of
the Spirit.
4. We notice that when Eliezer reached
the well of water (verses 17-20) and requested of Rebekah a drink of water,
that she at once obeyed his request, and not only gave him to drink, but also
drew water for the camels. In performing that service she had no apprehension
of the magnitude of her little ministry, but was simply acting out the courtesy
and kindness of her nature and of her training. None the less that act of
service formed the basis of Eliezers choice and faith that she would be the
one for the wife of Isaac. This same principle is carried out in the early
service of a young convert. When we submit to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in
Him, we have no conception of the magnitude of that act. Little do we dream
that our early service to the Lord will form the basis for great and wonderful
things if we continue to - [obey (see Acts
5: 32; 1 John 3: 24, R.V.) and] - follow Him.
It is very significant how many people in the Bible met their
wives at a well of water. Eliezer met the wife of Isaac at the well of water,
and then Jacob met Rachel at a well of water, and when Moses left
5. In response to Rebekahs service in
drawing the water, Eliezer gave her a ring and a bracelet out of Abrahams
treasures as a token of approval for her
service. This corresponds with the fact that the believer receives at his
justification a token from the Father by the Holy Ghost in the assurance of
forgiveness and peace with God. The prodigal son on returning to the father
received a ring, the token of reconciliation, and so this ring and bracelet
given to Rebekah agrees exactly with the witness of the [Holy] Spirit which we receive when we
trust Jesus as a personal Saviour.
6. Eliezer on reaching Rebekahs home refused to enter the house until after
he had told his mission and received a favourable response, as we see in verses 33-38.
It was just outside the door that he made the great proposition that Rebekah
should be the wife of lsaac, and he waited for the answer before entering the home. This corresponds exactly with Christian experience. After we are justified, the
Holy Ghost in some way draws us on to entire consecration, and in a certain sense makes a proposition
that we be willing to abandon ourselves without any limit to the Lord Jesus to
he His and His alone forever. Upon
that decision depends the future whether the Holy Spirit as the Comforter will
enter into our hearts or not. In a certain sense the Holy Spirit stands
just outside the door and waits for us
to give our complete and final answer of leaving and going with Christ all the
way, to be His alone and His forever, and the [Holy] Spirit waits for our
answer before He comes in with His Pentecostal endowments.
7. As soon as Rebekah agreed to leave
home and friends and everything in the world and follow Eliezer to be the wife
of Isaac, then the old steward entered the home and partook of the feast and
rested for the night, See verses 50, 51. In the same way when the [regenerate] believer
surveys all the points in his heart and life and deliberately dedicates himself
to the blessed Jesus without any limit
as to what may or may not come in his life, without any limit as to what Christs demands may be, without any
limit to his faith and devotion, it
is [PAGE 136] then that the Holy Spirit puts His seal upon such
a perfect heart yielding. He
enters the believer with a marvellous fulness and richness of heavenly gifts,
and finds a resting place in the soul
that has fully accepted Jesus as a Saviour from sin and self. It is the
office of the Holy Spirit to communicate to the believer the will of God and
the work of Christ. Whenever the believer reaches
certain conditions of faith and obedience there will be responsive
touches from the Holy Spirit which form the true sealing of the believers
faith.
8. We notice in the next step of this
wonderful history that when Rebekah gave her complete decision to be the wife
of Isaac, then Eliezer opened up a great store of precious things which he had
brought out of the wealth of Abraham for the chosen bride. We read in verse 53
that he brought forth many gifts, rich garments, and precious things to give to
the elect bride. Will you please notice the difference between these two gifts.
The first at the well consisted of a ring and a bracelet; but later on in the
house, after she had made public her entire devotion to Isaac, to be separated
and leave all to be his wife, then
the steward gave her a large dower of many rich and precious things. This
corresponds exactly with the full believer in Jesus. When the child of God has
entered into a boundless covenant to belong wholly to the Lord, then the Holy
Spirit pours into that believer a marvellous enlightenment and a sweetness of rest
and an overflow of love and a rich variety of spiritual gifts which correspond
exactly with these great treasures given to Rebekah.
Furthermore, it is said that when Rebekah received these
precious things that Eliezer also gave gifts to her mother and other members of
the family, so that the whole family was enriched by the overflow of blessing
that was given to Rebekah. This is exactly what takes place when believers
receive the baptism of the [Holy] Spirit. They not only get marvellous riches from God, but other Christians
in the same family or the same church or the same religious association receive
also great blessing as an overflow or surplus bestowed upon the believer that
receives his Pentecost. What a
marvellous plan God has, that there is always a surplus and overflow in His
blessing, corresponding with the words of David, My cup runneth over. You remember in the book of Leviticus that at the feast of Pentecost the [PAGE 137] people were commanded not to reap
their harvests in a penurious way, but to leave some grain in the fence corners
and leave the gleaning for the poor and the stranger. This indicates clearly
that the feast of Pentecost meant an overflow of blessing. That fact is
perfectly set forth in this lesson when Rebekah, the elect bride, not only was
flooded with manifold treasures, but that her family also received many gifts
as the overflow of her blessing.
9. When Eliezer wanted to leave the
next morning, Rebekahs mother and brother tried to hinder the old man and requested
a delay of ten days. But Eliezer was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and
he knew that that suggestion came from the flesh, and that such a delay would hinder Gods plan and might be followed by serious
consequences. Hence he said, Hinder me not,
and insisted on going at once upon the long journey. This agrees with religious
experience in the fact that when a full believer is filled with the [Holy] Spirit and
wants to go forward at once in obeying God, there will always be some fleshly minded friends or relatives that want
to put a check on the fervour of the full believer. They seek in various ways to tone down the obedience and delay the
steps of service, not knowing that
such delays would mar Gods plan and hinder the work of grace. Nothing but
the light of the Holy Spirit can show the true believer, as He showed Eliezer,
that our only safety is in prompt obedience, and not heeding the advice of cold and worldly friends in a matter where
Gods will is concerned.
10. After leaving the home of Rebekah
they had a long journey, riding on the camels, and we can be sure that the
burden of their conversation during that journey would be concerning Isaac.
Eliezer confidently told Rebekah the whole story of Isaacs life, about the
time of his birth, and then the casting out of Ishmael, and then his being
offered upon Mt. Moriah, and of all the sweet and beautiful things in Isaacs
life. This wonderful story of the old steward only made Rebekah love Isaac more
and more and long to see him. As they moved on day after day on the swaying
backs of the camels Rebekah would doubtless revolve in her mind many pictures
that Eliezer gave her out of Isaacs life, until her heart glowed with a
strange warmth and a wonderful attraction toward that rich land [PAGE
138] in the west and
the great and good man that she was to meet. This agrees with the fact that the
true believer, after receiving the Pentecostal blessing and the gifts of the [Holy] Spirit, is to go on a journey with
the Holy Spirit to meet the blessed
Jesus in His coming and Kingdom. As they journey together the Holy Spirit
will do what Christ said, and take the things of Christ and reveal them to the
soul, and thus intensify the believers faith and love and cause him to press forward
more vigorously in the
path of faith and obedience.
11. At last when the journey ended we
see in verse 63 that Isaac goes out to meditate in
the evening time and looks up and sees the camels coming with the chosen bride
in the company to meet him. When Rebekah finds out that the man she sees in the
distance is her future husband, she alights from the camel and puts on her veil
and prepares to meet him. What a beautiful parable this is of the winding up of
the church age. When the evening time comes of this dispensation, and the sun
is about to set, Jesus will come out on the blue sky, as Isaac did in the open field. The Holy Spirit, Who
has been leading the chosen bride through this age, will make known to the
bride the person of Jesus when He appears. And then the bride, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, will humble herself and put on those finishing
touches of preparation to meet her Lord and Husband.
12. It is said that after Isaac took
Rebekah he loved her, and he was comforted over the death of his mother. How
truly this fits in with the history of the blessed Jesus, for you remember how
He grieved over poor old dead
[PAGE 139]
Thus we see a series of living pictures in which Isaac is a most perfect type of the Lord Jesus, and Rebekah is a beautiful
picture of the chosen ones who are to form the Bride of Christ and sit
with Him in His throne and take part with Him in reigning over the nations of
the earth, as we find promised in Revelation 3: 21.
* *
*
[PAGE
140]
CHAPTER 30
Isaac a Type of Christ
It will
help us to discover the infinite magnitude and variety in the person and
character of the Lord Jesus if we study and put together all the various types
that are used in the Old Testament to set Him forth, and also all the various
persons that were used as types of His character and life and work. There is
such a fulness in Christ that it takes a great many different characters to
represent Him. And when all the types have been exhausted there remains a
boundless ocean of perfection and glory and virtue in Christ which can never be
fully apprehended by our minds.
Among the persons in the Old Testament that are special types
of Christ we may mention that Seth is a type of Christ in the one feature of
being a substitute. Moses is a type of Christ as being a prophet. Joshua is a
type of Christ as a warrior. Samson is a type of Christ as dying to save his
people. Jonah is a type of Christ in his burial three days in the earth. Joseph
is a type of Christ in relation to his brethren, the Jews. David is a type of
Christ as a king. Melchizedek is a type of Christ as a priest. But Isaac is a special type of Christ as a
perfectly obedient son. There is not a more perfect picture of sonship
recorded in the Bible than that of Isaac.
Abraham in a spiritual sense is faith; Isaac in a spiritual
sense is sonship; Jacob in a spiritual sense is service; and the twelves sons of Jacob in a spiritual sense are the twelves manner of fruit on the tree of life. Hence as
Abraham begat Isaac, so faith begets sonship; as Isaac begat Jacob, so sonship
begets service; and as Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs, so service produces
twelve manner of fruit in the spiritual life. What I am saying is not
accidental, but all these things are absolute facts in the spiritual world as
truly as those men were facts in the physical world. Let us put together the
points in which Isaac was a prophetic type of Christ as a son.
[PAGE 141]
1. In the cases of both Isaac and Jesus
their births were foretold, and their names were foretold. God said to Abraham,
Sarah
shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name Isaac (Gen. 17: 19). And the angel said to Mary, Thou shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus. In both cases there was the
supernatural element in their birth. Jesus was conceived by the Holy
Ghost and born of the virgin, and Isaac had his birth from a divine quickening
of the dead organs in Sarahs body. Thus
he became in that sense a prophetic
sample of the birth of Christ as the Son of God.
2. In both
instances of Isaac and Jesus, when they were born they were the true heirs to inherit
absolutely and forever all the property of their father. Isaac was the only
heir that was ever mentioned in connection with Abraham. It is true that
Abraham gave certain properties to Ishmael, and later on to the children of
Keturah, his second wife, but they were not his heirs in the true sense of the
word. In like manner the Lord Jesus is the only heir of the Eternal Father,
inheriting from the Father all the possessions in the created universe by
virtue of His being the only begotten Son. And then, in addition to that, He
inherits everything in this world and in connection with redemption by virtue
of His being born of a virgin, the second Adam. This makes Him the heir not
only to the universe, but in a special sense to this world and the human race.
We, as believers, become heirs of God only because we are joined on to Jesus by
the new birth. And it is by virtue of our oneness with Christ that we share His
inheritance, and that inheritance is exceedingly beyond all of our
comprehension concerning it.
3. Isaac and Jesus were both hated by
their brethren. Isaac was hated by Ishmael, and the hatred sprang out of envy
and jealousy This was exactly the case with the Lord Jesus. All the hatred that
the Jews had for Christ grew out of envy and jealousy because of His infinite
superiority, and because of His favour with the people, and because of the
special power that the Father put upon Christ. But the hatred was especially
against Him on account of His holiness.
4. Isaac and Jesus were both offered up in
sacrifice, and on the same mountains, for
I am sure that if Ishmael had been allowed to remain in the
home of Abraham, he would have either killed Isaac out of jealousy, or else he
probably would have spoiled his faith and injected infidelity or disobedience
into his mind. But because Ishmael, the carnal child, was purged out of the
home it left Isaac free from contamination. He could then grow up in union with
his father in a state of pure faith. Hence when the time came for him to be
offered up, he had such boundless love and faith for his fathers God that he
was willing to die. He probably also shared his fathers faith in the fact that
he would have been raised from the dead, and the promise would have been
fulfilled that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
This was the one great feature in the sacrifice of Jesus, that
it was made in a spirit of boundless love and faith and obedience, for the
apostle mentions the fact that Christ was obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross. Isaac was the first son mentioned in the Bible to be offered up
in sacrifice, and there is a close union between the offering of Isaac and the
offering of Jesus.
5. Just as Isaac carried upon his shoulder
the very wood upon which he was to he offered up and to be burned to ashes, so
Jesus carried upon His shoulder the very cross upon which He died. And thus we
have a likeness between the wood that Isaac carried and the cross.
6. There is a likeness in the
resurrection of Jesus and the typical resurrection of Isaac. We are told by the
apostle in Hebrews 11: 19 that Abraham expected God would raise Isaac out from the dead
after he had been slain and burned to ashes. And then the apostle says that
Abraham did receive Isaac from the dead in a figure, and that figure set forth
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. As I have said previously, this case
of Isaac: is the first place in all the [PAGE 143] Bible where the resurrection is
referred to, and hence it becomes in a special way a prophecy of the
resurrection of Christ.
There is another point mentioned in connection with the
offering up of Isaac that is too valuable to be passed over, and that is in the
matter of unlimited increase and multiplication of the seed of Abraham on
account of his offering up of Isaac. We read that the Lord said to Abraham, By myself
have I sworn, that because thou hast done this thing, and hast
not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I
will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens,
and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth he
blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice (Genesis 22:
16-18).
Jesus announced the great law of reproduction when He said
that if a grain of corn remained alive it never increased, but that if it was
planted and died it would multiply into a great harvest. That law runs
throughout all creation and all life, both in the natural and the spiritual world. If Isaac had not been offered up there
would have been only one Isaac. But when his father offered him up in sacrifice
and he virtually died and rose again, then out of that God decreed that there
should come countless multitudes of other Isaacs that should bless all the nations of the world. Isaac was the grain
of corn, and by his being planted in death there has come forth vast harvest
fields of corn.
This is the fact that Jesus mentioned in connection with
Himself, for if Christ had not died there would have been only one Christ. But
by His death and resurrection He became the seed corn out of which should
sprout and grow countless millions of Christians - that is, other Christs in a minor
sense, those who are like Christ, those who have the life and character of
Christ, and those who share the glory and destiny of Christ. There is a
fathomless significance in dying. Hence in this respect we see a marvellous
unity between the typical resurrection and multiplication of Isaac and the
resurrection and multiplication of the blessed Lord Jesus.
You will also notice that when Isaac received his figurative
resurrection that the star
seed is mentioned first and the dust seed is [PAGE 144] mentioned last. In the original promise the dust seed came first and the star seed came next because, as Paul
says, first that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. But
when we come into the resurrection state then things are reversed and the star seed come first and the dust seed come next. This is because when
Jesus returns from Heaven with His glorified saints they will take the
precedence over the living Jews who are on the earth. Hence in the millennium
age the glorified saints, who are the star seed, will outrank the living Jews, who are the dust seed that will be upon the earth. We
must never forget that all these words are absolutely inspired, and also the
order in which the words are placed is inspired.
7. After Isaac had been offered up and
restored to life again his father then sent a special agent to secure him a
wife from Abrahams kindred. This was a clear prophecy that after Christ died
and rose [out] from the dead, the Father would send the
Holy Ghost among Gods kindred in all the earth to gather out a chosen company
to form the bride of the Lamb. When Rebekah left her home to marry Isaac her
brother Laban offered a prayer for her which was evidently inspired by the Holy
Ghost. In a natural sense it was a great deal larger than Labans mind, for he
said to her, Be thou the mother of thousands of millions. It is very evident that such
extravagant words would not be spoken by Laban in a natural way, for thousands
of millions stretch away into the countless multitudes. And this evidently was
a prophetic intimation of the countless millions that are to be blessed in the
ages on ages to come from the ministry of Jesus and His glorified bride.
8. We are told that later on in the life
of Isaac he sowed and reaped a harvest of a hundred fold. Genesis 26: 12. This is a beautiful picture that
adorns the later years of that tranquil life of prayer that Isaac lived. It is
a beautiful prophecy of the blessed Lord Jesus, that He is to plant and reap a
hundred fold. He is to plant one grain of wheat and get one hundred grains in
return, plant one life and get a hundred lives in return, and then plant those
hundred lives and reap a hundred fold, and so on throughout the successive
ages.
The more types we find of Christ in the Bible, the more it
multiplies and enlarges Jesus to our vision. If we stand in front of a [PAGE
145] mirror we see
ourselves reflected only once, but if we stand between two mirrors our image
will be reflected a countless number of times. And so if we read the Scriptures
only from one standpoint, that is all we see. But if we regard all Scriptures
as a manifold prophecy of Christ, it is like standing between two mirrors, and
we see the glorious character of our Lord reflected in an infinite degree,
which makes the holy Word of God so much more valuable and beneficial to our
souls.
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[PAGE
146]
CHAPTER 31
Jacob at
Gods
Word is not only written out in His creation and His promises and prophecies,
but also in the lives of His servants. The book of Genesis is filled up more with the
biographical word of God than any other book in the Bible. It was appropriate
that in the lives of the patriarchs God should write out the first revelations
of His will in the form of human experience and providence, before the definite
formation of His plan in the
God has allowed Himself to be called the God of Jacob ten
times more than He is called the God of any other man in the Bible. This is not
because of Jacobs superiority to other patriarchs, but because his life in a
very special way was a prophetic life of the history and destiny of the twelve
tribes of
1. Jacob was prompted by a double
motive to leave his fathers house and go to his kindred in the East. His
mother, Rebekah, told him that Esau would seek to slay him and that he must flee
for his safety to her brothers house in the East. On the other hand his father
Isaac told him to go to his relatives
and seek a wife, for he did not wish him to marry any of the ungodly women
among the daughters of
[PAGE 147]
Here we see the double motive power under which Jacob acted.
One was the motive of fear that Esau might kill him, the other was a motive of
love, to seek a wife from his mothers kindred. How this illustrates the great
law of life under which we all act, namely, the motive power of fear on the one
hand, and of hope on the other. The motive of fear had reference to his
unrighteous conduct in defrauding his brother of the heritage and was something
in the past. On the other hand his motive of hope included brighter prospects
for much better things in the future.
We are so constituted that we must act under the force of various
motives, either of fear or of hope. The one is a propelling force and the other
is an attractive force; the one drives us away from something in the past, the
other drives us on to something in the future. Hence we see written out in the
most vivid form in the lives of the patriarchs those great spiritual and mental
laws which have controlled the actions of the human race in all generations.
