READING:
Hebrews 11:10; Ezekiel 5:5.
Our object is to see
that because Jerusalem is so closely related to God,
indeed has been brought into being by Him, her values
must be pre-eminently spiritual and divine. Back of her
history there lie those elements which are not of this
world, nor are they merely of time, but are heavenly and
eternal.
The
Land of Syria.
Before we can consider
the city particularly we must view the land as a whole,
because very largely the city is the concentration of the
features of the land. We note that in Hebrews 11 the city
which hath foundations is closely related to the heavenly
country (verses 10, 16), so that the city is but the
concentration of the country. That is an important thing
to bear in mind as we go on.
We will note several of
the relationships of the land.
Firstly, the
relationship of the land to the rest of the world. Syria
has been of greater significance to mankind, both
spiritually and materially, than any other single country
in the world.
We observe at once its
centrality. It stands between Asia and Africa, between
the two primeval homes of man, the valleys of the
Euphrates and the Nile; also between the two great
centres of empire, Western Asia and Egypt. One side
represents the eastern and ancient world, the other side
the Mediterranean as the gateway to the western and
modern world.
Secondly, we note the
connection between Syria and Arabia. Syria is at the
northern end of the Arabian world. Arabia was the cradle
of the Semites. The Semites went out in four directions:
(1) to Ethiopia (2) to Egypt via the isthmus of Suez (3)
to Mesopotamia through the Arabian Desert (4) to Western
Syria via the Jordan. More than in any other direction
these Semites have gravitated toward Syria, and we know
of their coming into that land in two special ways, in
the case of Abraham from Mesopotamia, and Israel (the
Hebrews) from Egypt.
Thirdly, the
relationship of the land to Asia, Africa and Europe. We
note that the oldest road in the world, from the
Euphrates to the Nile, which is still used (although the
old camel caravan has given place to motor transport)
runs through Damascus, through Galilee, the Plain of
Esdraelon, down the maritime Plain of Palestine, through
Gaza to Egypt.
Fourthly, the
nations and peoples of the earth who have had to do with
Syria. There is a tremendous catalogue of these. This
land has been either the objective, or the actual
dwelling-place, or the battle-field, of all these
nations; mostly the dwelling-place. The Hittites came
South from Asia Minor, and the Ethiopians came North from
the conquest of the Nile. Here is the list of invaders:
the Hittites, the Ethiopians, the Scythians, the
Babylonians, the Persians, the Moslem invasion, the
Turks, the Mongols, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs,
the Crusaders, Napoleon, and finally the Allies of the
Great War. All these have had special interest in this
little country, so that it is quite clear that Syria has
occupied a very important place in the history of this
world.
Then we note one or two
details as to the land itself. The length of the land is
about four hundred miles in all, with a width varying
from eighty to one hundred miles, bounded by the sea on
the West, Mount Taurus on the North, and by the desert on
the East and South. The name "Syria" is short
for "Assyria." The name was originally applied
by the Greeks to the whole of the Assyrian Empire from
the Caucasus to the Levant. Then that Empire shrank to
this side of the Euphrates, and finally to the present
limits which we have noted. Palestine is only a part of
Syria, defined by the Greeks the Southern part of Syria,
including Judea.
The country is broken
by mountain ranges, so much so as never to have been
brought together under one government. There is the
triple barrier against the desert; firstly the Jordan
Valley, secondly the Western Range, and thirdly the
Eastern Range; and four lines can be drawn down the land
marking distinct features; firstly there is the sea
plain, secondly the Western Range, thirdly the Jordan and
the Jordan Valley, fourthly the Eastern Range.
We now turn to note the
spiritual instruction which comes to us from the
historic.
1.
The Centrality of Jerusalem.
That which we have just
noted shows how central that land, and Jerusalem the
city, are geographically, historically, and - as we shall
yet see more fully - spiritually. If you want to be
impressed with the centrality of the land and of the city
geographically, all you have to do is to take a map of
the world, and put your pencil upon Syria (Mercantor's
projection).
