EVEN those of us who do not worship in the Church of England must be aware that, within it, there have recently been wide-ranging discussions about the content of the historic Christian faith. In particular, the question has arisen as to whether it is necessary to believe that the miraculous occurrences in the Gospel record really happened as they are described by the writers.

This debate, of course, is actually one of long standing: the only special feature of its 1985 version is the number of bishops involved in it! But it is an issue which confronts us all. How important are the stories of Jesus which involve miracles -- His birth; His own signs; His resurrection? Since, inevitably, they make belief more difficult for sceptical people to whom the Gospel message is presented, are we at liberty to discard them? Can we say, in effect, "Don't worry if you can't swallow all those miracles! They are not essential to belief."

Between those who can believe and those who, for whatever reason, cannot, there is another group who take the view it doesn't matter whether the things reported by the Gospel writers happened or not. No doubt they mean well -- they want to soften the stark either-or that otherwise confronts us. But they are in an impossible position. I remember a sermon in which the preacher announced as his theme Christ walking on the water. After explaining that some people believe that this really happened while others do not, the preacher said, "But it doesn't matter whether it happened or not: the message for us is that, if we are in trouble, Christ will come to us." But that is ridiculous! If it did happen, then indeed Christ may come to us, but if it did not, then how do I know whether there is a real Christ who will really come to me? Somebody just made it all up.

So this is something about which we must decide for ourselves. Part of the problem, I believe, is that the reasons usually suggested for the inclusion of the miraculous element in the Gospels by the Holy Spirit are not very compelling. Unless, obviously, that element serves some very important purposes then we are indeed better off without it, for it can only put off enquirers and raise doubts in believers' minds.

What 'important purposes' are there? I want to suggest three. Please note that I am not offering these as three reasons for believing that the miracles happened just as they are described -- although that is my personal belief -- but three grounds for holding that it is vitally important for each of us to resolve the question as to whether or not they did.

(1) The Argument from History

The first reason is that, as human beings, we live in time and history, and God does not: He is eternal. We cannot penetrate into that world where He is -- we can never reach Him. Consequently, if there is ever to be any contact between God and man, He must enter our world, a world of events. As soon as He does so, in whatever way, He enters our history; His coming becomes an event, at a specific place and time. To us, with our time-based lives, there is no other way of identifying or describing His presence.

Now this, of course, is exactly how the Gospel writers portray the coming of God in Christ: the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). But because that coming, and all other comings of God, were from outside our world of place and time, they must by definition have been miraculous, for a miracle is simply an event for which there is no earthly explanation. You cannot have God intervening in the events of our history without it being a miracle! So the question is not: was the intervention of God in Christ done in a miraculous or non-miraculous way? It is: did it happen or not?

It is a little surprising that those who see God-in-Christ as a myth, or simply as a message or emphasis, have not recognised this. To have any "word from the Lord" is a miracle, however it is delivered, but to distinguish it from mere imagination, or hallucination, or dreamland, it must [41/42] be accompanied by event; otherwise, tomorrow's dream or vision may reverse or extinguish today's. In short, to speak of a message from God to man which has no miraculous element, and consequently no miraculous event, is a contradiction in terms.

Ordinary believers have, of course, been holding this event-centred view ever since the apostles first stated it: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (1 John 1:3). But we need, perhaps, to remind ourselves of it in the present context. The Gospel is more than message: it was history. The cross is more than symbol: it was event. It is surprisingly easy to be caught out over this! The late Dr. Francis Schaeffer was fond of pointing out that in Salvador Dali's famous crucifixion painting, which hangs in a Glasgow art gallery, and which many believers profess to admire, the cross of the Lord Jesus is depicted as standing not on the earth, but in space. That is the cross as symbol, not as event!

(2) The Argument from Expectation

My second reason for seeing the miracles in the life of the Lord Jesus as critically important to His coming is that they conform to our reasonable expectations. Let me explain that, by putting it the other way round. If somebody appeared among us today, claiming to have come from God, or to be the Son of God, what should we expect of him? What kinds of evidence should we look for in support of His claims?

I suggest that, as a minimum, we should expect that his birth would in some way be special, that he would exhibit unusual powers, that he would display a specially detailed knowledge of the God who -- as he claimed -- has sent him, and that he would give some evidence of having special means of contact with God, beyond what other men might claim. At least, anybody who could not convince us in those ways would be regarded as a suspicious character, if not a downright charlatan.

So why should it not have been so when Jesus of Nazareth came? His coming, as we know, raised all sorts of doubts in the minds of those who met Him. There were those who worried about His birth ("Is not this the carpenter's son?"). There were those for whom the evidence in support of His claims was quite good, but not quite good enough ("Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?") -- and in today's world their successors include many who hold to the Jewish faith. There were also those who, not being able to deny the things they had seen Him do, resorted to the explanation that it was the prince of devils who empowered Him.

But notice that, in every case, what was being complained of is the exact opposite of today's criticisms of the Gospel: not that there was too much of the "special" or miraculous about the life of the Lord Jesus, but too little. His contemporaries demanded more of the miraculous, not less -- a more exotic birth story (after all, they knew Joseph and Mary), and a larger supply of miracles. And before we dismiss them as ignorant rustics of the first century A.D. with a liking for conjuring tricks, we must recall that they were on the spot or behind the scenes; that it would have been difficult to hoodwink such close observers and that they were denied the luxury of scholars twenty centuries later who can say, "It can't have happened that way."

Let me emphasise, once again, that this is not an argument proving that the miracles actually happened. That remains a matter of belief for us all. It is simply to argue that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot complain that the miraculous element in the story of Jesus hinders us from believing the Gospel record and, in the same breath, complain that the evidence for His divinity is insufficient. One or the other, perhaps, but not both!

(3) The Argument from the Old Testament

The third direction from which we can approach this matter is to start from the Old Testament record and ask, in effect, "What unfinished business was there left for Jesus to complete? What had the final Adam to do which the first Adam had left undone?" This third approach is a variation of the second: it is to ask, "What should we expect?", and then to look for it in the life of Jesus.

Let us turn back in thought, then, to the start of the Bible story -- to a perfect creation of which God had placed man in control. Into this creation there came sin and breakdown. Man fell into sin, and the creation was lost to his control: nature turned hostile (Genesis 3:17-19). Death became [42/43] the fate of all men. God's great enemy had been successful in damaging the fabric of God's perfect world.

In this situation, there were two courses open to God: to extinguish that first, marred creation and begin again, or to repair it. But of these two, the first was unthinkable: it would leave Satan triumphant, and would offer no guarantee that, in some new or future creation, he would not succeed in doing the same thing all over again and spoiling that, too. The only acceptable -- may I use the word godlike? -- thing to be done was to repair the damage. But that would require a repair to the very seat of the trouble, which was in man himself. The breakdown had begun with Adam, so the search was on for a new -- a second or a final -- Adam. And what he had to be able to do was to reverse all the earlier work of Satan -- on the one hand to resist temptation; on the other, to reassert authority over all that world on which the first Adam had lost his grip.

Well, we know what happened. Some very remarkable men came along, and women too, who stood for God, and resisted some temptations, and even performed a few miracles. But none of them came within hailing distance of being a new Adam to meet the requirements of the situation.

What were those requirements? Once again, we can draw up a specification -- a list of the "damaged" areas that this man must repair. They would include the whole world of nature -- earth, air, plants and animals -- and the whole world of life and death, including sickness, suffering and the spirit realm of Satan's authority. They would cover the whole area of the knowledge of God, good and evil -- the moral world of which men had become so woefully ignorant. Let any of these be untouched or unrepaired, and some part of the damage of Eden would remain.

With Paul, we may well ask, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Who indeed? The New Testament tells us: the Lord Jesus, the Man from God. With a precision which is awesome in the light of the Genesis story of the Fall, He dealt as a man with every one of the areas of damage. So man is morally ignorant? He spoke with authority of God and His law, and kept it. So Nature is out of control? He stilled the storm. So the earth has not yielded food for people? He fed five thousand of them. So sickness is taking its toll? He healed the sick. So Satan has possession of one of God's creatures? He cast out the devil. So Lazarus is dead? He brought Lazarus back to life. So He is dead? No, He is alive again!