2. In Jacobs dream we have a method of
Gods providence in communicating with His servants in all generations. You
will remember that Jacob had no Bible such as we have, and no organized
religious church or system of divine teaching. Hence in those early days God
was laying the foundation of all religious doctrine in the lives of His
servants, and He used dreams as vehicles to communicate fundamental truth to
His people. In a dream a man is in the most helpless condition possible to be.
While in a state of sleep his body is absolutely helpless and his mind is, in a
certain sense, at sea, without rudder or compass, and in a condition detached
from the outer things of the senses, so that God can deal in a most immediate
and personal way with the soul. God has not ceased at any time in the worlds
history to communicate things to the minds of His people in dreams, and also
many cases have occurred in which God speaks to the ungodly in warning in
dreams. While there are a countless number of dreams that arc of no
significance, yet when God speaks to one of His children in a dream, it is
always of such significance that the true believer can understand it and
interpret it and have a personal assurance that the thing is from the Lord.
[PAGE 148]
3. The ladder that Jacob saw in his
dream was a special type of the Lord Jesus Christ, with its feet on the earth
and its top in Heaven, setting forth in a figure the ministry of the Son of
God. He stood upon this earth and at the same time by His divine nature He was
in Heaven with the Father. In the first chapter of the Gospel by John Jesus
refers to this fact, that He was the fulfilment of Jacobs ladder dream, when
He said to Nathanael that they should see the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man. The place where Jesus spoke to Nathanael was
not far from the locality where Jacob had this dream. And doubtless there was
something in the conversation between Jesus and Nathanael that reminded that
disciple of the patriarch Jacob and his dream. Jesus is the true connecting
link between Heaven and earth, and between God and mankind. He is the true
ladder by which the sons of men climb up to God and into Heaven, and also the
true mediator between God and man by which we have the ministry of the angels.
4. We see in this dream that God
recognized Jacob as one of His real children, and embraced in the covenant that
God had made with Abraham and Isaac. It is a serious perversion of
Scripture to undertake to represent that Jacob, at this time was a common sinner, out of saving relation to God. Jacob saw the Lord standing
at the top of the ladder and he heard Him say, I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac. In
addition to this God
promised him the inheritance of the land whereon he slept, and he
heard the Lord say, I am with thee, and will keep
thee in all places, and will bring thee again
into this land, and I will never leave thee. These words prove most positively
that Jacob at that time was a true servant and child of God, and that all
subsequent blessings and covenants that God gave to Jacob were based upon the
fact that Jacob was a child of God.
5. When Jacob awoke he recognized that
the place where he had slept was the house of God and the gate to Heaven. Note the contrast between the house of
Isaac from which Jacob had fled, and
the house of God, where he now was, in the open field, with no roof above him but the blue sky. In the house of Isaac Jacob was in danger
of losing his life, but in the house
of God, where he had [PAGE 149] his dream,
there was ample safety and
protection from Jehovah and the guardianship of the holy angels. In
the house of Isaac there was ground for fear, but in the house of God there was
ample assurance of hope and a bright prospect for thing
of the future. He said, God is in
this place and I knew it not, from which we may learn that God is always nearer to us
than we are apt to comprehend.
God takes more interest in us than we take in Him. God comes
closer to us than we understand, and it takes us a long while to fully grasp
the intimacy of Gods relation to us and to clearly apprehend His perpetual
presence in our hearts and lives. And then Jacob said that that place was the
gate of Heaven. They are the first words in the Bible concerning the gate of
Heaven, and they form, as it were, the germ words out of which come all other
references to the gate of Heaven. Jesus referred to this gate as being very
difficult to enter, for He said, Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life.
If you will stop to study the likeness between Jacobs
experience at
When Jacob spoke of being in the gate of the house of God, he
certainly had reference to a spiritual house, because there was no material
building over his head except the great dome of the sky. Inasmuch as the
apostles refer to God building a house of redeemed souls, a great spiritual
structure, which is to be formed out of redeemed human beings, it is evident
that the Holy Ghost gave Jacob a spiritual insight of and an apprehension of
that great house which should be formed in time to come. We must remember that
God revealed the things concerning the
The last item concerning Jacobs
It is certain that Jacob at
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[PAGE 151]
CHAPTER 32
Jacob at Peniel
There is
a space of twenty years between the
When the angel began to wrestle with Jacob he was supposed to
have been a man, but as the hours passed on and the wrestling increased the man
turned out to be the living Jehovah. How this sets forth the fact that God
always grows on us and on the knowledge of those who study divine things. At
first God comes to us and the world in humble and simple ways. But as we deal
with Him in personal relationship and become acquainted with Him He grows on
us, until we discover that He is the infinite and eternal God Who has made us
and redeemed us. The way that the Son of God comes into the world as a little
infant and then grows on the acquaintance of those who met Him, and grows in
history and in the experience of the church until the evidences of His being
the absolute God of the universe becomes overwhelming, is a sample of the way
that God deals with the world in all things and in all generations.
[PAGE 152]
The more we become acquainted with a mere man the weaker we
find he is, but the more we become acquainted with God He grows on us in every
direction until His power and love and attributes stretch away beyond the grasp
of our understanding. Everything in human nature comes to a limit, but
everything in God is forever expanding beyond all the measurement of our minds.
The wrestling of Jacob and the angel was a special divine
providence, not only for the sake of Jacob, but also a sample of how God
wrestles with His people throughout all generations in order to conquer them
and bring them into a place of perfect
subjection and docility, where they
pass into the zone of the triumphant life of faith and divine union.
And then what a world of significance is in the confession
that Jacob made of his name and of his nature as well. The word Jacob means a supplanter,
and when he confessed his name to the Jehovah angel it was a perfect un-bosoming
of his inner being to God, and a confessing of every secret trait of his heart to
the Lord. A true confession of the heart is not only an acknowledgment of our
actions, but a sincere and perfect acknowledgment of our nature, of the bottom
of the heart, of the thoughts and intents of the mind, of the secret fountain
of the soul out of which all actions and words proceed.
It is this boundless confession of what is in the heart that
meets the conditions upon which
Jesus has promised forgiveness and cleansing and the impartation of His Holy Spirit. The confession of Jacob at
Peniel of his nature and his name is a sample put down in Scripture to be
reproduced in the lives of countless thousands of Gods people. And then you
see how it was on the condition of
this perfect confession that the Lord changed his name and said, Thy name
shall be no longer Jacob, but
When the Lord touched the thigh of Jacob and made him lame, that was the point where Jacob ceased to be strong in himself, and from
that time onward his strength was drawn from Jehovah and not from himself.
It was at that point that Jacob crossed over the zone of the old self into the region of the victorious life in
the Lord his God.
There are three zones in the physical world and they have
their counterpart in the three zones of the spiritual life. Tiere
is the frigid [PAGE 153] zone of being dead in trespasses and sins. Then there
is the temperate zone, which is of a
mixed character, partly carnal and partly spiritual. And then there is the
torrid zone of perpetual summer, where
the believer renounces everything of himself and enters into the warm, tender, humble love that flows from unbroken communion with the Sun of
Righteousness. This condition of heart and life cannot be reached by
argument or by logic or by preaching or by a slow, gradual growth or by the
works of the flesh or by sacraments, or by anything known and recognized as of
the human or of the flesh, but it can be
reached by prevailing prayer. We
never can conquer others in the true sense until God conquers us. Jacob
could not prevail with Esau until after God had first prevailed with Jacob.
When the Devil makes any one lame they are ruined, but when God makes us lame it is our strength and our highest achievement.
Jacob said the name of the place should be Peniel, which means
the face of God. Jesus promised His disciples
that they should receive the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit would take
the things of God and reveal them to the disciples. Among those things that
were promised to be revealed was included a spiritual apprehension of the face
of Jesus Christ. We know that this was involved in the promise because
Before Jacob and the angel wrestled all night, Jacob sent a
very liberal present ahead of him to appease his brother Esau. But after he got
the victory from Jehovah he then put himself in front of the procession, and
went forward to meet Esau with triumphant love flooding his soul. When the Lord
had melted Jacob in the sweet furnace of divine manifestation, then Jacob had
the power to melt his brother Esau. Peniel was to Jacob what the burning bush
was to Moses, and what the day of Pentecost was to the disciples.
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154]
CHAPTER 33
Josephs Two Dreams
Of all the
twelve sons of Jacob, Joseph was pre-eminent for piety and righteousness. He
was above all the others a true prophet of God from his childhood, and one of
the most remarkable types of Christ in the Old Testament, especially of Christ
in His relation to His brethren, the Jews. We shall have occasion in the next
chapter to trace out the wonderful likeness between Joseph and Jesus, but in
this chapter we want to study the significance of the two dreams that Joseph
had when he was probably about twelve years of age, and which are recorded in Genesis 37: 5-11. Those dreams were inspired of the
Holy Spirit, because they constitute a part of the infallible Word of God. They
are preserved in Scripture for our benefit, as all other things that occurred
in the Old Testament are for our benefit, that the man of God may be perfect
and thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear,
I pray you, this dream
which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding
sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood
round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he
dreamed yet another dream, and told it his
brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a
dream more, and, behold,
the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made
obeisance to me. And he told it to his father,
and to his brethren: and
his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow
down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his
brethren envied him; but his father [PAGE
155]
observed the saying. In studying the points in these
dreams let us consider:
1. The first dream was on the earth, in connection with
reaping a field of grain, but the second dream was in Heaven, in connection with the sun, moon, and stars. In this
respect the two dreams follow the pattern of everything that is written in the
Scripture. The Apostle Paul puts it down as a universal law of the unfolding of
spiritual truth - first that which is natural, and afterward that which is
spiritual; first that which is of the earth, and second that which is of
Heaven. But while this is true, let us not forget that things which are
revealed on the earth are patterns of things in the heavens, showing that the
things in the heavens existed first, and the earthly things are patterned after
them. And while the patterns are made known first, yet the substance of which
the patterns are a copy existed first.
