| Christian Life and Doctrine | March 1969 |
PART I
Hidden Gems of Truth
THE Bible is beautifully and sensitively written by men of old who were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. (II Pet. 1:21) ‘These men wrote cryptically and in greatly compressed form. Events spanning centuries and even millenniums are often concentrated into a few brief verses. Intensely fascinating episodes, involving a variety of deep and moving emotions, are often simply and starkly stated, with the details left to the imagination.
This was, of course, necessary. If it were not so, the Bible would be so voluminous and unwieldy that, because of its sheer size and verbosity, men might be reluctant to delve into its pages and obtain its teachings and revelations. And if it were of tremendous size, containing many thousands of pages, it is doubtful if millions of copies would be printed and circulated each year as now.
So the Bible is an abbreviated and coded book, difficult for the casual reader to understand, and meant to be so. The cursory reader has eyes that see not, and ears that hear not. (Rom. 11:8) But with us, as consecrated Christians, members of the body of Christ, it is different. We have partaken of the same Holy Spirit which impelled those who wrote the book. So our minds are in harmony—in tune—with theirs. Our thoughts run along parallel lines. Our eyes see, and our ears hear. We understand the divine plan.
So when the Lord’s people read and meditate upon the Holy Scriptures, a wonderful thing happens. We catch the spark! Our minds catch fire! Our mentalities are quickened and illuminated by the same Holy Spirit which inspired the writing. And what is the result? The few simple and familiar verses we are contemplating take on new beauty and detail. The gaps are filled in for us, and the account becomes clear, alive, and meaningful.
It is like a small and compact flower bud, exquisite in itself, which, before our eyes, opens and expands into a magnificent blossom, fragrant and breathtaking in its beauty. Thus a single verse of Scripture, already eloquent in its simplicity, when meditated upon in the spirit of truth, assumes really inspiring proportions. And this is a never-ending process. There appears to be no limit to the treasures of the Scriptures. As a familiar hymn expresses it:
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“‘Tis a mine, aye, deeper, too, |
This is literally true. So let us now, in the language of Proverbs 2:4, seek as for silver and search as for hid treasure, and turn up some of these gems which are hidden in the Scriptures. The Lord put them there for us to find, and it is a joy to do so. They may be called “the divine plan in a capsule.” One of these gems is found in Psalm 104:29-31; “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.”
Now here are three verses of Scripture, totaling only fifty-one words, but which contain the entire divine plan of the ages, from the beginning to everlasting, in a capsule. Here is a small bud, beautiful in itself; and as we meditate upon it, see how it opens up and flowers before our eyes, just as the Lord intended it should.
“Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled.”
We know that, at first, Adam had wonderful fellowship with God. They were father and son together. What fascinating and loving conversations they must have had! Then, one evil day, sin entered into the world. The son disobeyed his Father. Adam disobeyed God. We read in Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.”
They were troubled; sorely troubled. Then, because of their disobedience, they were banished from their beautiful garden home, and they began to die. They brought forth their children in trouble, as God told the woman, in Genesis 3:16, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” As Job expressed it: “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7) Also, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”—Job 14:1
When someone has once experienced the favor of the Lord—seen his face, so to speak—it is agonizing to lose that favor. Job felt that agony when he cried: “Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?” (Job 13:24) David felt it when, for a time, he was separated from God, pleading, in Psalm 13:1, “How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” And Isaiah, contemplating the miseries of Israel, sadly said to God: “Thou hast hid thy face from us.”—Isa. 64:7
Then when Jesus came and took Adam’s place in death, it was necessary that he, too, know the agony of having God hide his face. For a moment, on the cross, God seemed to have abandoned him. He, too, was troubled, and cried out in anguish of soul: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”—Matt. 27:45
Today the whole world is sorely troubled. We are living in a great time of trouble in which God seems to have hidden his face from the world. Evil is permitted to run rampant. Good men do not understand the permission of evil. “Where is God?” men ask. “Why doesn’t he do something?” Others say, “God is dead. He must be, otherwise he would do something.” They are perplexed and troubled, doubting the very existence of God, because he has hidden his face. These are the conditions described by the words: “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled.” It is the history of the world. But it will not always be so, because the Lord, in Ezekiel 39:29, speaks of a time to come, saying, “Neither will I hide my face any more from them.”
“Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
Thus our gem text continues. We read of man’s creation, in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” First God designed the complex organism of the human body, and planned all its functions to the minutest detail. Then he formed the body of Adam, using the elements of the earth; or, as the ancient record expresses it, “the dust of the ground.” There was no evolution here. The “missing link” will always be missing because it never existed.
The body of Adam was a direct creation of God. And there it lay, on the green grass of Eden, complete and perfect in every respect. But it did not move. Its eyes did not see, and its ears did not hear. Its heart did not beat to circulate the blood which was already in its veins. Its brain and nervous system received and transmitted no impressions. It had no thoughts. Why? It lacked just one thing—the breath of life. It wasn’t breathing.
So then God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” or, as another more accurate translation says, “the breath of lives.” God simply inflated man’s lungs with the air which is necessary for any form of animal life, and immediately the body breathed and lived. The heart began to beat, carrying the life-containing blood to all parts of the body. The brain awakened, the eyes opened, and the man became a living soul.
This is how man’s life started—by an inbreathing of the breath of life. Then we read in Psalm 146:4 how a man’s life terminates: “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In that very day his thoughts perish.” The process is simply reversed. God gave man breath, and he lived; God takes his breath away, and he dies, and his body returns to the elements of the earth from which it was taken. As Ecclesiastes 12:7 expresses it: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit [or breath] shall return unto God who gave it.”
The spirit, or breath, represents the God given ability to live. In harmony with this, Job 12:10 speaks of God as the one “in whose hand is the soul [margin, life] of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” So the sentence upon Adam was: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) Because of his disobedience Adam forfeited his right to live, and he lost that right for all his children as well. All mankind came under the declaration of our text: “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
Up to this point the import of our text has been sad: the turning away of God’s face, first from Adam and then the entire world; the deep trouble and distress resulting from the permission of evil; the taking away of the right to live; the long and seemingly endless procession to the grave; the final return to dust. These things sadden us; and to those who do not understand the divine plan, the situation appears hopeless. But now we come to the happy part of our gem text, which says:
“Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth.”
The statement, “Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created,” has a twofold meaning, and both meanings gladden our hearts. God’s Spirit is his power or influence. In the past God sent forth his Spirit on many occasions and for many purposes. For example, we read, from Genesis 1:2, the account of the creation of the world, that “the Spirit of God moved upon [or brooded upon] the face of the waters.” When this happened, mighty forces were brought into play to shape and prepare the earth for man’s habitation.
Later God poured his Spirit upon his holy prophets, who, we are told in II Peter 1:21, “spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit of God came upon Joseph in Egypt, and upon Moses in Midian. It came upon Gideon, and upon Samson, and David, and other faithful and worthy servants of ancient times, impelling them and inspiring them to do God’s will in mighty ways.
Then the Holy Spirit of God came upon John the Baptist, the last of the prophets. It drove him into the wilderness of Judaea in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3, concerning the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
At that time men were in expectation of Messiah, and John baptized the repentant of Israel for the remission of their sins. And it was John who hinted of a new and marvelous manifestation of the Holy Spirit still to come, different from any manifestation heretofore experienced, saying, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.”—Matt. 3:11
Then Jesus came to John to be baptized; but not for the remission of sins, for he had none. For him the symbol of immersion in water had a different meaning. It symbolized going down into death and then being raised to newness of life; of sacrificing his human nature and becoming a new creature. We read of this occasion, in Matthew 3:16, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.” This was the beginning of his dying as a man, and the beginning of his living as a begotten divine creature. This is the first time God’s Holy Spirit had been sent to beget a new creature to the divine nature. Three and one-half years later the humanity of Jesus died forever on the cross, and his new nature arose to live forever.