The centrality of this
country is tremendously impressive, and when you add to
the geographical centrality the historic centrality, and
see how all the way through history the nations of the
world have been attracted toward that point, have been
interested in it, have in some way or other been related
to Syria, that again is an impressive thing. But when you
add to the geographical and the historical the religious,
or rather, the spiritual, and see that, in the main, it
is because God in some way is related to that central
point, then the significance goes much further, and
becomes very much more impressive. Surely this is not
just a natural thing; this is not normal; there is
something about this which speaks of wider issues than
merely a few miles of Syrian soil, a fragment of this
earth as something in itself! It is like the arena of a
great amphitheatre where God has been working out in
history a drama with spiritual significance, showing to
the world things which are not merely of time nor of the
earth, but of eternity and of heaven. So that Jerusalem,
in the very first place, speaks of centrality.
The
Anti-Type - The New Jerusalem.
Turning from the
historic Jerusalem, the type, to the anti-type, the
spiritual Jerusalem of the Book of the Revelation and
elsewhere, we know that feature is revealed to be the
first thing about the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the
Church. Take two things, for instance, which are said
about the New Jerusalem.
Firstly, that the
nations shall walk in the light thereof, and shall bring
their glory into it (Revelation 21:24 and 26). If we bear
in mind that the New Jerusalem is not a mere geographical
thing, but the Church, then the Church is seen ultimately
to be in a central place to all the rest of the world. It
occupies that point with all the nations round about
related thereto. Just as the historic Jerusalem occupies
that central place geographically and historically, so in
a spiritual way the Church ultimately will be at the
centre of God's universe, and everything will be toward
it and as from it. It will be central, the nations and
the kings all moving to and from it, all the kingdoms of
this world recognising the Church as the universal
metropolis.
Secondly, it is said
that the New Jerusalem has on its four sides three gates
(Revelation 21:13), and "the city lieth
foursquare" (verse 16). "Four" is the
number of creation, the whole creation. The whole
creation is represented by the City. On each of the four
sides of the City there are three gates. That means there
is equality in all directions. If the City were
represented as being to one side of the world, it would
not need three gates on the back side. Its gates would be
in the other three directions, but if three gates are
equally on every side it surely means that what lies
before those gates is equal. Everything speaks of
centrality in the Church.
All that means has yet
to be seen and worked out, but we want in the first place
to get the City set, we want to see what the place and
position of the Church is intended to be, and when that
is recognised we can understand the many-sided activity
of the enemy to destroy the Church, we can understand
that aspect of Jerusalem's history which is so fraught
with contest, conflict, dispute, siege, assault. What a
tremendous history Jerusalem has had! Well might the
Psalmist urge that we should pray for the peace of
Jerusalem. There has been good reason to pray thus for
Jerusalem, for she has known tribulation beyond any other
on this earth.
That is suggestive and
significant, and carries its own spiritual meaning. What
a history the Church has! What a history of conflict the
true spiritual people of God have! Well might the Lord
have said to His own true ones "In the world ye
shall have tribulation..." (John 16:33). To come
really into a living relationship with Christ as a vital
part of His Church means to come into the conflict of all
the ages, to the realm of ceaseless conflict. But there
is a reason, and the best of reasons, for when once
Jerusalem is set, comes down from God out of heaven, and
is set in her place at the centre of the universe, no
other power will be able to lift itself against her. That
Church is destined to occupy the place of centrality and
supremacy in Christ throughout all the ages yet to be.
Not least of the many-sided activities of the enemy has
been his effort to set up a false church, an imitation
church, a counterfeit church.
More will be said about
that as we go on, but we have laid down our first
principle and seen the first feature of the
"Jerusalem which is above" as to God's thought
for her.
We pass to the second
feature:
2.
The Heavenliness of Jerusalem.
We go back to the first
movements of which we know in the relationship of God to
Jerusalem. These movements began with Abraham. There is a
sense in which we could say that Abraham was the father
of the City of God. The Word says of him that "he
looked for a city." Somehow (it is not recorded how)
he came to look for a city related to God. There is
nothing which tells us that God spoke to him about the
city, but here is the statement clearly made that
"he looked for a city.... whose builder and maker is
God" (Hebrews 11:10). Somehow he came into the quest
for a city related to God, of which God was the Architect
(for that is the literal word) and Maker. That surely
means that the City would take its form and character
from God. If God is the Architect and Maker, then the
thing made, designed, would take its character from Him.
Thus Abraham looked for something which was an
expression of the thought and will of God, which was the
result of Divine activity, a City.
