"The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing."—Heb 9:8

IN OUR readings for today (Aug. 12) we see the nation of God's special choice in three important epochs of their history.

It is a wonderful privilege to be able to view at a glance the great historic panorama of the Hebrew people, for God has chosen them as the vehicle of His manifestation to the world. By their history He teaches us His ways, His divine principles of righteousness, His great purpose of salvation.

* * *

In the first reading (1 Kings 7) we are with Solomon in the building of the Temple—the most magnificent building of its time, and perhaps of all time. Its value is estimated as up to 5 billion dollars.

It was a great, intricately ornamented jewel of stone, cedar and gold—the pride of the nation and the wonder of the world—breath-taking in its lavish splendor.

But it was not God's idea. Like the appointment of the king, it was man's idea and desire. True, in God's great purpose there was to be a Temple, and there was to be a King. But the time had not come; and this was not the kind of Temple or King that God had in mind.

The Temple and Kingship were great paradoxes. They were types of the Spirit, but they were manifestations of the flesh. How beautifully does God bring the promise of future good out of present evil!

No trouble or expense was spared upon the Temple's external glory and beauty. If ever a splendid edifice could contribute to the value of divine service, this was such.

But as to inner, spiritual glory, it was a beautiful monument of failure, and God Himself had to finally destroy it because of all the evil that had become associated with it.

Our second reading (Jer. 33) deals with that time—the days of the prophet Jeremiah, when both the Temple and the Kingship were thrown down—

There is a great lesson in all these things, to be found in the words of Paul (1 Cor. 3:17)—

The building of the Temple was David’s idea. It was an expression of deep thankfulness and reverence (1Chr. 17:1)—

"Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee."

King and prophet—both worthy men—decide that God needs a splendid Temple for His honor. Nathan was so sure that this would be a good thing to do that he immediately gave assent on God's behalf. What could possibly be wrong with such a great and righteously intended plan to advance God's honor and worship?

But that night the Word of God came to the prophet—

Then follows the great Covenant of God with David—the raising up of Christ to rule the world in righteousness and peace from David's throne in Jerusalem. God continues—

"Furthermore, I tell thee that the Lord will build THEE an house" (v. 10).

God is the great Builder. That is the point. We cannot build to God, but He to us. Paul says (Heb. 3:4)—

Houses are manmade, but God is building a universal house, not of dead stones, but of living hearts.

How gently and graciously He takes the sincere desires of David to glorify God with a magnificent building, and lifts them to an application to eternal things!

David, the man of war, the man of struggle and conflict, is permitted to prepare for the house.

David, the man after God’s Own heart, desires to build Him an house. God holds up a gently restraining hand to his hasty zeal, and begins to explain many things to David, and through David to all like him who seek God’s heart.

Taking up this desire, God fashions it to a pattern of type and lesson for all succeeding generations. David, the man of war and conflict, must prepare. Solomon, the man of peace, must erect. To David was given a revelation of all the plans and specifications.

God must be recognized above all as both the Planner and the Builder—"both to will and to do in us of His good pleasure"—and to Him are reserved the times and the seasons.

The Temple, like the Kingship, was to prove to be a lesson in many ways, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Its splendor lasted but 40 years from the time its first foundation was laid—40, the period of trial and probation.

In the 5^th year of Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came and plundered the Temple’s gold. Its great external glory and magnificence was no defense, but a weakness and danger.

It was the king of Egypt who first came and robbed it. In our reading today we read of other buildings of Solomon as part of his royal estate. Among them (v. 8) was a house for the daughter of the king of Egypt, whom Solomon had taken to wife.

The House of God was not Solomon's only project—it was not his ONLY alliance and defense. He had considered it prudent also to make political affinity with Egypt—

"And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter" (I Kings 3:1).

He felt safer to seal his friendship in this way with this great world power. All the "wise" kings did so. It was considered very foolish not to take out this political insurance.

Solomon's misguided affinity with Pharaoh and marriage with his daughter had given Egypt a foot in the door and excuse for a hand in Israel's affairs. How often God turns our world scheming against us, to teach us wisdom, and smite us with the very rod we made for our defense!

* * *

Were the children of Israel able to build this Temple to God themselves? When God directed Moses to build Him a Tabernacle of the materials that had been offered freely and willingly by Israel, He said to Moses (Ex 31:2)—

God says He called him "by name." His name means "the shadow or protection of God."

But when Solomon came to build the Temple out of the materials taken by force as spoil from the heathen nations around Israel (1 Kings 7:13)—

The meaning of Hiram's name does not seem to be known. God did not call him by name. It was a Gentile name—he was named after the Gentile king of Tyre.

