“When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed… he shall see of the travail of his
soul” (Isaiah 53:10,11).
“They
are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because
they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children: but,
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the
children of the flesh that are children of God; but the
children of the promise are reckoned for a seed”
(Romans 9:6-8).
“Now
to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He
saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And
to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).
“And as many as shall walk by
this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the
Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).
For
our present consideration many other fragments of the
same kind could be added, but these are sufficient,
surely, to impress us. Of course, they will not impress US
in the same way as they did those to whom they were
first written. We are not able, without some very real
illumination by the Holy Spirit, to recognise and
appreciate the tremendous implications, the profound
meaning of these statements of Paul. No, we have not yet
fathomed all that Paul had come to see of what Christ
meant, of what came in with Christ, of what happened when
Christ came in, of what turned upon the advent of Christ.
May the Spirit of God register something of those
tremendous implications, even now.
It was
this revelation which came to Paul, and his apprehension
of the significance of Christ, that was the cause of all
the trouble. If ever there was a man who got into
trouble; around whom trouble circled and seethed,
wherever he went — who seemed to make trouble, it
was this man Paul. But when you ask what the cause of it
all is, it is just this with which we are now occupied.
It is a matter which in principle will always set up a
furore; and as to its significance it comes from the
realm of greater intelligence than the human.
Now
Paul did, of course, recognise that there was such a
thing as a nation of Jews, a Jewish nation. That sounds
far too trite and obvious. With a wave of the hand, and
mark you, a significant wave of the hand, a kind of
objective wave, he said, “Behold Israel after the
flesh”. Whilst that is something to take account of,
it is, nevertheless, objective — “Behold
Israel, after the flesh”. He recognised that that
nation stood in a special relationship to the sovereign
ways of God in history. Indeed, he was proud and very
glad that he had been born in that nation. He had a deep
heart-love for his nation, and he longed, as he said,
that they might be saved: “Brethren, my heart’s
desire and my prayer to God is for them, that they might
be saved” (Rom. 10:1). Notice how objective is his
attitude; he is not saying: “that WE might be
saved”. Note that, because it is a feature of this
whole matter.
But,
with all, with all his recognition, all his pleasure, and
his longing and praying in that direction, he had come to
see that they were not by nature “the Israel of
God”. That is the root of all the trouble. I
underline the words BY NATURE; they were not by
nature THE Israel of God, which, of course, they
claimed to be. It is true that Israel was something, but
the TRUE Israel, the true Israel to which he
referred in that fragment “the Israel of God”
or the true “Israel of God” — was not a
natural thing at all, and it is not. It is spiritual. It
is not a Jewish, historic, earthly thing; it is not
Abraham’s NATURAL generation. This is what
Paul is saying, and it is only what his Master, the Lord
Jesus, had said. This Israel is Christ’s generation;
this “seed” is Christ, and those who are
Christ’s, begotten, born out of His travail.
Christ’s seed is essentially spiritual. No one was
ever born of Him naturally. And yet, through those many
centuries, the world has become occupied by His seed,
which He is seeing, as of the travail of His soul. This
seed is not begotten of Abraham, but begotten of God; it
is not descended from Abraham through Jacob, the man with
every feature of that which is natural
(“supplanter” his name means, that is,
“one who takes hold”, whose nature it is to be
possessive — a very clear mark of the natural man)
not through ambitious, scheming, cunning, clever,
opportunist, unscrupulous and self-strong Jacob. This
seed does not come through Jacob, but through Israel.
What a great deal that means spiritually; that, having
encountered God, and being virtually dead, through the
grace of God he has survived. He said “I have seen
God face to face, and my life is spared” — the
most wonderful thing has happened; I have seen God face
to face, and my LIFE is spared! To come into an
encounter with God, as did Jacob, means death: yes, and
virtually that is what it was: and typically, Israel must
be born, or there is no future — there is no future
at all — Isra-EL! Surely this all leads us to
the true “seed of Christ”, the true
“Israel of God”.