What was the first step
toward that City? We are told by a man who is said to
have been full of the Holy Ghost, Stephen: "The God
of glory appeared unto our father Abraham" (Acts
7:2). That was the first step in relation to the City
which was to be the expression of God's thought. From
that point the Divine association with Jerusalem has
always been as with what is in the world, and yet
outside of it. The God of glory has not attached
Himself wholly to anything of this earth since the fall.
He took up something and made it an illustration of
something else which was not of this earth at all, and
from the point when the God of glory appeared unto
Abraham God's association with Jerusalem was always, has
always been, as with that which, while being in the world
is yet outside of it. We emphasise this, that God's
association with it has been on that wise. We mean
that God associated Himself with Jerusalem only so long
as she stood true to His thought of something in the
world and yet outside of it. When Jerusalem failed to
maintain that principle and became associated with the
world, God forsook it. God's association was only on the
ground that it was outside of the world while in it. This
is made very clear, both positively and negatively;
positively, as Jerusalem expressed the Divine thought of
a Heavenly City and maintained separation from the world,
God associated Himself with Jerusalem; negatively,
whenever Jerusalem failed or ceased to express that
Divine thought, God withdrew. So that we have it, by
contrast, showing what God's mind was, that the dark
history of Jerusalem, destruction, suffering, and being
forsaken, is a very strong proof and evidence that God
will not associate Himself with anything which does not
express His thought as being entirely heavenly although
here on this earth; such a thing He will not uphold nor
maintain. That is a very important thing in our
consideration.
Features
in the Life of Abraham.
Turning again to
Abraham we shall see that Abraham was the inclusive
type of the City. In order to follow that out we
take this principle of heavenliness and trace the
heavenly features in the life of Abraham. If Abraham is
being spiritually constituted according to God's thought
for the City because he is the father of the City, then
you expect to see the features of the City running right
through Abraham's life, and this feature of heavenliness
is not difficult to trace in the life of Abraham. We will
trace it in eight respects.
1.
Heavenly Vision.
"The God of glory
appeared unto our father Abraham" (Acts 7:2). That
is heavenly vision. In the New Testament we should call
it Divine revelation, God revealing Himself. What is the
Church? It is the place in which God is revealed, the
place of heavenly vision. The Church is the embodiment of
the revelation of God in Christ. The Church has to be the
sphere in which men and women come to a knowledge of God,
an ever-growing knowledge of God. The Church is not just
something to carry out a set order of things, maintain a
form. The Church is the place in which there abides the
living unveiling of God, and just as soon as something
claiming to be the Church ceases to be the place in which
there is any living unveiling of God it ceases to be what
God calls "the Church," and when it fails in
these Divine features God withdraws. It may go on, but
God withdraws. When Jerusalem ceased to be the place of
the revelation of God to the nations then God withdrew.
The purpose of the Church in God's mind is that it should
be the sphere of the abiding and continuous unveiling of
God, the God of glory appearing. (See the first three
chapters of Revelation.)
It is a grand thing to
belong to that Church, and to know that Church. Do we
know what it is to be where God is showing Himself,
making Himself known, where constantly, again and again,
the God of glory is appearing? Are you able to say that
from week to week in the local assembly to which you
belong the God of glory is appearing? So often our hearts
have warmed in the realisation that the Lord is showing
Himself to us. That feature which was foundational to the
life of Abraham is also foundational to Jerusalem, both
earthly and heavenly. It is a governing law of the
Church.
2.
Separation from Earth.
Because of the
revelation from heaven there is the consequent and
essential separation from earth. "The God of glory
appeared to Abraham when he was in Ur of the
Chaldees." What was the result? "Get thee out
of thy country, and from thy kindred..." (Genesis
12:1). And he went out. Whence? From his world,
his native world, his old world, all the world of nature,
the world of natural birth, the world of natural
relationship, the world of natural interests. He went
out, and everything had to be new. It was separation.
That was hammered out
through long centuries for Jerusalem. Go through the Word
with "Jerusalem" again, and see how God
continuously appeals for Jerusalem to be clean, to be
separate, to be holy, to have no relationships with the
countries round about, to stand as for God in the midst
of the nations; and Jerusalem's terrible tragedy - the
tragedy which is told in the sobs of one prophet after
another - is the tragedy of lost separation.