Hiram was not an Israelite. He was the son of an Israelite woman who had married out of Israel. He had a Gentile name and did not live in Israel.

Here again is manifested both weakness and promise. Weakness in the choosing of a half-alien as the chief artificer of God's Temple—promise in the union of both Jew and Gentile in this Temple-builder. In the beauty of God's infinite wisdom and mercy we see future promise and strength brought from the womb of present failure and weakness.

* * *

IN THE second reading, 400 years have passed. The Temple has seen much iniquity and neglect, and very little true worship. The 400 years (10x40) have measured the patience of God with a fleshly and unholy people. The conditions leading to this crisis are described in 2 Chr. 36:14—

And so the great Temple for which David had longed, and planned, and labored, and which had been built to the design given by God Himself, was destroyed because all its splendor had failed completely to bring the people to godliness and purity of heart.

And so our second reading begins—

The end for Jerusalem and the Temple is very near. The Chaldean army has surrounded the city for the last time. All escape is cut off. It is during the last year of the last king of Judah.

Jeremiah is in prison for devoting his life to proclaiming the Word of God. The nation is making its final stand against a cruel and terrible enemy, and Jeremiah is telling the people that there is no use to resist but that they should give in and allow the Babylonians to take them captive.

But there was a great difference. Hezekiah defied Assyria in faith and righteousness and obedience to God; Zedekiah defied Babylon in wickedness and disobedience. And there was a difference in the purpose of God. The cup of His wrath was filled; the time had come to pour it out.

How easy to be deceived by His apparent forbearing! But the cup is being filled—drop by drop—and finally it is too late. In v. 5 God says—

Its doom was sealed.

Then from this point to the end of the chapter there follows a stirring prophecy of their time of final blessing, especially striking in view of the background against which it was uttered: the enemy overrunning the whole land—the city shut up and surrounded—the people in misery at the end of their endurance—the one man of God among them shut up in prison. There is always promise and hope shining through judgment—

The nation was sick—very sick of the evil disease of sin. As another prophet described it (Isa 1:6)—

If sin is thus described as a sickness, why should not its sufferers be pitied rather than punished? Because a divine remedy has been freely offered, but men love the sickness rather than the cure. Jeremiah says (8:22)—

Gilead was proverbial for its healing balm. God is here asking in a figure: "Why is Israel corrupted with sires—have I ceased to be available as a Forgiver of sin and Guide in righteousness?" In Jer 3:22, God says—

This figure is used frequently throughout the prophets. God says similarly through Hosea (14:4):

And we remember the familiar words of Isaiah (53:5)—

"With his stripes we are healed." Can we not then see a deeper meaning to the healing ministrations of Jesus, as he went about the villages of Galilee and Judea?—especially when he said, as he often did to those whom he healed—

Sin and sickness are inseparable parts of the great pattern of evil that holds the world in bondage. "With his stripes we are healed." In the New Testament reading it is recorded that, as he was healing the deaf man, Jesus—

Sin is the greatest disease, and God is the Great Healer. This is the lesson that underlies the first incident in the New Testament reading—the issue between Jesus and the Pharisees over the endless traditional washings of the Jews.

It is so easy to fall into the same pattern as the Pharisees—careful and troubled about external washings—physical cleanliness, bodily ailments, fleshly diseases, natural infections—yet have far too little anxiety about the INFINITELY MORE DANGEROUS germs of impatience and anger, the virus of harshness and sourness, the infection of thoughtless living for self, and the gangrene of covetousness for worldly things.

Verse 6 of Jer. 33 continues—

Surely here is a foreshadowing of God's great manifestation of Himself through His Son in the fullness of times—"the abundance of peace and truth."

There is no hint here that 2500 years were to pass over them before this would be fulfilled. It is hard for us to get the divine perspective of time. The workings of God are a great lesson in quiet patience. The few years of a lifetime mean nothing to Him. See how long Abraham merely waited in faith. And Moses, who had such a great work to do, was 80 years old before God began to use him—before God was ready to use him, and he was ready for God^'s use. He kept sheep in obscurity for 40 years after he thought that he was ready and the time was ripe.

"And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity" (v. 8).

This is the part the Jews did not, and still do not, realize the need of. The cleansing and purifying and preparing of the individual is everything. 99% of our work for God is right inside ourselves—inside our own hearts.

The Jews wanted a Savior, but they did not realize his greatest work was saving them from their own sins. DO WE? Take care of that—the preparing of the individual—and all the rest takes care of itself. Subduing the world will come easily, at the proper time, once we have subdued ourselves.