2. In the first dream no persons were
mentioned except Joseph and his eleven brethren. The dream was confined
entirely to Jacobs children, for they all were in the field reaping the grain
and binding the sheaves, and the eleven sheaves of the eleven brethren did
obeisance to Josephs sheaf. In this respect the dream related in a special way
to no one but Josephs brethren.
But in the second dream there was manifested the sun, moon,
and twelve stars. This included a larger number of Jacobs family, with Jacob
and his wife corresponding with the sun and moon, and the twelve stars with the
twelve sons. Here we see a widening in the second dream, and a truth of
prophecy stretching onward into future ages and things concerning the
3. In the first dream we have the
supply of food for the human bodies, the wheat or the grain that was reaped at
the harvest. This dream had its fulfilment in later years, when, by the agency
of Joseph, there was grain stored up in
[PAGE 156]
But in the second dream of the sun, moon, and stars there was a prophecy that Joseph should be the
divinely chosen one to supply the family with light and knowledge and prophetic
illumination on things to come. The dream about the wheat sheaves referred
to food, but the dream about the sun, moon, and stars referred to knowledge,
wisdom, and instruction, and especially the knowledge of prophecy
concerning things to come in the
Spiritual knowledge is food for the soul as truly as bread is
food for the body. God not only made Joseph to be the one to supply bread for
his fathers family, but also to supply knowledge for their souls. Although the
details are not given us in the life of Joseph, we have every reason to believe
that Joseph exercised his great
prophetic gift in teaching his brethren and their families a deeper knowledge
of God and of things to come than they had ever learned before they went down
to abide with Joseph in the land of Egypt.
David remarks in one of the Psalms that it was by Joseph that
the senators of
When Jacob received his great victorious baptism at Peniel, he
told the Lord that he was not worthy of all the mercies and all the truth
that had been given to him. Have you ever noticed that he mentioned especially the truth
that God had made known to him in [PAGE 157] addition to the temporal mercies? Jacob does not tell
us what that truth was, but I am sure it was a vast amount of truth concerning prophetic subjects, connected with the kingdom of Israel, and the coming Messiah, and the future glorious ages beyond the
resurrection from the dead.
Now this second dream that Joseph had about the stars in
heaven must have had special significance in relation to the law of prophecy as
well as other knowledge concerning God and the life of faith and the special
mission of the twelve tribes of
4. I believe that the second dream that
Joseph had has a significance in prophecy and stretches on across the long
centuries into the winding up of the history of this present world, and has
some relation to the vision that John saw in
Many have supposed that the woman in Revelation 12 was a type of the visible church on the earth, and that the
man child was a type of the prepared saints who are caught away at the rapture,
when Jesus will return. But the true spiritual church is caught away in Revelation 4: 1, for chapters two and three deal with the churches of the
church age, and the word church
is not found in Revelation between chapters
three and twenty-one, the new heaven and the new earth. It is true millions
of sectarian church members will doubtless be left on the earth when the saints
are caught away, but they do not [PAGE 158] form the true church in the Bible
sense of that term. Hence there is no Bible church found on the earth during
the tribulation period which begins after the close of the third chapter. This
accounts for the fact that the word church is not used after that. We find that the nations and tongues
and tribes are mentioned, and also
Now it is expressly said by Isaiah that God will redeem
When God began to work on Israel in Egypt for their
deliverance, He selected at first a
company of chosen holy ones to be the leaders and representatives of the
Hebrew people, who took front rank in that great period of their history. Again
when God began to restore the Jews from
Of course I do not speak with authority but I simply give it
out as a conviction in my mind that Josephs dream concerning the sun, moon,
and twelve stars had a prophetic
significance that stretches onward throughout the Jewish age and through the
church age into the tribulation period. It will be fully consummated in the millennial [PAGE
159] reign, when
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[PAGE
160]
CHAPTER 34
Joseph and Jesus in Humiliation
We have
the life of Joseph set forth in Genesis from chapters
37 to 47,
but in the first part of his life in chapters
37 to 40
we have an account of his humiliation in which there is a most perfect
representation of the humiliation and the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. We have
remarked in a previous chapter that Joseph
is a special type of Christ in relation to His brethren, and 1 will call
your attention to the following points where this truth is set forth.
1. Joseph was in a special way the son
of Jacobs love, for he was the
firstborn of Rachel, who was the wife of his special love. I have heard all
sorts of remarks concerning Jacob and his two wives, and have read some things
that do not agree with the Bible facts in the matter. Jacob never loved but one
woman as a wife, and that was Rachel, according to the Scripture. He never
bargained but for one woman, and that was Rachel. As the words are recorded in
the Bible, he never mentioned but one woman by the name of wife, and that was
Rachel. Leah was forced upon him by his father-in-law, and the handmaids were
given to him by his wives, but there is not one single word in the whole Bible
where Jacob in his heart and choice loved any woman as a wife but Rachel, or
engaged for any one but Rachel.
Now Joseph was Rachels
firstborn, and hence in a pre-eminent way he was the son of Jacobs love.
This beautifully illustrates what the New Testament speaks of concerning Jesus as being the Son of Gods love and His dearly beloved Son. The eternal Son
of God is a pure spirit the same as God the father, and His personality was
generated in the Fathers bosom out of infinite love back in eternity. And so
just as the Son of God is called the Son of the Fathers love, so Joseph was in
a pre-eminent way the son of Jacobs love.
[PAGE 161]
2. Joseph
was a true witness to his father concerning the conduct of his wicked brethren,
and Jacob could depend with perfect assurance on the words of Joseph. So Christ
is called the true witness in behalf of the Father, and a witness against sinners and against all error, and for all the truth.
3. Joseph manifested a true prophetic
spirit when about twelve years old in the dreams which he had and which he
published to his father and brethren. In like manner, Jesus when about twelve
years of age went with Joseph and Mary to the temple and there manifested the
great prophetic gift in His marvellous knowledge of Scripture, and by asking
and answering questions. And just as Jacob pondered Josephs dreams and
meditated upon them, so when Jesus said, Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? it is said that Mary pondered these
words in her heart, because she knew there was great significance in them.
4. Joseph
was hated by his brethren because of envy and jealousy on account of his
superior character and his perfect truthfulness and the consciousness of his superiority to them. In like manner
Jesus was hated by His brethren, the Jews. And also He was, in His earlier
years, discounted and doubted by His half brothers, the children of Mary, for
it is said that His own brothers, that is, Marys children, did not believe in
Him. The basis for the hatred, both of Josephs brethren and the brethren of
Jesus, was the envy and jealousy in their hearts on account of their
superiority over the other brethren.
5. Jacob sent Joseph on a ministry of
kindness to hunt up his brethren and look out for their temporal welfare, and
doubtless Jacob sent gifts to his other sons by the hand of Joseph. In like
manner God the Father sent Jesus on a special ministry of grace to the people
of
6. Josephs brethren stripped him of
his beautiful raiment which his father had given him and reduced him to great
mortification and suffering. In like manner they stripped Jesus of His clothing
and of that seamless robe which His friend, had woven for Him. And they [PAGE
162] reduced His
person to contempt and humiliation before the ungodly Gentiles and all the
people.
7. His brethren sold Joseph for twenty
pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave boy. In like manner Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of
silver, which was the price of a
slave man. In this respect the likeness between the two, is perfect. Slaves
were never sold for gold, but always for silver. Hence silver is always spoken of in connection with redemption, both in the Old and New Testaments.
Gold was used later on in the times of the
8. They put Joseph down in an empty
cistern and kept him there until they sold him to the Ishmaelites on their way
to
9. After reaching Egypt Joseph was cast
into prison, a type of Hades down inside the earth,
where Jesus went in spirit after His death and burial.
10. Joseph preached to two souls in prison,
the chief baker and the chief butler. His preaching did not change their
destiny or their character, but he
simply proclaimed to each man what his destiny would be, freedom for the
chief butler and death for the chief baker. This corresponds exactly with what
Peter tells in his epistle, that Jesus was put to death in the flesh and
quickened in the spirit, and went and
preached to spirits in prison. The word preach that is used by Saint Peter is not the regular Greek word
for preaching the Gospel, which is to evangelize. It is a term signifying a
proclamation publishing certain facts to people in the disembodied state
concerning His death and the destiny of those who were in the land of spirits, or in Hades.
We must remember that according to the Scriptures both in the
Old and New Testaments, there were two
places inside the earth called Hades,
one for the righteous and one for the wicked. Jesus tells us that there was
a gulf fixed between these two different
localities which no one could cross over. David says in the Psalms that [PAGE 163] when God saved him [Christ] He delivered
His soul from the lowest hell, but it should be translated delivered him from Hades. This shows that there was a lower Hades for departed wicked souls,
and an upper Hades for departed
righteous souls. And that teaching in the Old Testament is confirmed by the words of Jesus in His account of the death
of the rich man who went to lower Hades and of Lazarus, who went with Abraham
into the upper Hades, and stayed there
until the resurrection of Jesus. And then, according to Paul in Ephesians,
Jesus liberated the righteous dead from the upper Hades and take them up to
[* NOTE: Jesus
did NOT liberate the righteous dead
at the time of HIS RESURRECTION for David ascended
not into the heavens! Acts 2: 34, R.V.) Peter, John, Stephen, Paul, and all other
departed disembodied souls are in Sheol / Hades today,
and must remain there until the time when our Lord will RETURN. (See Psalm 16: 6-11; John 3: 13; 14: 3; Acts 7: 5; 2 Tim. 2: 16-18. Cf.
