The Patriarchs Part 23

He was, at the beginning, as a _prophet_, _priest_, and _king_, and so is he again, at the end. But he is so after a new order, exercising his different functions more according to the mind of G.o.d. As a _prophet_, he had, at the beginning, too confidently a.s.sumed to be the interpreter of G.o.d and His ways; but now he says, "I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me." He will be a disciple of the Lord, ere he teach others; he will have his ear opened, ere his tongue be loosed. Isa. 50.

4. Such is the purifying of his prophetic ministry. He will know nothing, save as he learns it from G.o.d. His doctrine is not _his_ now.

As a _priest_, at the beginning, he had stepped in between G.o.d and his children, to heal probable or dreaded breaches. But he does not seem to wash his own clothes, while sprinkling the purifying water on others.

Num. xix. 21. He wanted to remember that he himself was also in the body, temptable like the weakest. Gal. vi. 1. But now he is _accepted_ himself. Job xlii. 9; Ezek. xiv. 14, 20. As a _king_, his honours now come after his afflictions, his glories after his sufferings; and also after he prayed for his friends, is his captivity turned. He exercises grace, ere he is again entrusted with power--all this being according to the great originals. "Ye are they which have continued with Me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto Me."

In these ways, he is prophet, priest, and king, _after a_ _new order_, and all is refined in the furnace, like gold tried in the fire.

And he is the father of a family again, a family also, as I may again say, of a new order--nothing has to be corrected among them, but all is in happy, holy fellowship, the heart of the father turned to the children, and the heart of the children to their father. At the beginning he had to watch their ways, and provide for the evil they might have committed. But at the end there is nothing of this; their father has only to see them with admiration and delight. They awakened _fear_ at first, but now _contentment_.

And further, in this beautiful millennial or resurrection scene, which thus closes this story, the stormy wind is hushed, and the lightning of the thunder strikes no more. In this day of a second Noah, such as Job was (the lord of a new world), the waters which once "prevailed" are now "a.s.suaged." And the Chaldeans and Sabeans no longer spoil the spoil, and prey the prey. There is "no adversary nor evil occurrent," no "Canaanite in the house of the Lord" now. Nothing hurts or destroys in all the holy mountain. The Lord delivers His people from those who served themselves of them.

All this is pledged and pictured for us here. And what may be said to be of still deeper value to us, the great enemy himself, the ready and wishful agent of all the mischief and sorrow that had come in, is gone likewise. At the beginning he is in the action, exercising himself as an accuser in heaven, and as a tormentor on earth. And it is for the comfort of the tried saint, that the hand of both G.o.d and the enemy are engaged in his trial; the enemy (as here with our patriarch) seeking to cast his crown to the ground, and to cast his fair memorial with G.o.d in the dust, the Lord purposing (and performing it) to brighten that crown, and still further to bless the heir of those dignities and joys. It is a comfort to the saint, in the day of trial, to remember this. But, at the end, the enemy is gone. The purpose, in the wisdom of G.o.d, for which he had been used, is answered, and he is gone. The discipline of Job had ceased as in his destruction.

Satan had understood Job. He knew the workings of that corrupt nature, which his own lie had formed in the garden of Eden. He had said, "Doth Job fear G.o.d for nought? Hast not Thou made an hedge about him?... Touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.... Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." And serious and terrible is the thought, beloved, that he knows us so thoroughly, and understands the springs of thought and will within us. But though he thus understands _Job_, he did not understand _G.o.d_. The counsels of grace are above him. And by reason of this, he has been always, in the history of this world, defeating himself, while thinking that he was getting advantage of us; for he has to meet G.o.d in the very thing he does, and the purposes he plans, against us. When he interfered with Adam in the garden, he encountered G.o.d to his confusion, and the promise to Adam announced his own doom. When he provoked David to number the people, Ornan's threshing-floor was disclosed, and the spot where mercy rejoiced against judgment becomes the place of the temple. When he sifted the Apostles as wheat, he was answered by the prayer of Jesus, and, instead of faith failing, brethren were strengthened. And, above all, when he touched Jesus on the cross, the very death he inflicted was his own perfect and accomplished ruin. So, in every trouble which he brings on any of us, he finds, or is to find, sooner or later, that he has met the mighty G.o.d, and not the feeble saint. He entered Job's nest that he might spoil it, and leave it driven and wasted. He came into another garden then. But G.o.d was there as well as his servant Job, and in the end Satan is confounded.

Thus is it with the saints and their enemy. They shall take the kingdom, and in the kingdom Satan shall have no place. Out of the trials which he had raised around them and against them, they come forth to wear their crowns, and sing their songs. And, instead of his appearing again "among the sons of G.o.d," the mighty angel shall lay hold on him, and cast him into the bottomless pit.

