THE MAN OF THE FATHER’S CHOICE

Genesis 37: 1-14; 22: 1-19

BWL I feel encouraged by the hymn we began with and the line:

Man of the Father’s choice  (Hymn 33).

That is simply what is in mind for our enquiry. We have read these two sections in relation to Jacob and Joseph, and Abraham and Isaac, and the outstanding feature in them is the father’s love for the son. We are going through Genesis locally, and I was struck when we read chapter 37 recently as to the end of verse 14, “And he sent him out of the vale of Hebron”. Hebron would speak of the purpose of God, and it led me to one of the hymns we have:

O glorious Lord! what thoughts Thy mind did fill,

When from Thy God Thou cam’st to do His will! (Hymn 226).

It goes on to speak about sons having their part with Christ, brethren of Christ, the church, and the day of God. All these thoughts were in the Lord’s heart when He came in. He was sent from the vale of Hebron. We know, of course, that the Lord is not spoken of as sent from heaven. As a divine Person He came in, “Lo, I come”, (Heb 10: 7); that was His own act. “And the Word became flesh”, (John 1: 14); that was His own act. But as here as Man in a position of dependence, He is viewed as having been sent and, indeed, in John’s gospel the Lord speaks of being sent on numerous occasions, but what was in His heart was really for the divine pleasure, and that is what I had in mind that we might enquire into. We read the whole section just to get the scope of it, but we are told that “Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was son of his old age”. We are given the reason for His love. When we come to the end of John 3, we are told that, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, v 35. We are not exactly given the reason there. The Father did not need a reason to love Christ. He loved Him complacently, but we might enquire as to why the Father loves the Son. What does He find in the Son that He loves? We might get some help in relation to that, keeping in our minds the fact that the Lord Jesus had the whole scope of the counsel and purpose of God in His heart when He came in.

We read in chapter 22 because there the one that the father loves was given up, which suggests the extent of the Father’s love, the extent of the love of the Lord Jesus, so that everything might be secured for God. So, at the end of where we read we have, “the stars of heaven, and … the sand that is on the sea-shore”, bringing in the great result that is secured out of the death of Christ. In Genesis 22 the offerings are all burnt-offerings; there are no sin-offerings in Genesis; so it is the death of Christ in relation to the purpose of God. We might get some help in relation to that too.

JTB That is very helpful and profitable. The Lord was loved “before the foundation of the world”, John 17: 24. It is very affecting that that love never diminished. He both glorified His Father on the earth and finished the work that He was sent to do, John 17: 4. That must have been an expression of His love, and really an indication of the Father’s love for Christ. The work would involve the whole purpose of God, would it?

BWL Exactly; so God’s thoughts were that He would have men like Christ in His presence. The Lord Jesus came into manhood to secure that so that the first thing with God is the matter of sonship. The Father found His delight in that. Sonship, as we have been taught, is particularly for God. Christ came into that relationship and the Father had what He had never had before. Help us in relation to “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. That goes back from before time.

JTB We often say we cannot comprehend what was there in a past eternity but we know that love was there, and the fact that there was love between these divine Persons is something very deep to contemplate. There was full expression of that love in Christ as coming into manhood.

BWL It was what the Father was waiting for. It is spoken of here, “because he was son of his old age”. I think we can relate that to God’s purpose. The Father was looking for that; God was looking for that and He found it perfectly in Christ.

DCB Mr Darby speaks in one of his spiritual songs of ‘Sonship, in conscious nature’, The Man of Sorrows. It just came to mind as we were thinking of this. Here is One walking before the Father in the consciousness and the delight of being a Son, and that drawing out the affection of the Father.

BWL Yes, so I need help in relation to this but there are two words that are used in relation to love. There is what is the settled disposition. We get both in relation to Christ.

DCB I was wondering about that too. Your referred to John 3: 35, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. The next reference is John 5: 20, “For the Father loves the Son and shews him all things which he himself does”. You see there is the settled disposition, but there is something in Christ that draws out an intensity of feeling on the part of the Father.