Matt. 16:
18; Rev.
Rev. 1: 17b, 18,
R.V.) before being somewhere in Heaven!]
Joseph was put down to the very bottom of humiliation and
shame in connection with his
imprisonment. But in the case of our Lord and Saviour He descended infinitely lower in reproach, shame, and disgrace than
Joseph descended. He went down to the very bottom of all shame and reproach,
both physical and spiritual, going down to the bottom of the most disgraceful
death, and then down into the regions inside the earth where
departed spirits were kept.
Thus we see that both Joseph and Jesus had a perfect likeness
in their lives of humiliation and suffering.
* *
*
[PAGE
164]
CHAPTER 35
Joseph and Jesus in Exaltation
In Genesis, chapters
41 to 47, we have the full account of the
glorious exaltation that was given to Joseph in the
We notice first that Joseph was lifted from the prison to the
throne by an order of the king of
[* NOTE: Highlighted words above are what the Holy Scripture teaches.
No disembodied soul is taken into
Heaven, where Jesus now is, until after
the time of the First Resurrection (Rev. 20: 6; cf. John
3: 13; 14:
2-3; Luke 20:
35, 36; Phil. 3: 11; 2 Tim. 2: 16-18, R.V.; or before
being given an IMMORTAL body. All previous resurrections, in
both Old and New Testament Scriptures of dead persons, died later in life: and
the High Priests of Israel were warned of God not to enter the holy of holies in
His Temple, upon peril if instant death, without first putting on the special clothing required by God; and furthermore,
it matters not that Johns statement in 3: 13 was made before
the resurrection! to support those who teach error, by saying sheol was emptied
of all the righteous dead at the time of Christs
Ascension into heaven!]
The apostle mentions the exaltation of Christ right in
connection with His disgraceful death. He says that Christ became
obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God hath
also highly exalted Him. The reason for His exaltation was because of His obedience to
a disgraceful death. This was exactly the case with Joseph, because God
arranged that Joseph should be exalted - [from Potiphars prison] - because of his righteousness and
his great humiliation and shame in suffering reproach while he was innocent. So
in both cases the exaltation was because of the willingness of the two
sufferers to undergo reproach and suffering in obedience to the will of God.
2. Joseph was speedily made the ruler of all the
3. While Joseph was thus exalted to the
throne his eleven brethren supposed him
to be dead, and had no idea of his
being alive in a foreign land and being honoured and having such glory and
power. That is exactly the case with the brethren of Jesus according to the
flesh. The Jews have no conception that their Brother Jesus is really alive in
a foreign country, and exalted to a throne, having dominion over all things.
Just as Josephs brethren supposed he
was dead, so the Jews regard Christ as a dead man. They have no conception
of His being alive and being the Lord of all things.
4. After Joseph was exalted to a throne
he then obtained a wife from the
Gentiles, the daughter of an Egyptian prince. In like manner, after Jesus
ascended He sent down the Holy Spirit to
gather out for Him a special company of [regenerate] believers in the Gospel age. They were to be conformed to the
image of Christ, and baptized into
His death and into His spirit, and rendered suitable to be a companion for
Him in the [Millennial Age and afterwards throughout
eternity - the ages of] ages to come. In many cases the Old
Testament sets forth the doctrine of a
Jewish prince marrying a Gentile wife, which was
prophetic of Christ. We have
samples of this in the fact that a prince of
[PAGE 166]
5. In the first meeting that Joseph had
with his brethren we have a prophetic type of Christ
coming at the time of the [pre-tribulation] rapture of the firstborn of the
Church. At this time
He will not be recognized by the Jews, just as Joseph was not recognized by his
brethren. The conduct of Joseph in relation to his brethren is one of the most
wonderful pieces of human behaviour that has ever occurred in the worlds
history. It is of such a nature as to prove that Joseph was divinely inspired
and guided in his words and in his manner. It is simply an impossibility for
any man in this world to act as Joseph did, unless he was guided by the Holy
Ghost. When he first met his brethren he spoke through an interpreter, and
dealt roughly with them, so that it was impossible for them to imagine that the
great ruler was their brother Joseph. The
whole history of that first meeting will be repeated at the second coming of
Christ, when He catches away the
saints. At that time He will deal roughly with
6. The second meeting that Joseph had
with his brethren sets forth in a perfect manner the return of
Christ from Heaven with His glorified saints at the close of the tribulation judgment, at which time Jesus will be revealed to all the living Jews upon the
earth. You will notice that just before Joseph revealed himself to
his brethren he subjected them to the climax of anguish by having them recalled
and finding his cup in Benjamins sack. All the sufferings that the brothers of
Joseph had passed through reached the most acute form and terrible climax at
that point in their history. They then tasted the awful anguish that Joseph
felt when he was put down in the pit and sold to the Ishmaelites, and when he
cried so bitterly for his brethren to spare him. God knew exactly how to adjust
the judgment upon their souls, and God
led Joseph in a most marvellous way to so deal with his brethren as to put them
into the crucible until they felt the agony that he had felt.
Jeremiah prophesies that the Jews living on the earth will
reach a climax of anguish under the
antichrist in the days of the tribulation judgment. Then the race that
crucified the innocent Jesus shall [PAGE 167] be made to pass through a point of anguish which to
them will be like the agonies that Jesus suffered in His betrayal and death.
The prophet speaks of it as the time of Jacobs trouble. Jeremiah 30.
7. When the climax of anguish had been
met in the case of Josephs brethren, he then had all strangers banished from
his presence. He revealed himself to his brethren by infallible tokens so that
it was impossible for them to doubt that the great ruler they were dealing with
was indeed their brother Joseph. In like manner, when the Jews have met the
climax of their anguish under the antichrist, and the conditions of judgment
are all fulfilled, then the Lord Jesus, descending from Heaven, will reveal
Himself to His own brethren, the people of Israel, by infallible tokens, and they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for
the death of his firstborn (Zech. 12).
The words translated they shall look upon me whom they have pierced are very peculiar in the original
and are found in no other place in the Old Testament. The word translated me is in the original simply the first and last
letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph and
then Tau. These
words correspond with Alpha and Omega in the New Testament, the first and last
letters of the Greek alphabet. They shall look on Aleph Tau,
that is, on Alpha and Omega, which constitutes
one of the names of Christ. But it is significant that that name is never
used of Christ anywhere in the Bible except in connection with His second
coming. Thus both Joseph and Jesus give forth to their brethren
infallible proofs of their character and personality.
8. Joseph, after being reconciled to his
brethren, gave them a rich portion of
the country to live in, and reigned
over them in perfect peace and glory the remainder of his life. Thus Jesus,
after restoring
The archangel Gabriel told Mary that she should bring forth a
son, and call His name Jesus, and that He
should sit on the throne of His father David and reign over the house of Jacob,
that is, the twelve tribes of Israel,
and that His kingdom should have no end
(Luke 1: 32, 33). Those words must all have an
exact and perfect fulfilment, which has never
yet taken place, and therefore must
be accomplished in the dispensation that is just ahead of us. Christ is now on His Fathers throne, but He has never yet occupied His own
throne, that is, His Messianic
throne, which is spoken of in all
Scripture as the throne of David.
Thus we see both in the humiliation and in the exaltation a
most perfect correspondence between Joseph and Jesus, and the one serves to illustrate
and magnify the other.
*
* *
[PAGE 169]
CHAPTER 36
The Twelve Names of
In the 49th chapter
of Genesis we have the record of Jacob blessing
his twelve sons just before his death, and uttering wonderful prophecies
concerning the destiny of his sons, especially in relation to the latter days of
their history on the earth. This record would be wonderfully interesting simply
as a history and a biography of the twelve tribes of
In a very significant way Abraham is a human type of God the
Father, and Isaac is a most wonderful type of Christ. Jacob is a very
significant type of the Holy Spirit, especially in respect to fruitfulness, as
being the father of the twelve tribes of
[PAGE 170]
1. Reuben. This name signifies Behold a son. It was the exclamation of Leah when
she first saw the face of her firstborn,
and the name has much significance if we look at it in the light of the new
birth. The new birth is the most significant fact in our lives in relation to redemption. There is a
marvellous parallel between our natural birth and our spiritual birth. Just as
our natural birth is by far the most important thing that could possibly happen
in our existence, so our spiritual
birth is the most important thing in relation to the new creation and redemption. Just as Leah exclaimed when she
saw her first infant, Behold a son is born, so
doubtless the angels exclaim when a
penitent believer is regenerated, Behold another
son has been born in the
2. Simeon. This name signifies hearing, because his mother prayed earnestly for a second son, and at his birth Leah
called his name Simeon because God had heard [and answered]* her prayer. This
word Simeon expresses the life of prayer and answer to prayer, and shows that fact that
as soon as we are born of God we are to
begin a life of prayer which is to go on as long as we live. Prayer is the
breathing of the heart in its relation to God, and includes every form of
prayer, and is the main result of the life that we receive in the birth. And
hence the name Simeon follows the name of Reuben in the same spiritual order
that prayer follows the new birth.