It is a marvellous story. But let us for now keep in mind only the point with which we began. Do the miracles matter? Or are they superfluous baggage, which we do better to discard? Well, I cannot prove that they happened, although I believe that they did. But if they did not; if any one of them did not, then we are in trouble for there is liable to be a part of that disaster of the Fall unrepaired: then the work of recovery is incomplete, and Satan still has a foothold somewhere.

You and I, of course, cannot normally control storms, and most of us cannot heal the sick, and none of us can thwart death when it comes. But Jesus could and the Gospels say that He did. If He indeed did, then that is enough: as the writer to the Hebrews says, "We see not yet all things subject to him (man), but we see ... Jesus". One man has broken through and He can bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:8, 9, 10). But if He did not then there is no Gospel: no amount of message is any use unless it is linked to events .

The miracles don't matter? What do you think?

CHRIST made it clear to the Laodicean church that He had reached His Father's throne not just by birth or by favour, but by overcoming (Revelation 3:21). It follows, then, that since the essence of Christianity is "Christ in you", the Christian life must be full of conflict -- a battle even to the death. Moreover, what is true at the earlier stages of our Christian experience continues to be true right up to the end: there is no real respite from the conflict with Satan's kingdom. Those who have expected to find life all smooth and pleasant may well be disappointed [43/44] when they discover the reality that they have been caught up in a great conflict between two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of evil.

But the conflict is real and we must not turn our backs to the enemy, but face him and throw ourselves into the fight. Unhappily we do sometimes find the pressure so great that we turn our backs on the serious issues and prefer some soft, sentimental kind of religious experience rather than the virile, fight-it-out faith which is characteristic of the cross. The cross was no make-believe: it was bloody, horrific and devastating. Nowadays the issue may be more inward for us than it was for the early Church, but the issue is still the same, and the consequences of refusing to give worship to men are as harsh as ever. The New Testament and notably the book of the Revelation shows the severity of the conflict.

In those early days even an old saint like John was not allowed to die comfortably in his bed, but was exiled to the rough work of the Patmos mines. To the unenlightened it must have seemed -- and it still does -- that after all the Lamb is not the final answer to Satan, since evil still has the advantage and the world is overrun by harshness and oppression. The early Christians seemed to have everything against them, and they might well have asked, "Is this all there is to offer after all? To fight and suffer and die, with little evidence of victory in a world which is as strong as ever? Is the cross really the answer to life and eternity, and to the ever-present problems?" It must have appeared that there was no real hope of victory for the followers of the Lamb.

For this very reason John was given his visions to be conveyed to all the churches, visions which revealed the true nature of the conflict and its glorious outcome. We need this vision continually if we are to be nerved for the fight. We need John's vision, and perhaps we can catch something of it if we consider the four occasions in which he claimed to have been "in the Spirit", noting that in each of the four sections he [subsequently] speaks of God's throne. The four references [to "in the Spirit"] are: 1:10; 4:2; 17:3 and 21:10.

This of course does not mean that there are four thrones, but rather that as we too are "in spirit" we can consider four aspects of God's throne and so catch a glimpse of the glorious authority by which He holds and governs the universe. With God's help and by John's ministry we may be shown what it is that Satan is really attacking, and how his hand is against the throne of the Lord (Exodus 17:16 R.V. margin).

His hand is not just against you and me. It really doesn't matter much to him whether or not we are successful; what does matter, though, is the authority of Christ, for this is what he hates. We are nothing to him; the One he hates is God's Son, the chosen Ruler. We are unimportant in ourselves but Satan is against us if by hurting us he can express his spite against the Lord. Since we are "in Christ" we are totally involved in this attack upon the throne and by seeing clearly what it is all about, we are the better equipped to take our part in the spiritual warfare. It may help us to pay attention to the four visions of the throne.

1. The Father's Throne (3:21)

This is the first expression of God's authority, and it is against this as part of God's right and rule that Satan is always seeking to incite men to rebellion. God's Fatherhood is eternal: it existed before the creation. In due time it has found its expression among men, so that now every time the enemy attacks the Father's authority he is trying to destroy God's eternal purpose for men, which is sonship. Every time he can trick us into carelessness about sonlike behaviour, tempting us to say or do that which is unworthy of our Father's holy name, he is making an attack on the eternal Fatherhood of God. God plans to have sons, conformed to the image of His Son, so that if we can be induced to act in an unChristlike way, to fail in proper obedience as sons, then a blow has been struck at the Father's throne -- even through us!

It follows that our selfishness can mean that we are being used as tools to undermine the authority of God by seeking to diminish or contradict the glory of His Fatherly throne. In a similar way, when Satan tempts us to fail to show this family love to others, he does this not merely to mar our own spiritual life but as a deliberate insult to God's character as Father. When he deflects us from acting and maturing as true sons of the Father, then he wins a battle. We should not be ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). The battle goes on all the time -- the war against the Father's throne.

2. The Governmental Throne (5:13)

This throne, associated with the Lamb, is surrounded by various classes of beings who [44/45] represent the totality of God's creative activities. The presence of the Lamb shows us that the secret of God's government of His creation is suffering love. Man does not understand this kind of throne; he relies on the forceful rule of the strong arm, the mailed fist, and he wrongly imagines that God is a kind of super-despot who does the same thing, only on a bigger scale. As for the slain Lamb, the crucified -- well, to natural eyes His experience seems to give conclusive proof that Satan has prevailed. This however is not the case, as the heavenly vision demonstrates.

Far from it! God's way of ruling is by suffering love and every time we share the bread and wine at the Table of the Lord we declare that we repudiate force as a way of government and have complete faith in a God who rules by the cross. Other world rulers have their hands stained with blood, but it is the blood of their opponents. God's King has His hands stained with His own blood.

In the light of human misery people sneer at this throne, asking how it can be a throne of love when wars, calamities and wickedness produce so much human suffering. These are ill considered arguments. If God's throne were one of naked might He could soon end human selfishness with crushing judgments. But if He did this, which of us would survive? Once He began to crush sinful people then which of us would not be destroyed? No, brute force is not God's method. His King reigns from the tree. It is difficult for us to maintain a steady faith if we do not have a clear vision of this governmental throne. Satan attacks it constantly, by whispering to us that God cannot be love. He is always trying to express his enmity to the divine throne by seducing us into doubting the efficacy of the cross as the divine method of government. Every unlamblike outburst of ours, every carnal effort to rule affairs or people by force, in fact everything in us which savours of harshness, is really a devilish trick to entrap us -- he wants to wound God through us.

3. The Judicial Throne (20:11)

This vision portrays the last assize where all must stand, with the records open and all judgment committed to the Son. The enemy tries to convince us that the throne is not really white -- not as white as all that -- but that there are shades and degrees, and that everything is relative. This is his lie, for the throne is as pure white as the Man upon it. Now what makes this throne the more terrible is that its occupant is not some austere inquisitor, but is incarnate love. Heavenly love opens the books; heavenly love investigates every detail; heavenly love will never be satisfied until it has penetrated the deepest recesses of the object of its love.

We don't always like being investigated. Our prayer tends to be, "Don't search me too much; don't try my inmost heart; don't turn Your white light too intensely into certain recesses of my life. Let me run away from the great white throne!" Every time that we re-act in that way, however, we are in complicity with Satan against God's judicial throne. We may not mean it in this way, but this is what lies behind our attitude. It may be even more surprising for us to realise that of the many ways by which we can unconsciously aid Satan in his attack on the throne, there is probably none worse that self-righteousness.

The man who tries to write his own account and paste it over the record written on the pages of God's book, is playing the enemy's game. He is trying to hide the stark truth with his own biased version of what happened. We often do this, justifying ourselves and failing to realise that we are insulting the great white throne and the Man upon it whose name is the Truth. What a fight it is, though, to keep our actions and motives exposed to this white light of God's judgments! And it seems to get harder! We begin our Christian lives in such simple sincerity that we are glad to open ourselves up to God's Word, but we so often succumb to Satan's wiles aimed at leading us to cover up or excuse our faults. When we do this we are taking his side in the battle against the throne.