It has been observed by another, that Satan is _always_ defeated.

This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.

He is the instrument, the willing instrument, of destroying the flesh; but that destruction ends in _the saving of the spirit_. 1 Cor. v. 5. He receives, gladly receives, one that is judicially delivered over to him; but all that ends in _such an one learning not to blaspheme_. 1 Tim. i. 20. He sends forth his messengers as thorns in the flesh, delighting to do so, as being bent on mischief, having been "a murderer from the beginning;" but this still works good, for _the servant of Christ is thereby kept from undue exaltation_. 2 Cor. xii. 7.

These are ill.u.s.trious exhibitions of the devil being _always_ defeated. Because they show this--that he lends himself directly to his own overthrow. His own weapon is turned against himself.

The one whom he a.s.sails is, by the very a.s.sault, given strength or virtue against him.

Happy a.s.surance! our great adversary is never victorious! It is the p.r.i.c.ks he kicks against.

This is full of blessing--and this is millennial blessing, shadowed here in this beautiful story. But there is more. There will be no question in the millennial heavens about the saints, as there was about Adam in the garden, and about Job in the beginning of this Book. The tree of knowledge tested the creature whom G.o.d had just made. But in the age of the resurrection, in the heavens where Job and all the children of the resurrection will be, there will be no such test. There will be no question about man. There will be silence in heaven as to man, for the great Kinsman has answered all questions, and man is glorified there.

Such are the changes which have arisen, ere we leave this divine, inspired story. Has not the _trial_ of faith been _precious_, as St.

Peter speaks, when we can talk of such changes? The enemy is gone. His ministers, or messengers, the wind and the fire, the Chaldeans and Sabeans, take their commission no more. Job, too, has changed his mind, and made his confession to G.o.d--his friends have changed their mind, and humbled themselves to him. But there is One who abides the same. He has no step to retrace, no word to recall, no deed of His hand, or counsel of His heart, to alter or repent of. Other scriptures tell of Him, that He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," and that with Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." And this precious tale about Him and His doings so ill.u.s.trates and exhibits Him.

There is never entire calmness, or the absence of all haste and distraction, where we are not conscious that our _strength is equal to our business_, whatever it may be. Nor is there, when we are not equally conscious of _integrity or righteousness in that business_. The consciousness of both righteousness and strength is needed in order to fit the hand to do a deed, or the foot to take a step, with entire ease.

Now we know that this ease marks all the ways and operations of G.o.d. He is ever at work (to speak after the manner of men) in the full possession of this undistractedness of which we are speaking. We might judge this from the necessary glory of His G.o.dhead. But the ways of Jesus on earth always exhibited this, and He, as we know, was G.o.d manifest in the flesh. And this ease and calmness, in which all the operations of G.o.d proceed, tell us, that though they may to us appear strange and even wilful, as Job thought them, yet is He able to interpret them every one, so as to be justified in His sayings, and clear when He is judged. And this is happy. "The bud may have a bitter taste," and "blind unbelief is sure to err." These things are so. But "G.o.d is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." We know how our Job was tried--deeply, variously, and, as might be thought, wantonly, needlessly; for he walked in the fear of G.o.d, and in the service of his generation. But "the end of the Lord" is more than vindication. It is display. The trial is found to be unto praise and honour and glory. The light of the coming day, rebuke what it may, will have only to set off and reflect the excellency of Him with whom we have to do.

Thus have we lingered, for a little, over these bright notices of millennial days, "the days of heaven upon earth," which shine at the close of this lovely as well as serious and instructive tale of patriarchal times. But there is more.

At the beginning, Job held all his blessings with reserve and suspicion.

He was not in safety, nor at rest, nor in quiet; yet trouble came. "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me," says he, "and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." It must needs be so. The instability with which departure from G.o.d has affected every possession and every profit here makes this necessary. But, at the end, there are no "fears within," any more than Chaldeans or "fightings without." No shadow crosses the settled sunshine that rests on all around him, or the calm light which fills all within.

And further--his kinsfolk and acquaintance, at the end, seek him again.

They ought, indeed, never to have deserted him. For we deceive ourselves if we think that we must be right if we _grieve_ those whom G.o.d is _disciplining_. This is often very far indeed from being the case. The Lord said in Zechariah, "I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction." So also is Isaiah xlvii. 6--and so Obadiah 10-14, to the same effect. We are more commonly, perhaps, in G.o.d's mind, and act as the living vessels of the Spirit, when _soothing_ such. And sure I am it was so in Job's case. Had his former friends known G.o.d's way, they would have dealt very differently with him. They would not have left him. The very fact that "the hand of G.o.d" had touched him, as he so deeply expresses it, would have been the occasion of "pity," as he further says, from his friends.

