Thus were these varied places--namely, Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho, and Jordan--deeply interesting to the heart of a true child of Abraham; but their power and meaning were lost: Bethel had ceased to be the house of G.o.d save in name; Gilgal was no longer valued as the place where the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away. The walls of Jericho which had been destroyed by faith were built again. Jordan was no longer viewed as the scene of Jehovah"s power. In a word, all these things had become mere form without power, and the Lord might, even in Elijah"s time, have to speak to the house of Israel concerning them in the following impressive words: "Thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, _Seek ye Me_, and ye shall live: but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pa.s.s not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live" (Amos v. 4-6). Here is an important truth for all those whose hearts are p.r.o.ne to cling to ancient forms. We are taught by this striking pa.s.sage that nothing but the divine reality of personal communion with G.o.d will stand. Men may plead in defense of forms their great antiquity, but where can we find greater antiquity than that which Bethel and Gilgal could boast? Yet they failed and came to naught, and the faithful were admonished to abandon them all and look up in simple faith to the living G.o.d.
Through all the above places, then, our prophet pa.s.sed in the energy and elevation of a heavenly man. His destination lay beyond and above them all. He would seek to leave Elisha behind him while he pressed onward along his heavenward path; but the latter clings to him, and accompanies him as it were to the very portals of heaven, and checks the busy intrusion of his less intelligent brethren by the words "Hold ye your peace." But Elijah moves on in the power of his heavenly mission. "The Lord hath sent me," says he; and in obedience to the divine command he pa.s.ses through Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and on to Jordan; leaving far behind him all those ancient forms and sacred localities which might engage the affections of any who were not, like Elijah the Tishbite, carried forward by a heavenly hope. The sons of the prophets might tarry amid those things, and perhaps, too, have many a hallowed recollection awakened by them; but to one whose spirit was filled with the thought of his rapture to heaven, things of earth, be they ever so sacred, ever so venerable, could present no attraction. Heaven was his object, not Bethel or Gilgal. He was about to take his departure from earth and all its hara.s.sing scenes; he was about to leave Ahab and Jezebel behind to meet their terrible doom; to pa.s.s beyond the region of broken covenants, ruined altars, and slain prophets--in a word, to pa.s.s beyond the gloom and sorrow, trial and disappointment of this stormy world; and that not by the agency of death, but by a heavenly chariot. Death was to possess no power against this heavenly man. No doubt his body was changed in the twinkling of an eye, for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of G.o.d, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" but death can have no power over him; he rather stepped like a conqueror into his triumphal chariot, and thus pa.s.sed away into his rest.
Happy man! his conflict was over, his race run, his victory secure. He had been a stranger here--unlike the men of this world; yea, unlike many of the children of the kingdom. He had come forth from the mountains of Gilead as the girded witness, and the stern intruder upon the course of a professing world. He had no home or resting-place here below, but as a stranger and pilgrim pressed onward toward his heavenly rest.
Elijah"s path from first to last was a unique one. Like John the Baptist, he was a voice "crying in the wilderness," away from the haunts of men; and whenever he did make his appearance, he was like some heavenly meteor, the origin and destiny of which were alike beyond the reach of human conception. The man with the leathern girdle was only known as the witness against evil--the bearer of the truth of G.o.d. He had no fellowship with man as such, but in all his ways maintained an elevation which at once repulsed all intrusion and secured reverence and respect. There was so much of the sacred solemnity of the sanctuary about him that vanity or folly could not live in his presence. He was not, like his successor Elisha, a social man; his path was solitary. "He came neither eating nor drinking." In a word, he was peculiar in everything; peculiar in his entrance upon his prophetic career, peculiar in his pa.s.sage out of it. He was an exception, and a marked one. The very fact of his not being called to pa.s.s through the gates of the grave would be quite sufficient to draw special attention to him.
But let us observe the path pursued by our prophet as he journeyed toward the scene of his rapture. He retraced the path of the camp of old. Israel had journeyed from Jordan to Jericho, but Elijah journeyed from Jericho to Jordan. In other words, as Jordan was that which separated the wilderness from the land, the prophet crossed it, thus leaving Canaan behind him. His chariot met him, not _in the land, but in the wilderness_. The land was polluted, and was speedily to be cleansed of those who had introduced the pollution; the glory was soon to take its departure from even the most favored spot. Ichabod might be written upon it all; wherefore the prophet leaves it and pa.s.ses into the wilderness, thus pointing out to the spiritual mind that nothing remained for heavenly men but the wilderness and the rest above. Earth was no longer to be the resting-place, or portion, of the man of G.o.d; it was polluted. The Jordan had been divided to allow Israel to pa.s.s from the wilderness to Canaan; it was now to be divided to allow a heavenly man to pa.s.s from Canaan to the wilderness where his chariot awaited him, ready to convey him from earth to heaven.