BWL Yes, exactly, His coming into manhood and taking up that relationship of sonship which did not exist before the Lord came into that condition. He then “is in the bosom of the Father”, John 1: 18. The disciples asked, “where abidest thou? He says to them, Come and see”, John 1: 38, 39. What they found was that He was living in that relationship that you have referred to. He was living in the conscious enjoyment of the Father’s love.

TWL Is there something in the fact the coat of many colours was made before he was sent?

BWL Well, I am sure we will get help in relation to it, but give us your impression as to that. It is what the Father found, speaking typically, in Christ, is it not?

TWL Well, we often speak of how the Father loved Him because He was the One who did all His will, but it is fine to see that the Father appreciated the manhood of Christ in His secret thirty years. The coat of many colours seems to relate more to who He was and what He was rather than what He had done. What a wonderful Man, speaking carefully, for the Father just to appreciate in secret!

BWL I think that is very good. We sometimes speak of the Lord’s moral glories, and we touched on that recently in Glasgow, first of all dependence seen in the babe, then subjection. These were features that had never been seen in such a way before. They were seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus. Think of the Father’s delight! I wondered if we see what is conferred here in the vest of many colours. It is what the Father gave.

TWL We are not given the reason for the colours. We get to look on the colours as seen in Christ, but Jacob had reason for making it that way. The Father had reason for loving Christ just because of what He found in Him in manhood, without Him having to do anything.

BWL Exactly. So, as going out from the vale of Hebron; it is really the Man of God’s counsels.

GBG It did not need the death of Christ for this relationship to be set out perfectly.

BWL No, the death of Christ was needed for us to come into things. The mount of transfiguration would really support what you say.

GBG Your second scripture brings it out more fully. The type has changed; we get the “ram caught in the thicket”. You need the death of Christ to allow us, through grace, to be brought into this relationship, but not between the Father and the Son. It links on with what our brother was saying. It is just who He was and what He was.

BWL That is good, and I trust that is what we get hold of in our time this afternoon, that we see how delightful Christ was for the Father. That is to engage our hearts and affect our hearts.

GBG In John 10, you get the Father’s love drawn out because He laid down His life and took it again (v 17), but the emphasis there is mainly on His taking it again.

BWL Yes, and when we come to Genesis 22, we will see that, because Abraham had resurrection in mind, did he not? “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again”. He had resurrection in mind, did he not?

DHM It says in Esther, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour!”, Esth 6: 11. This is the One that was in mind. “Delight” is a wonderful word in that sense. There is a fulness and a substantiality as to the pleasure the Father found in Him.

BWL We see that again at the mount of transfiguration when Peter begins to speak, and immediately the Father interrupts him: “This is my beloved Son”, Matt 17: 5. That was the One whom the Father was honouring.

DCB But before that there was the Father’s word at His baptism. That was a response to what only the Father knew. There had not been any activity in service apart from the time in the temple in Luke 2, if you could call it service, but the excellence of the Son had been before the Father’s eye for these thirty years, and that was acclaimed. At the mount of transfiguration there is an element of correction for Peter, but there is no correction there at His baptism. It is a simple statement of His excellence to the Father.

BWL So in these hidden years the Father found His delight in that Man. Every stage of the Lord’s life up to that point heaven found delight in. It had never been found before.

AMB In that time we know that He was occupied in the things of His Father: “my Father’s business”, Luke 2: 49. What would you say about that?

BWL You have been thinking about that.

AMB It is the only scriptural record we have of the Lord’s activities before He came into public service at the time of His baptism. There was something there that the Father found His delight in. There was a uniqueness about that blessed One at every stage of His growth.

BWL It is wonderful to think of that. The Lord’s answer may have surprised Joseph and Mary, but the Father was not surprised; He was engaged in the Father’s business. The Lord knew the heart of the Father. The Lord knew what was in the Father’s mind, and the Father did not hide anything from the Lord.

AMB Really it is a remarkable matter that we are told so little of the first thirty years of the Lord’s life. Do you think it is something we will find out about when we are with Him? Do you have any impression as to that?

BWL I am not sure. It speaks in Revelation as to “the hidden manna”, Rev 2: 17. There is nothing lost of the Lord’s life as far as God is concerned. We are given the four accounts in the gospels, and there is a fulness as to them.