Our greatest work in the Truth is making ourselves fit for God's use. It is so easy to forget that in our enthusiasm to prepare others. God will erect the Temple visibly at the proper time. Now is the time for preparing the stones, for hewing the timbers and refining the gold.

* * *

WE MAY wonder how God can suddenly cleanse a whole nation that has lain in wickedness and blindness for so long. Is not righteousness and cleanliness an individual matter of voluntary acceptance?

The method and circumstances of the purifying gives us the answer. Zechariah (ch.13) reveals that 2/3 of the people in Israel will be cut off and destroyed in the terrible days of the Armageddon conflict.

Ezekiel (ch. 20) reveals that the Jews of the world will be gathered into the wilderness of the nations, and there God will plead with them, and make them pass under the rod, and will purge out all the rebellious and unrepentant.

They are a strange and closely-knit people. There have been times in the past when a wave of earnest repentance has swept the nation. This time the shock of realization will be greater than ever, for after 2000 years of fighting against the light, they will suddenly be confronted—in the sight of all the world—with inescapable evidence of the age-old rebellion and folly—

Can we picture the unprecedented anguish of their remorse?

2000 years of nightmare suddenly revealed to be self-imposed! 2000 years of self-pity suddenly exposed as 2000 years of self-justification for the evilest of crimes against their own great Messiah—the Son of God who loved them and gave himself for them.

Consider their utter humiliation in the sight of all the world! Never was such a scene as this—never was there such a national self-searching—never was there such a sudden stripping away of all self-esteem! And coming just at the moment of the deepest danger and greatest deliverance of all their long history. What an emotional turmoil will twist and rend the nation to its depths!

Can we not see how in the marvelous wisdom of God the scene is gradually being prepared for this great national cleansing and transformation—a nation born in a day?

"And it shall be to Me a Name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth" (v. 9).

Out of this purified humility of the Jews will come honor. In weakness they shall be made strong.

Their past repentances have short-lived, and have died with the death of the powerful and righteous leaders who have from time to time led them back to God.

But this time they shall be given righteous judges who shall not be taken away—judges who will be able to discern the thoughts and intents of the hearts, and render swift and unerring judgment, as promised in v. 15—

IN THE New Testament reading (Mark 7) the Nation and the Purpose are brought face to face in the great crisis of their long and strange history. The Son of God—"the Lord our Righteousness"—walked among them, seeking to write his Name upon the city and the people. Verse 1—

It is significant that this delegation was from Jerusalem, the city in which the purpose of God centered and which was the scene of the events of the first two readings for today. Jesus said, when told that Herod sought to kill him in Galilee—

Jerusalem must be both the murderer and the scene of the sacrifice. Jerusalem was now just 40 years from its last and greatest destruction, just as it was just 40 years from destruction when Jeremiah began his ministry.

Forty more years and the Roman armies would come and destroy the city and the sanctuary, amid some of the most terrible scenes ever recorded, as Daniel foretold.

* * *

THIS delegation from Jerusalem calls Jesus to task because his disciples do not observe the ceremonial ritual of frequent washings required by Jewish tradition.

These lessons are laid out for us so clearly, and Jesus—with divine wisdom—so plainly discerns and manifests their error, that we may wonder how a learned, intelligent and responsible class of men could get things so much out of proportion, to be so fastidious about superficials and so blind about important principles.

But these things are written for our guidance and admonition, and we must find admonition in them. There are lessons here that apply to us, if we can but see the application

We remember the parable with which the prophet Nathan approached David regarding Bathsheba. David was violently aroused against the rich man of the parable who took the poor man’s lamb. He saw the point instantly…How could anyone be so senselessly selfish and cruel! It must be immediately punished with death!

It was not until Nathan said: "Thou are the man," that the terrible light broke upon David. So of all these lessons of Jesus. Let us say to our own old man of the flesh: "THOU art the man!"

The more we examine our old man in the light of Scripture the more we see him in all these Biblical lessons.

The Pharisees were very fastidious and correct in a shallow way, but they were very inconsistent in deeper things. They failed to comprehend even the existence of the deeper things.

The deepest principle of Truth is that all things must be done in, for, and by, love. To the extent that we fail to reach this depth as the motive and method of all that we do and say, to that extent we fall into the error of these Pharisees. Whenever we are harsh, or impatient, or unkind, we are exposing our professed worship as mere Pharisaism.

It is mean and unworthy (and a subtle gratifying of the flesh) to justify rudeness and impatience and sourness toward children as necessary discipline. Instruction and discipline must be in patience and godliness and love, or they are simply a cowardly diverting to defenseless children of our inner evil characteristics.