That is the tragedy of
the Church. We see God's thought by the very tragedy of
the Church's history. You cannot violate God's thoughts
for His people and have anything but a tragic history.
What the Church needs to realise so much is its heavenly
relationship, calling for an utter separation from the
world, in order that God may wholeheartedly associate
Himself with it.
3.
Heavenly Citizenship.
"For he looked for
the city which hath the foundations, whose builder
(Architect) and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Where
did he find it? He never found it on this earth at all!
When we turn to Hebrews 11 we find that Abraham did see
something a long, long way off, and hailed it. The Lord
Jesus said "...Abraham rejoiced to see my
day..." (John 8:56). He saw by faith. "By faith
Abraham, when he was called, obeyed... and he went
out..." (Hebrews 11:8). "These all died in
faith, not having received..." (verse 13). His
citizenship was not a citizenship of this earth at all,
it was a heavenly citizenship. The New Testament makes
that perfectly clear. The true seed of Abraham are the
believers (not the Jewish nation) who are linked with the
Jerusalem which is above, "which is the mother of us
all" (Galatians 4:26). That is how Paul puts it. So
the Apostle also says: "For our citizenship is in
heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour"
(Philippians 3:20).
4.
A Pilgrim and a Stranger.
As running closely with
that, and corresponding with it, we are told that Abraham
in the land was as a pilgrim and a stranger, dwelling in
tents, having no part in the land, being in the land a
stranger. Is not that a feature of heavenliness? Pilgrims
and strangers here. But where, then, do we belong? Peter
in writing his letter says: "Beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims..." (1 Peter 2:11),
belonging to the heavenly country, with the heavenly
citizenship.
5. No
Earthly Patronage or Rewards.
No patronage or rewards
from this world were for Abraham. Though he may have done
service in the interests of certain righteous principles,
and in so doing his service may have been of value to
those in this world (and who shall say that the spiritual
service of the Lord's people on this earth has not meant
some value to this world, even to this ungodly world? the
Lord alone knows what the world would be without His
people in it), Abraham said, No, to those of this world,
of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who had derived some
benefit from his activity, when they would offer him some
reward and would patronise him. Abraham still stands
outside.
That has been one of
those deeply laid snares of the Devil, to make something
of the service of the people of God on this earth, to
confer upon them recognition, titles, position, to make
them something here on this earth amongst men. You will
notice that so often when these preferments take place,
and these gifts are made, and this recognition is
granted, and these positions are given, there is a
farewell to the deep spiritual note, there is an end of
the real spiritual value of that life. The tragedy of
many a really valuable servant of God, who was used
mightily of God in a spiritual way and finished up life
without that note, having lost that spiritual value, was
upon this very thing, that in some way they became
recognised and accepted, they received recognition,
preference, awards from this world. To maintain
heavenliness, separation is essential to the maintenance
of spiritual value.
6.
No Natural Resources or Energies.
Abraham had to learn
that lesson in a very hard school. His life was marred by
a terrible mark and scar, when he broke down and tried by
natural means and methods and courses to realise Divine
ends. The world today holds that scar in a most terrible
way. Look at Islam, look at Ishmael, and you have the
full growth of that fatal mistake of Abraham when he
tried to realise a Divine purpose along natural lines.
Heavenly people may not do that. A heavenly Church may
not do that. The Church has tried to do that. It has
tried to accomplish its Divine mission by worldly means,
by natural resources and energies. Its tragedy is clear.
Its weakness is manifest to all. For the heavenly thing
no resources or energies of nature are permissible.
7.
No merely Earthly Fruit for God.
I am thinking of Isaac.
Isaac came eventually, and came through Sarah. There is
an earthly link in Isaac, though he be born by Divine
intervention, through heavenly power. But God will sever
that earthly link, God will cut clean in between what is
of heaven and of earth, and take Isaac to death. And who
can raise the dead but God? Seeing then that only God can
raise the dead, what is raised from the dead is all
of God. So God will have no link with earth, even in
what may be for Him.
Very often God causes
some of His heavenly purpose to be born in a human heart,
a purpose of God born in the heart of a man or a woman.