[* Keep in mind, God will not hear of answer
any of His redeemed peoples prayers, which are contrary to His will:
particularly those which begin by demanding that He answer them! It is
not Thy will be done on
earth... with these people, but their will, heard and answered, and
done in their time and in their
way! See Malachi 2: 1-5 and 3: 5-6, and compare with His words - I the Lord change
not with Col. 3: 25, ... and there is no respect of persons
- in His
judgment! R.V.]
3. Levi. This name signifies to be joined together, to be united, as in marriage or in
the most sacred bonds of mutual love and friendship. If you will read
the account of the birth of all these different children you will see the
reason given for the naming of each child. Leah was grieved because Jacob loved
Rachel more than he loved her. She was hoping that at the birth of her third
son Jacobs heart would be won over to love her, and that his heart would be united to her in supreme affection. For this reason she named her third son
Levi, which means united.
It was Levis tribe that God told Moses He would select to be the holy tribe, the priestly tribe, the tribe that in a special way stood for a
perfect consecration and the perfect love of God in the heart. And hence
this name represents that state of grace in the religious life of entire union with Christ, of complete
devotion to Him in a [PAGE 171] life of pure love, which
is produced in response to prevailing [and answered] prayer. Thus we
see that as Simeon, the prayer life, is the outcome of Reuben, the new birth,
so Levi, or the life of divine union, is the outcome of Simeon, the life of
prayer.
4.
5.
Dan. `1he word Dan means to
judge, having the significance of judging
in behalf of one that is oppressed or afflicted. Dan was the first son of
Rachels maid Bilhah. You see Rachel felt depressed in spirit because she was
barren, and gave her maid to Jacob that she might bear children on her behalf. When Dan was born she exclaimed that God
was now taking her part, defending her and judging on her behalf, and hence
she gave him the name of Dan, or judging.
If we will follow the unfolding of the Christian life as
revealed in the New Testament and in a progressive religious experience, we
will find that the power to judge comes into Christian experience as a result
of a life of praise and a heart of pure love. The judging power does not come
at the beginning of a spiritual life, though a great many young Christians fall
into the habit of judging others and of being severe in forming their opinions.
But in reality the power to judge is a mature grace and requires vast charity and kindness of heart and gentleness of spirit in
order to mould the opinions in such a way as to see things in the light of God.
It was prophesied by Isaiah that Jesus would not judge people
according to the sight of His eyes or the hearing of His cars, but that His mind
would penetrate down into the secrets of mens hearts and lives, and that He
would judge His fellowmen in perfect righteousness and equity. Now it is
impossible for us to exercise our [PAGE 172] faculties without in a certain sense forming opinions
of people and things, and having estimates as to character. In a certain sense we must judge of others by their fruits,
as Christ tells us. Now as Dan was
the fifth son of Jacob, and sets forth the spiritual life in its more advanced
stages, so we see that the power to judge
belongs to an advanced state of grace.
6. Naphtali. This name means my wrestlings with God. his was the second son of
Rachels maid Bilhah, and from the account given at the time of his birth we
see that Rachel wrestled a great deal in
prayer, that a second son might be
given in her name. It was on this
account that at the birth of this son she named him Naphtali, in remembrance of her earnest, agonizing
prayer. This name certainly sets forth an experience in the progressive
life of a true child of God, namely, an experience of agonizing prayer.
Now it is true that the word Simeon,
which means hearing, indicates much prayer,
but this name of Naphtali is a great deal stronger word. It signifies not only
prayer in a general way, but a crisis of
prayer, an agony of prayer, corresponding with the wrestling between
Jacob and the angel. I believe that if the biography of every true
Christian could be known, it would be found that in the more advanced stages of
religious experience all believers have had epochs in the life of prayer in
which their souls have been sorely tried. The pleading with God became so
definite as to be termed a real wresting with God, which corresponds with this
name of Naphtali.
7. Gad. This word means a troop. Gad was the first son of Leahs maid
Zi1pah. When Leah saw that Rachels maid had borne two sons, then she followed
the example of her sister and gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob, that she might
have sons by her, but called after Leah's name. Hence when this son was born, Leah
called his name Gad, because she saw, as it were, another army of sons in her
name. She called the child a troop, or an army indicating that fresh reinforcements were coming to her side. This
name indicates the progress of a
spiritual life that a believer has
to acquire as he presses on in a life of faith and under manifold testings.
8. Asher. This word signifies happiness, and was given because this was the second
son of Leahs maid Zilpah. When the boy was [PAGE 173] born, Leah said that the people would
call her blessed, or happy, and that accounts for the giving of his name Asher.
It is a fact that every true believer as
he advances in grace will find happiness to he a vital factor in his life.
As a result of established faith and
love, other people will recognize that such a believer is happy, or
blessed.
9. Issachar.
This name signifies reward, and if you
will read the account of his birth in a previous chapter you will notice the
reason for the name. This son Issachar was born of Leah, and was her fifth son.
There are various kinds and degrees of rewards, some are temporal and some are
eternal, some are earthly and some are heavenly. There are certain rewards
which come to the believer in this life, as where the Psalmist says concerning Gods commandments, that in keeping of them
there is great reward. Leah accepted the birth of Issachar as a gift from God, and hence called him reward.
10. Zebulun.
The name Zebulun signifies dwelling, to abide, to be
domesticated, to live at home in peace and quietness. Zebulun was the
sixth son of Leah, and she felt so pleased that God should give her this sixth
son that she felt now that she could settle down in the fullness of domestic
joy and peace, and especially receive much honour from her husband and
relatives. The name Zebulun indicates in the progressive life of a true
believer that state of being settled, rooted, grounded in the knowledge and love of God, or that condition of being domesticated in divine fellowship and
living, as it were, at home with the Lord.
11. Joseph. This word means adding, enlargement, perpetual increase. How
touching and tender are the words of God in which it is said that the Lord
remembered Rachel and gave her this child Joseph, her firstborn, after so many
years of weary waiting and trial. Josephs name has the significance of the
missionary. It is said that he was like a vine planted by a well of water,
whose branches ran over the wall, supplying grapes not only for his own family,
but also for the strangers and the Gentiles who were outside of the wall of
Israel. This was most truly fulfilled in the fact that it was by him that God
fed the Gentile nations with corn as well as his own family. This is surely one
of the experiences that should come in the life of every true child of God,
that great overflowing grace of the missionary [PAGE 174] spirit, the enlargement of heart to love the entire human race, and to do all in our power to evangelize
the nations and supply them with the Bread of Life.
12. Benjamin. Benjamin was the only son of Jacob
that was born in the
But the most significant thing that can be said of these
twelve names is the fact that they are to be perpetuated in the New Jerusalem,
and be engraved on the twelve gates of that city. This shows that the giving of
these names was by the Holy Ghost, and not an accident. The meaning of these
names is so preserved in Gods Plan as to
extend through all the destiny of
The name Benjamin is the only one of all the twelve that was
given by Jacob, which is significant that those names which are given in this
world, and out of human experience and human sorrow, are to be at last crowned
with that name which will be pronounced
in the day of rewards, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.
* *
*
[PAGE
174]
CHAPTER 37
The Two Blessings of the Twelve Tribes
In
closing our studies on the book of Genesis to find out Gods first words bearing on the various subjects
of the Bible, let us study the blessing that the patriarch Jacob pronounced
upon his twelve sons in relation to the things that would take place with their
posterity in the last days. These are the first words of a prophetic character
in dealing with the final history of the twelve tribes. And then let us connect
with Jacobs blessing that other blessing pronounced by Moses upon the twelve
tribes just before his death.
I have been profoundly impressed with these two sets of blessings
pronounced upon
Moses said: When the Most High divided to the nations their
inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
The blessing that Jacob pronounced on his twelve sons, as recorded
in Genesis
49, was in the
In the next place we see that Jacob blessed his twelve sons in the natural order of their birth,
beginning with Reuben and ending with Benjamin. On the other hand when Moses
pronounced his blessing, he changed the
natural order of their names and blessed them according to a higher spiritual
order which the Holy Ghost selected, in which the spiritual order takes the
precedence over the natural order.
And again, when Jacob blessed his twelve sons he prophesied
their future destinies according to
their history in this world and in human life, extending down to the time of the great tribulation. On the other
hand when Moses pronounced his blessing he
opened up a prophetic destiny of the various tribes in the heavenly light of
the kingdom age, when
In the next place, when Jacob pronounced his blessing on his
twelve sons he mingled curses with the
blessings, and referred to many sad
and sorrowful things that would take place in the destiny of his children.
But on the other hand, when Moses pronounced his blessing, there was no mention of any curse or any defeat or any failure, but
every word sets forth only that which is blessed and heavenly and successful in
their career.
It is enough to thrill any devout student who has a beauty-haunted
mind to trace these two lines of prophecy, one from the standpoint of Egypt,
and the other from the standpoint of Moab; one in the human and the other in
the divine; one on the plane of human life, with its failures and sorrows, and
the other on the plane of the heavenly life, with its glorious victories and
successes.
These two blessings set forth an example of what the Apostle
Paul refers to when he says that God gives us first that which is [PAGE
177] natural, and
afterwards that which is spiritual, and that He doeth away the first in order
that He may establish the second. I have searched out one hundred things in the
Bible in which there is reference to two things, and in every case the second
thing proves to be the uppermost and the best and the most significant, as the
first and second Adam, the first and second birth, the first and second bird
sent from the ark, the first and second effort of Moses to deliver the Hebrews,
the first and second writing of the law on tables of stone, the first and
second crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan, the first and second veils in
the tabernacle, the first and second rainbow at the flood and at the second
coming of Christ, and scores of other instances. But in every single instance the emphasis is on the second thing, which is always superior in blessing.