The Significance of Abraham
We
begin therefore with the true significance of Abraham.
Abraham represents a terminal point in the history of the
Old Testament, and then, from him, an unbroken course of
national existence proceeded up to Christ. Through
Abraham a race was re-born and marked out in special
relationship to God’s eternal desire. There is much
that is technical, interesting and instructive in that
study, but we leave it. You know that the first name,
designation, of that nation or race, was
“Hebrew” which means “that which has come
from beyond”; “the man from over there, beyond
the river”, meaning, beyond the Euphrates, simply,
“the man from beyond”. The Hebrew race then, is
that which has migrated over, come from beyond. Later,
they became known as the “Jews”; that is quite
a limited title, and just means the “descendants of
Judah”. In the beginning it just had that limited
meaning of “descendants from Judah”, in their
country of Judea, but it became more general. Later still
they became known as Israel — the descendants of
Jacob AFTER his crisis at Peniel.
Knowing
all this, Paul nevertheless says that this was not the
true Israel. He, like all the others, at one time
believed that it was; but he had come to see that it was
not the TRUE Israel, that the true Israel is INWARD,
and not natural or outward. And that opens up a large
field of very important consideration, which we will deal
with later.
Israel — A Great Object
Lesson
As the
tabernacle in the wilderness, and later the temple in the
land, with all its components, was the embodiment of
spiritual and heavenly principles and realities; as the
priesthood, the sacrifices, the feasts were likewise the
embodiment of spiritual realities, and not the realities
themselves — so it was with Israel. These are the
things which make up the nation, they make up the life of
the nation; they ARE Israel. The point is this
— it was possible, and is possible, to separate
between the things themselves and those spiritual
thoughts and principles. So that it is possible to have a
tabernacle, replete with priesthood, sacrifices, and
feasts, and yet not have the spiritual reality. It is
possible to separate these things, because they are not
one. Even God has no place for those symbols when they
have lost their spiritual power and meaning. He will
vehemently reject the THINGS — ark,
tabernacle, and everything else — without
compunction.
Paul
carries this right through to Israel. He says:
“Israel after the flesh” is one thing,
“Israel after the Spirit” is ANOTHER;
these things can be divided, and God has set aside
“Israel after the flesh”. Put it another way
— what God is after, what He is concerned with, what
He is going on with, is that which was represented by
them, the reality.
The
cry of all the prophets is that this divide has taken
place. Israel is going on with the temple, going on with
the services, going on with the sacrifices, but it is all
hollow. There is a tremendous difference between the seed
of Abraham after the flesh and the seed of Christ. What
is the seed of Christ? It is something essentially,
intensely, spiritually REAL! It is not something
that bears a name; it is not something which holds
certain doctrines and truths — the Law, or what
corresponds to that in Christianity. It is not something
that performs certain rites, and goes through certain
ceremonies. It is not something along that external line
at all — be it intellectual, emotional, volitional,
or physical — it is something inwardly real. It is
“Christ IN you, the hope of glory” (Col.
1:27). This is what God is after. And if Israel was
raised up for a purpose, it was to set forth these
realities in a pictorial, symbolic way. God’s object
is not a Jewish nation as such, but a heavenly people,
constituted on spiritual realities. Israel is for all
time a great object lesson which God has set in the midst
of the nations to indicate spiritual principles. They
will remain that object lesson to the end. God, in
preserving, keeping that nation, does so, not because of
that nation itself, but to maintain an object lesson in
the midst of the nations, especially to Christianity.
