We will now turn to our second illustration of the church, the bride of Christ.
Rebecca. Gen. 22 to 24.
If we turn to this inspired account, we notice that Isaac had no bride until after that remarkable event in his history, his being offered up on the altar, and his being received in figure from the dead. It is written of Abraham, after he had offered up his only begotten son, that he accounted that “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19).) Until this event, until in figure Isaac was raised from the dead, we do not hear of the bride of Isaac. This in our illustration then is the foundation of all that follows. “God will provide himself a lamb.”
Was not this so in the great antitype? When God gave up His only begotten Son unto the actual death of the cross, and until that work was finished on the cross, and God had raised up His Son from the dead, until then we have not one word of the church, the bride of Christ, as an existing thing. So far then the illustration is in keeping with the New Testament account of the formation of the church.
Then, in the account in Genesis, it is after the receiving of Isaac from the dead, that Sarah dies, and is buried. It was after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the Jews were set aside and for a time buried among the nations.
But still more striking is the fact, that after the death and resurrection of Isaac, the father, Abraham, and the risen son, Isaac, send the third person, the steward of the household, from Canaan (figure of heaven) for the specific purpose of fetching the bride, Rebecca, for Isaac the son. Could anything be more striking as a figure? It was after Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom, had died, and was risen from the dead, and had ascended up to heaven, that the Father and the Son sent the Holy Ghost from heaven to this world,—the Jews having rejected the Savior-Messiah, and all the promises to Israel for a time being set aside, buried, as it were, for the present. Oh, that this were understood. The specific object οf the descent of the Holy Ghost, as we shall see when we come to the Acts and Epistles, was to form the bride, and take her to meet the Bridegroom. Let us look at this picture.
Eliezer then is a figure of the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. He comes, sent of the father, Abraham, for a bride for Isaac. He does not come for all Mesopotamia. And at this time Jesus does not ask for the whole world, but for those whom the Father hath given Him, and who will compose the bride.
Mark, he comes in pure grace, giving freely his gifts, but giving first to the bride. Like Jesus at the well, he desires a drink of water from this stranger. For the Holy Spirit, as the Shepherd, also has joy in finding the lost one. (Luke 15) But he brings all to her: the jewels for the forehead, and the bracelets for the hands. And not as the world, he giveth all first. Such is the way of the Holy Spirit in taking of the things that are Christ’s. It is the righteousness of God unto all, and the jewel upon the forehead of every one that believeth, and where the righteousness of God is on the forehead, everlasting love clasps the hands. This free favor touches the heart of Rebecca. There is room enough for the camels to lodge in.
It is free favor, everlasting love, that opens the heart to Christ, and the Spirit then dwells there forever. The heart is won for Christ. Mark this second type brings out the work of the Spirit in fetching the bride. Precious lessons for every servant of Christ. It is ours to seek this divine guidance, and when we have found it, to bow and worship. And now he brings out “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebecca; he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.” Yes, the Gospel of the Holy Ghost is all giving. Every other gospel is asking something from mm, who finds he has nothing to give.
Which gospel do you hear? Giving in pure free favor, like our picture here; or asking like the law, and giving nothing? But thus the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ for the bride. The precious realties of redemption are figured by jewels of silver, and divine righteousness by the figure of gold. All is from the risen Son, the heavenly bridegroom. But when thus clothed, and made meet to be the bride of Isaac, is there nothing more? no question of responsibility for the bride? Yes, there is the question of all questions: “Wilt thou go?” Have we heard that question? The Holy Ghost will never ask you that question until He has shown you and given you all that makes you perfectly meet to be the bride of Christ. Ah, then your heart longs to be gone. “Yes,” she said, “I will go.” “And the servant took Rebecca and went his way.” Yes, she is gone from all she held dear in that land of idolaters. She is gone to meet the bridegroom. She sits on the camel with her back on her former home and her face toward the bridegroom and her future home. Which way do you sit, my reader? Is your back on all you once held dear in a sinful world? Is your face toward your waiting Bridegroom and your eternal home above? The true attitude of the church is to go out to meet Him she loves. This was her first love. Yes, she turned her back on all below, to meet Him she loved. The journey was long, in dependence, at every step, on the guide who came to fetch her.
But the next event, after she left her old home, was “Isaac came,” “and Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming.” And to this agree the words of Jesus, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Yes, as Isaac came out in the fields of Canaan to meditate, so Jesus is now meditating in the fields of glory. Oh, that the bride may now lift up her eyes and see Him, as Rebecca lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac. May we, like her, dwell on all the Spirit has to tell us of the Man that cometh out to meet us. Oh yes, we will ask the Spirit to tell us more and more of the Man that cometh out to meet us. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17).)
Yes, as the call of Rebecca brings before us the work of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, to form and fetch the bride to meet and be forever with the Lord, this lovely picture will enable us to detect all that counterfeits His blessed work.
