When Rachel gave birth to her second son it was a time of deep distress and sorrow for her, for death separated her from her new born child. As she was departing this life she called the child Benoni, which means Son of my sorrow; but his father called him Benjamin, meaning Son of the right hand. Here we have in type what the Lord Jesus Christ was for Israel and for Jehovah. Because of Israel’s rejection of God’s Christ, he became to the nation a Son of their sorrow, for in rejecting Christ the nation refused the overtures of God in grace, and nothing but sorrow, typical death, has been the portion of the nation since. Israel will yet arise as a nation, as seen in the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, and the days of their sorrows will be over when the true Benjamin, the Son of the right hand, comes to take His kingdom, and is received by the nation that once refused His claims.
If in Benjamin we see the Lord Jesus as the Son of God’s right hand, in Psalm 80 we see Him prophetically as “the Man of” God’s right hand, where the Psalmist says, “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself” (verse 17). In this Psalm Israel is viewed as suffering at the hand of God for their departure from Him, and their hope of restoration to the favour of God rests upon the Man of God’s right hand. When the Son of man comes again it will indeed be for the recovery of Israel, and to deliver them from the power of their foes, but they will then discover that their deliverer is none other than the One they crucified and slew when He first came to them in lowly grace as Jesus of Nazareth.
Psalm 110.
This psalm begins with the words, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” We are not left in any doubt as to the interpretation of these words, for the Lord Jesus told the Pharisees plainly that David referred to Messiah, then asked them, “If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?” (Matt. 22:41-45). It was a very solemn matter for Israel that they should reject their Messiah, and that on His rejection He should be invited to sit on God’s right hand till those who rejected Him were made His footstool.
Each of the Synoptic Gospels gives the words of the Lord in relation to this Psalm, and it is quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost in speaking of the exaltation of Jesus, and he added, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:30-36). In Hebrews 1:13 this Psalm is again quoted to show that the Son of God is greater than angels, for “to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool?” Only God’s own Son, the Son of His bosom, could be invited of God to sit on His throne, the place of supreme power and authority.
Matthew 26:64
Arraigned before the high priest and the leaders of Israel, the Son of God remained silent while their false witnesses testified against Him, but when the high priest “said unto Him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:57-64).
Here was the plainest witness to the leaders of Israel as to who stood before them, the very Christ and Son of God, the One of whom the prophets had spoken, and for whom the nation looked to deliver them from their enemies. Had they been in touch with the God whom they professed to serve would they not have been bowed before His Son as He acknowledged who He was, and as He spoke of what was before Him, sitting at the right hand of power. Before His foes He appeared in weakness, and, indeed, “He was crucified in weakness,” but He was soon to be in the place of supreme power at God’s right hand.
In their blindness they could only call truth “blasphemy,” but their eyes would be opened when it was too late, for they would certainly see the Christ that they rejected exalted on high, and coming in the clouds of heaven, which should have spoken to them loudly of the divine glory of Jesus, the Son of Man, of whom the prophets and the psalmists wrote so eloquently by the Spirit of God.
Acts 5:31
Jesus has been exalted to God’s right hand, but Peter tells us that He was also exalted with His right hand to be “a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” God allowed the leaders and nation of Israel to crucify His Son in order that His counsels might be fulfilled, for in no other way could remission of sins be granted to Israel or to any other among the nations of the world, but God intervened after man had slain Him, and His right hand brought Him out of death and took Him to the highest place in heaven.
Acts 7:55-56
To the leaders of Israel Jesus had said, “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power.” Whether this means that even as the rich man of Luke 16 saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham from afar off, so would they from the place of distance see Him upon the throne, or something else, we certainly know that Stephen, “being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,” and testified before the council that he saw what Jesus had told them would take place.
Stephen saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand, as if He waited for Israel’s acceptance of the Spirit’s witness through His servant Stephen, so that He could come to bless them. With the rejection of the Spirit’s testimony, all hope for Israel was over, for the Lord Jesus is henceforth seen sitting down at God’s right hand “expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.”
Paul’s Writings
Saul of Tarsus could not forget that he had consented to the death of Stephen, but he little thought that day that he too would soon see what Stephen saw, Jesus in the glory of God; and that vision filled his soul and gave character to his preaching. When Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans, he presented Christ as risen from the dead, the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1:4). He writes of Him as “delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25), and as “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6:4). But once in this epistle he writes of Christ glorified, “who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34). How blessed to find Christ interceding on high. If He is there till His enemies are made His footstool, He is also there ministering for His own.
In Ephesians 1, Paul writes of the exceeding greatness of God’s power made known “in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him down at His own right hand in the heavenly places,” with all things under His feet, and as Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:19-23). This is Christ’s place, not according to the Old Testament prophecies, but according to the eternal purpose of God. As Head over the vast universe of God, Christ, according to God’s counsels, has the church as His companion. The right hand of God is His alone, but in His place of headship He has the church as His body and His bride, and this will come into evidence when He comes forth in glory in the millennial day.