Unmistakable Features
Let us
look at Israel after the flesh. There are some features
which cannot be mistaken! Many years ago, I knew an
outstanding and well-known Christian Jew, who had
travelled all over the world. He said to me on one
occasion: “It does not matter what nation I go into,
and how much they have become apparently absorbed in the
nation where they are living, I can always tell a Jew; he
may have fair hair or dark hair; there may be differences
arising from their living in different countries for
generations, but there is something that I can always
recognise, and I never make a mistake.” What does
God say about that? He says to us, as being of the seed
of Christ, that this true Israel should be at least as
pronounced in its features, in its distinctiveness, as
they are! There should be no mistaking a child of God.
Everybody should know when they have met a child of God.
By means of that, God says to us that this seed, which is
the true Israel of God, born of the travail of Christ, is
to bear the unmistakable character of Christ. All who
meet that seed know they have met, not father Abraham,
but another Father — they have met God in Christ.
This
is very searching; but it is the true exegesis, the true
interpretation of this word — “his seed”,
“he shall see his seed”: every one betraying
His features, bearing His characteristics, being
recognised; not because they bear a name — whether
that be Israel or Christian; not because they observe the
law and the customs; not because they hold the oracles
and the truths; not because they do or do not certain
things — but because they bear the likeness of Him
of whom they are born. That is what God says —
unmistakable features! “By this shall ALL men
know… if ye have love one to another” (John
13:35).
The Law of Separation
Another
thing about “Israel after the flesh”, which
goes very much along with that, is that law which God
laid down for them, so firmly and so severely, and upon
the observance or violation of which their very national
existence hung — the law of separation. Abraham is
in Ur of the Chaldees, in Babylon, with all the Baalite
worship, the two thousand deities, on the other side,
over there. God calls him “Abraham the Hebrew”;
he has come across, passed over, come out, been severed
from his country, and then brought into another land
which God is going to purge of every other seed. That is
His intention, to purge that land of every other seed,
and to populate it and fill it only with this seed; and
then to lay down, in the strictest possible way, the law
forbidding intermarriage with any other people or nation
on pain of unqualified rejection. There were, of course,
deep reasons for that. There was the spiritual reason of
“other gods”, and the opening of the door to
that other spiritual realm. That is what is meant by
“iniquity” in the Old Testament, what the
prophets spoke of as “fornication” — the
marring of “the virgin daughter of Zion”. But
here it is: no intermarriage whereby there will be loss
of distinctiveness of life and character. It is the
severest law of God. Because of the violation of that law
God had all His long-drawn-out controversy with Israel
through the prophets, and, at last, sent the nation where
they chose to be — into another land — and let
them feel something of what that means. The bringing back
of that remnant is so full of significance, when you
recognise that it is reconstitution on this very
principle.
Indeed
God has written this large — and “the things
that were written aforetime were written for our
learning”. He is saying by Israel: On the positive
and on the negative side My seed is different; My seed is
distinct; My seed must have no intermarriage, it must not
lose its distinctiveness, it must be a separate thing.
The seed of Christ is like that — spiritually
separate. It seems that right from the beginning, in the
case of Adam and Eve, and from then onward, the one
determined intention of Satan has been to destroy that
distinctiveness of what is of God. All Israel’s
history is just that; and he did not stay there, he
pressed it through to the very case of Jesus Himself.
That is the focal point of the temptations of Jesus, in
some way to insinuate something that would destroy His
separateness from everything that was not of God.
Satan’s efforts to destroy distinctiveness, so
successful in the case of Israel, so unsuccessful when
concentrated upon Jesus Himself, have been continued
throughout the history of the church. God’s
spiritual law is written so deeply here for us. This seed
is something not of the flesh, not of this world;
something different, something quite other; a divine seed
that does not belong here, has not originated here, has
not its roots here. “If then ye were raised together
with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ
is… for ye DIED” (Col. 3:1,3).
Now Paul saw quite well that Israel after the flesh had
become something very other than that, very mixed up and
compromised here in this world.
The Cohesion of Israel
Another
thing about Israel which is quite apparent even now, and
has been all the way through history, is their cohesion.
