READING:
Rev. 3:7-13; 21:1-4.
You will notice in the
passage in chapter 3 of the Revelation, that the
overcomer is to have the name of the City of God written
upon him. "He that overcometh... I will write upon
him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my
God, the new Jerusalem...." That is a somewhat
remarkable statement, and full of interest; and certainly
the more you think about it, the more you wonder what it
means that the overcomer is to have the name of the New
Jerusalem written upon him. We want to understand,
therefore, a little more of what that name signifies, and
how it is associated with overcoming.
As has been our custom
so far, so again, we go back to the earliest touches upon
Jerusalem which we have in the Scripture, and there we
shall get our key.
The first reference to
Jerusalem in the Bible comes in with Melchizedek in
Genesis 14:18-19. There we find the first mention of it
by its abbreviated title of Salem. "Jerusalem"
means "the City of Peace." A very great deal
more has been made of it, and there are volumes written
upon the name of Jerusalem, and many very wonderful
ideas have been associated with the name, but it is quite
simply expressed as "the City of Peace." There
may be a root in the word which means safety by reason of
its position, its strength and elevation, and in that
sense it may be termed the City of Peace, as being a city
exceedingly difficult to upset, to destroy. But we can be
content for our purpose with the simplest of definitions.
Apparently, Melchizedek was king of this city, as well as
priest of "God Most High."
We see from this
chapter that Melchizedek first comes into view with
Abram's return from the defeat of the kings. If you read
the whole chapter, you will see that a number of kings
made a league, and they brought the rulers of Sodom and
other local cities under their power. These served them
and paid tribute to them for a number of years. Then they
revolted against these allied kings, with the result that
the allied kings made this assault upon them to bring
them to heel again. They overpowered them, robbed them,
and carried away spoil and many prisoners, including Lot
and his wife. Abram was informed of what had happened,
and with some three hundred and eighteen men, trained in
his own household, he pursued after the kings, and by a
night manoeuvre gained an advantage, overpowered them,
recovered all that had been taken, including Lot, and
brought them back. On his return from this successful and
victorious expedition, the king of Salem as well as the
king of Sodom met him, and Melchizedek blessed him, and
Abram gave him a tenth of all.
Here, then, is Abram in
the capacity of an overcomer, and you recognise, as we
pointed out in our last meditation, that Abram's strength
which in a spiritual sense he passed on to the City of
which he was, in a sense, the father, for which he looked
- was largely due to his own spiritual detachment from
this world. He refused all gifts from the king of Sodom,
refused this world's honours and favours, and in various
other ways kept himself free, while in some cases the
Lord, on His part, very strongly broke him free from
earthly elements and relationships, and so maintained him
in a position of spiritual strength. Now we find that
spiritual strength, by reason of his detachment from
things earthly and attachment to things heavenly,
expressing itself in this victorious warfare, and in the
position of an overcomer he comes into touch with
Melchizedek, and Melchizedek with him, and certain
pre-eminent spiritual elements and features are
introduced. It is interesting to notice that all the
associations of Melchizedek are spiritual and not
temporal. Wherever you touch Melchizedek in the
Scriptures, you touch some abiding spiritual principle,
something which is not temporal, not passing, and not
merely of this earth; not even related to this earth when
what is touched is of God, but something higher than
that. The bringing of Melchizedek and Abram together in
this way brings out this series of spiritual elements,
which run right on and become the governing features of
the New Jerusalem.
If you look at some of
these elements, you will see that they are impressive,
but you will, in the first place, be impressed with the
uniqueness of the person of Melchizedek. How strangely he
comes on the scene. He is never heard of before, and
nothing is known about him, beyond what is said here in a
couple of sentences, and yet here he is, a king, and
priest of God Most High, in a land full of iniquity. He
suddenly comes into full view like that, king of Salem,
priest of God Most High, blessing Abram in the Name of
the Lord: a remarkable personality, and quite fitted by
these very features, by the uniqueness of his person, to
occupy some very important place in the spiritual history
of Jerusalem. He seems, so to speak, to have come out of
the unknown, to have suddenly dropped out of heaven, in
immediate maturity. There is no immaturity here: you do
not begin in infancy, you find this man right in the
fulness of things, the fulness which is to take centuries
to develop in the history of the Lord's work. A
tremendous amount of history will come before there is
realised on this earth what is represented by
Melchizedek. He enters in this full way, this mature way,
and it seems as though he immediately sets up the whole
thought of God. The whole mind of God is represented in
one man, who comes we know not whence. It is as though
God puts the fulness of His thought in a man at the
beginning of things, and then develops history according
to that pattern. That is how God does things. So
Melchizedek becomes a most impressive person, and we know
from the New Testament, especially the letter to the
Hebrews, that he was intended by God to be a type of
something very full. He introduces an order of things
which is super-earthly, super-Aaronic - without
genealogy, without father, without mother, without
beginning of days or end of life. There you have
eternity, universality, all gathered up in this one man.