Earthly things and earthly hopes had pa.s.sed away from the mind of Elijah, he had learnt the thorough vanity of everything here below, and nothing now remained for him but to look beyond it all. He had toiled amid Israel"s broken altars; he had labored and testified for years among a disobedient and gainsaying people; he had longed to depart and be at rest; and now he was about to do so in a way worthy of G.o.d--Jehovah Himself was about to place His everlasting arms around and underneath His servant to shield him from the power of death. In his case death was to have no sting and the grave no victory. Elijah was privileged, as he stood upon the sand of the wilderness, to look right upward and, unimpeded by the humiliating circ.u.mstances of sickness and death, see heaven open to receive him. Not one of the circ.u.mstances of fallen humanity fell to the lot of our prophet in the matter of his exit from earth. He exchanged his prophet"s mantle for a chariot of fire. He could cheerfully let his mantle drop to earth while he ascended to heaven. To him earth was but a perishable and polluted speck in G.o.d"s creation, and most happy was he to lay aside everything which marked his connection with it.
What a position! And yet it is only the position which every heavenly man should occupy. Nature and earth have no longer any claims on the man who believes in Jesus. The Cross has broken all the chains which once bound him to earth. As Jordan separated Elijah from Canaan, and brought him into the wilderness to meet Jehovah"s chariot, so the Cross has introduced the believer into new ground; it has brought him into purely wilderness circ.u.mstances; it has placed him, too, at the other side of death, with no other object before him than his rapture to meet the Lord in the air.
Such is the real, unquestionable portion of every saint, be he ever so weak, ever so ignorant. The happy experience thereof is, of course, a very different thing. To attain to this we need to be much alone with G.o.d, and much in the exercise of a spirit of self-judgment. Flesh and blood can never be brought to understand the rapture of a heavenly man.
Indeed, we find that the sons of the prophets did not understand it either, for they say to Elisha, "Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men: let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest, peradventure, the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley." Here was their highest thought about the prophet"s rapture--"The Spirit of the Lord hath cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley." They could not conceive such a thing as his being carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire.[21] They still tarried amid the things of earth, and had not their spiritual senses sufficiently exercised to perceive and appreciate a truth so glorious. Elisha yielded to their importunity, but they learnt the folly of their thoughts by the fruitless toil of their messengers. Fifty strong men could nowhere find the raptured prophet. He was gone; and it required other strength than that of nature to travel the same road. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of G.o.d, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Those who walk in the Spirit will best understand the prophet"s privilege in being delivered from the claims of mortality, and being introduced in a manner so glorious into his heavenly rest.
[21] It has been observed by another that the little children who came out of Bethel, and said to Elisha, "Go up, thou bald head," were mocking the idea of rapture. If this be so, they afford a sample of the world in their thoughts about the rapture of the Church.
Such, then, was the end of our prophet"s course. A glorious end! Who would not say, "Let my last end be like his"? Blessed be the love that so arranged it that _a man_ should be thus honored! Blessed be the grace that led the Son of G.o.d--the Prince of life--to stoop from His glory in the heavens and submit to a shameful death upon the cross, by virtue of which, even though yet only in prospect, the prophet Elijah was exempted from the penalty of sin, permitted to pa.s.s into the regions of light and immortality without the smell of death having pa.s.sed upon him! How we should adore this love, dear Christian reader!
Yes; while we trace the footsteps of the remarkable man whose history we have been dwelling upon; while we follow him from Gilead to Cherith, from Cherith to Zarephath, from Zarephath to Carmel, from Carmel to h.o.r.eb, and from h.o.r.eb TO HEAVEN, we must feel constrained to cry out, "Oh, the matchless love of G.o.d!" Who could conceive that mortal man could tread such a course? Who but G.o.d could bring about such things? The path of Elijah the Tishbite magnifies exceedingly the grace of G.o.d, and confounds the wisdom of the enemy. The rapture of a saint to heaven is one of the richest fruits and most magnificent results of redemption. To save a soul from h.e.l.l is in itself a glorious achievement, a splendid triumph; to raise up the body of a sleeping saint is even a more marked display of divine grace and power; but to take a living man, in the freshness and energy of his natural existence, and carry him from earth to heaven, is a finer display of the power of G.o.d and the value of redemption than anything we can conceive.