However, as part of the bright sunshine that gladdens his estate at the end, his kinsfolk and acquaintance again seek him. And they do so to _congratulate_ as well as to _compa.s.sionate_ him. And if they talk to him of past griefs, it is but to heighten his present joy--as Israel afterwards, in their triumphant feast of Tabernacles, might make booths and sit under them, in grateful remembrance of wilderness-days.

All these are happy reverses, and the latter end of our patriarch is twice as good as his beginning. But among all the gladdening antic.i.p.ations which shine in the latter page of this history there is none which more captivates the heart than _the reconciliation_. The patriarch and his brethren, as the narrative largely tells us, and as we well know, had sadly fallen out by the way, as they walked along the high road of "this present evil world;" but as soon as they enter "the age to come," the strife of tongues and stir of war are heard and seen no more.

This is truly welcome to the heart. For what joy will it be to be delivered of selfishness and pride, and many other workings of an ungenerous and perverted nature. How are the pleasures of the heart spoiled by such robbers continually! What a thing a page of history is!

What a record of the agitations of envy and ambition and revenge! Is it not misery thus to see men "hateful, and hating one another," and then to remember that we are still alive and active in the midst of the same elements? But another thing is in our prospect; and it is the way of the wisdom and grace of G.o.d again and again, in the progress of His Word, as here in the 42nd chapter of Job, to give us a mystic picture of it. Then man, as _deceived by Satan_, shall give place; and man, as _anointed by G.o.d_, shall prevail. Then shall be known the joy of getting out of such darkness into such light, of beholding the Sun again, after centuries of midnight gloom.

We know from Scripture that great physical virtue will attend this coming kingdom. As prophets sing, the wilderness "shall rejoice and blossom as the rose"--the lame shall leap as the hart, the tongue of the dumb shall sing, the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the wolf shall lie down with the kid. Nature in all its order shall own the presence of the Lord. The floods shall clap their hands, the trees of the wood shall rejoice, before Him. As creation has already felt the bondage of corruption, it shall then feel the liberty of glory.

It will be as though dormant sensibilities had all been suddenly awakened. It will be as the sweeping of an exquisite instrument with a master hand. It will be the _same_ creation, but under new authority, new influences. Let but the sons of G.o.d be manifested, and the whole system shall spring into new conditions and consciousness.

And so _man_, when the powers of that coming age take him up as their subject. Let but the pa.s.sage be made from this present evil world into the world to come, and new principles will at once gild and furnish the scene, and give _moral_ enjoyments (which are the richest of all) to all personal and social life.

This will be the touching of an instrument of still finer workmanship.

The system around the vegetable and animal world is susceptible of such forms of beauty and of order as may make it all the vivid, happy reflection of divine goodness and wisdom; but in the renewed mind of man there lie latent powers and affections of nothing less than the divinest texture. In its present condition it has to struggle with nature, and to suffer sore let and hindrance from the flesh. It is oppressed and enc.u.mbered by a gross atmosphere. But it has capabilities of acting, judging, and feeling of the highest order. And let but the due influences reach it in power, those sensibilities and faculties will be all awakened, and forms of moral beauty throughout all personal and social life will show themselves. What a hope for the spirit tried in conflict with the flesh! It will be the same "new creature" that now is: only in other conditions. Not oppressed and clouded, but, as it were, breathing its native air.

Scripture gives us many a witness of such moral virtue and enjoyment in the millennial age. It is one of the most delightful occupations of the mind of Christ in us, to hear these witnesses, in their mystic language, deliver their testimony.

The Father of Israel and the Gentiles are seen together, for a moment, in Genesis xxi. And their communion was a sample of the holy, happy intercourse of Israel and the nations, in the coming days of the kingdom. Questions which before had divided and disturbed them are now all settled. The well of water, which had been the occasion of strife, is now a witness of the oath or covenant. All pure social affections adorn this communion of Abraham and Abimelech; and they part under pledged and plighted friendship. Abraham's grove, in principle, makes the desert to bloom, and his altar makes the earth a sanctuary; but his way with Abimelech, and Abimelech's with him, give that bright moment its dearest and highest character. For there are no enjoyments like _moral_ enjoyments, no pleasures like those of the _heart_.

So in Exodus xviii. The heavenly and the earthly families are seen together, under the type of Jethro and the ransomed tribes, at the mount of G.o.d. And all is full of moral beauty. And yet the materials which make up the scene had been, in other and earlier days, very differently minded towards each other. Moses and Zipporah had parted in anger, the last time they had met, and the congregation had been murmuring again and again. But now the mount of G.o.d has influences for them, and from the highest to the least, from Jethro down to the most distant parts of the camp, all is in the power of G.o.dly order, subjection, and fellowship.