Typical
Relationships of Melchizedek with Christ.
Note his typical
relationships with Christ, as he introduces these
pre-eminent spiritual elements. I think we can say that
they are, in the main, five.
1.
Kingship.
The first is kingship
among the Lord's Own people in relation to the elect:
kingship in contact with the overcomer, and the overcomer
brought into touch with the throne. That is the first
full thought of God, represented in Melchizedek. As we
have just mentioned, a tremendous amount of history will
develop before that is fully realised, but God is going
to work from this point toward something which we shall
note in a moment.
2.
Priesthood.
Not an earthly, but a
heavenly priesthood not after the order of Aaron, but
after the order of Melchizedek - a heavenly priesthood,
an abiding priesthood is what is set forth; in a word,
priesthood in God's full thought.
3.
Righteousness.
The principle of
righteousness comes in with Melchizedek in a special way.
It is no new principle. Righteousness is as old as God.
It comes in in a special way with Melchizedek, as he
becomes king of righteousness. We mention it now, and
will speak more fully of it later.
4.
Peace.
Righteousness leading
to peace; peace and righteousness in relation to kingship
and priesthood is what is brought before us. When you put
those things together, you cover an immense range of the
work and Person of the Lord Jesus. Work backwards -
peace, because of righteousness, because of heavenly
priesthood, because of absolute sovereignty.
5.
The Endless Life.
"...like unto the
Son of God... after the power of an endless life"
(Heb. 7:3,16). That is the designation given by the New
Testament to Melchizedek.
Let us sum those up
again both ways - kingship, priesthood of a heavenly
order, righteousness, peace and endless life: endless
life, because of peace being given, on the ground of
righteousness, through the heavenly priesthood, with the
throne of universal sovereignty upholding it all. That is
an outstanding vision and setting forth in one man of
those typical elements of the Person and work of the Lord
Jesus.
Think a moment or two
longer of kingship as introduced by Melchizedek in
relation to Christ. The remarkable thing is that Christ
came out of Judah, the tribe of government, the tribe of
monarchy. But no priest came out of Judah: there was no
priesthood there. The Apostle argues that if Christ had
been on earth - a striking phrase - He would not have
been a priest, because there are no priests out of Judah.
That carries His priesthood away from earth at once and
brings in a heavenly order of priesthood. So that
Christ's priesthood arises on another ground from that of
Aaron. He is Priest established in relation to
resurrection. The one hundred and tenth Psalm makes it
very clear that His priesthood does not belong to that
side of the grave which relates wholly to this earth. The
grave breaks fully and finally our contact with this
earth. That is the meaning of baptism. Baptism is
intended to be a declaration of the fact that in our
death-union with Christ all relationship of a spiritual
kind with this earth has been brought to an end. Mark
you, we only come into the values of Christ's heavenly
priesthood in so far as that is true, because His
priesthood is not of the Aaronic order, applying to
people on the earth living earth-bound lives. Christ's
priesthood is founded upon the fact that He is in heaven,
and that at once speaks of resurrection. So that His
priesthood is in the virtue and the good of resurrection.
Come back to Abram, and
you will see that, with regard to the City, Abram had to
come in a typical way right on to this ground, the ground
of resurrection, with even Isaac broken away from this
earth as holding any kind of relationship with it still,
and that right out on resurrection ground in relation to
heaven the purpose of God as to the City is fulfilled. So
Christ's Priesthood is established as related to
resurrection. "Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee" (Heb. 1:5) touches His resurrection,
and this priesthood of Melchizedek is typically after the
power of an endless life.
Why did Christ's
Priesthood become dependent entirely upon His
resurrection? For the simple reason that God was awaiting
kingship; that there can be no true priesthood apart from
kingship in the thought of God. Lay hold of that, and
dwell upon it. There is no full priesthood in God's mind
apart from kingship. Kingship is essential to priesthood,
if priesthood is to have its fullest expression.