NCMcK The Lord made the Father’s name known, did He not? “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”, John 17: 6. That was in the Lord’s life here. It was important to the Father that in a world that entirely misrepresented Him, where there was no true representation of the Father, that one Person would be able to do that, and that was His Son, that the Father’s name should be made known and thus glorified here on the earth.

BWL That is good; so the Lord came into the relationship of sonship that it might be conveyed to others. We come into that: “the glory which thou hast given me I have given them” (John 17: 22); we often speak of as the glory of sonship. It was a glory that was conferred on the Lord by the Father, but the Lord came into that relationship first. He had to come into that relationship first before it could be conferred on us. It is very wonderful.

JSS Joseph’s brethren ”hated him yet the more”, but is the divine intention that we should come round and bow down? Is that what God’s intention is? I think you mentioned in prayer that the Man of the Father’s choice becomes our choice too.

BWL Joseph’s brethren here, I suppose, speak of the Jew, and they speak of us as away from Christ. They are presented negatively. But these dreams also suggest Christ’s brethren were in His heart. Before He had secured them, they were in His heart. And there is an allusion too, I think, to the assembly in Joseph’s sheaf, and then the second dream in relation to administration and rule, looking on to the world to come and the kingdom given up. It is looking on to the day of God. All these things were in the Lord’s heart. We may think so much of ourselves and what we need, and we are thankful for the mercy and grace that has been shown towards us, but we need to get a view of Christ as the Man of God’s purpose, all these wonderful, eternal relationships in His mind when He came in, and then securing all, all these things given into His hand. Joseph is the great administrator in Genesis. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. That involves the administration and securing of everything for God.

TWL Is one of the reasons why the Father loved Him seen in what the angels expressed at the beginning of Luke, “on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, chap 2:14? God had never been able to say that since the fall before Christ came onto the scene. It was anticipative of the character of persons that would fill eternity for God when Christ was there.

BWL Yes, “good pleasure in men” is really universal, but it was because Christ was there in manhood. The ‘Man of the Father’s choice’ was there, only a babe, you might say, in insignificant surroundings and circumstances, but the One who was there gave God the basis for the angels to recognise that, “good pleasure in men”.

NJH Is the truth of Christ’s sonship peculiarly understood and known in the assembly?

BWL I am sure that is right. Go on, help us!

NJH She was really formed in the light of that relationship, as the Lord states in the revelation to Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matt 16: 16. Sonship would emphasise that link on the basis of the assembly being formed.

BWL That is good; so sonship is for God. It is what we come into and enjoy, of course, but primarily it is for God, but then in the assembly there is what is for the heart of Christ. There is also what is for God: “the assembly in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3: 21) is for God.

NJH John 17: 23, 24 was quoted earlier, “that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. We find that in divine purpose.

BWL Yes, so that “those whom thou hast given me … may be with me” is the assembly. That is good; so the assembly has this appreciation. Is it going too far to say the Father’s appreciation for Christ - “that they may behold my glory” - is the glory of the One that has accomplished everything for the Father? It is certainly known in a way that no other family will have.

PAG Is this consistent with what John says in his first epistle, “we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us”, 1 John 1: 2? That is a distinctive manifestation of the present dispensation, is it not?

BWL So the apostles particularly enjoyed that. John could say, “we have contemplated his glory”, John 1: 14. That was something peculiar in that way to the apostles, and yet, by the Spirit, we come into the appreciation of it.

PAG I think what you say about the Spirit is essential. John goes on to say, “that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us”, 1 John 1: 3. There is what was distinctive about what the apostles had, but then the thought is that what was distinctive for them should be established and maintained throughout the whole of the dispensation in the Spirit’s power, “the eternal life, which was with the Father”. It never ceased to be so.

BWL That is good; so we might say this dispensation is distinctive.

CAS John says, “and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1: 14. That is the glory of that relationship worked out, which really is this chapter: “Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons”.

BWL  That is good. Sometimes we speak of ‘John’s simple page’, and maybe we struggle about that sometimes, but how simple it is, “as of an only-begotten with a father”. That is not beyond the youngest here really, is it, in a certain sense? That was what they saw, the Lord Jesus in the enjoyment of His relationship with His Father and the Father in the enjoyment of His relationship with the Son. That is what they saw in experience, the reality of it.