Then again, that generation that lived in the closing days of David and in the early days of Solomon exhibit the same. They had been numbering each other to the sword, in the wood of Ephraim, but the sword is turned into a ploughshare now. The days of Solomon were, typically or in spirit, millennial days, and sweet and surprising virtue attends them.

Instead of going forth again to the field of battle, they sit, every man with his neighbour, under the vine and under the fig-tree. "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in mult.i.tude, eating and drinking, and making merry."

Are not these _moral_ transfigurations? And how blessed they are! Pa.s.s but the border. Leave man's day for the Lord's day. Breathe the air of the Mount of G.o.d--and all this moral renovation, with its countless springs and streams of social felicity, shall be tasted, ever fresh and ever pure. 'Tis but a little while and all this shall be. The _same_ brethren, who may now be a trial to one another, like our Job and his friends, shall then heighten and enlarge each other's joy. And in the earthly places, "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim."

Pride and selfishness shall have ceased to depreciate, as they do now, with all their companion l.u.s.ts and wickednesses, the pleasures of the heart.

This patriarchal story, on which we have now been meditating, more ancient than, and as ill.u.s.trious as, any of these inspired records, gives us a like sample of millennial days. Job and his three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, are the same Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the same _persons_. And they are no longer contending, but united brethren. They have ascended the mount at the end; and there lies all the difference. And barren indeed our hearts must be of every gracious affection, and dead to all G.o.dly emotions, if we hail not such a prospect.

He who by His blood did long ago break down all part.i.tion walls, and who is now, by His Spirit, giving believers common access to the Father, will by-and-by, with His own hand, join the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah, and make them one there. Ezekiel x.x.xvii. 16. His Israel on the earth shall see "eye to eye," for the light and the joy of Zion's salvation shall be pa.s.sed, with holy speed, from the messengers on the mountains to the watchmen of the city, and from them to the people, and from the people to the nations (Isaiah lii. 7-9)--and, among the heavenly people, the children of the resurrection, like Job and his friends, "that which is in part shall be done away, and that which is perfect shall come."

THE CANTICLES.

"Will G.o.d in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee."

This was the devout breathing of the king of Israel (the penman, too, of this little book to which we are now proposing, in the Lord's grace, to introduce ourselves), when the glory had come to fill the house which he had builded.

But so it was. The Son of G.o.d, Jehovah's Fellow, He that was with G.o.d and was G.o.d, was manifest in flesh, and conversed with us here. He dwelt with men on the earth. He tabernacled among us. He was Jesus. We knew Him as such. He was a _Man_, and a Friend, and a Master, and a Companion. He invited confidence. He sought sympathy and imparted it.

And, as a _Man_, we know Him still--as truly a Man amid the brightest glories of heaven now, as once He was a Man amid the ruins and sorrows of earth--as able, through sympathy, to understand the sufferings of His saints still, as when He walked the streets and highways here, bearing our griefs and carrying our sicknesses.

And what will He be even for ever? Still _Jesus Christ_. Dominion of all things will be His as a _Man_. The scene may change the second time, from the present temple in heaven to the kingdom of glory, as at first it changed from the cities and villages here to the temple on high, but it is "the _Man_ Christ Jesus" who pa.s.ses from scene to scene. Precious mystery! Manhood having been once taken up, will never be given up. A temple has been found for the glory, a vessel for the blessing, a person for the manifestation, an instrument for the exercise of power and government, suited to the counsels of divine wisdom and to the purposes of divine goodness.

From the beginning of His ways, and throughout them, the Lord G.o.d has been evidencing His purpose to bring His creature _man_ very near to Him. The expression of this has been different, but still constant.

In patriarchal days the intimacy was _personal_. He walked in the midst of the human family, personally appearing to His elect; not so much employing either prophets or angels, but having to do with the action Himself.

In the times of Israel, He was not so much in "the human guise" as before. He was rather in mystic dress. But still He was _near_ them. The Lord in the burning bush, the glory in the cloud, the armed captain by Jericho, speak this nearness. The G.o.d of Israel seen on the sapphire throne, the glory filling the temple courts, or seated between the cherubim, tell the same. And the promises, "I will set My tabernacle among you ... and I will walk among you," and "Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually," alike witness this desired and purposed fellowship.

Then, in the progress of the ages, the a.s.sumption of manhood is a witness, I may say, that speaks for itself; and the _ways_ of G.o.d manifest in the flesh agree therewith. Jesus "came eating and drinking."