August 1927
500
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
PASSAGES THAT P E R P L E X
grace, He gave men, in His only begotten Son, such a reflection of His When our Lord, “the L ight o f the world/* fo r a few moments manifested Himself ; in the glory of trans figuration, mortals could not bear the sight. Not until we, too, are glorified like unto Him, can we bear that vision, but even then, and to all eternity, if we correctly under stand 1 Tim. 6:16, we shall not be able to stand more than the reflection of deity which will be given us in the Eter nal Son. A vessel cast into the sea can receive only according to its capacity. It is filled until it can hold no more. Finite can never take in the Infinite. If we behold Christ, we have taken in all that we can hold. God’s glory still re mains, to all eternity, infinite and boundless. The saints will therefore have a blessedness infinitely beyond that given to men shut out of heaven, for in some sense they will have the sight of God (Matt. 5 :8; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 Jn . 3 :2 ; Rev. 2 2 :4 ). “Where Jesus is, ’tis heaven there.” I ¿jMj.V' ~Ms >. afe An Unsinkable Ship O UR Lord had been engaged one whole day in teaching His disciples. “And the same day, when the even was come (says Mark’s account—4 :3 5 ), He said unto them, Let us go out to the middle and sink.” ( ?) Is that what He said? No—“Let us pass over unto the other side.” A long day of theory—now let us see how much these disciples had learned about faith and God’s care for His own. He tests us in the same way after we have received new truth. We retain only those blessings which stand the fire of testing. If these disciples believe their Master’s promise, this is an unsinkable ship. Their prospects (and ours) are as bright as His promise. If He leads them into a bad fix He will surely get them out of it. It will be far safer to be in the storm with Him than in the sunshine with the devil. You know the story. Christ sleeps in the boat: A great storm arises. The disciples are in a hubbub and rudely awaken the Master. “Carest Thou not that we perish?” It was not a prayer, but a protest. How often we approach Him in the same spirit! After quieting the wind, He quieted His disciples. “There was a great calm.” He is the pacifier of tumults both without and within. Even when we have failed to take His promise for a pillow, He comes to us and speaks the word that puts us again on a summer sea. But—“Why are ye so fearful? How is it ye have no faith?” I f we are out on the great waters doing His will and His promise has been given and He is with us, what right have we to fear? I f the storm comes it can only drive us nearer the port He wants us to reach. He will win, even in the whirlwind, arid all things shall work together for our good (Rom. 8 :2 8 ). glory as mortals could look upon.
The Invisible God W E have been asked by a sub
scriber to reconcile Exodus 24:9-11 and 33:20 with John 1:18.
The first informs us that Moses and seventy elders of Israel “ saw the God o f I s r a e l In the second, Jehovah is recorded as saying to Moses: “Thou canst not see my fa ce, fo r there shall no man see me and lively John 1 :18 tells us that “no man hath seen God at any time” but that “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom o f the Father, H e hath declared H im.” In the same context (v. 14) we have the statement that “the W ord was made flesh and dwelt among us ( and we beheld His glory, the glory as o f the only begotten o f the Father,) fu ll o f grace and truth.” . . ■ While the first passage tells us' “they saw the God o f Israel,” the description of what they saw is rather the place where He stood— “the paved work o f sapphire^stone, and as it were the body o f heaven in clearness” His glorious footstool is what seemed to impress them.- The very fringes of the divine vesture were so dazzling that they seemed to get no farther. , Prior to this, we are told (Exodus 19:16-18) that God-showed Himself in thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud, and fire and smoke and earthquakes. -Chap ter 24 records a manifestation of deity amid pellucid sap phire, blue as the blue of heaven. This time they were not terrified. Deut. 4:15 tells us expressly, concerning the first ap pearance of God in fire and cloud,, that “they saw no man ner o f similitude”— that is, no visible form or representa tion of the divine nature, the Triune God: It may be, however,'as some expositors hold, that on the occasion described in Exodus 24, some faint outline of God in human fo rm was seen, such as Isaiah salw (Isa. 6 :1 -5 ). or Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:26 ), or even Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 3: 25 ). In other words, it was a faint glimpse of God’s Son which they caught. The statement of John 1:18, that no man, by imme diate gaze and in the widest sense, has seen God at any time must stand unshaken. In the form of His Son only, has He ever declared Himself to the eyes of man. What ever Moses and the elders saw, it was something of which no image or picture could be made. It is significant that nothing is described save that which was under His feet; All our conceptions of God' are below Him and fall infinitely short of being adequate. “They saw G od/’ yet described not so much as His feet, only the splendid pavement- beneath, such as they never saw before. 1 Tim. 6 :1 6 'is another passage that is very striking in this connection. Here we are told that God dwells in light which no man can approach unto, “whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” The Greek word translated “man” here, means “all created beings,” including angels. I f we cannot gaze at the sun because of the dazzling brightness, how much less can mortal man gaze upon the blinding and inexpressible, glory of The Godhead! We should ourselves have to be clothed with divine splendor in order that we might bear the revelation of the beatific vision. “The L o rd God is a sun,” declared the Psalmist. In
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker