TAUGHT BY GOD

TAUGHT BY GOD

Was not our heart burning within us, while He spake to us in the way, while He opened to us the scriptures?

Luke 24:32

This concerns the two on the road that had lost their hope. How did He do it? Mark His method. He made their hearts burn by giving them a new interpretation of familiar things. I would like so to say the next thing that you remember it if you forget everything else. In the memory of it you will have the very heart of the message I bring to you in this article. He made their hearts burn by talking to them. He held communion with them and taught as the Bible says, all men will be taught of God. (John 6:45) “It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” This was a preliminary taste of what shall be true for us in His Kingdom. We shall all be taught by Him.

Their hearts did not burn within them while they talked to him, or while they talked about him. Their hearts burned within them when He talked to them. That puts everything I want to say into a few words. Not in their questioning concerning Him was the fire rekindled. Not in their pouring out of complaint to Him did it burn, but when they had ceased talking to, or about Him; when they were silent and listened, then the fire burned. "Was not our heart burning within us, while He spake to us in the way?"

What were the things that He said? Nothing new. I am increasingly impressed with this. He did not bring to them any new message. It was the old, so said as they had never heard it said before. "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets He interpreted to them in the scriptures the things concerning Himself." (Luke 24:27) Have you not felt as I have, that you would have given almost everything to have walked to Emmaus and heard Him interpret the Scriptures? One day we shall have that pleasure immeasurably. It did not take Him very long. It was not a long journey, and they had done a good deal of talking before He commenced. He talked of the Scriptures with which they were perfectly familiar, of Moses, of the ancient history and the law, of the prophetic writings in which they had been instructed from childhood, and tracked for them all the pathways that culminated in the Man Whose loss they were mourning, Who had been crucified. Preliminary to those great days we shall enjoy (Isa. 54:13; Jer. 31:34). He showed them how all the prophets gave witness to Him, and all the symbols of the ancient ritual found their fulfillment in the work that He had done. They did not know the Man talking to them was the One of Whom He was talking. They did see a new meaning in their own Scriptures concerning their long-hoped-for Messiah and His relation to the cross. They began to see a new light and glory flashing back upon the cross where their hopes had been blighted, and the fire seemed to have been put out. He interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. I have often felt that it would have been worth a whole lifetime to have walked with Him and heard Him tell how the shadow of the Mosaic economy found its fulfillment in Him.

Then when He took their prophets one by one, how wonderful to hear Him explain, and how marvelous the rapture of their heart as they heard Him tell how all the prophets led up to the Messiah Who died just as they had seen that Man die, of Whom they had been speaking so kindly. As they listened to Him they would find out that He was David's King, "fairer than the children of men"; (Psa. 45:2) and in the days of Solomon's well-doing He it was that was "altogether lovely." (Song of Solomon 5:16) He was Isaiah's child—king, with a shoulder strong enough to bear the government, and a name Emmanuel gathering within itself all excellences. (Isa. 9:6) He was Jeremiah's "Branch of Righteousness, executing judgment and righteousness in the land"; (Jer. 33:15) Ezekiel's "Plant of renown," (Ezek. 34:29) giving shade and shedding fragrance; Daniel's stone cut without hands, (Dan. 2:45) smiting the image, becoming a mountain, and filling the whole earth; the ideal Israel of Hosea "growing as the lily," (Hosea 14:5) "casting out his roots as Lebanon"; to Joel "the hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel"; (Joel 3:16) the usherer in of the great vision of Amos of "the plowman overtaking the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed"; (Amos 9:13) and of Obadiah the "deliverance upon Mount Zion and holiness"; (Obad. 1:17) the fulfillment of that of which Jonah was but a sign; the "turning again" (Micah 7:19) of God of which Micah spoke; the One Whom Nahum saw upon the mountains publishing peace (Nahum 1:15); the Anointed of Whom Habakkuk sang as "going forth for salvation"; (Hab. 3:13) He Who brought to the people the pure language (Zeph. 3:9) of Zephaniah's message, the true Zerubbabel of Haggai's word rebuilding forever the house and the city of God; Himself the dawn of the day when "holiness unto the Lord shall be upon the bells of the horses" (Zech. 14:20) as Zechariah foretold; He the "refiner's fire," "the fuller's soap," (Mal. 3:3) "The Sun of righteousness" (Mal. 4:2) of Malachi's vision. All these things passed in rapid survey as He talked. He was taking their own prophets and unlocking them, flinging back the shutters and letting the light stream in. He talked to them, and they were silent; and there broke upon them a new vision of the truth, a new understanding of things with which they were perfectly familiar, and in this new vision they found new understanding of all the things which they long had known.