Thus it was with Elijah. It was not merely the salvation of his soul, nor the resurrection of his body; but it was the rapture of his person--"body, soul, and spirit." He was taken away from the midst of all the turmoil and confusion around him. The tide of evil might yet have to flow onward; men and principles might continue to work and show themselves. The measure of Israel"s iniquities might still have to be filled up and the proud a.s.syrian enter the scene as the rod of Jehovah"s anger to chastise them; but what was all this to the raptured prophet? Nothing. Heaven had opened upon him as he stood a homeless wanderer in the wilderness. He was now to be done with the land of Canaan, with its defilement and degradation, and to take his place above, there to await those momentous scenes in which he was, and is yet, to take a part.
Having thus seen our prophet go into heaven, our reflections on his life and times might naturally close. Yet there is one scene in particular in which he appears in the New Testament; and did we not dwell for a little upon it, our sketch of him would be incomplete. I allude to the mount of transfiguration, where Moses and Elias appeared in glory, and spoke with the Lord Jesus Christ of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.
The Lord Jesus had taken with Him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up into a high mountain, apart, in order to exhibit in their view a sample of His future glory, that thus their spirits might be fortified against the trying scenes through which both He and they had yet to pa.s.s.
What a company! The Son of G.o.d, in white and glistering raiment: Moses, type of those who sleep in Jesus; Elias, type of the raptured saints; and Peter, James, and John, who have been styled the pillars of the New Testament Church! Now it is evident that our Lord designed to prepare His apostles for the scene of His sufferings by showing them a specimen of the glory that should follow. He saw the cross, with all its accompanying horrors, in the distance before Him. Shortly before His transfiguration He said to them, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day:" but previous to His entering into all this, He would show them something of His glory. The Cross is in reality the basis of everything. The future glory of Christ and His saints, the joy of restored Israel in the land of Canaan, and the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption, all hang upon the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sorrows and sufferings have secured the Church"s glory, Israel"s restoration, and the blessing of the whole creation. No marvel, therefore, that the Cross should form the subject of discourse between Christ and His glorious visitors. "They spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." Everything hung upon this. The past, the present and the future all rested on the Cross as upon an immortal basis. Moses could see and acknowledge in the Cross that which superseded the law, with all its shadowy rites and ceremonies; Elijah could see and acknowledge in it that which could give efficacy to all prophetic testimony. The law and the prophets pointed to the Cross as the foundation of the glory which lay beyond it.
How profoundly interesting, therefore, was the subject of converse upon the mount of transfiguration, in the midst of the excellent glory! It was interesting to earth, interesting to heaven, interesting to the wide creation of G.o.d. It forms the centre of all the divine purposes and counsels; it harmonizes all the divine attributes; it secures upon immutable principles the glory of G.o.d and the sinner"s peace; on it may be inscribed in indelible characters "Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." No marvel, therefore, again I say, that Moses and Elias could appear in glory and talk of such a momentous subject. They were about to return to their rest, while their blessed Master had to descend again into the arena of conflict to meet the Cross in all its tremendous reality; but they knew full well that He and they would yet meet in the midst of a glory which shall never be overshadowed by a cloud--a glory of which He, the Lamb, was to be the source and the centre forever--a glory which shall shine with everlasting brilliancy when all human and earthly glories shall be overcast by the shadows of an eternal night.
But what of the disciples during all this wondrous converse? How were they employed? They were asleep! Asleep while Moses and Elias conversed with the Son of G.o.d concerning His cross and pa.s.sion!
Marvelous insensibility! Nature can sleep in the very presence of the excellent glory.[22] "And when they were awake they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him. And it came to pa.s.s, as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles--one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias--not knowing what he said." No doubt it was good to be there--far better than to go down from their elevation and glory to meet all the contradiction and trying obloquy of man. When Peter saw the glory, and Moses and Elias, it instantly occurred to his Jewish mind that there was no hindrance to the celebration of the feast of tabernacles. He had been asleep while they spoke of "the decease;" he had been indulging nature whilst his Master"s sufferings had formed the subject of discourse; and when he awoke, he would fain pitch his tent in the midst of that scene of peace and glory, beneath the open heavens. But ah, he knew not what he said. It was but a pa.s.sing moment. The heavenly strangers were soon to depart; the Lord Jesus was to be delivered into the hands of men. He was to pa.s.s from the mount of glory to the place of suffering; Peter himself, too, had yet to be sifted by Satan--to be deeply humbled and broken under a sense of his shameful fall--to be girded by another, and carried whither he would not; a long and a dreary season, a dark night of sorrow and tribulation, was in store for the Church; the armies of Rome were yet to trample the holy city in the dust, and lay waste her bulwarks; the thunders of war and political revolution were yet to roll, with terrible vehemence, over the whole civilized world;--all these things, and many more, were to come to pa.s.s, ere the fond thought of poor Peter"s heart could be realized on earth. The prophet Elijah must visit the earth again "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. iv. 5). "Elias must first come and restore all things."
