In the next chapter (2) the scene changes. Instead of the relations of God
with Israel according to grace, we see first the pagan emperor of the
world-the head of Daniel's last empire-exercising his power in Emmanuel's
land, and over the people of God, as though God did not know them.
Nevertheless we are still in presence of the birth of the Son of David, of
Emmanuel Himself; but He is outwardly under the power of the head of the
beast, of a pagan empire. What a strange state of things is brought in by
sin! Take special notice however that we have grace here: it is the
intervention of God which makes all this manifest. Connected with it are
some other circumstances which it is well to observe. When the interests
and the glory of Jesus are in question, all this power-which governs
without the fear of God, which reigns, seeking its own glory, in the place
where Christ should reign-all the imperial glory is but an instrument in
the hands of God for the fulfilment of His counsels. As to the public fact,
we find the Roman emperor exercising despotic and pagan authority in the
place where the throne of God should have been, if the sin of the people
had not made it impossible.
The emperor will have all the world registered, and every one goes to his
own city. The power of the world is set in motion, and that by an act which
proves its supremacy over those who, as the people of God, should have been
free from all but the immediate government of their God, which was their
glory-an act which proves the complete degradation and servitude of the
people. They are slaves, in their bodies and in their possessions, to the
heathen, because of their sins (see Nehemiah 9: 36, 37). But this act only
accomplishes the marvellous purpose of God, causing the Saviour-king to be
born in the village where, according to the testimony of God, that event
was to take place. And, more than that, the divine Person, who was to
excite the joy and the praises of heaven, is born among men, Himself a
child in this world.
The state of things in Israel and in the world, is the supremacy of the
Gentiles and the absence of the throne of God. The Son of man, the Saviour,
God manifested in the flesh, comes to take His place-a place which grace
alone could find or take in a world that knew Him not.
This registration is so much the more remarkable, in that, as soon as the
purpose of God was accomplished, it was carried no farther; that is to say,
not till afterwards, under the government of Cyrenius.
[see note #4]
The Son of God is born in this world, but He finds no place there. The
world is at home, or at least by its resources it finds a place, in the
inn; it becomes a kind of measure of man's place in, and reception by, the
world; the Son of God finds none, save in the manger. Is it for nothing
that the Holy Ghost records this circumstance? No. There is no room for
God, and that which is of God, in this world. So much the more perfect
therefore is the love that brought Him down to earth. But He began in a
manger and ended on the cross, and along the way had not where to lay His
head. The Son of God-a child, partaking in all the weakness and all the
circumstances of human life, thus manifested-appears in the world.
[see note #5]
But if God comes into this world, and if a manger receives Him, in the
nature He had taken in grace, the angels are occupied with the event on
which depends the fate of the whole universe, and the accomplishment of all
the counsels of God; for He has chosen weak things to confound things that
are mighty. This poor infant is the object of all the counsels of God, the
upholder and heir of the whole creation, the Saviour of all who shall
inherit glory and eternal life.
Some poor men who were faithfully performing their toilsome labours, afar
from the restless activity of an ambitious and sinful world, receive the
first tidings of the Lord's presence on earth. The God of Israel did not
seek for the great among His people, but had respect to the poor of the
flock. Two things here present themselves. The angel who comes to the
shepherds of Judea announces to them the fulfilment of the promises of God
to Israel. The choir of angels celebrate in their heavenly chorus of praise
all the real import of this wondrous event.
"Unto you," says the heavenly messenger who visits the poor shepherds, "is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
This was proclaiming good tidings to them and to all the people.
[see note #6]
But in the birth of the Son of man, God manifest in the flesh, the
accomplishment of the incarnation had far deeper importance than this. The
fact that this poor infant was there, disallowed and left (humanly
speaking) to its fate by the world, was (as understood by the heavenly
intelligences, the multitude of the heavenly host, whose praises resounded
at the angel's message to the shepherds) "Glory to God in the highest,
peace on earth, good pleasure [of God] in men." These few words embrace
such widely extended thoughts, that it is difficult to speak suitably of
them in a work like this; but some remarks are necessary. First, it is
deeply blessed to see that the thought of Jesus excludes all that could
oppress the heart in the scene which surrounded His presence on earth. Sin,
alas! was there. It was manifested by the position in which this wondrous
infant was found. But if sin had placed Him there, grace had placed Him
there. Grace superabounds; and in thinking of Him, blessing, grace, the
mind of God respecting sin, that which God is, as manifested by the
presence of Christ, absorb the mind and possess the heart, and are the
heart's true relief in a world like this. We see grace alone; and sin does
but magnify the fulness, the sovereignty, the perfection of that grace.