After his resurrection, Jesus met with his disciples, as recorded in Acts 1:4,5: “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” Then the account is given, in Acts 2:1-4, of the promised new and powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit:
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully, come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
There were many people of many nations and tongues in Jerusalem that day, and each heard in his own language “the wonderful works of God.” (Acts 2:11) The account says, “They were all amazed. … saying one to another, What meaneth this?” (Acts 2:12) Then Peter stood up and told them what it meant, saying (Acts 2:16-18), “This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” This was nothing less than spirit begettal; of induction into the body of Christ. The same Holy Spirit that had imbued the Head, Christ Jesus, had begun to descend to anoint his body, the church.
And, as each member of his body has received this Spirit, begetting him to the divine nature, it has had the same effect. When Jesus received it, he immediately began his preaching ministry. When those at Pentecost received it, they began to use their tongues, to prophesy and preach. As each one of us receives it, we tell out the glad tidings at every opportunity, and build one another up in the most holy faith. We renounce our earthly interests, aims, and ambitions, and “walk in newness of life.”—Rom. 6:4
We begin a new life. We become new creatures. Paul described this condition in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” He also said in Ephesians 4:23,24, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” And, in Colossians 3:9,10, “Ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” So this is what our gem text means when it says, ‘”Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created.” Those referred to as “they” are Jesus Christ and the members of his body, the church. By the begettal of God’s Holy Spirit, they are a new creation.
On All Flesh
But there is also another meaning to this portion of the text—a wider and more general application. It is obvious that the prophecy of Joel was not entirely fulfilled at Pentecost. The prophecy says (Joel 2:28), “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” So there is yet another and later manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and it is still future.
To better understand this application of the scripture we must consider it together with the portion of the text which immediately follows: “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth.” This tells of the future resurrection and restitution work of the millennial kingdom, and the end of death. Resurrection is re-creation. By virtue of our Lord’s ransom sacrifice, all who have ever lived will be raised from the dead. As John 5:28,29 expresses it, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” This is truly a marvelous thing!
It is a tremendous exhibition of the power of the Holy Spirit of God, to create again the bodies of all who have died, and then, from the memory of God, to impress each body with its individual and different personality, so that each one is the identical person he was when previously alive. This is a fantastically complicated operation. But this is only the beginning. Then follows the work of restitution—the bringing to perfection. This is also a creative work of the Spirit. Then the prayer of David, in Psalm 51:10, will be answered for all men: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
There are so many scriptures that indicate this wonderful work, but we can only cite a few of them. In Ezekiel 36:26,27 there is a promise given to the Jews, but applicable to all men: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye. shall keep my judgments, and do them.” This taking away of stony, selfish hearts, and replacing with tender, loving hearts, is a work of re-creation; a restoration to righteousness and human perfection. As expressed in II Peter 3:13, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
And the Revelator saw this glad time in prophetic vision, saying in Revelation 21:1 and 5, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first [former] heaven and the first [former] earth were passed away” “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Besides the people and the government of the world, the physical earth itself will reflect God’s glory, as foretold in Isaiah 35:1,2: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”
Now we see how much is packed in that short and simple verse of our gem text: “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” And this new arrangement on earth will last forever. The nightmare of the reign of sin and death will be forgotten. Only the lessons learned by the permission of evil will be remembered. This is beautifully summed up by the prophecy of Isaiah 65:17,18: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create.” And tins leads us to the final verse of our gem text:
“The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever. The Lord shall rejoice in his works.”
Thus it is seen that our gem text is a summary of the entire plan of God relating to his human family. God wanted an earthly family he could rejoice in, to love and serve him of their own free will. This gem scripture shows the fall into sin; the loss of the right to live; the redemption from death; the restoration of the willing and obedient to life; the earth made glorious; and, finally, God rejoicing in his works forever.