And these two blessings pronounced on the twelve tribes by Jacob and Moses
correspond with all the other cases of a similar character, which manifest to
us the mind of God and the character of His dealings with His [redeemed] people.
In a previous chapter I have given the significance of the
names of Jacobs twelve children, in which we see the unfolding of the steps of
a life of faith from the new birth to our being seated with Christ at His right
hand in His heavenly Kingdom. Now let us study a little the twelve blessings
that Moses pronounced on the tribes of
1. The blessing upon Reuben was the gift of life. Let Reuben
live, and not die. Life is always the fundamental
blessing, and must of necessity come first in all Gods dealings with His [redeemed and regenerate] people.
God cannot bless that which is dead,* and hence the gift of life is the basis of all other
blessing. There are seven promises to the seven churches in Revelation, but the first is the promise of
life, to eat of the tree of life, for this is always fundamental.
[* See Rev. 3: 1, R.V.]
2. The blessing upon
We see in the passage referred to that Reuben was the firstborn
of Jacob, and he was entitled to both
the genealogy and the birthright. Christ therefore should have been of
Reubens line and also Reuben should have had the birthright, that is, the property and the first rank in honour.
But it is mentioned there that because
he defiled his fathers bed he lost both the genealogy and the birthright.
Now when Reuben lost his inheritance,
the next son that came in order was
Joseph, because he was the firstborn
of Rachel, the second wife. Joseph
would have inherited both the genealogy of the Messiah and also the birthright,
but only see what a miracle was wrought in answer to the prayer of
We see in the passage that Joseph - [by
obeying his fathers instructions] - retained the birthright, which included the largest legacy of
property and other - [first-born Divine] - privileges. But the genealogy,
the line of blood royalty, descended from
3. The blessing upon Levi was the grace of holiness. Let thy Thummim and thy Urim
be with thy holy one, even Levi. The word Thummim
means Perfection, especially perfection in
love; and the word Urim means light, divine illumination. Levi was [PAGE 179] chosen to be the priestly tribe and to teach the other
tribes the law, and to put incense and offer sacrifices for the people, and to
pray for the people and be the leader in worship and in things pertaining to
holiness.
4. The blessing of Benjamin was that
of the keeping power, security, safety. Of Benjamin he said, The beloved
of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him, and he
shall dwell between the Lords shoulders. The blessing of preservation follows
as a natural consequence of the grace of holiness and spiritual worship and a
life of constant power, and this is why the blessing of Benjamin is placed by
Moses right in succession to the blessing of Levi, or the life of intercession and worship. In the natural order Benjamin
comes last from the standpoint of history, but in the spiritual order he comes
fourth, because his blessing in the heavenly places is that of preservation. In marching on a long journey it is the
youngest child that is taken up and carried by the strong father, and the
Oriental parents carry their children on their backs between their shoulders. Thus
Moses represents the youngest child as being lifted in the great journey and
carried between Gods shoulders, the place of security and rest.
5. The blessing of Joseph is that of
the fullness and overflow of all blessing, both earthly and heavenly. The word precious, or a synonym of the word precious, occurs seven times in the blessing
pronounced on Joseph. The precious things of Heaven, and the precious fruits
brought forth by the sun, and the precious things brought forth by the moon,
and the chief of the precious things of the mountains, and the precious things
of the hills, and the precious things of the earth, and the good will or the precious
will of Him that dwelt in the bush, all these seven-fold precious
things are to come down upon the head of him that was - [hated and envied, because of his obedience to his
fathers will and] - separated from his brethren.
Joseph gets the largest
of all the blessings because he had the birthright which was forfeited by Reuben, and
also because his two sons were adopted by Jacob as Jacobs own sons, and Ephraim and Manasseh took rank with
the other sons. Hence the Lord searched
through all the earth and all the sky and the sun and the moon and all creation to extract every possible blessing for Joseph.
And the [PAGE
18] reason was
because he was separated from his brethren and was a type of Christ
leaving the Jews in their dead state and going to the Gentiles and providing
food for the world. It was
Ephraim that led in the revolt of
the ten tribes, and the tribe of
Ephraim was the one that pushed the ten tribes out of
6. The blessing of Zebulun is that
of a missionary. Of Zebulun he said, Rejoice,
Zebulun, in thy going out. This evidently is a prophecy of missionary work in the
history of the spiritual life, and it will have a special fulfilment,
doubtless, in the coming [millennial] age in
reference to
7. The blessing of Issachar is that
of the domestic life. Let Issachar be blest in their tents. I am perfectly convinced that the
Koreans are the descendents of the tribe of Issachar, for I find that every
word pronounced upon Issachar by both Jacob and Moses are perfectly true of
that nation. The Koreans bear the heaviest burdens on their backs of any other
nation of the earth, which is referred to by Jacob in Genesis 49: 14.
In the next place, the Koreans are, as a rule, the most
indolent people on the face of the earth and they never do any work except of
necessity. Jacob said that Issachar loved to rest. And if you go to Korea you
will often find three or four men at work and fifteen or twenty other men lying
down on the ground and watching them, as I have seen several times when I was
there, the Koreans have paid tribute for over two thousand years to either
China on the west or Japan on the cast. And Jacob said that Issachar should be
a servant to pay tribute, which is more true of the Koreans than of any other
nation that has ever lived. The Koreans are a hermit people and they never
migrate like other nations. This agrees with the words of Moses that 1ssachar
would be a people that would live at home, or in their tents.
If we apply this to the spiritual life it signifies that the
true believer is to be domesticated with
the Lord Jesus in a life of faith and fellowship.
[PAGE
181]
The blessing of Gad is that of great enlargement. And of Gad he
said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad. All the words used by Moses concerning
Gad refer to enlargement, of the getting possession
of the choicest things that were possible to be had. This has its fulfilment
in the progress of the spiritual life
when the [regenerate] believer seeks in every way to extend his
usefulness and service by prayer, or ministry, or philanthropy,
and in every way extending the
kingdom of God, and also his own
usefulness and happiness. The Apostle Paul refers to this stage in the Christian
life when he said to one of the churches that he had planted that if they wanted
to reward him they were to be enlarged, and their enlargement would be
his recompense. Narrowness of heart and mind is always an affliction, but
in the spiritual life it is more than an affliction and amounts in a certain
sense to a curse.
9. The blessing of Dan is that of
power, energy, victory. Of Dan he said, Dan is a lions
whelp; he shall leap from
10. The blessing of Naphtali is that
of being satisfied with the favour of God. Of Naphtali he said, Thou art
satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord, possessing the
west and the south (that is, the warm side of the mountain, and where the
daylight lingers longest). There is a charming picture of union, repose, and
contentment in the things of God. This stage [and time] of grace is Gods Plan for all His
servants as they pass on through the journey of a full religious experience.
11. The blessing of Asher is that of
many children. Let Asher be blessed with children, let him be acceptable to his brethren, and dip his foot in oil. In these words we notice that the
spiritual life is to increase and multiply down to the very end and be fat and
flourishing in old age.
In this list we notice that the name of Simeon is left
out, because Moses put in the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, and so
Simeon is omitted from the list.
[PAGE 182]
We have another list of the names of the twelve patriarchs in
the book of Revelation in connection with the great work
when God begins their filial restoration in the great tribulation. In that list
the name of Dan is left out to make
room for the two sons of Joseph. In
the list of names given by Jacob that of Judah
comes fourth, but in the list of names given by Moses the name of Judah comes
second, and in the list given in Revelation the name of Judah comes first. All
of this is significant concerning things that are to come. The royal tribe
forges its way to the front, and comes out at last at the head of the great
column of Gods chosen ones in the days when the - [Lords promised (Psalm 2: 8) and
long-awaited Messianic] - Kingdom shall come.
I have only searched out a few of the marvellous wonders of
this book. There are countless other wonders which remain to be searched out,
and what we do not find in this present short pilgrim-age life will be found out
in the ages that are to come, for I believe it is Gods plan that His [redeemed] people shall some day come to
understand every atom of His inspired Word.
The book of Genesis
begins with a marriage and the last
words are (a coffin in
* *
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TEN SELECTED QUOTATIONS
1. HAVE YOU AN INTEREST IN YOUR
INHERITANCE?
To be the BRIDE of the Lamb
is a very much higher, very much glorious thing
than only to have our sins forgiven. ... Many, alas, are satisfied with the mere knowledge of the
forgiveness of sins, AND NEVER THINK OF GOING FURTHER. They have passed through the Red Sea, it
may be, BUT MANIFEST NO DESIRE TO CROSS THE
2. BEWARE OF FALLING BACK
We cannot discharge ourselves of our duty to God by some
bright and great acts, continued for a month or a year; and then fall back,
because the work is done. NO; John warns us, NOT TO LOSE THE THINGS WE HAVE WROUGHT, OR
TO PUT THEM IN JEOPARDY BY A FALLING BACK. We are to reap hereafter, UNDER AN IF
WE faint not. IF
OUR FAITH FAINT NOT, our good
works will not cease. R. GOVETT.
3. THE OVERCOMER
As Samson, LONG
DEFEATED, triumphed in HIS DEATH, so may the DEFEATED (christian) by great grace, SNATCH VICTORY AT LAST, IF HE WILL GIVE AGAIN FULL HEED TO HIS LORD. - G. H. LANG.