JTB “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. There would be some expression and exhibition of the love which existed.

BWL So I think it has been said that the Father was there in the Lord Jesus. It was not just that the Lord Jesus represented the Father, but the Father was there. In Genesis 22 I think it says at least twice, “and they went both of them together”. You could say that is what is meant.

JTB I was thinking of Psalm 16,

I will bless Jehovah, who giveth me counsel; even in the nights my reins
instruct me.

I have set Jehovah continually before me; because he is at my right hand”,

v 7, 8.

That psalm refers typically to the Lord Jesus and the relationship which He enjoyed supremely with the Father, the intensity of the affections that existed between them both. It is a very affecting expression, “even in the nights my reins instruct me”, the inner organs of the Lord Jesus really at one with the Father’s own affections and desires for Him.

KRC He finishes John 17, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”, v 26. I was thinking of what you have said as to the reality of these things. The Lord was seeking that it would be a reality for them and for us, do you think? .

BWL Yes, so that verse has been linked with John 20, “And I have made known to them thy name”, John 17: 26. That is what the Lord was doing all the time He was with them right up until that point when He came out in that glorious resurrection morning when He said to Mary, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. I think that has been linked with, “And I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known”. At that point that lay ahead. The first thing the Lord did in resurrection was to give these words to Mary, but then there is to be a result, “that the love with which thou hast loved me”. That is what we are speaking about, that the love with which the Father loved the Lord “may be in them and I in them”. That means the Father is in our affections and Christ is in our affections.

GBG That verse has been quoted in Psalm 16,

I have set Jehovah continually before me; because he is at my right hand,

I shall not be moved.

The Lord Jesus is at the Father’s right hand in this dispensation, but there the Father is at Christ’s right hand. Does that suggest that the Father was always there for the Lord Jesus as a Man here, always available to Him? In His pathway He was never alone.

BWL Yes, I think we have a hymn that speaks about the Holy Spirit being ‘the power of His hand’ (Hymn 300). The right hand would sometimes speak of power so that it is really the power of love. All that the Lord Jesus did was in love for His Father but that involved a power as well. Is that really what is being referred to?

GBG I think what you say about power is good, the power of love because He - that is God - was at Christ’s right hand in His pathway here. Is that what you are thinking?

BWL Yes.

SCL There was a peculiar joy for the Father in terms of a Man who understood the Father’s heart completely. That had never existed, and has never existed on the earth to the same extent as when the Lord was here, when there was a perfect understanding of the heart of God.

BWL So only the Son could make the Father known. You cannot make someone known that you do not know or you might misrepresent them, but the relationship and knowledge of divine Persons is perfect. “No one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one know the Father, but the Son”, Matt 11: 27. The knowledge divine Persons have of one another is perfect. But the Lord has made the Father known; He has revealed God. The revelation of God was in His heart when He came in, and there is a fulness in the revelation, is there not? All that can be known of God by a creature has been made known. The Lord has done that, and there is to be a response.

PAG John 5 draws out particularly the position of the Father at Christ’s right hand. He says, “For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is Son of man”, v 26, 27. Further on He says, “for the works which the Father has given me that I should complete them, the works themselves which I do, bear witness concerning me that the Father has sent me” (v 36), so that the scope of all that He did as Man came from the Father. He did it in the power of the Spirit: “But if by the finger of God I cast out demons” (Luke 11: 20) and so forth, but the scope of all that He did came from the Father, do you think?

BWL Yes, that is very good. Also, we could consider there are certain things that the Father does not do: “for neither does the Father judge any one, but has given all judgment to the Son”, John 5: 22. That is wonderful; so think of the things given to the Lord to carry out. Although the Father judges no one, the Lord, as knowing the Father perfectly, would understand exactly what would be involved in that.

ADM Would you say the purpose of the two dreams was really to bring us into proper relationships? In relation to the brethren, they were to come round, and in relation to his parents they were to bow down. Would these two dreams have that in mind?