There is no doubt about it. If you deal with these
people, you meet “clannishness” (if you like to
call it that), something very loyal to itself — VERY
loyal to itself. They are a people bound together in
blood and in consciousness and in jealousy, about whom
there is a unity, a cohesion and an integration which is
unique. Though scattered over the earth, and seemingly
broken up, they are one people. What a lesson! What an
object lesson!
Turning
to the New Testament we find that this seed, having one
origin, one source, one life-principle, is one. That is
the meaning of John 17, is it not? The secret of oneness,
of unity, is not in doctrine, in practice, in tradition
or in names — God only knows how true that is! It is
something deeper than that — it is in BIRTH,
and what that means, inheritance in the blood. How
pathetically tragic that there is not this jealousy, this
loyalty, among those who claim to be of this seed! What a
breakdown! We ought to be very jealous for every child of
God; we ought to be loyal to one another, because we are
of the same family. There ought to be something here that
is stronger than all the outside forces. That has proved
true in “Israel after the flesh”, for the most
violent action of outside forces has only brought out
their inward cohesion. Their unity is manifested and even
strengthened by opposition and antagonism and persecution
— what a lesson!
Discrimination as to Food
Then
there is this whole question of food — a very acute
question with Israel after the flesh. The Law required
them to be very particular, very careful, very
discriminating — but all that is written only as an
object lesson. It says something of which the children of
God, the true Israel of God, must take note. Have we a
spiritual faculty which corresponds to their natural one
in selectiveness of food? DISCERNING — this
is exactly what John was talking about in his letter,
when he said: “The anointing which ye received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach
you” (1 John 2:27) — “you know… you
know…” — this is a spiritual instinct or
faculty of knowing what is of Christ and what is not of
Christ. How important it is to keep the seed pure through
spiritual discernment!
Israel’s Governing Hope
There
is one further undying feature with “Israel after
the flesh”. It has persisted all down the ages, and
is as strong today as ever it was — their hope! Why
is it that those who are able still go to the Wailing
Wall in Jerusalem? These people are characterized by this
deep-set, deep-rooted hope! Hope! Something; sometime;
someone; one day — they live for that; it is that
which has carried them through, supported them, sustained
them, kept them — their hope! If ever that should
fade in Israel, they will disintegrate indeed, and they
will fall a prey to their enemies. It is this that holds
together, and this that gives the power to stand up and
go on. With us, it is a spiritual thing, something that
is part of our birth. The true spiritual seed of Christ
is dominated, mastered, by what the apostle calls,
“the blessed hope”, “the day of the
Lord”, “the promise of his coming” —
a master-hope. Is it not true to spiritual experience,
that when we are really born again, a sense of prospect,
of a future, is born in our hearts, and it remains a
strong thing throughout. This is not something taken on
as teaching, not even the teaching of the “Second
Coming”, the coming again of the Lord, but there is
something beyond the teaching, the Spirit Himself has
given birth to a hope within us. We are living for a Day,
and that Day is our strength; it holds us on our way. How
true that is, and how rich it is in the suffering people
of God in all times, and in our own.
The Turning Point of the
Dispensations
In the
light of what we have been saying hitherto, I want to
turn you to the Gospel by John, and in particular to the
third chapter.
In
spite of many years of familiarity with and much reading
of that chapter, I feel there is still much in it that I
have not yet grasped. All that we have said, and more;
all that is indicated and signified in the whole of the
Old Testament and of the New Testament is implicit in
this third chapter of John’s Gospel. It is a chapter
upon the meaning of which two mighty dispensations turn.
The tremendous change which has been indicated, which
Paul came to see by revelation — this tremendous
change from “Israel after the flesh” to
“Israel after the Spirit” — centres in
that chapter.
This
Gospel by John has been more of a bone of contention,
controversy and conflict, than any of the other Gospels.
