John 4: 1-30; 9: 11, 12, 25 (from “one thing”), 35-38
Numbers 4: 4-6
There is a great deal of detail in this chapter in Numbers which we can go over privately. I got an impression a week or two ago which has been with me since and the hymn we have sung confirms my thoughts -
Unique in Thy humanity
Eternally divine
(Hymn 199)
I have been thinking of how these Kohathites were instructed in the handling of the holy things. It says they put this covering on the ark which was the veil of separation, then the badgers’ skins; and then they put on a “cloth wholly of blue”. It was remarked during the reading last Thursday that the ark was never to be seen, but when it came to the people of Beth-shemesh they recognised it, 1 Sam 6: 13. It had been in an area where the natural and human eye could not see it. It was there in the presence of God solely for His delight and satisfaction. The scripture says that when the camp moved the ark was to be covered with the two coverings, and then with “a cloth wholly of blue”. The beautiful fact is that it was for the eye of God, but now Christ in testimony was coming into view. In a sense few knew who Jesus was, but soon persons were coming to Him and that is why I read these other two scriptures. Persons began to recognise who He was and were able as it were to see this cloth wholly of blue. It really was for the eye of the Father. So you can understand on the mount of transfiguration, when comparisons were being made, the voice out of heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matt 17: 5. There is the cloth wholly of blue shining in all its brilliance for the Father’s heart.
And yet this woman in John 4 and the man in John 9 were beginning to see something of the cloth of blue. The woman was far, far away from divine things. She had some knowledge of religion, and she would have some understanding of other kinds of men, but there was no satisfaction; but there comes a Man who is ‘unique in thy humanity’: there comes this Person, Jesus. He sat “just as He was” at the side of the well, and she says, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself?”. Comparisons are there, but gradually the Lord moves along and has certain things to say to her. You get the feeling that something is being developed all the time in the woman’s affections. Conscience is eventually touched and her heart moved, and her eyes are opened. In a sense the mercy-seat was there in function, and she was there and saying, ’Well, it is all in Christ‘. What a beautiful picture, what beauty to behold! Heaven itself was aglow in Luke 2: 11: “a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord”. Heaven was looking on and seeing “the holy thing” there, chap 1: 35. Here this woman is coming to a knowledge of the Man; eventually she has to say, “Come see a man”. She had never seen a man like this before. I say these things, beloved brethren, because religion will not hold us. There are many things in this world which men try and become enveloped in; and I fear that some of our young brethren’s eyes are becoming clouded because they may have lost sight of the beauty of Christ. Dear brethren, let us hold to the fact that this is a Man who has come from the presence of God Himself, freighted with divine blessings, and there is a cloth of blue there - nothing else but a cloth of blue -
‘Tis not for human eye to see …
The fact is the Lord was here in the person of a Man, unique indeed and ’eternally divine’. He was amongst men, and what these persons began to see was the cloth wholly of blue, the glory of Christ in all His humanity.
The man in John 9 came to the point where he says, “And who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he. And he said, I believe Lord: and he did him homage”. Wonderful! A person in line with heaven; a person who has a glimpse of Christ. It says of the apostle Paul - Saul at that time - that “straightway in the synagogue he preached Jesus that he is the son of God” (Acts 9: 20); a Person out of heaven! He was “taken possession of by Christ Jesus”, PhiI 3:12. It is a wonderful thing; it is a delightful thing to heaven to look down and see such a One moving here in all His simplicity, in all His obedience, in all His perfection; and then persons began to see this. This woman in John 4 eventually says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”. The man in John 9 is led perhaps a little further: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. A little further on in his apprehension perhaps; nevertheless it is still the same Person. Oh that our hearts may be filled with the glory of Christ; oh that our souls may be saturated with the beauty and glory of the Person of Jesus! There is no-one like Him.
May our hearts be encouraged in thinking of these things! Later on, in Numbers 4, there is the covering of these other utensils, the other things that were to be carried. They were covered over by a cloth of blue to begin with, and then there were other coverings on top of that. In thinking it over, you can see the blue coming through in the woman in John 4, an expression of something of heaven in her soul; the man in John 9, something of the blue coming through too. They were simply testifying to the power of divine love they had proved for themselves, really the witnesses in humility of sinners saved by grace expressing something of the joy of heaven and of the glory of the One who had effected it all. Let this formation mark our lives now.
These are wonderful things, dear brethren, and there is nothing to compare with them. May our hearts be encouraged to consider these things, so that God may have the glory for His Name’s sake.
Aberdeen
4th October 2011