The place of tears is one of
sacrifice
Israel’s declension was characterized by the fact that they
had not remained in separation from the world, and this in itself denoted that
they no longer had strength to drive out the enemy. Their lack of power was due to what we have just read. “And the angel of the Lord came up from
Gilgal to Bochim.” (ii.1.) The book of
Joshua, the record of Israel’s victories, was characterized by Gilgal, the
blessed spot wherein lay the secret of their strength. It was the place of circumcision, that is to
say, typically, of the putting off of the flesh-“In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ.” (Col.ii.11.)
At the cross of Christ, in His death, the flesh was absolutely condemned
and made an end of for the believer. At
Gilgal, Jehovah had rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off the people.
Delivered
(in type) from the dominion of the flesh which was connected with the world,
i.e., Egypt, they now belonged only to God. The great fact of circumcision at Gilgal,
the cutting off of the flesh, is a Christian responsibility. But continual returning to Gilgal was a
necessity. There must be for the
believer the constant realization before God, what the cross of Christ teaches,
that “the flesh profiteth nothing.”
True self-judgment must be maintained if we would know herein lies the
secret of spiritual power by which we mortify our members which are upon the
earth. (Col.iii.5.) We may learn this
from the victories in the book of Joshua.
The Israelites always returned to Gilgal, except in one case (Joshua
vii.2) where they were defeated.
But Gilgal had been neglected, nay, even forgotten
since the days of Joshua. It is thus
that hearts become worldly through the absence of daily self-judgment.
The Angel of Jehovah, the representative of Divine
power in the midst of the people, had remained there alone, so to speak with
nothing to do, waiting for Israel
to return to him; he had waited long, Israel
did not return. There was nothing for
it, but that the angel should quit this blessed spot and go up to Bochim, the
place of tears. Those days of strength and joy, when Jericho
fell at the sound of God’s trumpet, were over; the days, to, of Gibeon
and Hazor were for ever gone. Israel
could not recover the blessings dependent on Gilgal; Jehovah’s power was no
longer at the disposal of the people looked at as a whole. Those days were past, when Israel
went up willingly to Gilgal, judging, in type, the flesh; so that, sin not
being there, they might conquer. Achor,
too, was past with its lesson of humiliation and blessing, when the people
judged their sin to put it away and were restored. At Bochim Israel
wept, obliged to bear their chastisement and its irremediable consequences;
present restoration was not possible; God doe not re-establish what man has
ruined. The church has trodden the same path.
Its ruin as a testimony and looked at on the side of human
responsibility will be continuous to the end of its history. It has become unfaithful, till at last it
has become established in the midst of the world, mixed up with iniquity of
every kind which goes on to the close.
God compares it to a great house with vessels to honour and dishonour.
(2 Tim.ii.) And yet the moment will
come, when the history of man’s responsibility being over, the Lord will
present to Himself His church, glorious, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor
any such thing. (Eph.v.) At that time
it shall be said of her, as of Jacob, not “what hath man wrought,“ but “what hath God wrought!” (Numbers xxiii.23.)
It was not a sense of humiliation which filled the
hearts of the poor people at Bochim; they were there, shedding tears at the
sentence of judgment, and seeing no issue, for there was none. In the course of the book, we meet with
times of partial deliverance, and even a beginning of real
humiliation(x.15,16). But Israel’s
restoration is reserved for a future day.
There is a sort of foretaste of it under Samuel, type of Christ, the
true Judge and Prophet. In the scene at Mizpeh (1 Sam.vii), we have a picture of
the day when Israel
humbled, will be restored to their place of blessing as the people of God. Samuel convenes the people at Mizpeh, which
is not merely the place of tears, but of humiliation. It was there that “they drew water and poured it out before the
Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, “we have sinned against the
Lord.” It was there that they put away
their strange gods, and it was the dawn of an era of blessing which shone in
all its splendour under the reigns of David and Solomon.
Bochim characterizes the book of Judges, as Gilgal
does that of Joshua. Likewise the place
of tears characterizes the present period of the church’s history. It is no longer a question of retracing the
pathway; the edifice is in ruins; to replaster it, would be but to adorn its
decay, which would be worse than the ruin itself.
The angel of the Lord has come up from Gilgal to
Bochim, and forfeited strength cannot be recovered. The Lord abhors pretension to power in a day such as the present.
The display of human, fleshly power which we see on all sides, is utterly
different to the power of the Spirit.
Those who talk loudly about the power of God being with them savour
somewhat of the crowds who followed Simon Magus, saying; “This man is the great
power of God” (Acts v111.10); and of Laodicea,
who says, “I am rich,” not knowing that she is “wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev.111.17).
However, we must never forget that if the church as a corporate witness
has failed, God has preserved a testimony to Christ in the midst of the ruin,
and those who seek to maintain it, acknowledge and weep over their common
failure in the presence of God. We find
something similar in Ezek.ix.4. The men of Jerusalem
who sigh and cry are marked on their foreheads by the angel of the Lord; they
are a humbled people, as in Mal.iii.13-18. There are two classes in this
chapter; those who say; “What profit is it that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of Hosts?”(ver.14), and the faithful ones, a feeble and
afflicted remnant who speak one to another, acknowledging the ruin, but waiting
for the Messiah who alone can give them deliverance. These latter do not say:
“What profit is it?” Their
humbling is for their profit, turning their eyes to Him who “raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them
among princes.” (1 Sam.ii.8.)
God grant that this may also be our attitude, and
that we may not be indifferent to the state of the church
of God in this world, but rather
weep at having contributed towards it.
Let us, like Philadelphia,
be content to have a little strength, and we shall hear the Lord say for our
consolation; I have the key of David, power is mine, fear not, I place it
entirely at your disposal.
In verse 1-3, the angel of the Lord speaks to the
people. Had God broken His covenant? Had He not accomplished all that His mouth
had spoken? It was Israel
who had broken the covenant. “Why have ye done this?” How this question reaches and probed the conscience. Why? Because I preferred the world and its
lust to the power of the Spirit of God,
idols to the ineffable favour of Jehovah’s countenance. What then was the natural heart of this
people? What is ours? Israel
weeps and sacrifices (ver.5). How touching the grace which provides for worship
in the midst of the ruin. The place of
tears is one of sacrifice, and God accepts the offerings made at Bochim.
Excerpt
from Meditations on the Book of Judges by H.L. Rossier