How could these scholarly Pharisees devote their lives to studying God’s Law without perceiving and living the true spirit of that Law? NOTHING IS EASIER. Natural flesh, having devoted itself to God’s Law, naturally becomes self-righteous and critical. This is one of our greatest dangers—

The Pharisee is present in us all, every ready to parade his own self-esteem upon the stage of God’s Word. When, instead of applying this lesson to ourselves, we give vent to self-approving indignation at the Pharisee of this chapter, we ourselves are in that very act manifesting the hidden Pharisee of the heart.

How true are the Spirit’s searching words (Jer. 17:9)—

And the apostle’s anguished cry at perceiving the natural hopelessness of this fact (Rom. 7:24)—

Let us remember the prophet’s words: THOU art the man Consider the example of Pharisaic hypocrisy Jesus exposes. How does it apply to us? Verse 11 of the 7^th of Mark—

"It is a gift to God—It is already dedicated—I am sorry but I am not free to give you any of it."

Perhaps the way in which we are most likely to manifest this Pharisaism is in respect to our time—"I am too busy—I must prepare my article—All my time is already Corban—I cannot stop to help you—I cannot write that so-needed letter of encouragement; I must hurry to a meeting; I am late already."

It is so easy to get into a comfortable Corban rut, like the priest and Levite hurrying to Jerusalem right past the wounded man, busy with our pleasant little self-appointed tasks, and lose contact entirely with the real issues of life.

They did not mean to be hypocrites, but they had allowed the old man of the flesh to completely deceive them. They had gotten things so terribly out of proportion that they had turned religion from a beautiful way of life into a dead skeleton of bare, rattling doctrines and meaningless technicalities. All the emphasis was on externals—none on the fruits of the Spirit in the heart.

Religion had become just a fixed set of beliefs and the repeated mechanical performance of certain acts—

The traditions of the elders. Some of their predecessors, with well-intentioned blindness, had invented a host of regulations, to keep small minds busy and self-satisfied, believing that if every aspect of life had its set religious performance, then the individual will of necessity be kept safely hedged within the path of righteousness.

They must have recognized that in the main their system did not work—did not produce holiness—but they would doubtless console themselves with the thought that the fault was not with the system but the people. We may very easily make the same mistake. We must constantly examine our own system for similar weaknesses. If our system merely produces self-satisfied doctrinists, and does not purify the Body from the fleshly corruptions of worldliness, selfishness, unkindness and impatience, and produce a people of outstanding gentleness, kindness, holiness, and zeal, it is mere surface Pharisaism, and our standing aside from other groups is mere hypocrisy.

Jesus tried to show them that what had been meant to be a living force in the hearts of men they had dried up into a multitude of legal technicalities—cold, dead, powerless.

Here again we are in great danger. We so easily drift into performing our religion, rather than freely and enthusiastically living it. We so easily go through its exercises—the readings, the meetings, the set times for prayers, the customary thanksgiving for our meals—and then leave it behind and forget as we step out into the realities of life. The holy Word of God on our lips one moment—impatience, irritableness, rudeness and worldly foolishness the next—sweet water and bitter from the same fountain!

As soon as custom begins to form a crust, as soon as there is any tendency to drift thoughtlessly through a performance, we are in danger of "making the Word of God of none effect by our traditions."

One very tell-tale evidence of this tendency to ritualism is self-commendation. We do our readings faithfully, no matter how tired we are or how late it may be—we struggle through them. And if we should happen to miss, we faithfully catch up, and have a pleasant glow of self-approval.

This begins to sound very much like ritualism. Why? Because self-approval immediately reveals that we have forgotten why we are doing them.

It is not a matter of commendable performance of some task—it must be the joyful fulfillment of a spontaneous desire. Do we have any feeling of self-approval when we do something we genuinely enjoy? No. Rather, we have a feeling of pleasure and thankfulness.

We must read, not just to get the readings done, but to enjoy learning more of God, to enjoy godly company and godly memories, to satisfy hunger and thirst for righteousness.

There is, of course, no virtue in not doing the readings. It is even sadder to miss them than to do them mechanically.

But in anything arranged according to a schedule (and some things, such as this, must be) there is the danger of the Pharisaism illustrated in this very instructive incident.

As he concluded this lesson, Jesus said—

Some have used these words to justify the use of tobacco. This is doubly sad, for the true spirit of it is missed, and a wrong idea is encouraged. Any with spiritual discernment will perceive this fallacy, for these words could just as well be used to justify addiction to drugs, to say nothing of alcoholism.