Christ in His place of exaltation at the right hand of God is the object for the Christian, even as Paul says to the saints of Colosse, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1-2) A new order of things has come in to being with Christ in glory as their originator and centre, and these are the things that are to occupy the true believer. The things of the earth are of the old creation, and soon will have passed forever, but the things above that are connected with Christ at the right hand of God, are of the new creation, and these things are to remain for ever.
The Epistle to the Hebrews
In this epistle there are five mentions of Christ at the right hand of God, one of which we have already noticed, the quotation from Psalm 110 in Hebrews 1:13. Of the others, in three the Lord sets Himself down at God’s right hand, and in the fourth He is set down.
Hebrews 1:3. The glory of the Son of God is the prominent teaching of the first chapter, in which we read of God speaking to His people Israel in the Person of the Son. The divine glories of the Son shine brightly before us here, for He is God’s appointed heir of the universe and the One by whom all the worlds were created. He is the effulgence of His glory, the One in whom God’s substance is expressed, for in no other could God be seen as in the Son. By His own power the Son upholds all He has created, and it was by Himself that the great work of purification for sins was wrought on the cross. He was great enough to do this wondrous work because of who He is in His own Person, and He was great enough to set Himself down “on the right hand of the majesty on high.”
Here it is the right hand of the Majesty, or greatness, on high, for the Spirit of God is emphasising the greatness of the Person of the Son. Power and authority are connected with the right hand, but greatness is added because of who Jesus is, and because of the greatness of the work accomplished.
Hebrews 8:1. The greatness of the priesthood of Jesus is brought before us in this epistle, and what the writer had been saying about it is summed up at the beginning of this chapter. He is such a High Priest, One able in the rights of His priesthood to set Himself down “on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” Who but Jesus could do this? The high priests of Israel had not even boldness when entering the holiest on the day of atonement, for there was the repeated threat, “lest he die,” if he did not conform to every detail commanded.
Of old, the high priest put the blood on the mercy seat, the throne within the holiest: he could never sit down there; but Jesus had sat down on the very throne of the greatness “in the heavens,” in the very place where God dwells, and from whence He reigns. Jesus sits as Priest in the place of power, authority and greatness, making the throne of God for men a throne of grace. Soon He shall sit as King and Priest upon His own throne, but in the time of waiting He sits as Priest on God’s throne, at His right hand.
Hebrews 10:12. Before entering upon His priestly work as Minister of the Sanctuary on high, “this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from hence forth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” Here the greatness of Christ’s work is brought before us, and it is in the greatness of His work, a completed work that needs no repetition, that He has set Himself down at God’s right hand. Because His work of atonement needs no repeating, He has set Himself down in perpetuity.
How very solemn it is that while the believer is blessed by the one sacrifice of Christ, those who refuse to accept God’s Son are to be made the footstool of His feet. In patience, the Lord waits at the right hand of God, but the day of retribution is surely coming for those who are His enemies, those who have refused the word of reconciliation, and to bow before Jesus as Lord. The Man who was able to do such a work, which perfects for ever those sanctified by it, will come again to put the world right, and to reign for the blessing of His people Israel, and to remove evil from the earth.
Hebrews 12:2. God has called us by His grace to run the race He has set before us, a race that calls for endurance. Those who are spoken of in the previous chapter were ensamples of what faith could do, but the perfect example for us in this race is Jesus Himself. He is not only an example, He is an Object upon which the heart can rest with deep delight, and engage with Him, where He is, we are encouraged and stimulated to follow in His steps. Jesus is the One who originated and completed the path we are called upon to tread, the path of faith. Others may show us some of the features of faith, but they are all seen, and seen perfectly in Jesus; and Jesus shows us where the path of faith leads, even into heaven itself.
For Jesus, the path of faith was one of suffering, even unto blood, for He died a martyr’s death in the conflict of good and evil; but He also died as a sacrifice for sins, enduring the cross with all the divine judgment that fell upon His holy head. The cross had to do with sins, and every question that sin raised; but the shame had to do with the conflict of good and evil. Much as we speak of the shame of the cross, all that He endured from the hand of sinful men, it was as nothing compared with the cross, where He suffered at the hand of a righteous, sin-hating God, when made a sacrifice for sins.
In answer to all that His Son passed through, whether as a sacrifice for sin, or in the conflict of good and evil, God has set Him down “at the right hand of the throne of God.” This is surely a suited divine answer to what the Lord has passed through in suffering and sorrow. If men gave Him a cross, God has given Him the right hand of His throne, the place of power and authority, the place from which He rules all, and if not yet publicly, as He will in a coming day, He nevertheless works all things, in His government, according to the counsel of His own will.
R. 13.11.67