1910 22 The Holy Spirit, while faithfully recording the failures of the returned remnant from the Babylonish captivity, directs our attention again and again to some lovely features which had been produced in them by the grace of God. Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah had all been used of God to minister blessing and encouragement to the remnant; many evils were removed, and the authority of the word of the Lord was acknowledged and obeyed. The Lord undertook for them; not with the same manifest interference and terrible majesty, and judgments, as when the nation was delivered from Egyptian bondage; yet quite as certainly in His over-ruling providential care. But here, as in everything else intrusted to man, there ensues failure and declension, till, within the space of fifty years from Nehemiah's visit to Jerusalem, the condition of the remnant had become truly deplorable, as disclosed by the prophet Malachi.
Surely, to the eye of faith there is a present-day parallel to this; to the Lord's dishonour, and our shame. May grace save us from being blind to it; but rather keep us sensible of it, leading us to walk humbly and prayerfully and watchfully. One thing, however, is always certain that God never leaves Himself without witness; so the same prophet is used to point out a small remnant of the remnant who in their day of distressful circumstances met the mind of the Lord. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." Then follow promises of blessing for those who feared, and served the Lord, and terrible judgments announced for the wicked. The declension had been rapid, and the then existing testimony had the appearance of an expiring spark; then the curtain dropped, for the book of Malachi closed the prophetic testimony of the Old Testament.
This is succeeded by four centuries of silence; but while Jehovah was silent the cultivated intellect of man was allowed to shine with its mightiest achievements. During that time the unrivalled philosophers, orators, statesmen, sculptors and warriors of Greece flourished, but instead of bringing about a deliverance for the human race, it has been said that this gifted race was eaten up of its own corruptions. Thus God in His wisdom demonstrated that man by wisdom knew not God. In the New Testament we find that the time had arrived for God to break the silence. We read in the Epistle to the Galatians that when the fulness of time was come God sent forth His Son.
Jehovah had announced the glad tidings in the garden of Eden, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. He had said to Abraham, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"; yea, all the scriptures were pointing forward to the advent of a great deliverer. All heaven we know was interested in that momentous event. It was there the glory of the eternal Son was known; there He was the object of worship for all the heavenly intelligencies. "By him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things subsist." But He was about to empty Himself, to lay aside His glory — not His Deity — and to take a servant's form. Oh, mighty stoop! oh, wondrous incarnation! Do we wonder that the mind of heaven was reflected on the earth? that highly favoured ones, just a few, were in God's secret?
Such was the case. When the curtain is lifted what a testimony do we get of Jehovah's faithfulness and grace! The spark of testimony had not expired, the light was not extinguished. No, no, that was God's concern, and He had kept it alive for His own glory. Gabriel was sent to the temple to tell Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth should bear a son, who was to be named John. He would be great in the sight of the Lord, and would be filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth. Further, he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This was the great forerunner of Jehovah's Christ. Subsequently, Mary too was visited by Gabriel at Nazareth, who told her that she should bring forth a son whose name should be called Jesus. And in answer to her difficulty the angel said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Here let us notice the character of the remnant that God had reserved to Himself. Zacharias and Elizabeth, obedient ones, walking in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless; Simeon, just and devout, who was in the current of God's thoughts, and who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen Jehovah's Christ. There was also praying Anna, serving God with fastings and prayers night and day. There were Joseph and Mary, simple and devout, controlled by the mind of heaven. There was nothing of human greatness in any of these, nothing to attract the attention of the world; but oh! how highly favoured of God.
Now we are waiting for the second advent; we are looking for that blessed hope. The Lord Himself said, "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also." His coming for us is doubtless all of grace; and every saint, all who are indwelt by the Holy Ghost, will be taken then. The presentation in glory will he of the bride complete.
The thought of the faithful only being taken and the worldly saints who failed to watch being left to go through the tribulation, is quite foreign to the teaching of God's word. But there will be, doubt less, great differences in the actual state of God's saints at the Lord's coming; and it is our privilege to gather up from the New Testament scriptures just what will meet the Lord's mind as to our state. There are some helpful words in Luke 12, where the Lord Jesus says, "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants" (Luke 12:33-38).
Now turn to John 21, where, as has been said by another, we have things presented designedly mysterious. Peter and John are representative men. Peter, to whom the Lord intrusted His sheep of the circumcision, has a very prominent place in the early chapters of the Acts — days of power and wonders and signs; but the Lord had said to him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God." He thus sealed his testimony with his blood to the glory of God. Those days of power terminated; but John represents that which will exist up to the Lord's coming. So we read (ver. 20), "Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me."
Is not this intended to convey the thought that what is seen in John and mentioned in this connection will exist till the Lord comes? John is seen following Jesus — the One who has left us an example that we should follow His steps. "He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also [so] to walk." He is the disciple whom Jesus loved. It was a real joy to his heart that Jesus loved him, and his appreciation was expressed in calling himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He leaned on the Lord's breast at supper, which tells of sweet and blessed intimacy; and the more reverently intimate we are with the Lord, the more intimate He will be with us. May we cultivate it. John was in the secret of the Lord as to the betrayer; and how manifestly this comes out in his Epistles. May we, too, in this day of many antichrists, keep close to the Lord, and be in His secret as to the evil around in its true character. And may we also, in response to the Lord's "Surely I come quickly," be able, with the deepest affection and desire, to add with John our "Amen; come, Lord Jesus." J. A. T.