We follow on
where we broke off the last meditation, and complete what
was not completed then.
From Genesis 22 (Mt.
Moriah) Jerusalem does not come into view again until the
book of Judges is reached. Immediately after the death of
Joshua, Judah and Simeon attempted to take the City,
which at that time was called Jebus. Josephus tells us
that only the lower part of the City was captured. The
Benjamites followed Judah in the attempt, but had no
better success, and the City remained in the hands of the
Jebusites during the whole period of the Judges,
throughout the reign of Saul, and through the reign of
David at Hebron.
Jerusalem
in the Days of the Judges.
If you look at that
period, you will recognise that it was one of spiritual
weakness, and therefore of failure. We are familiar with
the conditions that obtained through the period of the
Judges. We have only to read the book to recognise that
it covers several hundreds of years, and we are sadly
impressed with the low spiritual state of the Lord's
people, and the great weakness which characterised them during
that time. We
reach the close of the period, and Samuel comes on the
scene, to find a very sorry state of things indeed. Saul
is brought in through Samuel, and still the condition is
one of spiritual weakness, and therefore the City is not
in possession, and is not occupying its place in the
purpose of God.
The point is this, that
for Jerusalem to express the mind of God, the very
highest and fullest spiritual life is demanded of the
Lord's people. The obverse fact is equally true, that
whenever the spiritual life of the Lord's people is lower
than it should be, the glory of Jerusalem is veiled, the
City is not in the ascendant, and the Name of the Lord is
not being honoured in it.
We gather from this
extensive survey that, so far as time is concerned,
Jerusalem represents the spiritual state of the Lord's
people. That truth runs throughout the Old Testament by
way of illustration, and is carried over in its spiritual
meaning to the Church. That is why we speak of Jerusalem
and the features of the overcomer. Eventually the
heavenly Jerusalem, the Church, will come into view in
heavenly glory, on the ground of spiritual maturity,
spiritual fulness. It will be an expression of the very
highest life to which the Lord's people can ever come,
and that expression will be the power of the overcomer.
We know, in reading
backward from the end, that Jerusalem does finally
represent a very high standard of spiritual life, and
that the overcomer company, as presented to us in the
book of the Revelation, is a company which has reached
the very highest point of spiritual attainment.
It is important for us
to recognise that while the Jerusalem of the Old
Testament, the earthly Jerusalem, is historical in a
literal way, Jerusalem which is above has its history
upon a purely spiritual basis. Its rise and fall, if we
may speak of it in that way, is a matter of the rise and
fall of spiritual life, and the Lord while now in heaven,
having in His Own mind a perfect City, is seeking to
bring His people, His Church, to that state of spiritual
perfection which, when accomplished, will display His
glory and bring with it the realisation of that vision
which was seen of the Apostle: "And he carried me
away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and
showed the holy city of Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was
like unto a stone most precious..." (Rev. 21:10-11).
That is a spiritual state that the Lord is seeking to
realise in His Church. It will eventually be realised in
those who truly constitute that Church, that City.
We
see, then, that through the long period of which we spoke
Jerusalem does not come into its place, and is not seen
as expressing Divine thoughts, because of the spiritual
weakness and failure of the Lord's people.
David and the Capture of
Jerusalem.
At
length we come to the time when David goes up to
Jerusalem and issues a challenge to his mighty men, who
accept the challenge and attempt the taking of the
stronghold of the Jebusites, and wherein Joab succeeds.
Joab is an interesting character. He does not always
shine in the best way, but the noteworthy thing about
Joab, the thing that determines what Joab is, is his
relationship with David the king. If Joab
were in pursuit of personal interests, or if his
interests were diverted from David to other
considerations, he did not show up very well. But you
find that whenever Joab was selflessly attached to David,
and had David's interest and glory wholly at heart, he is
always seen to advantage. Now here in the taking of the
stronghold Joab excels, because of his unreserved
devotion to David, and because of that he becomes yet
another type of the overcomer who takes the stronghold.
There
a new feature is introduced as to the City, and the
overcomers in relation to the City, namely, that the
overcomers will be those whose hearts are unreservedly
devoted to the King, their Lord, and who, because of
their abandonment to Him, will come to the place of
supremacy. If we have personal interests, or if our
interests are in any way diverted from the Lord, we shall
not be overcomers, and we shall not stand very well in
the main issue. In this connection we recall the passage
in Revelation 3:7-12. David is mentioned there, and the
temple is mentioned, and you have the City, and
association with what is represented by those three is
seen to be the portion of the overcomer.