4. The Imperial Throne (22:3)

The city revealed in this chapter is the administrative centre of God's universe; it is transparently clear, and its focal point is the throne. The servants of God function in relation to this throne. They bear the Emperor's name on their foreheads, and they reign in loving service. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Satan's present assault upon this imperial throne is to induce us to stop working for God, to yield to slackness, or to take offence and leave the work to others. Or it may be to try to get us to work without having that name stamped upon us, to be active [45/46] without being Christlike. All this is an expression of the hand against the throne.

Why is it that in any church almost all the work is in the hands of a very small number of people? Why is it that the one-talent members refrain from playing their part? Is it not the result of the cunning of Satan to vent his spite against God's imperial throne? He attacks the Emperor by discouraging or corrupting His throne servants. But he must not succeed! We who have come "in spirit" to know something of the importance of that throne must rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit to serve wholeheartedly for the honour of that great name. It is not enough to think only of the future opportunities for service which await us in the eternal glory; we must buy up the present opportunities while we have them.

Weapons for the Spiritual Warfare

As we commit ourselves to this throne service, we may ask what are to be the instruments of our service, or the weapons of our spiritual warfare. Some of the answers to this question may be found in the book of the Revelation. Here are three of them: "They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death" (12:11). One of them is the word of our testimony: we must be bold and understanding in our use of the Word of God. Another is meekness: Satan's kingdom is built on and maintained by pride, so that the humility of the Lamb is an essential instrument to break its power. We note what is said concerning "the blood of the Lamb". Christ's blood is the full answer to all Satan's accusations and claims. Moreover the God who destroyed the kingdom of death by the blood of His Son will not waste the blood of the martyrs: "they loved not their life even unto death". God will use the blood shed by His suffering people to intoxicate and destroy Satan's kingdom. The harlot, Babylon, will find that God will avenge the blood of His servants at her hand (19:2).

The Weapon of Prayer

There are many other instruments which could be mentioned, but we limit our consideration now to the great weapon of prayer. We can see in this book how the prayer of the saints is the way by which God's throne, particularly His governmental throne, can be brought into operation. When the Church prays, then things begin to happen.

The whole matter is illustrated by the golden bowls or vials. We are told that these golden bowls full of incense are the prayers of the saints (5:8). As God's people begin to praise and worship, offering Him these bowls of prayer, things start happening on the earth. Seals are broken. As each of the first four seals is broken there is a command to a rider to go forth. One by one the various riders emerge and move out (6:1-8). This is because of prayer. After this three more seals are broken, each consequent upon the prayers of the saints. Then again, more prayer is offered with incense (8:3). When the censer is filled with coals which are poured out on the earth, then seven trumpets are sounded, and further events are precipitated by these trumpets. Following these, seven bowls are taken and used to pour out the wrath of Almighty God (15:7). The same words are used at the beginning of the seven seals and the seven bowls of wrath, namely "golden bowls", and these would appear similar to the "golden censer" at the beginning of the seven trumpets. Both bowls and censer have incense added to them for offering, but it must be noted that it is the bowls which are the prayers of the saints, not the incense itself (as is shown by the Greek of 5:8). As we offer ourselves as empty bowls -- not knowing what to pray for as we ought -- God will add the fragrant incense of Christ to our prayers by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26).

From all this we see that there is an intimate connection between the working of God through the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, and the prayers of His people. When we lay hold of God's throne in prayer, things happen on earth; they happen in the spiritual world and they also happen in men's hearts. The seals unloose political events -- precipitated by prayer. The trumpets deal with the spiritual world -- in answer to prayer stars fall out and demon forces are unleashed; things go from heaven to earth in answer to prayer. Again, by means of the bowls, the wrath of God is poured out. And people know it. They are not able to get up thinking that they are just suffering from a bad Monday morning feeling which they can shrug off, but they are forced to realise that God's displeasure is against them. Men are not allowed merely to deplore that they are depressed or to wonder why they are anxious, for they are made aware that there is something between them and their God -- and all because of [46/47] prayer. The Church has left the world in its present psychological condition by not praying for it, which accounts in some measure for the fact that men are able to ignore the wrath of God.

All the great events described in this book are connected with the golden bowls. A praying Church affects political events, it affects the supernatural, it affects the hearts and consciences of men who are far from God. If we do not pray, then politics will go on just as before; if we do not pray, then nobody is aware of supernatural powers and warned against them; if we do not pray, then how can men know that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness?

If we do pray, then we can influence those who are in authority, for whom in any case we are commanded to pray, and we can exploit for God the inevitable happenings among the nations. There will always be unrest and wars, bloodshed and famine -- Jesus Himself said so -- but as we pray, these things can be steered and exploited to bring to a head God's purpose in history. There will always be demonic forces, evil spiritual powers which affect and infect men and women, but as we pray the warning trumpets may be sounded. God's wrath will always be revealed, but as we pray men may be led to sense what it is all about. So by these three means, the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, the world can be made to see, hear and feel the reality of the throne of God. A praying Church is a disturbing Church -- it is meant to be so. Kings and rulers take counsel together when the Church prays. The beast and the false prophet make war with the followers of the Lamb and there bursts forth war in heaven when the Church prays. We are a disturbing and troublesome people when we are in touch with the throne by prayer.

In Touch with the Throne

Some will say, "But I don't know how to pray like that." All that God asks of you is that you will be a bowl. Surely that is not too difficult! And yet perhaps to some of us it is difficult, for the bowl must be empty. When, however, we do offer ourselves in this way for the service of prayer, then it is that incense of Christ is added to our prayers. We are to be empty bowls, but the Spirit is able to add that which is inexpressibly valuable to God. However note that to pray in the Spirit does not mean that we are to wait until we feel the Spirit moving us to do so before we pray. If we do that, some of us will wait for ever. No, "praying always in the Spirit" means that as we get going, offering ourselves as bowls, the Spirit will move and lead us out in our prayers far beyond what we knew or thought.

All God requires is bowls. When we feel we do not know how to pray, we must remember that we are followers of the Lamb. The people of God do not have to look or feel lionlike, they are not expected to give outward impressions of strength or ability, but in all their weakness they may offer themselves as vessels for throne prayer. If we do not pray, time and happenings are being wasted. If we do pray, then things can move swiftly towards the great day when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our God and of His Christ (11:15). There is no doubt that when that great Day does come, there will be much deeper joy for those who have helped to hasten it by using their weapons for God than for those who have only been spectators or theorisers.

THIS second article will deal with the Comfort of the Holy Spirit. Comfort is a beautiful word for a beautiful idea. Here is a person who is worried; for him comfort speaks of soothing in respect of worries. Here is a person who is weak; for him comfort speaks of strength in respect of weakness. Here is a person who is afraid; for him comfort speaks of reassurance in [47/48] respect of fear. It is a strong word but it is not a harsh word; it has a strength which is full of competence, of warmth and of calmness. All of this is embraced in the New Testament idea of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. We touch here one of the richest doctrines in the whole Bible and we find it to be the warmest, most assuring and least frightening of all New Testament doctrines.

I find that there are at least twelve different titles given to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. We cannot do more than rehearse them but by doing so we can let a great wave of truth wash over our souls.

There are titles which declare that He is a divine Person, He is the Holy Spirit; He is the Spirit of Holiness, holiness being the central characteristic of God, the attribute which makes God to be God. He is the Spirit of Glory. There are titles which declare His divine oneness with the Father and the Son; He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead, the Spirit of the Living God, the Spirit of Jesus, of Christ and the Spirit of God's Son. There are also titles which declare His relationship to the believer -- He is the Spirit of adoption by whose agency we are brought into the very family of God and He is the Spirit of life who makes the divine nature real to us. He is also the Comforter. Then lastly, there are those titles which declare His relationship to the Word of God: He is the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of promise.

Is there not a richness and what we might call a solidity in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament? Just in reading out the twelve titles, there is the beginning of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And this is the doctrine which we find so prominent in John Chapters 14 to 16, being the doctrine dwelt upon by the Lord Jesus in connection with our key verse which tells of His provision against the breakdown of our faith. This is not just truth but on the lips of the Lord Jesus it is safeguarding truth. Amongst the other things which He spoke of as safeguarding truth, He spoke of the Holy Spirit. The references are in 14:16, 14:26, 15:26 and 16:7. They provide a continuing strand in the teaching of Jesus in these chapters, and therefore we may legitimately say that here is a truth upon which He dwelt and to which He returned four times while He was guarding His disciples against a breakdown of their faith.