BWL Yes, they needed to recognise the greatness of Joseph, that is of Christ. In the dreams there is no thought of the moral history that is all to be gone through in chapter 37 and into chapters 40-45 in Genesis. Things need to be worked out, but there is no thought of that in the dreams. We are given the result, and that is what God is looking for, so that we recognise the greatness of Christ, “my sheaf rose up, and remained standing”. That really speaks to us of Christ in resurrection, what He did “according to power of indissoluble life” (Heb 7:16); but also I think “we were binding sheaves in the fields” is an allusion to what Christ is gathering at the present time in relation to the assembly. There are these suggestions that we get, securing His brethren, securing His assembly.

NJH Would “my sheaf rose up” suggest resurrection is in mind? It says, “and remained standing”. His brethren, His assembly, was the result of that.

BWL So the Lord saw the nucleus of the assembly in His own when He was here. We see what it says in relation to Peter. Peter says, “we have believed and known”, John 6: 69. He was linking others on with himself; the nucleus of the assembly was there. It awaited the Lord’s death and resurrection and the Spirit coming in but He could see the germ of things, could He not, concretely in those that were with Him?

TWL Is that seen in what the Lord says in John 10? He says, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me … I have received this commandment of my Father”, v 17, 18. It was in mind that He would be out of death and on this account the Father loved Him, because He would die to take up His life again on resurrection ground for the Father. Would that be right?

BWL Yes, I think so. We might think of “the grain of wheat falling into the ground”, John 12: 24. Again that was His own act. The Lord does not speak of that grain as sown; it fell into the ground and died. That was His own act. The “much fruit” is the result.

APG The first thing Jacob says as to Joseph in Genesis 49 is:

Joseph is a fruitful bough;

A fruitful bough by a well, v 22.

We often think of John 4 in that connection, the Lord securing worshippers for the Father.

BWL The woman in John 4 has been linked with the end of chapter 3 that was referred to. There is an administration going on that the Lord has undertaken, and the woman is secured. She is part of what has been given into the Lord’s hand. The woman is secured, and then she goes back into the city and she becomes part of the administration that is going on and secures the men of the city: “It is no longer on account of thy saying that we believe” (v 42); so we see the way the Lord is operating in securing persons.

We should maybe go on to chapter 22. We have again the matter of love, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah”. “Abraham … saw the place from afar”. It is all suggestive, I think, of the death of Christ in relation to the purpose of God. It is not exactly the sin question and all these things that were necessary for us to come into blessing. Hebrews says the Lord “offered himself spotless to God”, chap 9: 14. I think that is really this chapter; it is the burnt-offering. The Lord “offered himself spotless to God”, and what did God do? He made “his soul an offering for sin”, Isa 53: 10. That was necessary on account of us. But here it is really the delight that God has in the offering of Christ.

JTB Does the cleaving suggest the intensity of the effect on the Father’s emotions in the giving up of Christ in that way?

BWL Yes, I think the wood involves the humanity of Christ. It involves that One who was in Himself a divine Person, as God - we could not think of death in that connection, it would be impossible; but He came into a condition in manhood that the wood would refer to.

JTB Yes, indeed, the wood suggesting the humanity of Christ, but the cleaving seems to suggest what it cost the Father in that sense to surrender One so beloved?

BWL I think that is something we maybe need to contemplate more. We cannot think it was an easy matter for the Father. He knew the whole matter of resurrection and Christ was going to lay down His life and take it again. That is all very blessed, but for that life to be given up!

JTB Later it says he “piled the wood”, every faggot, as it were, having its own effect on the Father’s feelings, do you think?

DCB Is there something of that simple word, “yea”: “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son”, Rom 8: 32?

BWL That involves divine feeling, does it not?

DCB If we think literally of Abraham cleaving the wood, and then putting the wood on his son, and then piling the wood, what his feelings would have been. That is a reflection of the depths and the purity of the Father’s feelings in relation to what the Lord Jesus would have to go through, and did go through.

BWL Yes, and what it brought out was perfection in Christ. All these things are brought out in an increasing way, what was in Christ that the Father found delight in.

JTB Would Gethsemane enter into this too?