Surveying
once more, we note that Abraham, Melchizedek, and David,
represent the power of that which is wholly of
God in a spiritual way. Two things have come clearly
before us. (1) The heavenly Kingship.
(2) The heavenly Priesthood.
We see that these are realised in Christ. Then they are
shared by a heavenly people, and they are related
throughout to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Now
the Lord made a covenant with David that he should never
want for a man to sit upon his throne, as is recorded for
us in the first book of Kings, chapter 8. Then you find
that David and Israel have been without a king, without a
temple, and without a priest for long centuries. There
are only two ways, as far as I can see, of explaining the
apparent contradiction. The one is the way of
"British Israel," the other is the way of
seeing that all is transferred to the Lord Jesus; that
the covenant with David has been fulfilled in David's
greater Son, and that He is on the throne, the government
upon His shoulders, and the key of David in His
possession. (Footnote: From such passages as
Acts 2:30, this is surely the only true interpretation.)
In
the first place, then, all is taken up in Christ in a
heavenly position, but in a secondary sense it is
transferred to and taken up in the heavenly Jerusalem,
which is now regarded as being in existence. Paul says:
"But the Jerusalem that is above (not which is going
to be) is free, which is our mother" (Gal. 4:26).
Just as the Church in Paul's letters is always seen as
already complete and perfect, though we know it is not so
literally, so Jerusalem is looked upon as now above in
existence, and all that is said about it carries that
feature. Thus the heavenly Jerusalem, of which we are now
a part, seeing that we are seated together with Christ in
the heavenlies, takes up and embodies this heavenly
kingship and kingdom, and this heavenly priesthood. We
are brought into that, and that is transferred to us. If
Scripture is necessary to bear that out, we have very
precise statements on the matter. To the Jews the Lord
Jesus said, as recorded in Matt. 21:43: "The kingdom
of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
Alongside of that you place Luke 12:32: "Fear not,
little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." Then the words of Peter in
his first Letter, chapter 2, verse 9: "But ye are an
elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." So
that the Church as the heavenly Jerusalem takes up the
kingdom, the kingdom is transferred to the Church, and
the Church takes up the priesthood. "Our citizenship
is in heaven." That is present tense. That at once
links up with the heavenly Jerusalem as now existent. The
kingdom at this time is, of course, so far as we are
concerned, a spiritual one. The kingship and the kingdom
at present are in spiritual expression. Later it will be
literally expressed; that is, the Church will literally
take the place of governing this world in the coming age.
The
priesthood is also spiritual at present. We are now
priests. We shall be priests then. We see how the book of
the Revelation presents a very full thought of what
already obtains, as well as of what awaits consummation.
In two places, both at the beginning of the book and a
little further, in chapter 1, verse 6, and in chapter 5,
verse 10, we have the statement that He has made us a
kingdom and priests unto our God.
The
vital point, upon which everything that we have said, or
can say, hangs, is that all is bound up with
and inseparable from resurrection. Resurrection
is a far greater, deeper, more significant thing than any
of us have yet recognised. Resurrection is the key to
everything, and you will notice that everything which
relates to God's heavenly purpose is bound up with
resurrection. Indeed resurrection, if in Christ, implies
and involves that the thing is heavenly.
The
City, as we have seen, comes into view in the first
instance with Abraham, and we know that the central thing
of the life of Abraham is the great power and fact of
resurrection; that when Abraham had come to the altar,
and had definitely quitted all that was of the earth,
even though of Godly origin, then it was that Abraham
moved out into what was something more than an earthly
vision and purpose of God, into what was the heavenly and
the universal purpose of God. It was resurrection that
became the basis of what was and is heavenly in the
covenant with Abraham.
It
was the earthliness of things during the time of the
Judges, and during Saul's life, which kept the City in a
place of eclipse, out of sight, and out of function. And
when you come to the reign of David, you notice it is as
the threshing floor of Ornan is secured for the temple
that the City comes into its full place. It was then that
God secured His habitation there in a typical way, and it
is by the habitation of God that the City is what it is.