1. The Holy Spirit as Companion

"I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever" (14:16). This One is to accompany you, to be alongside with you, the Paraklete. This is a lovely name, traditionally translated as the Comforter and becoming in more recent versions the rather colder and more obscure title, The Counsellor. We all know that the word paraklete means 'one who is called alongside'. It seems to me that instead of Comforter, which has a vague if warm meaning, or Counsellor, which has a precise but rather cold meaning, it might be more accurate and faithful to the teaching of our Lord to render it, The Companion. "Another Companion ... even the Spirit of truth; you know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate; I come unto you." You see how the idea of companionship is found in this word; it is true to the context in which the word first appears as a title of the Holy Spirit.

In what sense is He our Companion? Well, consider the title given to our Lord Jesus in the words, "We have an Advocate" (1 John 2:1). The Greek says that we have a Paraklete with the Father, one called alongside with the Father. How did He get there? How is He alongside? Not by our will but by the divine will. He has been called into that place of function at the Father's right hand by the Father's own will. The title of Paraklete given to our Lord Jesus is a divinely given title for a divinely intended function.

It is a splendid truth to think that the Holy Spirit is alongside me whensoever I call Him, but isn't it a much more splendid truth to know that the Holy Spirit is always alongside me because the Father called Him to be there? He is the divinely appointed Companion of the believer, and His function is to make real to us the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus. Jesus speaks of Him as the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive and then goes on to say. "I will not leave you bereft ... I will come unto you" (v.18). So it is that the Spirit is called 'another Companion'. They had had a Companion already in the person of their Lord who by the divine will had been alongside them. Now the day would come when they would have another Companion, but when that other Paraklete came, the reality would be that Jesus Himself would be with them. They would have His abiding companionship. [48/49]

Christ is my abiding Paraklete. He keeps me secure in the Father's presence, and by His Holy Spirit He makes His presence known to me here. Don't you find that a safeguarding truth? The Holy Spirit guards me by making the presence of Jesus real. Of course there are conditions of enjoyment of this blessing for Jesus said: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I pray ..." (v.15). If you love me, then you will keep my commandments, and if you do that, then He will give you another Companion ...". One of the astonishing things about the New Testament is that the passages which seem to be about the Holy Spirit have as their central theme the person of the Lord Jesus. In this case we are challenged as to whether we wish for a consciousness of the presence of the Spirit, with the statement that if we do, then the condition of that is an emotional and moral involvement with the Lord Jesus. To love Him and to obey Him are the conditions for enjoying the Spirit's companionship.

2. The Holy Spirit as Teacher

"... He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said unto you" (14:26). "... when he the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all the truth ..." (16:13). The Holy Spirit continues the teaching office of the Lord Jesus. That is what these two passages have as their basic common truth. In the first reference He works in relation to truth already made known. The Companion would bring back to their remembrance what they had already heard. Jesus had been with them as their Teacher and none of that teaching would be lost because the Holy Spirit would carry on the teaching function, recovering all that Jesus had said and making it real in their mind and memory.

So we have His teaching function in relation to the past teaching of Jesus. In balance of that we have the thought about the future teaching. Jesus spoke to His apostles here in a 'now' and 'then' contrast. "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now" but when the Spirit comes, then "he shall guide you into all the truth" (16:12-13). There was an expression of the truth which Jesus Himself knew then, but for merciful reasons He did not reveal it to His followers. He therefore expresses here the thought that His teaching function with His own would be continued by the Holy Spirit, who would make known to them the things that He had not felt it right to reveal to them in their present state. So we have, first the work of the Holy Spirit to confirm and continue the teaching office of Jesus and second, to convey to the disciples that which will be made known to them from the Father and through the Son. The origin of truth is the Father, the mediation of the truth is through the Son, and the bringing home of that truth is through the Holy Spirit (16:13). So we see the involvement of the Holy Trinity in bringing the truth to the Church.

"He shall not speak from himself". This warns us that the teaching of the Holy Spirit is not self-authenticated. There is no ground for anyone to say, "The Lord has said that to me!" As soon as anybody does say that, the legitimate and indeed required response is to ask, "How do you know?" I base this on the single word 'for' in the middle of verse 13; "... for He shall not speak from himself." How will we know what we have is all the truth? By the Scriptures which he has inspired. The Spirit does not come as self-authenticated teacher, but rather as the bearer of truths from elsewhere. And it is the origin of truth in Jesus and in the Father that authenticates the truth to the Church. "but whatsoever things he shall hear, these shall he speak". He is not the originator of truth but the bearer of truth from elsewhere.

He continues the revelation of Jesus and the revelation of the Father: "He shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you" (v.14). 'Mine ' involves something deeply wonderful for it is "all things whatsoever the Father hath" which are included in that word. When the Lord said, "He shall take of mine", He said it in the sense that all that He possesses is what the Father possesses and what has been deposited in Him for the Church, and then brought from the Father and the Son to the Church by the office of the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, we are told that the Spirit is our Teacher to make known to us the saving work of Jesus. We have that mysterious phrase: "He shall declare unto you the things that are to come". The words are not written for us in the middle of an otherwise empty blackboard; they occur in a context, so that we do not just ask what they mean but what do they mean in this context. In verse 12 Jesus spoke of known truth and unknown truth, saying that He had many things yet to say. The implication is that He had many more things to say. He had said much, [49/50] and there was more to follow, but He held them back and would not then deliver them because they could not then bear them.

The word 'bear' is unusual in connection with the truth. It is as though the Lord had said, "If I were to tell you this now, it would be like the hanging of a great stone around your necks; it would pull you down." The word is used of burdens that have to be carried; it is a burdening word. The truth therefore that Jesus was holding back from them would at that time have been for them a burdening truth to drag them down. When then it is described as the truth which the Holy Spirit when He came would make clear to them, it was because then they would be in a position to carry it, finding it no longer burdensome.

What then did this coming truth mean? What was it that if they had known it then would have been a burden too heavy for them to carry? Why, it was the truth of the cross. The revelation of what would happen to Jesus and the understanding of what was involved was more than they could bear. If we search the Scriptures we will find that up to this point, this was the one thing which had not been revealed to them with any degree of amplification. This truth about the atonement was more than they would know how to carry at that point in their experience. When, however, the Holy Spirit came, there would be a gracious amplification of that which in mercy Jesus left unsaid, and then they would be able to bear it.

When He came, the whole of those coming things would have been performed. Jesus would have gone to the cross; He would have gone to the tomb; He would have come out in resurrection; He would have been with His followers and would have been lifted up to the right hand of the Father. In His exaltation they would have received that which had been poured out upon them so that now they could bear it. The Holy Spirit opened their eyes to that over which Jesus had drawn the veil, making known His saving work on the cross.

I find that there is a great deal of difficulty in these chapters of the teaching of Jesus in deciding what we must understand as spoken particularly to the men who were there with Him and what we may understand as applying directly to us. In the matter of the teaching function of the Holy Spirit, these two passages in which He is mentioned as Teacher are passages which are anchored into the immediate context. Therefore the truth which they declare and the promises which they enshrine can only come to us derivatively and not directly. Look for example at what verse 14 says of His teaching function being to bring to the remembrance all that He had said to them (14:26). Now that belongs to a particular group of people who had walked with Jesus, talked with Him and listened to Him. The promise was directly and specifically to them, that they who had actually heard His teaching, would afterwards be enabled to remember it. It was a promise made to one group of people. Insofar as that promise has any meaning to us, it can only be indirect or derivative.

Likewise in Chapter 16 He again spoke specifically to a certain group of people in the 'now' and 'then' balance of the sentence. He could not tell them 'now' because they were in no condition to receive it, but presently the Holy Spirit would come and then they would be able to bear it. Once more, that belongs to a long past historical context, a historical context which bridged the gap between the words of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Here again is something which belonged directly to that group of people, but only indirectly to us.