God, in His glorious dealings, blots out the sin with respect to which He
acts, and which He thus exhibits in all its deformity; but there is that
which "much more aboundeth." Jesus, come in grace, fills the heart. It is
the same thing in all the details of christian life. It is the true source
of moral power, of sanctification, and of joy.
We see next, that there are three things brought out by the presence of
Jesus born as a child on the earth. First, glory to God in the highest. The
love of God-His wisdom-His power (not in creating a universe out of
nothing, but in rising above the evil, and turning the effect of all the
enemy's power into an occasion of shewing that this power was only
impotence and folly in presence of that which may be called "the weakness
of God")-the fulfilment of His eternal counsels-the perfection of His ways
where evil had come in-the manifestation of Himself amidst the evil in such
a manner as to glorify Himself before the angels: in a word, God had so
manifested Himself by the birth of Jesus, that the hosts of heaven, long
familiar with His power, could raise their chorus, "Glory to God in the
highest!" and every voice unites in sounding forth these praises. What love
like this love? and God is love. What a purely divine thought, that God has
become man! What supremacy of good over evil! What wisdom in drawing nigh
to the heart of man and the heart of man back to Him! What fitness in
addressing man! What maintenance of the holiness of God! What nearness to
the heart of man, what participation in his wants, what experience of his
condition! But beyond all, God above the evil in grace, and in that grace
visiting this defiled world to make Himself known as He had never yet been
known!
The second effect of the presence of Him who manifested God on the earth
is, that peace should be there. Rejected-His name should be an occasion of
strife; but the heavenly choir are occupied with the fact of His presence,
and with the result, when fully produced of the consequences, wrapped up in
the Person of Him who was there (looked at in their proper fruits), and
they celebrate these consequences. Manifested evil should disappear; His
holy rule should banish all enmity and violence. Jesus, mighty in love,
should reign, and impart the character in which He had come to the whole
scene that should surround Him in the world He came into, that it might be
according to His heart who took delight therein (Prov. 8: 31).
[see note #7] See,
as regards a smaller scale, Psalm 85: 10, 11.
The means of this-redemption, the destruction of Satan's power, the
reconciliation of man by faith, and of all things in heaven and earth with
God-are not here pointed out. Everything depended on the Person and
presence of Him who was born. All was wrapped up in Him. The state of
blessing was born in the birth of that child.
Presented to the responsibility of man, man is unable to profit by it, and
all fails. His position thereby becomes only so much the worse.
But, grace and blessing being attached to the Person of Him just born, all
their consequences necessarily flow forth After all it was the intervention
of God accomplishing the counsel of His love, the settled purpose of His
good pleasure. And, Jesus once there, the consequences could not fail:
whatever interruption there might be to their fulfilment, Jesus was their
surety. He was come into the world. He contained in His Person, He was the
expression of, all these consequences The presence of the Son of God in the
midst of sinners said to all spiritual intelligence, "Peace on the earth."
The third thing was the good pleasure
[see note #8]-the affection of God-in men.
Nothing more simple, since Jesus was a man He had not taken hold of angels.
It was a glorious testimony that the affection, the good pleasure, of God
was centred in this poor race, now far from Him, but in which He was
pleased to accomplish all His glorious counsels. So in John 1 the life was
the light of men.
In a word, it was the power of God present in grace in the Person of the
Son of God taking part in the nature, and interesting Himself in the lot,
of a being who had departed from Him, and making him the sphere of the
accomplishment of all His counsels, and of the manifestation of His grace
and His nature to all His creatures. What a position for man! for it is
indeed in man that all this is accomplished. The whole universe was to
learn in man, and in what God therein was for man, that which God was in
Himself, and the fruit of all His glorious counsels, as well as its
complete rest in His presence, according to His nature of love. All this
was implied in the birth of that child of whom the world took no notice.
Natural and marvellous subject of praise to the holy inhabitants of heaven,
unto whom God had made it known! It was glory to God in the highest.