It always has been, it always will be. It is the presence
of God that makes anything Divine and heavenly. Now the
securing of the threshing floor of Ornan was in the day
when the angel put up his sword; when death raging
throughout the land was arrested; when the sacrifice was
slain on that threshing floor, and an end to a curse was
brought about. Thereafter you have a new beginning on
resurrection ground. Resurrection always occupies the
central place in relation to heavenly purposes.
Resurrection is a
Separating thing.
Resurrection
is the key to everything. It is the key to every fresh
movement of God in the securing of His fullest intention
and thought, and it is always a separating or a dividing
thing.
Take
a chapter like John 5. In that chapter the Lord Jesus is
found speaking about resurrection. "The hour cometh,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God; and they that hear shall live" (verse 25).
That, of course, must be taken spiritually. Who hear the
voice? Not all. It is those who hear that live, but all
do not live. That is to say, the power of resurrection in
the Word of the Lord divides spiritually between those
who live and those who remain dead. Resurrection is a
dividing thing. It cleaves the company in two, as it
were. Some hear the spoken Word and live. They are raised
from spiritual death. Others do not hear. You know that
later the Lord Jesus said: "My sheep hear my
voice...." There we have the first form of
resurrection. It is spiritual. It is a raising from
spiritual death, or from among the spiritually dead, and
in a spiritual way men become two companies, the living
and the dead.
In
the same chapter the Lord Jesus projects things further
into the future. "The hour cometh (He does not say
'and now is'), in which all that are in the tombs shall
hear his voice (not the spoken Word)." That links us
with 1 Thess. 4:16. "The hour cometh, in which all
that are in the tombs shall hear his voice."
That must be taken literally, not spiritually. What
happens in that resurrection? "And shall come forth;
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;
and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of
judgement" (verse 29). Again resurrection divides.
There
are other resurrections in the Word, and you find that
every one of them divides. There is the general
resurrection of believers mentioned in 1 Thessalonians,
and there is a specific resurrection of believers spoken
of in Philippians 3, the out-resurrection from among the
dead. Paul was quite sure of his position in 1
Thessalonians. He had no doubt whatever of his being in
that resurrection, no question at all. But of the
resurrection mentioned in Philippians 3 he is not so
sure, not at all sure. Of that his own words are:
"If by any means I may attain unto the
out-resurrection"; "Not that I have already
obtained"; "I count not myself yet to have
apprehended." Here is another dividing in
resurrection.
We
are bound to come to this conclusion, I feel, that at the
same time that resurrection divides, it also puts in a
position, and that the resurrection of Philippians 3 is
not the resurrection of 1 Thessalonians 4. 1
Thessalonians 4 is a far more general thing than
Philippians 3. Philippians 3 applies to a much higher
position in the expression of the Divine thought than
does 1 Thessalonians 4.
When
you come to the Revelation, you find the statement that
the rest of the dead lived not for a thousand years.
Well, there has been a resurrection, the first
resurrection, and it has wrought a division.
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection..." (Rev. 20:6); but a good many have
been left out of that. Resurrection has divided again,
you see: it has taken some, and left others.
But
again at the end of the thousand years there is yet
another resurrection, and again a dividing. There is a
resurrection, and in connection with this resurrection we
read: "And if any was not found written in the book
of life, he was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev.
20:15). Why state that, if at that time, at that point in
the course of things, all whose names were in the book of
life had been raised a thousand years before? Do you mark
the significance, that even after the thousand years
there will be some raised whose names are in the book,
who missed something for a thousand years? Thus after a
thousand years there takes place a resurrection, which
divides between those whose names are in the book, and
those whose names are not found in the book. If that were
not so, surely a divinely inspired Word would say that at
the end of the thousand years the rest of the dead were
raised and straightway cast into the lake of fire. Why
say: "...if any was not found written in the book
of life"? Resurrection has come, even at that late
date, to divide.
What
does all this mean? It means that there are resurrections
(not one resurrection, not two resurrections), and every
resurrection represents some stage, some position, some
bound of advancement in the Divine purpose; and you can
come quickly to this conclusion that the first, the
out-resurrection, is of a company which reaches the
highest position. Every subsequent resurrection
represents something less than that. We can be Christians
and lose the thousand years. If that is true, there may
be other things that we can lose.