Let us try it. Here comes a very large company, led by a wonderful person. You will find his name and character in 2 Cor. 11:1414And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14), and his company in verse 15. But how is this? They are all going the wrong way. They have all their backs on the coming of the Lord. They all say in their hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” They are full of hatred to Rebecca, and would like to smite her. They say, “We are the church, and all that do not belong to us are damned, or shall be, both in this world and the next, so soon as we have power.”
Well, they seem very much in earnest; they seem to have an object before them. If it is not Christ coming from heaven to meet them, what is it? Ah, if you could but get it out of them you would not forget it.
Ask one or two. Well, try this one—the Revelation So-and-so. Kindly excuse me, do you not profess to be a Christian, and this company with you, does it not bear the name of being “the church, the bride of Christ?” “Yes, quite so. And we are the only church; all others are heretics, and will be lost forever.” This is strange. Did not the church of Christ in the beginning go out to meet Him? And you are going the wrong way, with your backs to the coining of the Lord, and your faces on what?
How many would say, if they spoke up, “I have no time to think about such things as the coming of the Lord, I am seeking a good living in the world. We want possession of all Mesopotamia, and divide it into parishes for priests.”
And here comes another. He might say, “I am not so foolish as to give up the world. I delight in tennis, football, and all the dancing and carousing of Mesopotamia.” Poor things! When they think of eternity, they need a good amount of what they call pleasure to make up for the awful despair of eternity.
Far more than this is true of that company who assume to be the only church on earth, but alas, they are traveling the wrong way. But what a test for the writer, and every reader of these lines! Are we being led by Satan, or by the Holy Ghost? Is the world your object, or mine? Or is the object of our hearts the Bridegroom of the church? Have we received the free-grace gifts of the Holy Ghost? Christ our redemption; Christ our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our all? Have we been won to Christ? Have we said, “I will go?” What have we gone out from to meet the Lord?
Is He, the coming One, the object of our hearts?
Before we look at our third picture, let us meditate on this question: Which way are we traveling? If not to meet the Lord, our name is not Rebecca. In this picture then we see that the purpose of the Father, and the work of the Holy Ghost during this time, is to gather and present the bride to the risen Son. This alone is the present work of the Spirit.
Ruth.
We have looked at the creation of Eve as illustrating the purpose and work of God, in the new creation of the church, the bride of Christ.
We have also seen the work of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to form the church, the bride of Christ, in the call of Rebecca.
Now we would behold the Bridegroom-Redeemer in the Book of Ruth—the attractions of Christ, and the way the desolate stranger is drawn to Him and becomes the redeemed bride.
We get also the exercises of heart through which each soul passes, more or less, that is brought to Christ. Just as each, whether Jew or Gentile, is found dead in sins, children of wrath in Eph. 2—yes, each of those raised up with Christ to occupy the place of highest blessings in Him in the heavenlies—so it is in our picture. Ruth is one of a people outside, under the curse according to the law. (See Deut. 23:3-63An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever: 4Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee. 5Nevertheless the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. 6Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. (Deuteronomy 23:3‑6).) Just as in Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12), “Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
Such is our condition by nature. Such was the position of Ruth, the Moabitess. And death was written upon her. All hope was gone as to her husband, he was dead, and his brother was dead; Elimelech their father also was dead. This is the place where grace finds her. For from first to last “by grace ye are saved.” God can use whom He pleases in that work of grace.
She who was “Naomi” (pleasing) in the land of Jehovah, has become “Mara” (bitter) when away from her God, and is stirred, for she hears of blessing when in the land of Moab far away, “ how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her.” Thus the work of grace begins apparently in both Ruth and Orpah. And so it is, often the work seems to begin in two persons, and they travel on together for a time. And there is the same outward love for a time to the feeble messenger of that grace. Thus it was with Orpah as well as Ruth. Orpah wept and kissed Naomi, and then went back to her demon floods. 1 Cor. 10:2020But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. (1 Corinthians 10:20), “I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils [demons] and not to God.”
How many Orpahs have we known, who once professed to have left the world, and started for the heavenly journey? Such have sacrificed themselves and their children to the worship of fashion and pleasure. Not so where there is a real work of grace: “Ruth clave unto her.” She says, “Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,” &c. However little knowledge, there is and must be uncompromising decision for Christ.
Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the soul’s first meeting with Christ than Ruth 2 She gleans in the field of the bridegroom, the kinsman-redeemer. What grace he shows her! She is welcome when thirsty to drink, and at meal times to come and eat; and handfuls are dropped on purpose for her. Still she was only a gleaner. Many remain in the fields of our Boaz, happy to get blessing, and sharing those blessings with others, as Ruth did with Naomi, and never seem to reach the true ground of rest. “Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?” said Naomi to Ruth.