[22] It is not a little remarkable that we find these same disciples asleep during the season of our Lord"s agony in the garden. They slept in the view of the glory, and also in the view of the cross. Nature can as little enter into the one as the other. And yet the blessed Master does not rebuke them in either case, save to say to the most prominent and self-confident among them, "Couldst _thou_ not watch with Me one hour?" He knew whom He had to do with; He knew that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Gracious Master, Thou wast ever ready to make allowance for Thy poor people, and didst say, "Ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptation," to those who had slept on the mount, slept in the garden, and who were about to deny and desert Thee in the hour of Thy deepest need!
How long, O Lord? May this be the continual inquiry of our hearts as we pa.s.s along to that rest and glory which lie before us. "Time is short," and eternity, with all its divine and glorious realities, is at hand. May we live in the light of it! May we ever be able, by the eye of faith, to see the bright beams of the millennial morning--the morning without clouds--irradiating the distant hills! Everything points to this; every event that happens, every voice that reaches the ear, tells of the speedy approach of the kingdom: the sea and the waves may be heard roaring--nations are convulsed, thrones overturned;--all these things have a voice for the circ.u.mcised ear, and the voice is, "Look up!" Those who have received the Holy Ghost have received the earnest of the future inheritance; and the earnest, as we know, is part of the thing to be received. They have been on the mount; and although the cloud may overshadow them too,--although they too may have to come down from the mount to meet the trial and sorrow below,--yet they have a foretaste of the joy and blessedness which shall be theirs forever; and they can unfeignedly thank G.o.d, as they journey on from day to day, that their hopes are not bounded by this world"s gloomy horizon, but that they have a home beyond it all.
"Oh wondrous grace, oh love divine, To give us such a home!
Let us the present things resign, And seek this rest to come.
And gazing on our Saviour"s cross, Esteem all else but dung and dross; Press forward till the race be run, Fight till the crown of life be won."
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Although, in the character of his ministry, Elijah the Tishbite much resembled John the Baptist, as has been already observed, yet looking at him personally, and considering his unearthly and pilgrim path, and specially his rapture to heaven, he stands before us as a remarkable ill.u.s.tration of the Church, or heavenly family. Taking this view of him, I think a few observations on the important doctrine of the Church will not be considered out of place as a conclusion to the foregoing sketch of his life and times.
It is of the utmost importance that the Christian reader should understand the doctrine of the Church"s heavenly character. It will be found to be the only preservative against the varied forms of evil and unsound doctrine which prevail around us. To be soundly instructed in the heavenly origin, heavenly position, and heavenly destiny of the Church, is the most effectual safeguard against worldliness in the Christian"s present path, and also against false teaching in reference to his future hopes. _Every system of doctrine or discipline which would connect the Church with the world, either in her present condition or her future prospects, must be wrong, and must exert an unhallowed influence._ The Church is not of the world. Her life, her position, her hopes, are all heavenly in the very highest sense of that word. The calling and existence of the Church are, humanly speaking, consequent upon the present rejection of Israel and the world. The garden of Eden and the land of Canaan were successively the scenes of divine operation; but sin, as we have often heard, marred them both, and now all who believe the gospel of the grace of G.o.d, preached to them in the name of a crucified, risen and ascended Saviour, are const.i.tuted living members of the body of Christ, and are called upon to abandon every earthly hope. Being quickened by the voice of Him who has pa.s.sed into the heavens, and not only so, but being united to Him by the Holy Ghost, they are called to occupy the place of strangers and pilgrims on earth. The position of Elijah the Tishbite as he stood on the wilderness side of Jordan, waiting for his rapture to heaven, aptly represents the condition of the Church collectively or the believer individually.[23] The Church, properly so called, finds (as another has said) "the termini of her existence to be the cross and the coming of the Lord;" and surely, we may say, earth has no place between these sacred bounds. To think of the Church as a worldly corporation, be it ever so sound and scriptural, is to sink far below the divine thought about it.