That
is the significance of the overcomer in relation to
Jerusalem. The overcomer, as seen in Revelation 3, comes
to the throne, but that overcomer company of Philadelphia
and Laodicea is the overcomer company of chapter 12, of
the manchild. It is a special out-resurrection company;
and surely it is with that in view that the Lord has
brought into our consideration the urgency of our being a
people who are not in any degree earth-bound, world-tied,
but utterly out, so that we might form a part of that
company which shall express the fullest thought of God,
and know the out-resurrection from among the dead.
If
you have any doubt as to whether there is more than one
resurrection, read the New Testament along that one line
only. Unfortunately the Authorised Version in this case
does not bring the fact out clearly, but the Revised
Version will help you a great deal more. You will find
that two words are used in relation to resurrection in
the New Testament. Those words are the resurrection of
the dead, and the resurrection from the
dead. The Revised Version makes that distinction.
Resurrection of the dead is
one thing. There is to be a resurrection of
the dead that is going to include everybody, but there is
a resurrection from the dead, that
is, from among the dead, which does not include
everybody. The Bethany sister beautifully stumbled upon
that truth for our good: "I know that he shall rise
again in the resurrection at the last day" (John
11:24). She is speaking of the resurrection of
the dead, when everybody
should be raised. Jesus drew her up and said: "I am
the resurrection" (verse 25). Now note: John 12
which immediately follows (it is the continuation of the
narrative) says: "Jesus therefore six days before
the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom
Jesus raised from the dead." The word is
"ek," out from among. "I am the
resurrection" - "Whom Jesus raised from the
dead." In relation to Christ there is something more
than general resurrection from the dead, there is an
out-resurrection. The fuller the relationship to Christ
the more God secures by resurrection.
So
that Jerusalem has as its highest feature the overcomer,
on the ground of a resurrection which, as we see, is of
those who have gone all the way in their relationship to
the Lord, or, in keeping with our general thought, of
those who have not in any way been earth-bound,
world-related.
Resurrection
is separation, but resurrection as separation is simply
following out the principle of spiritual separation now.
If you and I are truly separated unto God now, so that
Colossians 3:1 is true of us: "If then ye were
raised together with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of
God," we are on the way to the following out of that
spiritual separation in an out-resurrection from the
dead. I am not of those who believe that all who have
been saved, who are living semi or partially worldly
lives, are going to know the out-resurrection. They are
going to lose something, and it is going to be possible
for people to have their names in the book of life and
miss the thousand years, if the Word means anything at
all. I ask you to look at the Word. Does it say that?
"The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand
years should be finished" (Rev. 20:5). Then there is
a resurrection, the books are opened, and those whose
names are not in the book of life are cast into the lake
of fire.
Now
we understand those tremendous warnings in the letter to
the Hebrews, for instance, about failing of the
inheritance, failing of God's purpose, and losing the
birthright, the intention of God. There is that
tremendous statement made about Esau, that he sold his
birthright for a mess of pottage. And then what? He
sought with tears, but found no place of repentance. Then
the letter to the Hebrews says: "...it is impossible
to renew them again unto repentance..." (Heb. 6:6).
Does that mean that they are eternally lost? No! They
have lost their birthright, they have lost their
inheritance, not necessarily their eternal life. They may
at the end of the thousand years still be in the book of
life, but lose their inheritance.
Now
you understand why it is that there is such stress laid
on utterness for God: perhaps you understand a little
better the nature of what we call the Testimony, and why
it is necessary for us to come out in a spiritual way
from everything, even religiously, as of this world, and
stand apart for God. Why all that? Why not succour the
more generally accepted thing? For this reason, that God
has shown a more utter thing of His will, which makes a
more utter demand, and represents a more utter cost. It
brings into a realm of a more utter conflict and anguish.
But what can we do, when we have seen the heavenly
vision, but go on? "To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne..." There is
kingship.
Resurrection
is the key to everything in the purpose of God. It is the
basis of everything. And resurrection is always a
dividing thing. You can come to one resurrection and miss
another. It depends on how far you have gone on with the
Lord. This is not a question of salvation, this is
subsequent to salvation. Paul had no doubt about his
salvation, and no doubt about that which was bound up
with salvation unto life. But there is another
resurrection inside of that, and of that he was not so
sure. For that he had to strain every nerve spiritually:
"If by any means I may attain." That
resurrection is not the resurrection which goes along
with eternal life, that resurrection is the prize of the
upward calling. It is for the overcomer.