The popular trend amongst Bible “scholars” now
is to rank Mark’s gospel first and highest. Mark is
the key to everything; Mark is the sum of everything;
they are making a tremendous amount of Mark! We are not
saying they are wrong. After all, there is not much
difficulty about Mark, is there? Matthew and Luke —
well, they do not present much trouble, they provoke very
little dispute or conflict — but John! Some of them
have written him off altogether, ruled him right out,
they will not have him. Is that not significant? When you
are dealing with the Gospels of Mark and Matthew and
Luke, you are dealing mainly with the historic Jesus, the
earthly Christ, what they call the Jesus of history. When
you come to John’s Gospel, you come into the
absolutely spiritual realm — it is the heavenly
Christ that is here — not born of Adam or Abraham,
but — from eternity. Look at the word
“heavenly” on his lips in this Gospel.
Everything here is in the spiritual realm. John, as you
know, calls all the miracles “signs” —
things that have another meaning, that signify something
else, and we cannot see the other, the something else,
unless God opens our eyes; it is spiritual and is set in
the spiritual realm. That is what Satan hates, that is
the cause of all the trouble. Men who only operate in the
realm of human intellect and reason, even in their
approach to the Scriptures, cannot come into this realm
at all without a sense of uneasiness, for it exposes
unspirituality. When we come into the realm of the
spiritual seed — or to put that another way —
when we come into the realm where God is after, not an
earthly, a traditional, an historical, but a spiritual
people, we come into the realm of the intensest conflict
and controversy. Notice how this very Gospel proceeds in
an atmosphere of antagonism — it is like that. There
comes a time when, because of that, Jesus has to withdraw
with His disciples in order to have them alone, to
prepare them for a day that is coming. This controversy,
this conflict, is constantly surrounding them.
The Securing of “True
Israel” — the Realm of Intensest Conflict
Now
that is very significant in the larger application. The
securing of a spiritual, a heavenly, a divine seed, in
Satan’s domain, is fraught with the bitterest
conflict, an opposition, the intensity of which can only
be explained on this ground. The more the children of God
are found going on with Christ in a spiritual way towards
God’s full end, the more diverse and inexplicable
conflict will they meet, and that from every realm. It
just happens! If we really get off the traditional,
historical basis of life, even in Christianity, on to
those higher levels of what is spiritual or what is of
Christ, essentially and utterly of Christ, we shall come
into the realm of the bitterest conflict.
That
is why this all leads back to the matter of travail which
was before us in the previous chapter. We find in the New
Testament that the travail was not all over when the
child was born. It was not all over typically and
symbolically when Israel was secured out of Egypt —
it went on. When Moses came back and met Hobab, his
father-in-law, it says they greeted one another, and
asked of one another’s health, and that “Moses
told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done…
for Israel’s sake, all the travail… by the
way” (Ex. 18:8). After Egypt! So the birth is not
the end. Paul says: “I am again in travail until
Christ be [fully] formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). The
church was born out of the travail of Christ, but what a
travail she has been in again and again, and will be to
the end. It all comes back there — the securing and
perfecting of this spiritual seed is fraught with
conflict. Whether we see the implications of what is
signified by that statement or not, we need to think
about it — it will explain a great deal. There is
the difference of two worlds between spiritual
Christianity and traditional Christianity, just as much
as there is between “Israel after the flesh”
and “Israel after the Spirit” — a
tremendous difference. It is going to be seen eventually
that the obtaining of the perfected seed of Christ was a
very, very costly thing.
May
the Lord just write something of this on our hearts, and
show us very, very clearly what it is He is really after,
that His heart is set upon a people for Himself — a
people according to Christ, a heavenly people, a
spiritual people, whose life is not comprised of outward
things at all, but whose life is the corporate expression
of God’s Son; those who bear His unmistakable
features. Oh that it might be possible for people to say:
There is no mistaking that one — no mistaking what
he is, what she is — he is a “Jew”, she is
a “Jew”, in the spiritual Israel — he,
she, is a member of Christ!