4. INHERITING THE KINGDOM
The radical error in the matter has been to confound terms
that differ. By both schools inheriting the kingdom has been wrongly taken to mean simply saved from hell; and so not inheriting has been wrongly deemed synonymous with everlasting
perdition. But once it is
seen that receiving salvation from wrath is one thing, and the
rising to the glory of rule in the kingdom is another thing, and IS AN ATTAINMENT that
follows, then the Gordian knot
is untied; for it at once becomes a possibility to forfeit the kingdom by
personal misconduct, (and
to incur in addition abundantly severe chastisement, proportionate to the
offences, and sufficient, if apprehended, to deter from carnality.), whilst yet retaining eternal life by
the pure grace of God, exercised on the ground of the merit of Christ alone. - G. H. LANG.
5. OVERCOMERS
The harvest is composed of those FOR
whom Christ has overcome, the firstfruits are those IN whom and THROUGH whom
He has overcome, as
well as having overcome for them.
The Apostle Paul had no doubt about his place in
the main body, for his
testimony is clear, I
know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committed unto Him against that day (2 Tim. 1: 12).
When, however, he was writing to the Philippians (3) he told them that there was one thing he was seeking above all
else, the
prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus, that might by means attain to the out-resurrection from
among the dead. He was sure of having a place in the
general harvest, but not sure, as yet, of being one of the firstfruits as an
overcomer.
If Peter, James, John, and Andrew needed
the warnings given them by our Lord to Take
heed to watch
and pray (Mark 13: 3, 5, 9, 23, 33),
and be
ye also ready (Matt. 24: 44), it is clear that something more is wanted
of us than faith in Christ for salvation if we would be ripe enough for the
firstfruits. The teaching that everyone who
believes is ready for the Coming of the Lord is a deadly narcotic. No wonder the Church is
asleep!
If on the other hand, we see that, being saved, there
is yet a prize to be won which is worth the counting of all else as refuse, then we find in it A POWERFUL STIMULANT to a
holy and victorious life in union with our coming Lord. - A. CHAMPION.
6. THE KINGDOM
All other religions have their Golden Age in the past: God
lodges His in the future. For indeed mans Age began with gold, but it ends in
mire (Dan. 2:
32). It is
unfortunate that theChurch of Christ has made the ever-blessed
The grace of God is free even to the vilest sinners; but the
thrones of the Millennial Age are won by sacrifice, service, and victorious
schievement. - A. B. SIMPSON,
D.D.
7. MILLENNIAL KINGS
(1) Mr. Rankin puts his finger on a weak spot in
the contemporary Millennarianism. As I
inderstamd from the Bible, a countless multitude will be saved. The present
population of this earth can be numbered. It is about a billion and a half. Yet
they fairly well occupy the earth, though there is room for more. In a
(2) Dr. James Black, in his drastic criticisms of
Millennial truth lays his finger - as other unfriendly critics have done before
him - on a weak spot in current teaching on the Kingdom of God. These martyrs (and it is only the martyrs, remember!,) he says,
commenting on Rev. 20:
4, rise and join Him,
reigning with Him a thousand years. The only people mentioned as reigning with Christ are the martyrs:
if you are going to be literal, there is no ground whatever in this passage for
all the elaborate doctrine of the Pre-Millennarians, who picture Christ and all
His Christian poeople ruling this world for a thousand years.
It is a fact that many in the
sub-apostolic Church so undestood the Apostle. Moreover, it is true that the
extraordinary emphasis laid on the martyrs should have
warned the Church that co-royalty with Christ in the Age to Come
- as distinct from the eternal kingdom beyond - is by no means
so comprehensive of all the redeemed as has been supposed.
But it is also true that such critics overlook the first division of the fourfold thrones: (1)
overcomers, I saw thrones,
and sitters upon them; (2) Christiam martyrs; (3) Old Testament martyrs; and (4)
martyrs under Antichrist. The first group, overcomers not necessarily martyred,
are thus defined by our Lord:- He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end,
to him will I give
authotity over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron (Rev. 2: 26.) - D. M. PANTON.
8. OUR PRIZE
To advance their
own interests, to secure their own comfort, concerns many of the children of
God more than to be in all things pleasing to the Lord. They have forgotten the
warning in Luke 21: 34-36; and hence they
will not be accounted worthy to escape.
They have not,
with Paul, counted all things but loss;
and hence they
do not attain to that resurrection from among the dead, which Paul felt he might
miss, but aimed to attain unto. We wish to place on record our solemn
conviction that not all Christians will attain to that resurrection, or will
thus meet the Lord in the air. -
9. CONDITIONAL CO-HEIRSHIP
Rom. 8: 17 should be rendered thus:- But if children, also heirs, heirs on the one hand of God; but heirs
together with Christ if indeed we
are suffering together. If we are
children, if we have been quickened by the Holy Spirit, there is no doubt about
our position as heirs. This is
unconditional. The contrast between being an heir of God, and a joint-heir of
Christ, is not brought out in the Authorised Version. And would imply the
blessings are almost one: but is the word Divinely used.* Furthermore,
the structure of the sentences rather
involves this punctuation. Thereby each of the
two ifs
of the passage
has its appropriate accompaniment. But if our position as joint-heirs of CHRIST is conditional on our suffering together,
what shall we say of those who bear the Name of the Lord and who avoid the
suffering?
*
2 Tim. 2:
12 adds its testimony to this privilege. Let us earnestly seek
that it may be ours - PERCY W. HEWARD
10. REIGNING WITH CHRIST
There is not a singal text of Scripture which represents the new birth
of itself as qualifying any one to reign with Christ in His coming kingdom,
but in every single place where reigning with Christ is spoken of there are
terms which indicate something more than
justification, terms strongly expressive of being dead to sin, of following Christ to the
death, of being purified, made white, and tried.
Now Christ affirms that those
who are the overcomers will share His coming
kingdom just as emphatically and as surely as He at the present time
as a glorified man is sharing the Fathers government in heaven. John tells us
in the 21st. verse that He
has overcome, and is now sitting down with the Father in the Fathers
throne, and just as much as that is a literal fact, so He affirms that His perfectly loyal disciples shall sit in
His government when He reigns on the earth.
In a vast empire there are a great many departments of government.
When we look into the structure of the Kingdom of Great Britain or the Untied
States we find a great many departments of government and each of the heads of
these various departments have under them officers and assistants, divided and
subdivided, extending into ramified details, covering the whole territory of
government in its legislative and judical and executive functions, at home and
abroad, in its commercial, educational, religious, agricultural, scientific,
and social relations, furnishing busy employment and a field for the exercise
of innumerable gifts and capabilities to many thousands of persons. Thus when the Lord Jesus, as a glorified man
and a crowned heir of David, shall sit
in His throne as the King of this World, He will institute the greatest and most glorious and most diversified
empire ever known to the human mind. All the kings that have ever existed
in this world in their most perfect state of glory will be in comparison with
the theocratic
11. LOVING FATHER AND MOTHER MORE THAN
CHRIST
In both the Old and New Testament Scriptures we are told of
a time, yet future, when Jesus Christ
will rule over all nations upon this earth (Ps. 2: 8-9). Creation itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the
children of God (Romans 8: 21, Isaiah 11: 6-10).
A king must needs have a body of superior officers to serve
him in administering his Kingdom. King David had administrators and priests, men who had server and suffered with him
in the long years of his rejection (2 Sam. 8: 15-18), but Jonathan,
though he loved David as his own soul and willingly resigned to him the throne,
seeking to be second only in the Kingdom though
himself the heir apparent (1 Sam. 23: 17) DID NOT EVEN ENTER
Davods Kingdom, for he did not
share his rejection. This is the moral warning the narrative seems to give.
Through filial loyalty he
supported the king and the system that God had rejected, and
lost his life in its collapse. It was the natural course not the spiritual;
the latter, the path of faith, would have been judged unnatural. Jesus had said: He that loveth father ... more than Me, is not worthy of Me (Matt. 10: 37). Ye are they who have continued
with Me IN MY TRIALS, and I
appoint unto you a Kingdom that you my eat and drink at My table judging... (Luke 22: 28-30). This special grant was on
account of these men having gone through with Christ to the end
of His rejection. He would forgive their failings, even the severe failure of that night. he would
have regard to the dominant fact that they had
STUCK TO HIS PERSON AND CAUSE THROUGH THICK AND THIN and would do so UNTO THE
END OF LIFE. - G. H. LANG
12 THE LORD JESUS AND HIS BRIDE
We have in the 24th. chapter of Genesis
one of the most perfect prophetic types in the entire
Old Testament of the way in which God the Father sends forth
the Holy Spirit to search out from the seved ones a special company to compose
the BRIDE of the Lamb. It
is a long chapter, and the details that are recorded therein would never have
been put in the Bible merely as a piece
of history or as a biography of Rebekah as the wife of Isaac. Such a lengthy,
detailed account would be out of
proportion to other subjects which are mentioned in Scripture. But when
we study the chapter as a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride, and
the things connected with His Kingdom, then there is sufficient warrant for the leagthy account and all
the little particulars that are given. Everything is great in
proportion as it relates to Christ and constitutes a revelation of Him and His
Kingdom. That is Gods first word in
relation to searching out a chosen company - [out from
amongst His redeemed people] -
to form the Bride of the LAMB. - G. D.
WATSON.