Faith was in exercise in those simple Israelites to whom the angel of the
Lord was sent; and they rejoiced in the blessing fulfilled before their
eyes, and which verified the grace that God had shewn in announcing it to
them. The word, "as it was told unto them," adds its testimony of grace to
all that we enjoy by the lovingkindness of God.
The child receives the name of Jesus on the day of His circumcision,
according to Jewish custom (see chap. 1: 59), but according to the counsels
and revelations of God, communicated by the angels of His power. Moreover
everything was performed according to the law; for historically we find
ourselves still in connection with Israel. He who was born of a woman was
born under the law.
The condition of poverty in which Jesus was born is also shewn by the
sacrifice offered for the purification of His mother.
But another point is here made prominent by the Holy Ghost, insignificant
as He may apparently be who gave occasion to it.
Jesus is recognised by the godly remnant of Israel, so far as the Holy
Ghost acts in them. He becomes a touchstone for every soul in Israel. The
condition of the remnant taught by the Holy Ghost (that is, of those who
had taken the position of the remnant) was this: They were sensible of the
misery and ruin of Israel, but waited upon the God of Israel, trusting to
His unchangeable faithfulness for the consolation of His people. They still
said: How long? And God was with this remnant. He had made known to those
who thus trusted in His mercy the coming of the promised One, who was to be
the fulfilment of this mercy to Israel.
Thus, in presence of the oppression of the Gentiles, and of the iniquity of
a people who were ripening or rather ripened in evil, the remnant who trust
in God do not lose that which, as we saw in the preceding chapter, belonged
to Israel. In the midst of Israel's misery they had for their consolation
that which promise and prophecy had declared for Israel's glory.
The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he should not die until he had
seen the Lord's Christ. That was the consolation, and it was great. It was
contained in the Person of Jesus the Saviour, without going farther into
the details of the manner or the time of the accomplishment of Israel's
deliverance.
Simeon loved Israel; he could depart in peace, since God had blessed Him
according to the desires of faith. The joy of faith ever dwells on the Lord
and on His people, but sees, in the relationship that exists between them,
all the extent of that which gives rise to this joy. Salvation, the
deliverance of God, was come in Christ. It was for the revelation of the
Gentiles, till then hidden in the darkness of ignorance without a
revelation; and for the glory of Israel, the people of God. This indeed is
the fruit of the government of God in Christ, that is to say, the
millennium. But if the Spirit revealed to this pious and faithful servant
of the God of Israel the future which depended on the presence of the Son
of God, He revealed to him that he held the Saviour Himself in his arms;
thus giving him present peace, and such a sense of the favour of God that
death lost its terrors. It was not a knowledge of the work of Jesus acting
on an enlightened and convicted conscience; but it was the fulfilment of
the promises to Israel, the possession of the Saviour, and the proof of the
favour of God, so that the peace which flowed from thence filled his soul.
There were the three things: the prophecy that announced the coming of
Christ, the possession of Christ, and the effect of His presence in the
whole world. We are here in connection with the remnant of Israel, and
consequently find nothing of the church and of purely heavenly things. The
rejection comes afterwards. Here it is all that belongs to the remnant, in
the way of blessing, through the presence of Jesus. His work is not the
present subject.
What a beautiful picture, and what a testimony rendered to this child, by
the manner in which through the power of the Holy Ghost He filled the heart
of this holy man at the close of his earthly life! Observe also what
communications are made to this feeble remnant, unknown amid the darkness
that covered the people. But the testimony of this holy man of God (and how
sweet it is to think how many of these souls, full of grace and of
communion with the Lord, have flourished in the shade, unknown to men, but
well known to and beloved of God; souls who, when they appear, coming out
of their retreat according to His will in testimony to Christ, bear so
blessed a witness to a work of God which is carried on in spite of all that
man is doing, and behind the painful and embittered scene that is unfolding
on the earth!), Simeon's testimony here, was more than the expression of
the deeply interesting thoughts which had filled his heart in communion
between himself and God. This knowledge of Christ and of the thoughts of
God respecting Him, which is developed in secret between God and the soul,
gives understanding of the effect produced by the manifestation to the
world of Him who is its object. The Spirit speaks of it by the mouth of
Simeon. In his previous words we received the declaration of the sure
fulfilment of God's counsels in the Messiah, the joy of his own heart. Now
it is the effect of the presentation of Jesus, as the Messiah to Israel on
the earth, which is described. Whatever may have been the power of God in
Christ for blessing, He put the heart of man to the test. He should thus
be, by revealing the thoughts of many hearts (for He was light), and so
much the more that He was humbled in a world of pride, an occasion of
falling to many, and the means of rising to many from their low and
degraded condition. Mary herself, although the mother of the Messiah,
should have her own soul pierced through by a sword; for her child should
be rejected, the natural relationship of the Messiah to the people broken
and disallowed. This contradiction of sinners against the Lord laid all
hearts bare as to their desires, their hopes, and their ambition, whatever
forms of piety might be assumed.