How then can we say that we must look to the Holy Spirit as our Teacher of the things of God? Clearly He is not here to reveal to us the meaning of the saving work of Jesus in that fresh and originating way in which He did to those who had previously not been able to bear it. The promise of the Holy Spirit as our Teacher is exercised for us indirectly as compared with the way in which He operated for them, since He brought to them with fresh directness the full truth of the Atonement and by His inspiration -- as we most certainly believe -- called them to write it down. He therefore exercises His function of teaching in our case by means of the written Scriptures. In those writings, the apostles encapsulated that which was brought to their remembrance of the speaking of Jesus. What is more, the Holy Spirit taught them to supplement and bring to fullness all the truth, including the things which Jesus left unsaid. For us to be taught means to attend upon the Holy Scriptures. The Spirit binds us with the truth of the Father and the Son and so gives us a safeguarding for our faith.

3. The Holy Spirit as Leader

"When the Comforter is come ... he shall bear witness of me: and you shall also bear witness [50/51] ..." (15:26-27). "When he is come, he will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (16:7-8). So we see that the uniting theme at the end of Chapter 15 and into Chapter 16 is that of witness. The Spirit comes to tell the world about Jesus: that is His function. We are told that He comes to bring a three-fold revelation of the Lord Jesus. "Of sin, because they believe not on me". This is a revelation of Jesus as the object of personal sin, of the sin of not finding Jesus as the object of personal faith. That is what sin is -- not to believe on Jesus. "Of righteousness because I go to the Father, and you behold me no more". Men must believe on Jesus as the Finisher of salvation.

We should realise what a glorious thing it is that we do not now see Jesus. The fact that He has gone to the Father and we behold Him no more means that He has been accepted in the Father's presence. He went there to register the claims of the One who had finished the work of salvation and the claim was accepted before the Father's throne. He has not come back as one who is banished from heaven: He is set at the Father's right hand because He is the Righteous One, accepted before God as the full Saviour of sinners. The Spirit comes to make that truth known. He has also come to make Jesus known as the Arbiter of eternal destiny: "Of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged." He makes known Calvary as the moment when the two princes interlocked in single combat and the Prince of life won the day. It follows that eternal destinies are set at the cross. Man's allegiance goes either to Jesus or to the prince of this world.

So it is that the Spirit comes to make the gospel witness on a worldwide scale, and in this He is but a Leader of the Church for Jesus said, "You also bear witness ..." (15:27). Because the Holy Spirit comes witnessing, the Church must go witnessing. Notice in Chapter 16 the relationship between verses 7 and 8. "I will send Him to you, and when He is come ...". When He is come where? Why to you? Because the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church means that the voice of the Holy Spirit is made known through a witnessing Church so that by this means the convincing work concerning sin, righteousness and judgment is carried forward. There is a parallel work to be done: He bears witness and we bear witness (15:26-27). There is a voice to be provided and -- let us say it humbly and softly -- the Holy Spirit comes to the Church in order that by the voice of the Church the convincing message of the Lord Jesus may go forward.

We have a shared life because of this shared objective. I have discovered that while courtship by post is just about possible, marriage by post is quite out of the question. There has to be a 'being together', a sharing of objectives, and therefore a growing together. How does the Holy Spirit safeguard us from the breakdown of faith? If we accept Him as Leader, if we identify with His objectives by sharing in His actions, we become wedded to Him, and His presence becomes a reality in the work of testifying in the world to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the Lord assures us that our faith will be safeguarded from breakdown by the absolute reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, guaranteed by the Father and the Son, the sense of that presence being made real by our love and obedience. We are kept safe by having Him as our Companion, our Teacher and our Leader. This is the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

THE theme of Exodus is, "They shall know that I am the LORD". Although the Lord often revealed Himself in various ways, it seems that it was difficult to get to know Him. For example, we might expect that after Moses had met the Lord at the burning fire in the Bush, or as the Children of Israel had experienced deliverance from the house of bondage, they would surely [51/52] know Him. But it was not so. The fact is that knowing the Lord is not a matter of course, as we might imagine, but to learn to know Him is a task for life. If we could know Him easily or in a short time, it might be open to question as to whether He really would be the LORD.

Moses

When Moses asked God's name, he was told to say to the Israelites: "I AM hath sent me to you" (3:14). God is who He is and will remain so; He will always be what He is. His thoughts are as high above ours as are the heavens. No-one can learn to know God in his own way, by his own thoughts or imagination, nor can he get to know Him by mystic meditation or merely subjective experiences. On the other hand, it is possible to learn to know Him. While He is exalted and awe-inspiring, this does not exclude hope for any, since the Scriptures contain an invitation to sinners to draw near to Him and learn to know Him.

Although Moses had the revelation at the Bush, he still failed to be governed by it, protesting again and again that he could not do as he had been told. I imagine that perhaps what made the greatest impression upon him was when God offered to make all His goodness pass before him (33:19). So it was that "the Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous (rich) in mercy and truth" (34:6). Without plenteous mercy and truth from God's side, not one of us could learn to know Him. Humanly speaking, all of us must have disappointed Him often. Moses disappointed Him. Certainly the Israelites did. But He is so rich in the kind of riches which we need that little by little we may learn truly to know Him.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh also had to learn to know Him, though in a very different way. There are various ways of getting to know God; Pharaoh's was a tragic way. One of the first things which he said when Moses asked him to let God's people go was, "Who is the Lord? I know nothing about the Lord". Well, he had to come to know Him, but it did him no good. At last, and much against his will, he encountered the further revelation which God had given of Himself: "Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished" (34:7). Those solemn words were part of the gracious revelation given to Moses, for they constitute an aspect of the knowledge of God.

In the end, the Almighty God, the Glorious and Holy One, said: "I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he shall follow after them; and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh and upon all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord" (14:4). That is what our God is like; He was then and He still is today. We cannot understand His hardening, but still more incomprehensible to us, His people, is the assurance of His choosing: "Ye have not chosen me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit ..." (John 15:16).

The Israelites

The people of Israel more than all others should have learned to know the Lord. He revealed Himself to them in such an abundance of salvation that several verses are needed to express it: "I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am Jehovah" (6:6-8).

Salvation begins and ends with the declaration: "I am the LORD". It is of Him and to Him; it is His work from beginning to end. We are to see that at times this provoked true worship in the hearts of His favoured people, but equally we are to see that they behaved as a people who had no idea of who the Lord was. In His redeeming grace, He had declared: "I am Jehovah" but hardly had they arrived in the wilderness before they behaved as those who did not know Him. He said, "I am Jehovah" when He provided them with the manna, but not long after this it became obvious that they did not truly know Him. He declared "I am Jehovah" when He gave them the law, the Tabernacle and the services, but they had their times when they seemed ignorant of His true nature. [52/53]

There were periods in between when it seems that their response to the divine revelation was what it should be. Even before their actual deliverance we are told that after Aaron had spoken to them: "The people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped" (4:31). We must not despise or overlook this, but we must realise that such a wonderful verse must be balanced with other verses about the same people which show that the seed had fallen, as it were, into shallow ground so that the fruit was not lasting. The Lord Jesus told of stony ground into which the seed fell and sprang up quickly but when tribulation and difficulties came, then it bore no lasting fruit. This reminds us to be wary of wrongly pressuring people when the Holy Spirit may be at work. Sometimes we may do this and a healthy result ensues, but let us be careful not to publish abroad too much or exaggerate what has happened, for the true result can only be known after the test of time.

At the time of the Passover we read of another wonderful time which makes us rejoice. The people were told that when their children asked them what it meant, they were to answer that it was the sacrifice of the Passover when the Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel and then we are told: "The people bowed the head and worshipped ... and went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they" (12:27-28).

We worship the Lord in the bright moments, but the Lord wants our worship to be of the kind that survives all trials. When we read the words of the worship in Egypt and then how that at the Red Sea, "Israel saw the great work which the Lord did on the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord, and in his servant Moses" (14:31), we sense a joyous atmosphere which they thought they would never forget or go back on. Chapter 15 goes on to record their triumphant song and the enthusiasm of Miriam and the women, as if they had now come to a full knowledge of the Lord. Had man written that chapter, I feel sure that it would have closed on that high note, but the Holy Spirit so overruled in the arrangement that in that very same chapter the record tells us of the people's murmuring (15:24).

