It is surpassing wonderful that the Son of God should come into this world to make God known, and to reveal His disposition of grace to those who are sinners, far from Him by nature and practice, and who had no desire to know Him. When He came, the Lord Jesus did not assume angelic guise, but became a Man, coming as a lowly babe, and was born in a stable, and had a manger for his cradle. Had the Son of God come with the pomp and splendour belonging to the great of this world He would not have been accessible to the humble and the poor, but He was the most approachable of all men on account of the humble station He had taken, and of the work in which He wrought as the Carpenter. When He commenced His public ministry, He was found among the humble and the poor, where all could approach Him.
Christ’s Brethren after the Flesh
Although of the royal line of David, Joseph and Mary were poor and humble, circumstances ordered in the government of God to suit His purpose for the birth of His Son into this world. In Matthew 13:55, those around said, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” and in Mark 6:3 those who heard the Lord speak said, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?” This would seem to indicate that Joseph had been called to his rest before the Lord started on His public ministry, and probably shortly before, seeing that he was referred to as the carpenter, and Jesus as his son.
As the oldest of a family in which He had four brothers and, at least, two sisters, the Lord Jesus would have the responsibility of caring for the needs of the household after Joseph had gone, and He had succeeded him as “the carpenter.” It was perhaps natural that His brethren did not believe in Him (John 7:5), for the natural man does not receive the things of God. They were the constant witnesses of a life of perfection that glorified God, and must have brought rich benefits to all in contact with Him, but there was not faith to perceive the glory of the Person who was so near to them day after day. Yet how very blessed it is to see the working of God’s grace in Christ’s brethren after the flesh, for, in the upper room, where the apostles continued in prayer after the Lord’s ascension to heaven, there were with them, “Mary the mother of Jesus, and…His brethren” (Acts 1:13-14).
David and His Brethren
Among the lovely pictures of the Old Testament that speak of Christ and His brethren is that in 1 Samuel 16, where David was anointed by Samuel “in the midst of his brethren” (verse 13). David was anointed three times, and this is the first. In 2 Samuel 2:4 the men of Judah anointed David “king over the house of Judah,” and in 2 Samuel 5:3 the elders of Israel anointed him “king over Israel.”
David’s first anointing, in the midst of his brethren, points forward to the memorable scene at the banks of the Jordan when, in the midst of the repentant remnant of Israel, the excellent of the earth, Jesus was “baptized, and praying…and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:21-22). After His anointing Jesus “was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil,” and returning in the power of the Spirit into Galilee… “He came to Nazareth,” and in the Synagogue He read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:1–18). The comment by the Holy Spirit through Peter on this anointing is very beautiful, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).
Gideon and His Brethren
When Gideon was victorious over Midian he captured Zebah and Zalmunna, two kings of Midian, and he said to them, “What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother” (Judges 8:18-19). Gideon’s brethren bore his likeness, they had his royal features, and had been slain by the enemies of Israel.
When the time of reckoning came, the enemies of God’s people were compelled to acknowledge the true likeness of those they had slain, and Gideon was not ashamed to speak of them as his brethren. Saul of Tarsus had been persecuting, in ignorance, the saints of God. He had not thought that he was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” against the brethren of Christ when he persecuted the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, but how great must have been his distress when the Lord from heaven acknowledged as His brethren, yea, as part of Himself those that Saul had been seeking to destroy. What an awful day awaits those who have slain the servants of the Lord Jesus when, at His judgment seat, He will confess as His brethren the saints who have been oppressed, tortured and martyred for His Name’s sake.
Joseph and His Brethren
The brethren of Joseph had treated him spitefully, and they were guilty of selling him to the Ishmaelite for twenty pieces of silver, and of deceiving their sorrowing father. But the time came when, unknown to them, Joseph’s brethren had to appear before the one they had dealt with so cruelly. Who can describe what the feelings of their guilty consciences must have been as they heard Joseph say, as he wept aloud, “I am Joseph”? (Gen. 45:1–3). Well might they be “troubled at his presence,” but how rich the grace that said to them, “Come near to me, I pray you” (verse 4).