In the course of time that man or woman takes that
heavenly vision and in some way it becomes their vision:
for God, yes, but theirs! It is a terrible thing to
interfere with somebody who has a heavenly vision from
the Lord which they hold. So often they become the
most spiky people that you have to deal with. Yes, they
have a vision from the Lord, they have a sense of call
from the Lord, and they are holding that thing for the
Lord. That is quite good, but they are holding it,
and they have got it, and it is theirs, and
God often has to take that thing which had its origin in
Himself clean away to death; it has to go, and it is as
though they never had a vision. Worse than that, they are
in confusion, utterly confounded. God gave a vision, and
now it has all been smashed and broken. God gave a call
and a purpose, and now everything contradicts that, it
has all gone. God will not have even that which is of
Himself held by man, laid hold of by man.
Perhaps Abraham's peril
was, even though he had got Isaac by a miracle, to make
Isaac his, dear to his own heart, to make Isaac his own;
and God said, in effect, No, Abraham, no earth ties, even
in Divine things! This thing is utterly of Me, and not of
you! It is so easy to bring God's great purpose within
the compass of some human instrumentality, to be very
concerned maybe for world evangelisation, but it must be
through our Mission! That is taking hold of God's
purposes and making them private property. God will not
have that if the thing is going to realise His full end,
if He is wholly to commit Himself to it.
8. No
Place in the Heavenly for the Hand of Man.
Nothing of man must
have any place, hold or prerogative in that which is of
heaven. I am thinking of the tomb at Machpelah. You
remember that Sarah died, and Abraham, who had good
standing in the country, sought a place of burial for his
wife, for himself and his seed, and the cave of Machpelah
was proved to be the very place. He offered to buy it,
but the men who owned it offered it to him free, they
well nigh besought him to accept it as a present. But he
would not have it cheaply, he would have the full price
weighed and purchase it outright, so that no one should
be able to say: You got it cheaply, you really owe us
something, you really are in our debt, we really have a
claim over you! No! to the last farthing he will buy it
outright. No hand of man shall be able to have a claim,
never shall it be possible for anybody of this world to
suggest that Abraham and his descendents are under an
obligation to them.
Do you see the working
of the principle? No hand of man, no rights as of this
world in the Church! Jerusalem which is above is free, is
free! This world has no claims there. There is no
other power which has any rights there. The Church stands
free in God; but, oh, look at the complications today,
look at the obligations, look how the Church has sold
itself to the world, and how the world has a hold upon
it. It is saying, and has a perfect right to say: You are
under obligations to us! That is not the Church according
to His thought.
All these are aspects
of the one great truth of heavenliness.
The necessity
for our time is for the Lord's people to come to a
spiritual understanding of what heavenliness means. Only
so can the Church, the Lord's people, know power. I am
certain that the whole question of spiritual power is
bound up with heavenliness. The Lord Jesus, Who is the
land and Who is to be in all the essential elements of
His being, gathered up in the Church represented by the
City, said: "The prince of this world cometh, and
hath nothing in me" (John 14:30). What a place of
power! What a place of victory! What a place of
ascendency! Imagine it! "The prince of this
world" - with all that he has (and he has a
tremendous amount in his hands, tremendous power), -
"cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30).
"Now shall the prince of this world be cast
out" (John 12:31). Those two things go together, and
it is because the Lord's people do not stand in that
position that they cannot cast out the prince of
this world, they cannot overcome him. He has so
much power in the midst of the Lord's people because he
has ground, and the ground is this world. No ground,
therefore no rights! That is tremendous. Oh, that God
might get a people there.
Listen to this.
"The Jerusalem that is above is free, which
is the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26). "And
there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet... and behold a
great red dragon... and the dragon stood before the
woman... to devour her child..." (Revelation
12:1-4). Jerusalem is our mother. The Church above is our
mother. But there is a man-child being born out from the
Church, out from the mother, a man-child, and a great red
dragon waiting to devour, and that manchild is caught up
to the Throne. What is that? That is something out of the
general Church which is specific in its overcoming power.
That goes to the Throne.
The Lord is seeking to
have at least out from the whole Church a company of an
entirely and utterly heavenly nature, to govern, to rule,
so that the enemy is cast down and has no more place in
heaven.
Let us ask the Lord to
teach us the meaning of heavenliness. It is a tremendous
thing in the realisation of His end.