The Aaronic priesthood
broke down in Eli. Samuel was then brought in, and what
happened? Samuel was not brought in to introduce a new
order of priesthood. Samuel was brought in to introduce
the king; and from that time the king always took
precedence over the priest. David, himself king, wore the
linen ephod, combined the two in his own person. But the
priesthood in David was subservient to his kingship. All
the meaning and value of the order of Aaron, of course,
is gathered up and included in Christ, but it is
transcended by the order of Melchizedek.
Kingship is the
supreme, the dominating note. That is the first and
highest position. Then what comes next? Righteousness!
But that introduces the priesthood. The question of
righteousness is dealt with by priesthood; but it is a
righteousness which can only be established by a throne
of supreme authority. It is the throne, the kingship,
which gives the power to the priesthood. The Old
Testament makes that perfectly clear. The priesthood
afterward derived its power and its appointment from the
throne. Notice how David dealt with the priests. He
dismissed high priests and brought in others. When high
priests failed God, David put them out of office. That
was a momentous thing to do. Go back to the days before
there were kings in Israel, and let anybody touch the
priest! But here is a man who has taken a position above
the priests. With David it was a question of the throne
governing in the matter of righteousness. If the high
priests failed God, broke down on the question of
righteousness, then the throne intervened, and that
priesthood could no longer stand.
These two things are
found together in Christ, and you see that He is King and
Priest, and by His very throne He upholds righteousness
and His priestly work. We have a great High
Priest, Who is King, Who is Sovereign.
When you have the
throne established, righteousness upheld by supreme
authority, then you can know peace. All these are
operating in the power of resurrection. He is King, He is
Priest, and He has established peace in virtue of His
resurrection.
Thus sovereignty comes
in, and sovereignty is seen to be not a matter of a realm
only, but rather a matter of moral and spiritual glory.
His Kingship is that. It is the sovereignty of peace.
There is a great value
about this, if we could grasp it. These moral and
spiritual elements, such as peace and righteousness, are
things which have behind them all the tremendous power of
supreme lordship. You and I know quite well that our
righteousness cannot support us: and neither can it
support anyone else. Our righteousness will break down.
It is a poor thing, a puny thing. We know quite well that
our peace will not support very much. What is the
strength of our own peace? Well, it is as the strength of
a very weak assault upon it. It does not take much to
upset our peace. Then take any other moral and spiritual
virtue you may think of, and see just how far man's own
virtue will carry him; man's own moral and spiritual
features. Not very far! But then think of the Lord having
righteousness and peace and all the other virtues, and by
His Spirit imparting those, and putting all the strength
of His throne behind them, all that that throne
means of victory. It is righteousness triumphant, because
of One Who is absolute Sovereign in this universe. The
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus is the sovereignty of
righteousness. If you can upset His throne, you upset His
righteousness. If you can upset His righteousness, you
upset His throne. If you can destroy His peace, you
destroy His sovereignty. These things go together. What
we need is that the Lord should be enthroned at the
centre of our being with all the sovereign power of His
mighty righteousness, all His glorious peace, all His
deep imperturbable joy. It is not an abstract element.
The throne, and all that it means, is with and behind
all.
That is surely what was
intended to be the embodiment of those spiritual and
moral truths and realities. When Jerusalem was supported
by righteousness, then Jerusalem was unshakable. When
Jerusalem forsook righteousness, then the very support of
Jerusalem was withdrawn, and Jerusalem collapsed.
"Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6). Jerusalem lost
its peace, when it lost its righteousness, because it
lost its sovereign upholding. These things go together.
You cannot have the Lord supporting you in His
sovereignty, in His kingship, if you are violating
righteousness.
Abraham was made to
know God on this matter in connection with the cities of
the plain "Shall I hide from Abraham that which I
do?" (Gen. 18:17). The Lord told Abraham that he was
going to destroy the cities, and Abraham went in search
of righteousness. "Wilt thou consume the righteous
with the wicked?" God said in effect, Try it! That
is not MY way! I never destroy righteousness! If you find
righteousness, I cannot destroy; I am bound to uphold
righteousness! So Abraham made his exhaustive search, and
found none. He had to say, You are perfectly justified in
doing this thing! God could not have done it if Abraham
had found righteousness. Righteousness and the protection
of the throne go together. The lack of righteousness
means that the throne cannot function to protect. The New
Jerusalem, which came into view through Abraham, was to
take its character from him, was to be the embodiment of
all these things. And when you carry the matter beyond
the historic Jerusalem, you find the next focal point is
Christ Himself, and then the Church, which is His Body -
the New Jerusalem, which is to express all that God had
in His mind as spiritual thought concerning His Own
people.