BWL Yes, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”. I think we have been taught that relates to what took place at Gethsemane. That was the character of the burnt-offering. God was so pleased with what He found in the burnt-offering that He took the opportunity to make Christ the sin-offering; that is the cross. That is not exactly the side we get in Genesis 22, the side of the cross, what is penal. Mr Coates is helpful in relation to the fire here, Outline of Genesis p 169, 171. It is not exactly the unmitigated judgment of God which fire does represent in other settings, but here it is the searching character which brings out what we have just been saying, the searching character bringing out the perfection.

WMP It is an offering by fire, a sweet savour to Jehovah, the burnt-offering. I often wonder, when God had such delight in that life, and He did, the green spot on the earth, why would that be given up?

BWL Well, God’s thoughts were to have men like Christ.

WMP So all that God found in that precious life is extended then in the power of the Spirit in men and women here. It is a very wonderful thought, but that is the triumph in it all for God.

BWL Yes, so I read the last few verses at the end of the chapter because as we are often reminded, Abraham comes down the mountain. Isaac is not said to come down the mountain. We are not told that Isaac comes down the mountain: it speaks of Christ glorified; He is out of death and He is glorified. That is the present position, but we have the seed and that is you and me, believers, what has been secured; blessing comes in.

DS Is there a time when only the Father and the Son can go on together without anything in the public eye? “And they went both of them together”. Is there something of the intimacy of love in that relationship with the Father and the Son going on together?

BWL I think we see it particularly right through John’s gospel. John does not give us Gethsemane, but we see at Gethsemane the disciples were not able. Jesus took them apart; He took three of them a bit further apart; and they fell asleep, Matt 26: 40. They were not able. The Father and the Son were going on together, would you say?

DS It is very attractive because you have been helping us to see the Father’s distinct love of the Son, and this is really the climax of it when there was One who was going to go the full way and express everything that was in the heart of the Father in order that we should come into the blessing. This is the great climax of the love of the Father seen in the Son.

BWL Yes, when the Lord said, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me” (Matt 26: 39), that was the Lord expressing, as a dependent perfect Man, the fact that the whole matter of death and being made sin was going to be for Him, the horror of it. We cannot comprehend that, but the Lord felt that infinitely, but think of the Father’s delight that He was entirely subject to His will, “but not as I will, but as thou wilt”. Think of the infinite delight the Father found in that!

CJMcK Isaiah says, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling”, chap 53: 2. That was before the Father’s eye. The “tender sapling”, is it the perfect, divine sensibilities in a Man? The Father had tremendous delight in that. Would that life given up underlie it?

BWL “And as a root out of dry ground”: He drew nothing from this scene or what was around. He was heavenly, “the Son of man who is in heaven”, John 3: 13. He is entirely heavenly. That would be like one of these colours in the “vest”: the blue is heavenly. The Father found His delight in that. There was no heavenly man here on earth until Christ was here, but now we have “the stars of heaven”; “and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. Think of what has been secured!

MBG I was just thinking of what was asked in relation to the life of Christ as given up in death; and what you said as to securing men like Christ is helpful. I was wondering too if there was also the side of the Father having men to share His delight in Christ with. That is really what we are doing today. Does that really give us a different view of the death of Christ? It is not only to meet my need and my experience here is not only moral exercise, but I can share in the Father’s joy that He has in Christ in some measure. That is another reason we have been given the Father’s Spirit, to enjoy what the Father enjoys in relation to Christ.

BWL Yes, I think that. That is really John 17 again, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. That involves the Father’s appreciation of Christ; we are brought into that. I think what you say is good, that the Father’s love for Christ is so great He wants us to have an appreciation of that too, an appreciation of the Man of His purpose, His well-beloved Son.

MBG So when the Lord speaks as to that in John 17, it is put as one of the reasons He has made the Father’s name known; so He came to make the Father known, and one of the reasons is so that we can share in the Father’s appreciation of Christ. It is a very blessed thing for us.

BWL It is indeed, and it is for God; it is for the Father. Sonship is for God. That is what He wanted. That belongs to God’s purpose that that relationship should be so.

KRC Just in that context, there was always a day coming when the Father knew that His communion with His Son would be broken, so that there could be this coming into an appreciation. It is interesting how it says of Abraham that it was he that “lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar”. The Father always knew of that day when enjoyment of that relationship of love would be broken, but it would be “in view of the joy lying before him” (Heb 12: 2), what would be secured through the Lord’s death that would be secured for us all to come into.