[23] When I say the wilderness side of Jordan, I only speak of Jordan in reference to the prophet"s path. If we look at it in reference to the path of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, we learn a different truth.
The spiritual reader will understand both.
The doctrine of the Church"s heavenly character was developed in all its power and beauty by the Holy Ghost in the apostle Paul. Up to his time, and even during the early stages of his ministry, the divine purpose was to deal with Israel. There had been all along a chain of witnesses, the object of whose mission was exclusively the house of Israel. The prophets, as has been already observed in the opening of this paper, bore witness to Israel, not only concerning their complete failure, but also the future establishment of _the kingdom_ agreeably to the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. They spoke not of the Church as the body of Christ. How could they, when the thing was a profound mystery, "not revealed to the sons of men"? The thought of a Church composed of Jew and Gentile, "seated _together_ in the heavenlies," lay far beyond the range of prophetic testimony.
Isaiah, no doubt, speaks in very elevated strains of Jerusalem"s glory in the latter day; he speaks of Gentiles coming to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising; but he never rises higher than the kingdom, and as a consequence never brings out anything beyond the covenant made with Abraham, which secures everlasting blessedness to his seed, and through them to the Gentiles. We may range through the inspired pages of the law and the prophets, from one end to the other, and find nothing concerning "_the great mystery_" of the Church.
Then, again, in the ministry of John the Baptist we observe the same thing. We have the sum and substance of his testimony in these words: "Repent, for _the kingdom_ is at hand." He came as the great precursor of the Messiah, and sought to produce moral order amongst all ranks.
He told the people what they were to do in that transition state into which his ministry was designed to conduct them, and pointed to Him that was to come. Have we anything of the _Church_ in all this? Not a syllable. The _kingdom_ is still the very highest thought. John led his disciples to the waters of Jordan--the place of confession in view of the kingdom; but it was not yet that character of repentance produced in them who are made members of the body of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Himself then took up the chain of testimony. The prophets had been stoned; John had been beheaded; and now "the Faithful Witness" entered the scene, and not only declared that the kingdom was at hand, but presented Himself to the daughter of Zion as her King. He too was rejected, and, like every previous witness, sealed His testimony with His blood. Israel would not have G.o.d"s King, and G.o.d would not give Israel the kingdom.
Next came the twelve apostles, and took up the chain of testimony.
Immediately after the resurrection they inquired of the Lord, "Wilt thou at this time restore again _the kingdom_ to Israel?" Their minds were filled with the thought of the kingdom. "We trusted," said the two disciples going to Emmaus, "that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." And so it was. The question was, _when_? The Lord does not rebuke the disciples for entertaining the thought of the kingdom; He simply tells them, "It is not for you to know _the times or the seasons_, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be _witnesses_ unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth" (Acts i. 7, 8).
Agreeably to this, the apostle Peter, in his address to Israel, offers them _the kingdom_. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and the times of refreshing shall come from the presence (ap? p??s?p??) of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of rest.i.tution of all things, which G.o.d hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."
Have we here the development of the Church? No. The time had not yet arrived for this. The revelation of the Church was yet to be, as it were, forced out as something quite extraordinary--something quite out of the regular course of things. The Church as seen in the opening of the Acts exhibits but a sample of lovely grace and order, exquisite indeed in its way, but not anything beyond what man could take cognizance of and value. In a word, it was still the kingdom, and not the great mystery of the Church. Those who think that the opening chapters of Acts present the Church in its essential aspect have by no means reached the divine thought on the subject.
Peter"s vision in Acts x. is decidedly a step in advance of his preaching in chapter iii. Still, however, the grand truth of the heavenly mystery was not yet unfolded. In the council held at Jerusalem for the purpose of considering the question that had arisen in reference to the Gentiles, we find the apostles all agreeing with James in the following conclusion: "Simeon hath declared how G.o.d at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things" (Acts. xv. 14-17).
Here we are taught that the Gentiles, as such, are to have a place with the Jews in the kingdom.
But did the council at Jerusalem apprehend the truth of the Church, of Jews and Gentiles so truly formed in "one body" that they are no more Jew nor Gentile? I believe not. A few members might have heard it from Paul (see Gal. ii. 1, 2), but as a whole they do not seem to have understood it as yet.