Such was the testimony rendered in Israel to the Messiah, according to the
action of the Spirit of God upon the remnant, amid the bondage and misery
of that people: the full accomplishment of the counsels of God towards
Israel, and towards the world through Israel, for joy of heart to the
faithful who had trusted in these promises, but for a test at that moment
to every heart by means of a Messiah who was a sign spoken against. The
counsels of God and the heart of man were revealed in Him.
Malachi had said that those who feared the Lord in the evil days, when the
proud were called happy, should often speak together. This time had arrived
in Israel. From Malachi to the birth of Jesus, there was but the passage of
Israel from misery to pride-a pride moreover that was dawning even in the
days of the prophet. That which he said of the remnant was also being
accomplished; they "spake together." We see that they knew each other, in
this lovely picture of God's hidden people: "She spake of him to all them
that looked for redemption in Israel." Anna, a holy widow, who departed not
from the temple, and who deeply felt the misery of Israel, had besieged the
throne of God with a widowed heart, for a people to whom God was no longer
a husband, who were really widowed like herself, and she now makes known to
all who pondered on these things together, that the Lord had visited His
temple. They had looked for redemption in Jerusalem; and now the
Redeemer-unknown of men-was there. What a subject of joy to this poor
remnant! What an answer to their faith!
But Jerusalem was not after all the place in which God visited the remnant
of His people, but the seat of pride of those who said "the temple of the
Lord." And Joseph and Mary, having performed all that which the law
required, return with the child Jesus to take their place together with Him
in the despised spot which should give Him its name, and in those regions
where the despised remnant, the poor of the flock, had more their place,
and where the testimony of God had announced that the light should appear.
There His early days were spent in the physical and mental growth of the
true humanity which He had assumed. Simple and precious testimony! But He
was not less conscious, when the time was come for speaking to men, of His
real relationship to His Father. The two things are united in that which is
said at the end of the chapter. In the development of His humanity is
manifested the Son of God on earth. Joseph and Mary, who (while marvelling
at all that happened to Him) did not thoroughly know by faith His glory,
blame the child according to the position in which He formally stood
towards them. But this gives occasion to the manifestation of another
character of perfection in Jesus. If He was the Son of God and had the full
consciousness of it, He was also the obedient man, essentially and ever
perfect and sinless-an obedient child, whatever sense He also had of
another relationship unconnected in itself with subjection to human
parents. Consciousness of the one did not injure His perfection in the
other. His being the Son of God secured His perfection as a man and a child
on the earth.
But there is another important thing to remark here; it is, that this
position had nothing to do with His being anointed with the Holy Ghost. He
fulfilled, no doubt, the public ministry which He afterwards entered on
according to the power and the perfection of that anointing; but His
relationship to His Father belonged to His Person itself. The bond existed
between Him and His Father. He was fully conscious of it, whatever might be
the means or the form of its public manifestation, and of the power of His
ministry. He was all that a child ought to be; but it was the Son of God
who was so. His relationship to His Father was as well known to Him, as His
obedience to Joseph and to His mother was beautiful, becoming, and perfect.
Here we close this touching and divine history of the birth and early days
of the divine Saviour, the Son of man. It is impossible to have anything
more profoundly interesting. Henceforward it is in His ministry, in His
public life, that we shall find Him, rejected of men, but accomplishing the
counsels and the work of God; separate from all, in order to do this in the
power of the Holy Ghost, given to Him without measure, to fulfil that
course with which nothing can be compared, with respect to which it would
be lowering the truth to call it interesting. It is the centre and the
means, including His death, His offering Himself without spot to God-and
the only possible means-of all relationship between our souls and God; the
perfection of the manifestation of His grace, and the foundation of all
relationship between any creature and Himself.