The defilement of tobacco, like that of alcohol and drugs, is from within. The heart that seeks these forms of self-gratification, and that subjects the mind and body to the unnatural and habit-forming influences and slavery of these things, is defiling himself.

But let us perceive the great truth of Jesus’ words. All defilement is from within—from the heart. It is the state of the heart and mind—the lusts, desires, reactions, intentions, motives.

Jesus mentions several things that come out of the heart and defile the man. The various lists of virtues and vices which occur throughout the Word should be carefully studied. The tendency is to slur over them, without considering each individually. But each is there for a purpose.

The tendency also is—noticing in passing that some are things we would never think of doing—to dismiss the whole list with a feeling of relief that we, like the Pharisee—

Instead of judging ourselves by noticing the things we do, we commend and gratify ourselves by noticing the things we don't do, and so the list—meant to purify and humble us—is perverted to the feeding of our pride. So, in this list, let us not concentrate on the "murders" and "fornications, " but let us take note of the two things with which the list closes—"pride and foolishness." No one can claim to be free of these two final defiling evils—pride and foolishness.

As we are comfortably enjoying a list of others' sins, we abruptly come face to face with ourselves. Thou art the man!

* * *

"And from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon" (v. 24).

This is the only recorded time that Jesus during his ministry left the land of Israel, for he was not sent—as he said—except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

It is striking that it should be Tyre and Sidon, the dominion of king Hiram—"ever a lover of David"—who had helped Solomon build the Temple 1000 years before.

On this visit to the borders of Tyre and Sidon there is an occasion of the manifestation of great faith and spiritual discernment on the part of a Gentile—the incident of the Syro-Phenician woman. She said as recorded in Matthew—

What did she know of David… and of David’s times…and of Hiram’s love for him…and of Tyre’s contributing the skill and materials for the Temple? And what did she know of Jesus, to call him "Lord" and "Son of David"?

At first Jesus did not answer her at all, in spite of her faith and tearful entreaties. Let us not then be discouraged when we seek and he does not immediately answer.

And when the disciples became weary of her persistent entreaties, and besought him to do something about it, he simply said (again reading from Matthew)—

Then she came and worshipped him, and said: "Lord, help me!" But still there was not the slightest hint of acceptance—

Would WE still have persisted? Would we still have loved him? Would our faith have said, "I know he is the Son of God, although he seems so narrow and cruel—I know there is a reason, though I cannot understand it"?

The Jews were children of God, and the Gentiles were but dogs. What an exposure to all the world’s fleshly pride and patriotism! Would we have burned at this humiliating rebuff, and have turned away in angry mortification? Or would faith, humility and wisdom have kept the way of hope open, and have brought forth the simple, beautiful reply—

And he said unto her—

Under great trial, the spirit held firm against the perplexity, disappointment, and resentment of the flesh. Like Jacob, she had wrestled through the darkness, and prevailed—

Have we less faith, less love, less perseverance than this nameless alien woman of Canaan? We, too, are Gentile aliens, the dogs that eat of the children's crumbs.

* * *

The last incident of this chapter is the healing of the deaf and dumb man. Sometimes Jesus healed with a word. Sometimes the healing is an extended, detailed process, as here. Here seven things are listed that Jesus did in healing this man. There must be some meaning to these things, for faith and wisdom to search out. First we read (v. 33)—

The significance of that, at least, is clear.

There are three occasions where it is recorded that Jesus spat in connection with his healing—this case, and two with blind men. The deaf and the blind—types of people in Israel—

The only other references to spitting are the several that refer to the treatment of Jesus by the people he came to heal. The ones he came to suffer and die for. Of the great Jewish council that condemned him it is recorded—

He himself prophesied this (Luke 18: 32)—

And the Spirit of Christ in Isaiah said (50:6)—

Spitting was a sign of deepest insult and shame—to submit meekly to spitting was utter degradation and contempt. We see then in the spitting in connection with the healing a reference to the way in which the healing of mankind was to be accomplished. "He endured the cross and despised the shame"… "He was despised, and we esteemed him not."

"And looking up to heaven he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is Be opened" (v. 31).

"He sighed." Why did he sigh? He was a "man of sorrow and acquainted with grief." How heavily the sorrow of mankind weighed upon him! Have we not, at a hospital, sat and watched the endless passing to and fro, and felt in some small way this acquaintance with grief? But to the infinitely tender spirit of Jesus, the grief of the world was a close and constant companion—

The people said in awe and thankfulness (v. 37)—

How little they understood the full meaning of what they said! How little we understand! In everything he was the perfect manifestation of God among men—

Bro. G.V. Growcott