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Scripture Reading: Matt. 9:36—10:4; 11:25-30
II. The divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man in the record of the synoptic Gospels concerning the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens, the Slave-Savior in God’s gospel service, and the Man-Savior in God’s salvation:
C. He taught His disciples to pray concerning the harassed and cast-away sheep of God — Matt. 9:36—10:4:
1. The first God-man as the Shepherd of God’s elect, seeing that God’s elect were harassed and cast away like sheep not having a shepherd and being moved with compassion, charged His disciples to beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest — 9:36-38.
2. Then He sent His twelve disciples, who were appointed by Him as the twelve apostles, and gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits and heal all kinds of diseases — 10:1-4.
3. In Luke’s parallel record of this case, we are told that the Lord Himself “went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” The next day He established the twelve apostles to visit and take care of the people who were troubled by unclean spirits and heal them — Luke 6:12-18.
D. The first God-man, after reproaching the surrounding cities for not being willing to receive His teaching and repent (Matt. 11:20-24), prayed to the Father, and based upon His prayer, He gave a wonderful teaching to His disciples — vv. 25-30:
1. His surpassing prayer to the Father: “I extol You, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for thus it has been well-pleasing in Your sight” — vv. 25-26:
а. While the first God-man was rebuking the cities, He fellowshipped with the Father, answering the Father by His prayer.
b. He extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father as Lord of heaven and of earth.
c. He praised the Father that He has hidden all the things mentioned in verse 27 from the wise and intelligent and has revealed them to infants.
d. He acknowledged that this has been well-pleasing in the Father’s sight and submitted Himself to it.
2. His unveiling teaching to the disciples — vv. 27-30:
а. All things have been delivered to Him by the Father.
b. No one fully knows Him except the Father; neither does anyone fully know the Father except Him and him to whom He wills to reveal Him — v. 27.
c. He called all who toil and are burdened to come to Him, and He would give them rest — v. 28.
d. He charged them to take His yoke upon them and learn from Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and they would find rest for their souls — v. 29.
e. He assured them that His yoke is easy and His burden is light — v. 30.
In this chapter we want to cover two examples of prayer uttered by the Lord Jesus, the first God-man. The first prayer is concerning the harassed and cast-away sheep of God in Matthew 9:36—10:4. The second prayer, accompanied by a wonderful teaching, is in Matthew 11:25-30. In this teaching the Lord charged us to take His yoke upon us. We may want to take the Lord’s yoke upon us but not know what His yoke is. The yoke of the Lord is the will of the Father. The Lord cared for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42) according to His economy. The Lord also extolled the Father for His economy.
We must remember that we are still looking at the divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man. Every part of the Lord’s living on the earth is a divine fact. Whatever God does is a divine fact, and the divine facts were lived in a human life, making that human life mystical. Something divine in humanity is mystical. All the examples of the Lord’s prayer are divine facts uttered by Him in His flesh as the man Jesus. A mere human being could not utter such divine sentences. Jesus was a God-man, and all that He said and did were divine facts accomplished in His human life mystically.
This is the third case of prayer in the first God-man’s human life. The first case is in Matthew 4 concerning the Lord’s fasting. The second is in Matthew 6 and 7 in the Lord’s supreme teaching on the mount.
The first God-man as the Shepherd of God’s elect, seeing that God’s elect were harassed and cast away as sheep not having a shepherd and being moved with compassion, charged His disciples to beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest (9:36-38). Prayer is general; beseeching is particular. The Lord of the harvest here is God the Father. We know this because of the parallel record in Luke 6:12-18, which says that the Lord spent the whole night in prayer. If He were the unique Lord of the harvest, He would not have needed to pray to the Father. His prayer indicates that He considered Himself a sent One. He referred to the Father as the One who sent Him (John 8:29) and considered the Father to be the Lord of the harvest.
He charged His disciples to ask the Father not just to send but to thrust out workers into the harvest. To thrust out is much more forceful than to send. The dear saints who went to Moscow for the Lord’s recovery beginning in 1991 were thrust out by the Lord.
Then He sent His twelve disciples, who were appointed by Him as the twelve apostles, and gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits and heal all kinds of diseases (Matt. 10:1-4). Actually, the Lord’s sheep were being harassed not merely by men but by the unclean spirits. On the one hand, the demons were harassing them. On the other hand, the Jewish leaders were casting them away. So the Lord sent the twelve apostles to take care of the sheep of God who were under the harassing of evil spirits, demons, and the casting away of the hypocritical Jewish leaders.
In Luke’s parallel record of this case, we are told that the Lord Himself “went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” The next day He established the twelve apostles to visit and take care of the people who were troubled by unclean spirits and heal them (Luke 6:12-18). Luke reveals that the Lord’s sending was according to the Father’s answering of His prayer. He asked the Father who among His followers would be qualified to be apostles. Even Judas, the betrayer, was appointed by the Father’s decision for the carrying out of His will.