We notice, that the only way to find rest, is to seek it at the feet of the Redeemer-kinsman, as seen in chapter iii. We must know Him as the Redeemer-Bridegroom; just as Ruth took that place at the feet of Boaz in his sleep, picture of the death of Christ. Spread thy sheltering protection over me, for thou art One that hath right to redeem. There was another relation before Boaz, and Ruth had to wait until the morning. Yes, we must be brought to the death, the cross of Christ. But mark it is not there we find rest, the rest of redemption. If the morning of the resurrection of Christ had never broken the silence of the tomb, we could never have found eternal rest. He must rise again, or there can be no redeemed bride. We must call attention to this point in this beautiful illustration. The church as such had no actual existence until Jesus arose from the dead. Ruth has not to glean now, but to sit still, “for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”
Chapter 4 is the question who is to be your husband and redeemer? Man, as represented in Israel, was placed under law, as the old husband. That relationship existed. The question then was, could the law bring man into resurrection-redemption? It could not. It could go no further than the land, that is, the government of God in this world. It could not redeem the guilty. The first kinsman could not redeem Ruth, one of the accursed race, and give her a place in resurrection. Very strikingly is all this brought out in this chapter. He must relinquish all claim and pretension, “So he drew off his shoe.” What he could not do, Boaz did; he says, “Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”
In like manner, what the law could not do Christ has done; as it is written, “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,” &c. Oh what love was this, the eternal Son, the creator of all things, to humble Himself so low as to become the Redeemer-kinsman of poor lost sinners under the curse of sin, to pay the purchase of their redemption; and, as risen from the dead, to take them into everlasting oneness with Himself as His body and His bride.
Very briefly let us now see how all these pictures or types of the church have been fulfilled in the church, the bride of Christ. In Ephesians we see the church as the workmanship of God, according to His own purpose, which answered to the creation of Eve. God raised Christ from the dead. The new creation of the church was consequent on His death and resurrection. The church is to be presented to Christ, the last Adam, and be joint heir with Him over all things in the paradise of God in the heavenlies.
Then after the death and resurrection of Christ the Holy Ghost was sent clown from heaven to form the church. This work of the Spirit is going on still, and will go on until that moment when the church complete is presented to Christ, as Rebecca was to Isaac. The day of Pentecost was the first clay of the work of the Holy Ghost in forming the church; and soon the last will have arrived. See the Acts for the full account of the formation of the church. And though the Satanic counterfeit goes on to Babylon’s apostasy, yet the work, guidance, and care of the Holy Spirit never ceases; and daily now, as at the beginning, such as are saved are added to the Lord, as truly as on the day of Pentecost. And as the church or assembly included all who were saved then, so now it is quite true there is no salvation outside the pale of the true church, simply for this good reason, that all that are truly saved are baptized into the one body, the church. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,” &c. (1 Cor. 12:12-1312For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12‑13).) The Holy Ghost never makes or baptizes different bodies of Christians. For it is as true that there is but one body, as it is that there is one Spirit. Christ is the head of His body the church. “And there is one body.” (Eph. 4:4-64There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4‑6).) The Lord grant that we may hold this important truth firm to the end. For whatever is not truth is not of God, but of the father of lies.
There was one Eve, one Rebecca, one Ruth. In each figure, is only one. One bridegroom, Boaz; one redeemed bride, Ruth. There were different local assemblies, but only the one assembly, the body of Christ. All believers formed that one assembly. All believers now form the one church or assembly of God. That one assembly is about to be caught up to meet the Lord, and to be forever with Him, and all the varied imitations of men or Satan will be left behind. The blessed hope of the church may be seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-1815For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑18), and the judgments that will follow in chapter v. 2, 3: “And they shall not escape.” “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess. 1:7, 87And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑8).)
How terrible the judgments about to be poured on apostate Christendom as revealed to us in Rev. 17; 18 Then, when the great harlot is forever judged, the bride of the Lamb will be the true second Eve, the Rebecca, the Ruth. Then will be heard the voice of the great multitude in heaven, saying, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Rev. 19:7, 87Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:7‑8).) Read also the description given of her in chapter 21:9 to end. “Having the glory of God, and her light [or shining] was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Such is the sure destiny of the church of God, them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. The church of God is composed only of such. All pretensions as to being the true church will soon be tested. May every reader of these few lines be tested now. Rest not, beloved reader, until you are quite sure you belong to the redeemed church of God—until you know that you have redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. Tomorrow may be too late; the church may be gone to be forever with the Lord, and you, if unsaved, forever left, shut out. Oh, think of those words, “Too late!” What infinite mercy that it is not too late yet. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Oh, the precious grace that invites you so sweetly, even unto the last moment. Have you tried the pleasures of this world, its sins, fashions, and its follies—and still you thirst? Oh, come to Jesus, come now. He says, “And let him that is athirst come.” Do not say, “I am too bad for such scenes of glory and holiness.” No, He says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He is the truth—He will not deceive you. Oh, come. And to you who have come, can you look up to Jesus in the heavens and say, Come? Who can say that He will not come the day you read these words—nay, even before they are in print? C. S.
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