Only three days of journeying and they betrayed by their complaints that they had already forgotten the Lord's great faithfulness. It is one thing to believe in Him and praise Him when we are in a happy atmosphere, but it is quite another so to know and trust Him and continue with Him when things seem to go wrong. At this point we are only dealing with Exodus, but when we pass to Leviticus and Numbers we shall find that in spite of all God's wonderful dealings with them, the Israelites gave priority over the Lord to their own experiences and feelings and circumstances.

If I am asked if I am a believer, I readily and rightly claim to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but if I am challenged as to whether I do only the will of God, I fear to make the claim. Yet a believer is not just one who accepts a mass of truth en bloc, but one whose life is governed by the practical implications of his faith. Israel's tragedy, recorded as a warning to us all, is that they failed to give personal expression to what the Lord had revealed to them of Himself. So far as I can discover, they provide ten records of their complaints against the Lord, even wishing themselves back in Egypt. Altogether they revealed a lamentable lack of knowledge of the Lord, in spite of the many wonders He had done for them.

Even though God does many miracles for a person, unless something happens with that person himself, the blessings do not of themselves lead to a knowledge of Him. Concerning those Israelites of old Moses, as he was about to die, said: "But the Lord hath not given you an heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear" (Deuteronomy 29:4). He had given them many benefits but to that very day they did not really know Him. Happily Moses was able to go on to promise: "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul ..." (30:6). This points us on to the New Covenant which in fact lay hidden already in the Old, eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart that is circumcised. This strange expression points on to the work of the Spirit who cuts off man's own strength and righteousness and brings him to personal dependence on the Lord alone.

One of the purposes of this book of Exodus seems to be to give us a glimpse of God's longsuffering patience. When He refers to His people, [53/54] He does so with His Father heart that does not grow cold or impatient, even though His people are so slow to learn. The word 'congregation' which appears so often not only in Exodus but also in the following books of the Pentateuch is the one which most Danish Christians use for the Church. How important God's people were and are to Him. Is the expression warranted? God speaks of His people as His first-born son, His own possession and inheritance, His kingdom of priests. The fact is that even when God's people do not believe Him as they ought, He believes in Himself; He knows that He can bring about what He wills. What He wills, He does.

He is LORD, and therefore He speaks of His people with titles which do not correspond to facts as we see them, but He has no difficulty in believing in Himself; He invites us to share that faith, and it is the word of faith which is the undercurrent throughout the Pentateuch. When we really hear this, it changes the Pentateuch from being a boring record of endless laws and ordinances, to a revelation of Himself, the Lord who is our Lord and God and who in redeeming love has circumcised our hearts so that we can know Him. It is not possible fully to understand Exodus without the background of the New Testament. It is in this way that we are meant to read these old books, for they are a shadow of that which was to come but "the matter itself came with Christ" (Colossians 2:17 Danish). God has much more to teach us of Himself and to bless us with in the future. Precisely because He has given us the privilege of knowing Him, we have the earnest in our hearts of the full knowledge which is to be ours.

ISAIAH'S previsions of the gospel came not in the seclusion of a study but in the hurly-burly of national life. In our last article, the Messiah was described in surroundings of conflict and privation; He is now presented to us in His kingly majesty.

The land of Judah was swamped by the floods of the Assyrian River, but the capital, Jerusalem, was spared. It was a serious situation, though, for Isaiah had announced concerning the king of Assyria: "He shall overflow and pass through; he shall reach even to the neck ..." (8:8). The reality of Immanuel was put to a severe test. But the name stood.

The Lord of hosts dwelling in mount Zion had set Isaiah and his children for signs (8:18), but while Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the second son, foretold speedy calamity, there was also the reassuring reminder by his firstborn, Shear-jashub, that a remnant would survive. From this faint ray of hope Isaiah was able to move on to a fuller picture of the One who would be the divine Agent of this recovery, namely, a new and majestic Son of David who would establish peace under a righteous and eternal rule (9:6-7).

The prophet was therefore able to develop further his task of throwing light on the gospel by proclaiming that the child born to the virgin would also be the Son given by the Father: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ...". This Son would be the glorious King of the Four Names: "His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity and Prince of Peace". The theme of the omnipotent King on His righteous throne runs like a golden thread through Isaiah's prophecies.

The darkest experiences of the Israelites were in the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, where the region was devastated and the people brought into contempt and taken away into captivity by the Assyrians. Isaiah, however, was able to look beyond the darkness and shadow of death into the dawning of a new day and announce a future time when God would honour Galilee of the nations by making it a springboard for the ministry of the One who would come with the [54/55] glorious light of the coming kingdom. We might have thought that this reference here to Galilee was a coincidence if Matthew had not pointed out that the preaching of Jesus really did begin from this very area of Zebulun and Naphtali (Matthew 4:12-16). This makes one of our familiar Christmas readings and should inspire in us a new wonder at the amazing accuracy of Isaiah's predictions. We have New Testament authority for welcoming this vision of God's coming King as a true picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Already the prophet was being given further enlightenment concerning the King whom his eyes had seen at the time of his call to ministry (6:5).

The new king was to come when Ahaz had abjectly failed. In measure it may be that this prophecy of the Four-Names Monarch referred to his son Hezekiah, who certainly brought loyalty to God back to the Davidic throne and proved the power of God to deliver from the invading enemy. That, however, if at all a fulfilment, was only a partial one. It was true that at the blackest moment of a later siege of Jerusalem, Isaiah was able to announce a victory which brought deliverance to the city and allowed its inhabitants to "see the king in his beauty" (33:17), but this did not last long. Later Hezekiah failed badly, and in fact it was he who finally precipitated the confirmation of the divine edict concerning Jerusalem's ultimate destruction (39:6).

Isaiah looked far beyond Hezekiah and gave us a glimpse of this other King; we know that the Monarch of the Four Names whom he predicted was none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. The Gospel stories stress what a Wonderful Counsellor the Lord Jesus was, how He exercised the mighty power of God and how He brought peace to troubled souls and even to the winds and the waves, while He was here on earth. The fact of there being four names and also four Gospels is no chance matter. Four denotes that which is universal. The light which came through Galilee now illuminates in all the nations of the earth as believing sinners come under Christ's rule and prove His wisdom, His power, His love and His peace. At this point the prophet uses for the first time his statement that "the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this". The very word 'zeal' carries us right over into the gospel age.

Isaiah brought this section to a close by reiterating the promise concerning a remnant according to the election of grace (10:21-22). Paul tells us that his words were fulfilled in the gospel: "Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved" (Romans 9:27). He also refers back to Isaiah's beginnings in this connection: "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9). Isaiah's son, Shear-jashub, pointed onwards to the redeemed Church. His book is saturated with the gospel.

We are frequently and rightly reminded that the gospel does not begin with the presentation of Jesus just as Saviour, allowing the challenge of His lordship to follow at a later date, but that from the first it confronts us with the majestic might of His kingship. We are not surprised, therefore, that in his prophecies Isaiah presents the Messiah in this way. The Prince of Peace is also the Mighty God. Some of what Isaiah writes is concerned with the supreme victory of Calvary, but other references link up with the stories of the triumphs of His earthly ministry. Matthew reminds us that at the Jordan, the voice from heaven used Isaiah 42:1 to proclaim the Beloved with whom the Father was well pleased, and he also explains how that passage in Chapter 42 was fulfilled in the daily ministry of Jesus as He "sent forth judgment unto victory" (Matthew 12:18-21).

It is not my intention, though, to trace the various references to this Monarch of the Four Names throughout Isaiah's prophecies, but rather to concentrate on one great incident. What the prophet had to say was often associated with personal experiences and contemporary events, so that it may be helpful to enlarge on one great historical happening which can serve us as an illustration of the Messiah's great might. The story centres around that promise to the people that in the person of Hezekiah they would "see the king in his beauty".

Hezekiah inherited from his faithless father a vassal relationship with Assyria which meant that he had to pay tribute money to Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:14), and had to despoil the Temple to do so. Among his counsellors there was a strong pro-Egyptian party which plotted to be freed from Assyrian domination by making a treaty with the rulers of Egypt. Their secret plans were [55/56] denounced by Isaiah again and again. "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help," he protested, "They trust in chariots, because there are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." He added his ironic comment, "Yet He also is wise" (31:1-2).

