Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Foreword

Great words and wise were those that came last from the pen of Simon Peter for the flock of God that he loved so well. He was about to put off his tabernacle, for thus he described his coming martyrdom — what should he say to those who had still to face the many questions and difficulties that would arise in their personal experiences, and who had to go through the vicissitudes of life in the world of which Satan is the god? He had had an up and down experience himself. What had carried him through it and made him more than a conqueror at the end of it? Grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He could not separate the grace from the One in Whom it is, nor did he attempt it, so he wrote: “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and for ever. Amen. “He could add nothing to that. In that lay the secret of every spiritual deliverance and of all true victory and joy, and with that he closed his devoted life and service to the Lord and His flock. It is with the earnest hope that I may be able to help some at least of that blood-purchased flock to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that I issue these Talks on Elisha, the prophet of grace. J. T. M.

Chapter 1

And Elisha Went Over

How the Lord reached the throne of grace.

“He took up also the mantle of Elijah, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan. He took also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him … They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him” (2 Kings 2:13-15).

A crowd of young men, fifty or more, stand eagerly watching a lone figure as he descends the steep bank of the river. They sorely feel their need of a leader and head, and this man may be he. They are not sure, but the way that he crosses that turbulent flood will decide them. It is a momentous time, a time of crisis both for them and for him. His way with the river is very simple: he does but smite it with his mantle and call upon God, and lo, the waters part hither and thither, and he passes over as one would tread a beaten highway. And that crowd to a man bow down to the ground before him. They recognise his power and own him as their lord and head and leader.

The man that they acknowledged was Elisha, the God-appointed prophet to Israel. His name means “God is Saviour,” and he represented a Saviour-God, Who was full of grace for a needy and stricken people. Of all the men who served God in those Old Testament days, he stands out as the prophet of grace, and in that he was a foreshadow of our Lord Jesus Christ in His present place on the Throne of Grace in Heaven, the Administrator of the grace of God to men. Only a shadow, mark you, and not the very image of Him, and as the shadow is nothing and the Substance is everything, so Elisha is nothing, except as his thrilling story does pictorially set before us the all-sufficient grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is something, and well worthy of our study, for who can do without the Saviour and His grace? Not I, nor you, my reader and friend, whom I greet in this little book. The procession of needy folk with their burdens and ills and problems and sorrows pass before Elisha in its pages. We watch them as they come and go, and recognise our own spiritual needs portrayed in them; but as Elisha was the man for them all, so is his great Antitype the Man for us. It is of Him I write, and I write joyfully, thankfully, and with a full assurance, for I have tasted and seen for myself that He is gracious.

Elisha’s story is like the garden of God in a barren land, an oasis in the desert. It is enlightening to the mind and delightful to the heart. God was there with Elisha, who was justly called “the man of God.” He was never baffled. He was master of every situation and equal to every demand. All sorts of people came to him — kings, captains, lepers, great women and bankrupt widows, and they were blest in coming. He met friends and foes, good and bad, Israelite and Gentile, and freely bestowed his benefits upon them all, for the grace of God cannot be confined within any limits of any nation or class. His life was a joyous and overflowing life, for to give and forgive, to relieve and to bless, is God’s own joy, and His chosen vessels share in it. Almost every phase of human need gave way to Elisha’s ministry. There were limits with him, of course, for he was a failing man, a feeble vessel, and but the shadow of the coming, all-sufficient, and eternally glorious and perfect Saviour. Only Jesus could say, “Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He has said it, and His deed is not less blessed than His word.

We notice that Elisha reached the place of his ministry through the river Jordan. God was with him when he came to that flood, and the waters were subdued before him, and not one drop of them wetted his sandalled feet. How different it was with Jesus when He came face to face with death, of which this Jordan was a figure. It was necessary that He should face death and endure it and pass through it if He was to be exalted to the Throne of Grace, “to be a Prince and a Saviour” there. He had to meet it in all its force. No miracle was wrought on His behalf in that great hour. No way was made through it for Him. Jordan overflowed all its banks when He came to it, and no helper could go through it with Him. In anticipation of it He breathed out His soul’s deep agony in words that we cannot forget. “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name.” And again as He descended the banks of that river, and ere His feet touched its flowing waters, He prayed: “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” But it was not possible, and He had to cry, “The waters are come in to My soul. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me” (Psalm 69). “Deep calls to deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42). His death was a necessity: apart from it “him that had the power of death, that is the Devil,” could never have been annulled, and we could never have been delivered from his power. God’s love could never have been known by us, for in no other way could it have been fully and righteously declared. But now “God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Apart from His death our sins could not have been forgiven, we could not have been blest and saved, and there would have been no salvation and grace for sinners; for though our Lord would still have had a throne, high above all, for He is God, it would not have been, and could not have been, a throne of grace.

This is the Gospel that has been preached to us: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried and was raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” And the glorious story of redeeming love goes farther than that: “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made this same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” He became “obedient to death, even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It is good for us to behold our Lord going down into the waters of death for us, as those sons of the prophets watched Elisha descend the banks of Jordan. It is good for us to behold Him coming out of death in resurrection, for of a truth a dead Saviour would have been no use to us, He would have been no Saviour at all if He had not come out of death, for “if Christ be not raised, ye are yet in your sins.” If death had overwhelmed and defeated Him, we might have wondered at the love that made Him die for us, but we should have mourned Him for ever, and no hope, no joy, no song would ever have dispelled our sorrow and gloom, and God would have lost His Son, and we should have had no Saviour, no Lord, no Leader, no One to Whom we could carry our needs and cares, no One to make us rich and overflowing with His grace.

But now is Christ risen from the dead; He, and not death has triumphed. He appeared to His disciples, and said to them, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself.” And this appearance has been recorded for us in God’s Holy Scriptures, that we might grasp its meaning by faith, and fall at the feet of Jesus risen from the dead, and cry with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”

Those young men who bowed before Elisha and owned him as their leader were right. It was God’s will that they should acknowledge His chosen and anointed prophet in that way, and they were wise men when they did God’s will. It is God’s will that every tongue should confess Jesus as Lord. And “if thou shalt confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). Those who deny the Lord that bought them bring upon themselves swift destruction, but those who bow before Him and confess Him and cleave to Him with purpose of heart are enriched by the grace of which He is the Administrator, for the great title and place of Lord, which is His now, not only means that He is set in the place of supreme authority, but that He is the Administrator of all God’s grace to men. And it is through Him who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession for us, that we are more than conquerors.