We infer, therefore, that the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles by the mouth of Peter was not the development of _the great mystery_ of the Church, but simply the opening of _the kingdom_, agreeably to the words of the prophets, and also to Peter"s commission in Matt.
xvi.: "And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of h.e.l.l shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys _of the kingdom_ of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind _on earth_ shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose _on earth_ shall be loosed in heaven."
Mark, it is "the kingdom," and not the Church. Peter received the keys of the kingdom, and he used those keys, first to open the kingdom to the Jew, and then to the Gentile. But Peter never received a commission to unfold the mystery of the Church. Even in his epistles we find nothing of it. He views believers on earth; as strangers, no doubt, but yet on earth; having their hope in heaven and being on their way thither, but never as the body of Christ seated there in Him.
It was reserved for the great apostle of the Gentiles to bring out, in the energy and power of the Holy Ghost, the mystery of which we speak.
He was raised up, however, as he himself tells us, before the time.
"Last of all, He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time."
Things were not sufficiently matured for the development of the new revelation of which he was made the peculiar minister, and hence he styles himself one born _before_ the time; for such is the real force of the original word. And how was he before the time? Because Israel had not as yet been finally set aside. The Lord was still lingering over His beloved city, unwilling to enter into judgment; for, as another has said, "Whenever the Lord leaves a place of mercy, or enters a place of judgment, He moves with a slow and measured pace."
This is most true; and hence, although the apostle of the Gentiles had been raised up and const.i.tuted the depositary of a truth which was designed to carry all who should receive it far away beyond the bounds of Jewish things, yet did he make the house of Israel his primary object; and in so doing he worked in company with the twelve, although not a debtor to them in any one way. "It was necessary," says he to the Jews, "that the word of G.o.d should _first_ have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts xiii. 46).
Why was it necessary? Because of G.o.d"s long-suffering and grace. Paul was not only the depositary of the divine counsels, but also of divine affections. As the former, he should act upon his peculiar commission; as the latter, he would linger over "his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh:" as the former, he was called upon to lead the Church into the knowledge of "a mystery which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men;" as the latter, he would, like his Master, with "a slow and measured step," turn his back upon the devoted city and the infatuated nation.
In a word, as the gospel with which he was entrusted could only be proclaimed upon the ground of the total abandonment of earth, the earthly city, and the earthly nation, and as Paul"s heart yearned over that nation and city, therefore it was that he was so slow to make known publicly the gospel which he preached. He delayed for fourteen years, as he himself informs us. "Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took t.i.tus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain" (Gal.
ii. 1, 2). This is a very important pa.s.sage on the question now before us. Paul had been raised up quite out of the regular course of things; his ministry was totally divested of the earthly, human and Jewish element; so much so indeed as to give rise to numerous questions as to its divine origin.[24]
[24] There have not been wanting modern teachers who have labored to deprive Paul"s ministry of its peculiarly heavenly character by placing him among the regular college of apostles, whose aspect and bearing were manifestly Jewish. This they do by calling in question the election of Matthias. But to all those who need more than the exercise of spiritual judgment to guide them in this matter it may be sufficient to say that the Holy Ghost raised no question as to the validity of Matthias"s election, for He fell upon him in common with his fellow-apostles. However, we can well understand why those who feel themselves called upon to uphold human systems should labor so diligently to reduce our apostle"s ministry to a human, or earthly level.
To him was committed what he emphatically styles _his_ gospel. But, as has been remarked, it was a question whether things were ripe as regards the divine counsels respecting Israel, for the public development of this gospel. The apostle felt this to be a momentous question: hence his caution in communicating it _severally_ to a few.
He could not, even in the midst of the Church at Jerusalem, speak openly on this grand question, because he feared that the full time had not come, and that, should he develop it prematurely, few had sufficient spiritual intelligence or largeness of mind to understand or enter into it. His fears, as we know, were well grounded. There were few at Jerusalem who were at all prepared for Paul"s gospel. Even some years later we find James, who seems to have taken a very prominent place in the Church at Jerusalem, inducing Paul to purify himself and shave his head. And what was this for? Just to prevent a break-up of the earthly thing. "Thou seest, brother," said James, "how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law. And they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circ.u.mcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? The mult.i.tude must needs come together; for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this that we say to thee: we have four men which have a vow on them; them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads; and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law" (Acts xxi. 20-24).
Here, then, we have abundant proof of the fact that the great mystery was not understood and would not be received by the Church at Jerusalem.[25]