He had already described the secret treaties of which they boasted in their drunken toasts, telling them that in fact what they had done was to make calamitous covenants with death and agreements with hell (28:14-15). He advised those who would listen that the only security was in God's Zion, so that "he that believeth shall not make haste" (to rush off to make alliances and seek help elsewhere). It is always disastrous to make our own plans instead of relying on the sure foundation of Christ. Peter said that such unbelief turns the Living Stone from one sure foundation into a stone of disaster: "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to those who stumble by being disobedient to the word" (1 Peter 2:8).

When the Assyrian armies surrounded Jerusalem their spokesman, Rabshakeh, reminded them how foolish they had been to rely on Egypt (36:6) and in this he was correct. Where he was wrong though -- and very wrong -- was when he poured scorn on Hezekiah's trust in the Lord. For the moment things looked very bad. The king's anguish was so great that he had covered himself with sackcloth (37:1), but Isaiah's promise was that the people would soon see him restored to the majesty of his royal apparel -- they would see the king in his beauty -- and that was precisely what happened.

The time was not yet ripe for Judah's downfall and Assyria was not the world power destined by God to bring it about. We can understand why, since the policy of Assyria was to scatter the captives whose lives they had spared and then re-settle their lands with imported foreigners. This was in fact what happened in the case of the Northern kingdom (2 Kings 17:24), but God's plan for the ultimate return of a godly remnant did not permit such a catastrophe (37:31-2) so because He is wise as well as gracious and because Hezekiah sought Isaiah's advice and prayer help, the Assyrian campaign ended in defeat and disaster for those who had dared to defy the living God.

The story is a thrilling one. Isaiah urged the people to trust in God alone. They did not have to reply to the enemies' taunts, indeed they were forbidden to do so. Faith does not have to argue or justify itself; it can confidently await God's justification. Thanks to Hezekiah's tunnel into the pool of Siloam (2 Kings 20:20), the promise of God was fulfilled: "His waters shall be sure" (33:16). Then suddenly relief came.

Isaiah assured the besieged Jews that they would soon see their king on his glorious throne once more, and would have a clear horizon of "a land of far distances" all freed from besieging foes. The prophet gave a graphic account of how the people of Jerusalem would look out to see the Assyrian officials anticipating their prospective victory by counting the towers and making their calculations as to the weight of tribute, only to discover that they had all suddenly disappeared (33:18-19). It must have sounded unlikely to the point of the ridiculous, but it all happened -- and it happened in a single night (37:36-38).

This deliverance was limited in its scope and temporary in its duration, but for us it serves as a foretaste of the glories of our King, the Lord Jesus. From it we may perhaps learn something of the gospel deliverances which He brought to a troubled and defeated world.

1. Deliverance came at the darkest hour

The people of God were in despair when He intervened and saved them from their great enemy. In the case of Isaiah's prediction of the coming of the Monarch of the Four Names, the light began to dawn only when it could be said: "They shall look upon the earth, and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away" (8:22). This was followed by one of Scriptures' great uses of the word 'but': " But there shall be no gloom ... in the former time he brought into contempt ... but in the latter time hath he made it glorious ..." (9:1). The gospel brings hope where there seemed to be none.

How often was this the experience of those who witnessed the mighty power of Jesus. That power was manifested in the most impossible cases -- the man who had never seen, the poor wretch who was "full of leprosy", the demoniac whom no man could tame and others, most [56/57] especially to Lazarus who had already been in his tomb for four days. This, according to Isaiah, was to be the wonder of Christ's majesty. His first chapter spoke of the abysmal state of the nation which was described as having "the whole head sick and the whole heart faint" (1:5) and offered the wonderful counsel that if they would heed the call to reason with the Lord, the scarlet stain of their sins could be taken away, leaving them "as white as snow" (1:18). From then on the prophet had again and again to denounce their hopeless condition, only to follow up his stern rebukes with promises of the coming Saviour. The dark clouds were expressions of God's anger with sin; the bright light of deliverance came from the triumph of grace achieved by the Prince of Peace.

2. Deliverance came when human effort was exhausted

Hezekiah had paid Sennacherib all that he could (2 Kings 18:14-16) but in vain. Then his ambassadors had carried their rich treasure down to Egypt (30:6) in a desperate attempt to enlist aid from that world power, but it was all to no purpose. Isaiah kept telling both king and people that the only way to deliverance was the way of faith, but they would not listen: "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not" (30:15). We tend to ignore this last part of the verse and concentrate only on the promise, but it is all of a piece and it is all relevant. When I first married, a gifted friend gave the whole verse to me on an illuminated scroll, offering to remove the last four words if I so wished. I decided to accept his offer, so he took back the text and removed the phrase, "And ye would not". I afterwards decided that it might have been both wiser and humbler to have retained the whole verse with its faithful warning. I am sure that from time to time I have needed it.

The faithful Isaiah had his answer when they would not listen to him. In effect he told them that the Lord would let them taste the bitter fruits of self-reliance but would not altogether give them up but hold His hand until their own schemes and strivings had become exhausted: "Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you" (30:18). It was as though God told them that when they came to realise how hopeless their situation was, then He would be able to help them.

It happened like that with Hezekiah. Threatened by the hordes of Sennacherib's army, with clothes torn and covered with sackcloth, he sent his message to Isaiah: "The day is a day of trouble and shame; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (37:3). That was a truly vivid expression of ultimate disaster. But it was God's opportunity. It was what He had been waiting for. It enabled Him not only to bring an end to the siege but also a humiliating end to Sennacherib himself. The zeal of the Lord of hosts saw to that (37:32).

This very word 'zeal' moves us straight over into the gospel age and to what lay behind the activities of the Lord Jesus (John 2:17). And how true it was in His case that the deliverances He brought were for those who had come to despair of all human efforts. There was the sick woman who "had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse" (Mark 5:26); there was the desperate father who complained to Jesus about his sick son: "I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him" (Matthew 17:16); and there was that bent-down daughter of Abraham who "could in no wise lift herself up" (Luke 13:11). The Good News of those days and the same Good News today is that God's King can give help when all human means have been exhausted. His is the majesty of the impossible

3. The deliverance was instantaneous

God often gives us gradual relief from our pains and sorrows, but in Hezekiah's case it happened in a night. Isaiah had foretold the surprised questioning of the beleaguered Jews: "Thine heart shall muse the terror. Where is he that counted, where is he that weighed?" (33:18). Nobody saw them go. The deliverance was as sudden as it was complete.

This was the striking feature of Christ's acts of power and mercy. Whatever happened, did so in a moment of time. Peter's cured mother-in-law got up from her sick bed and just went straight on with her housework (Mark 1:31). The formerly paralysed man of thirty-eight years' [57/58] affliction not only walked firmly away, but carried his pallet with him (John 5:9). A few words from the glorious Jesus turned the water into wine in an instant -- and better wine than what might have taken a long time to mature! (John 2:10). The howling wind did not gradually die down at His command, but ceased instantly; the waves did not take their normal period of many hours before responding to the dying out of the wind; but at once became placidly calm (Mark 4:39). Such literal, instantaneous miracles seldom happen today. Perhaps they need the personal presence of the majestic King whom Isaiah rightly described as "The Mighty God" and also "The Father of Eternity". Praise God that such miracles can and do happen now spiritually in this gospel age, and they will go on happening until this Monarch of the Four Names gathers all His redeemed together in His glorious kingdom.

Then we will see the eternal miracles presaged by those Gospel stories. No longer will there be any need for demons to be exorcised, for Satan himself and his evil kingdom will be destroyed for ever. Then the dead will not be brought back to their old life for a brief prolongation of their earthly history, but they will share in that First Resurrection, and live to die no more. Miracles of healing, by which bodies were restored by a kind of 'make do and mend' of what was in any case steadily perishing, will be eclipsed by that one great miracle when, in the twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed into the likeness of Christ's resurrection body. The touch of glory when the water was turned into wine in a limited and local situation, and the feeding of a multitude who enjoyed a passing experience of the bread that perishes, will give place to an unending feast of rich heavenly food and 'the royal wine of heaven' at which Christ Himself will preside. This is the gospel message. And this is what Isaiah describes so eloquently: "In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things ... and He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces ... for the Lord hath spoken it" (Isaiah 25:6-8). In that day the whole redeemed universe will vibrate with the glory of the Monarch of the Four Names. That will be the Day!