Are we not reminded by this touching spectacle of what will yet take place when the Lord Jesus returns to His people Israel, and when one “shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zech. 13:6). When they shall look upon the Lord whom they have pierced, “They shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son… and the land shall mourn, every family apart” (Zech. 12:10–14). Just as Joseph spoke kindly to his brethren, so will Christ speak to the repentant of Israel, and will bring them to share in the fruits of His work, with rich provision and blessing.
“My Father and your Father”
The contemplation of Christ’s triumph in resurrection brings gladness to the hearts of His own. How much there is to fill the heart with joy as we think of what the resurrection was for God the Father, for His beloved Son, and for those for whom the Son gave Himself. In John 20 what engages the saints is the coming of the Lord into the midst of His own, and the message He sent by Mary, “Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). The Lord Jesus had spoken to His disciples previously as His servants, His sheep and His friends, now He is able to speak of them as His brethren, having died to bring them into relationship with the Father and with Himself.
Coming into the midst of His brethren the risen Son of God said, “Peace to you” (verse 19). In John 14:27 the Lord had said to His own, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” Now, as His brethren, the disciples have their Lord and Master in their midst that they might enjoy His own peace in His own company. Then the Lord showed to His brethren “His hands and His side,” bringing before them the marks that spoke so eloquently of His great love for them, the love that taken Him into death that they might be His brethren, and His companions for ever.
When the disciples saw the hands and side of the Lord Jesus they knew it was Himself, and how glad they were to be in His presence, to have Him in their midst. Is not this a blessed picture of what the saints have when the Lord is in their midst? They have the knowledge of the relationships into which His death and resurrection have brought them, they have the sense of His own peace, the knowledge of His love, and the gladness His presence brings.
The Sanctifier and the Sanctified One
Hebrews 2 specially brings before us the true Manhood of the Son of God, with different reasons for the Son becoming Man. He became Man so that He might die, and as Man enter into the presence of God on high. He became Man to bring God’s many sons to glory, and to set His own apart for God so that they might be identified with Him in the new place He would take as Man out of death. Through the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, His own can now be viewed as “all of one” with Him. We have His life and nature, and have been cleansed from the old condition in which we were as born of Adam, and in the new state in which we are before God the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren.
Psalm 22:22 is then quoted as having a fulfilment now. We have seen one aspect of its fulfilment in John 20, where the disciples were gathered on the resurrection day, but here in Hebrews 2 we see the Lord in the midst of all His own, and it is this we can have our part in as we gather, be it two or three, to the Name of the Lord. As gathered we have the whole assembly in view, the loaf on the table speaking of Christ’s body on earth, the whole redeemed company, and as we sing praises together it is to join the praises that He leads to the Father in the midst of the assembly. Here we have the Father’s portion, what He receives from Christ and His brethren.
Firstborn Among Many Brethren
The consideration of Christ’s brethren on the resurrection day gave us to see something of what Christ’s death and resurrection brought to His own, and Hebrews 2 showed us what the Father receives in praise from Christ and His brethren now. Romans 8 takes us back to the purpose of God, and forward to the time when the saints are conformed to the image of God’s Son (verses 28-29), and there we see what Christ receives for His own heart when He is found in the midst of His brethren, “the Firstborn.”
What gladness must have filled the heart of the Lord as He made known to His own the Father’s Name when He rose from the dead; what joy is His now as His sings and leads the praises to the Father in the midst of the assembly, but Romans 8 gives us His eternal joy. Then the Father’s eternal purpose will be fulfilled, and those for whom the Son died are with Him in the Father’s pleasure indeed, but there for His own joy as those He redeemed and made meet for His own companionship in the Father’s house for evermore.
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