BWL Well, the Lord going into death gave the Father the opportunity to show His appreciation for Him in raising Him from the dead. Think of the Father’s delight to do that! That involves the Father’s love and affection for His Son. He “has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. That must involve the Father’s love for His Son, the Father’s delight in doing that. It is wonderful to think of. He has ascended up in glory: He “has been received up in glory”, (1 Tim 3: 16): it was a glorious reception; it is not just received up to glory - that would be true and right - but “received up in glory”. Heaven is stirred by a Man out of death, the Father’s affections entirely free to glorify His Son in raising Him from the dead and giving Him the first place at His right hand.

AMB That resulted in things being established for God, did it not? I was thinking of what it says in Hebrews 10, quoting from Psalm 40, “Lo, I come to do thy will. He takes away the first that he may establish the second”, v 9. There is what is for God on completely new ground in the One who did all His will.

BWL That is good, and the second established involves what is eternal.

NCMcK The love of God being wholly, fully, made known must involve death.

BWL To take such a way!

NCMcK You have spoken about the side of the death of Christ apart from the sin question. The assembly being secured as part of that, the whole purpose of God secured, required that death so that the assembly might be brought in.

BWL That is good, because in Genesis 2 before sin came in the woman was built out of the man, during the deep sleep. It is not the side of what is penal in the deep sleep, is it? but it still involves the death of Christ for the assembly.

DCB And there is the savour of the burnt-offering which really remains, and that savour required that the Lord Jesus went into death. I was thinking the ram here was needed to complete the type.

BWL The strength of the committal of the Lord Jesus, I suppose, is represented by the “ram caught in the thicket by its horns”.

NJH I was thinking of what has been said just now. We have the love of God expressed in the covenant in the cup at the Supper. Is that foundational, proceeding in the divine service?

BWL I am sure it is because if we are not affected by the love of God, what result will there be? It is really to quicken our affections that the love of God has taken such a way to make itself known. It is to affect our hearts.

SCL In both the passages you have brought before us there is this phrase, “Here am I”. Isaac did not really know what was going to happen here, but the Lord had full understanding and was willing, not just for our sakes, but so that the desires and purposes of God would be answered. There was a willing Man that would fulfil the desires of God. That is quite a special thing to contemplate.

BWL That is good to draw attention to: “Here am I”. I think the Lord’s appreciation of what was going to be secured for God, the greatness of God’s thoughts and purpose, is wonderful. The Lord in His understanding and appreciation of that, speaking carefully, thought it worth committing Himself to. God was going to be glorified in everything that He did. I just trust we may be helped in our view as to these things.

NCMcK Does God being glorified involve that God was manifested in the Lord Jesus as what He really is? Man had a skewed or misrepresented view of what God was, but Christ made known the Father, and God, as to what they actually are in all their love and all their glory: so it restored the truth as to God. He restored that and maintained it.

BWL That is good. “God is love” (1 John 4: 16); that is wonderful. Satan said, “Is it even so, that God has said” (Gen 3: 1), as if God was holding something back from man, but what is God’s answer to that? He came out in love, the giving of His own Son. There could not be anything else greater.

JTB “Jehovah-jireh” just suggests that there is always opportunity for us to be satisfied in the contemplation of these things. “As it is said at the present day”; it never loses its value.

BWL That is good. When the scripture says, “at the present day” or ‘to this day‘, it means it is current. I trust we have touched something as to the mount of Jehovah this afternoon.

Edinburgh

21^st September 2024

List of Initials:-

A M Brown, Linlithgow; D C Brown, Edinburgh; J T Brown, Edinburgh; K R Cumming, Edinburgh; A P Grant, Dundee; G B Grant, Dundee; M B Grant, Grangemouth; P A Gray, Linlithgow; N J Henry, Glasgow; S C Lock, Edinburgh; T W Lock, Edinburgh; B W Lovie, Aberdeen; D H Marshall, Edinburgh; C J McKay, Glasgow; N C McKay, Glasgow; A D Melville, Grangemouth; C A Seeley, Glasgow; J S Spiers, Grangemouth; D Spinks, Bo’ness