The Scriptures abound in night incidents. There was the night when Jacob wrestled with the Angel, the night of the Exodus from Egypt, the night when Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the water, and then the dread night when Judas betrayed his Master and Peter denied ever having known Him. After the resurrection there was the night of Peter's unprofitable fishing expedition -- and so we might go on, However, high on the list of nights which have so much to teach us must come this fourteenth night in which the ship which carried Paul was drifting in the Adriatic.

As Paul stood on the moving deck of the stricken ship, he was able to affirm his complete faith: "Sirs ... I believe God". But before those who heard him were to appreciate the glorious realisation of Paul's hopes, they had to pass through a night of amazing and contrasting incidents. Safety was near at hand, perhaps a few hundreds of yards away, but so far as the people on that ship were concerned, it might have been hundreds of miles away. Even when they knew that the land was near, they could not see it and had no idea at all as to how they could reach it. Throughout that night, however, a night of [58/59] horror and despair, there was the apostle, encouraging, advising, instructing, praying and believing.

His message to us all is inspiring, and it came not only through his words but by this outstanding example of how a servant of the Lord can prove God's faithfulness on the darkest night and in the stormiest circumstances. During those hours his mind may well have gone back to the Gospel story of another troubled night on another stormy sea when Christ's disciples were in distress. In that storm it was the Lord Jesus Himself who said "Be of good cheer ... be not afraid" but then He got into the ship and His presence brought peace, security and calm to the wind and waves (Matthew 14:25). Or there was that other time when the ship was full of water, but He stood up and spoke His word of authority, "and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). But now there was no such intervention.

The Old Testament told Paul how in a previous time of peril, God had rescued His servant Jonah from the troubled waters by having him swallowed up by a great fish. Nothing like this happened to His most faithful servant Paul: there was no calm and no fish. But there was deliverance. As Christians, you and I cannot demand that God should be working supernatural miracles to astound us and sustain our faith. He expects us to trust Him in the dark. Then it may well be that the purpose of God is fulfilled by things which to us may seem quite normal. That is the lesson of this story.

See how the deliverance finally came. Those who could swim did so, those who could not did not receive a miraculous ability to swim, but were told to get hold of a bench or a board which was floating by and cling to it. We are not told whether Paul belonged to the swimmers or to the non-swimmers; we only know that to him and to them all God gave either strength of arms, legs and lungs, or else He provided a spar from the ship which they could lay hold of. The miracle was that they all escaped safely to land, proving how right the apostle had been to cry, "I believe God", even in the darkest hour.

It may be that some, despairing of life as the storm raged around them, judged that God had failed and that Paul had been wrong to trust Him. It is true that to the last they had no supernatural miracles, but the fact remains that when the incident was over, it was found that not a single one of the 276 people had been lost. So it was right to trust God even in the dark. It was then and it still is in 1985. We may be in similar circumstances, in the dark, storm-tossed and wondering why God does not work some striking wonder to help us. Let us still believe in God. And let us rejoice in the wonderful miracles of the everyday. Of course God can do marvels; but sometimes He uses a person's ability to swim or even a broken piece of the ship to bring us safely through.

"It came to pass that they all escaped safe to the land" (v.44). That was indeed a miracle. To us the word 'miracle' may suggest the Lord calming the sea, walking on the water or raising the dead, but is it not the greatest miracle to have songs in the night? Is it not wonderful to know the peace and presence of Christ in the darkest night and the most terrifying storm; to be quietly confident of a safe arrival on land while the waves are lashing round and tragedy seems inevitable?

"I believe God!" The apostle did not utter those words as a mere creed, and not when the sun was shining, the sky blue, the sea like glass and the air filled with gentle breezes, but in such a dark extremity that it may almost have appeared that God had abdicated all responsibility for them. For many days no-one had seen sun, moon or stars in their places, but they were still there and were still shining. Just as certainly Paul knew that God was still on His throne and he sought to inspire the same faith in others.

He knew nothing of the island, for faith does not make one a know-all. But he had been told by God that he was to go to Rome, so he knew where he was going and that God would see to it that he got there. We may have the same glad assurance. This experience has a present message for us in 1985. However dark our night may be and however tempestuous the seas around us, we must not relinquish our faith-hold of the promises of God. The Bible does not promise that the believer will have a calm passage to his desired goal. No, on the contrary, it takes for granted that tests and tribulations are to be the lot of those who are wholly committed to the will of God. What it does tell us, though, is that He will bring us safely through all the storms so that we arrive at our God-ordained destination. [59/60]

Of the many spiritual lessons to be learned from this story, I select just one, taken from Paul's words about abiding in the ship: "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved" (v.31). I hope that it is not wrongly using these [words] to lay down a spiritual principle of the need for abiding in Christ. In this connection I would say that:

1. Those who abide in Christ, though tossed about in the trials of life, are not afraid.

For them, the only safe place was in the ship. For us, the only safe place is to be 'in Christ'. This is no empty optimistic assurance to everybody that things will all come right in the end; it is a solemn call to all to be sure that by faith they are found 'in Christ' and that by His grace they choose to abide in Him. This was Paul's testimony of fearlessness to a crowd of frightened men: "I believe God. I believe Him in spite of all that is going on around. And believing, I am delivered from fear". It is our privilege to give the same testimony.

2. Those who abide in Christ, though driven to and fro, will always know where they are going.

It was not just that Paul wanted to go to Rome, though he did. The point was, however, that this was the destination which God had appointed. And just as surely as Paul was confident that he would reach Rome, so may the Christian be sure that he will arrive at his destination in glory: There is no question about that. The question is whether we will be strong in faith, giving praise to God and a clear testimony to the world when everything seems to be against us. Let us remember, when we cannot see sun, moon or stars, that darkness and light are both alike to the Lord. So shall we have "Songs in the Night". [60/ibc]

THE contents of this parenthesis do not surprise us, for we are already aware of what a wicked king Ahab was. What does surprise us greatly, however, and what must have surprised Elijah very much, is what immediately follows, for we are told of God's obvious satisfaction in finding that even such a man would humble himself in repentance. "Have you seen it?" He asked Elijah, as if meaning, 'Can you believe it?'

WE are not told whether Elijah was pleased or offended. Nor are we able to determine whether Ahab's was really the godly sorrow which works repentance unto salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). We are only informed that God regarded Ahab's humbling as genuine and gave him immediate reprieve. If we pursue our enquiry we may retain strong reservations about his subsequent behaviour and we find that God's arrow pierced his disguise and his armour, leaving him to bleed to death in a day of defeat on the battlefield.

THE historian was inspired to emphasise his self-humbling as he records that the king "fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly". Then, as if that were not enough, he added this confidential exchange between the Lord and Elijah in which it is emphasised that Ahab had truly humbled himself before God. So it seems that this parenthesis draws particular attention to Ahab's heinous wickedness only to give added weight to God's words of kindness when He drew the attention of His beloved servant to the marvel of even an impossible case like that being prostrated in contrition. If Elijah was not overwhelmed, I confess that I am.

ALL Scripture has a meaning. Does this parenthesis suggest, then, that the man in question was the chief of sinners? We remember that in the New Testament there was another man who admitted this charge but was able to rejoice that even so, through grace, he had obtained mercy (1 Timothy 1:15). If Ahab's experience does nothing else, it should encourage us to go on praying that even those who seem most hardened may yet humble themselves before the Lord and find mercy.

TO me an equally surprising case is that of King Manasseh, the evil king of Judah who is said to have slain Isaiah and who "filled Jerusalem with innocent blood" (2 Kings 21:16). Throughout most of his long reign this king seems to have given himself over to every kind of evil and refused to listen to the Lord. Yet we are told that "when he was in distress, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication ..." (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). His crimes reached almost to heaven, but the amazing grace of God reached even higher.