The Lord went to the mountain completely apart from human society to contact His Father in prayer, and He prayed the whole night. The next day He established the twelve apostles, so His appointment of the twelve apostles should have been according to the Father’s answer, decision, and instruction. Matthew did not record this point, because Matthew unveils Christ as the King of the kingdom of the heavens. As the King of the kingdom of the heavens, surely He was the Lord of the harvest. But actually, the real Lord of the harvest was the King’s Father. Luke’s record is on Christ as a proper human, not the King. In Luke this human being went to God the Father to pray.
Now we need to consider what we should learn from the Lord’s example. If we saw that a certain brother was harassed, troubled, or sick, what would we do? Perhaps we would not have the heart to care for him. On the other hand, we might care for him and want to do something for him in his need. As a result, we might hurry to see this brother and do things for him. This is our natural doing; it is not divine. Instead, we should learn of the Lord Jesus. We should go to the Lord and pray, “Lord, my brother is very sick. What would You do, Lord? Would You burden me to take care of him? If so, I will bear the burden. If not, I will not do anything by myself as a human being. I want to take care of him with You, to make this care not a human doing but a divine doing.” Sometimes when we go to the Lord about a certain needy brother, He may ask us not to contact him at that time, because this brother is in His hand.
All of us who love the church want to help the saints when we see that they are troubled. But if we do this apart from God, it is not divine. To be divine is to do everything with God, by God, in God, and through God. When someone comes to us with a burden or a problem, we should always bring it to the Lord. The Lord may say, “Leave this matter to Me. You stand aside. This is not the thing that you should do.” On the other hand, if the Lord burdens us to do something, our doing will be divine.
When the Lord saw God’s elect as God’s flock harassed and cast away, His heart was moved with compassion. But He did not charge the disciples to directly take care of them. Instead, He told them to pray to the Lord of the harvest and ask Him to thrust out the laborers. The Lord Himself practiced this principle. He saw the need of shepherds for God’s elect, so He spent the whole night in prayer to God. He did not act without prayer. He brought this case to His Father, so He got the Father’s decision.
The first God-man, after reproaching the surrounding cities for not being willing to receive His teaching and repent (Matt. 11:20-24), prayed to the Father, and based upon His prayer, He gave a wonderful teaching to His disciples (vv. 25-30). Most of the time we cannot pray after reproaching people. If a father cannot pray after reproaching his children, his reproaching was not divine. But if we can still pray after reproaching someone, our reproaching was divine.
The Lord’s surpassing prayer to the Father is as follows: “I extol You, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for thus it has been well-pleasing in Your sight” (vv. 25-26). No one in history has ever prayed such a prayer.
While the first God-man was rebuking the cities, He fellowshipped with the Father, answering the Father by His prayer. The Lord’s prayer was actually His answering the Father. That indicates that while He was reproaching, He was fellowshipping with the Father. When a father reproaches his children, he should remain in fellowship with the Lord.
In His prayer the Lord extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father as Lord of heaven and of earth. To extol is to praise with acknowledgment. Mostly we give praise to the Lord without any acknowledgment, but the Lord praised the Father by acknowledging that the Father is the Lord of heaven and of earth. We should learn to praise by acknowledging the Father in His economy, His will, and His doing.
When God’s people were defeated by His enemy, God was called “the God of heaven” (Ezra 5:12; Dan. 2:18, 37). But because Abraham was a man on the earth standing for God, he called God the “Possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19, 22). The Lord as the Son of Man called the Father “Lord of heaven and of earth,” indicating that the Lord was standing on the earth for God’s interest. His Father could be the Lord of the earth through Him and through His disciples.
The Lord praised the Father that He has hidden all the things mentioned in Matthew 11:27 from the wise and intelligent and has revealed them to infants. The wise and intelligent refers to all the people in the cities who rejected the Lord. They were humanly and devilishly wise and intelligent like today’s worldly, intellectual people. The Lord hides the divine things from them and reveals them to the disciples, who are the infants.
The Lord acknowledged that this has been well-pleasing in the Father’s sight and submitted Himself to it.
The Lord’s prayer is surpassing, and His teaching is unveiling (vv. 27-30). As the infants, we are unveiled because the Lord has taken away all the veils from us.
All things in verse 27 actually refers to all the disciples, the persons who follow the Lord. In the Gospel of John, the Lord said repeatedly that all the ones who come to Him and believe in Him were given to Him by the Father (6:37, 44, 65; 17:6b; 18:9). If the Father had not given us to the Lord Jesus, we would not be in the church life today. To get us away from our worldly pursuits was not an easy thing. We are in the Lord’s recovery because the Father has given us to the Lord Jesus. Our being here is not of ourselves.
No one fully knows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone fully know the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27). Concerning the Son, only the Father has such knowledge, and concerning the Father, only the Son and he to whom the Son reveals Him have such knowledge. Hence, to know the Son requires that the Father reveal Him (16:17), and to know the Father requires that the Son reveal Him (John 17:6, 26). Paul aspired in Philippians 3:10 to know Christ. To know Christ is the preeminent thing. Christ is all-inclusive, all-extensive, and unlimited.
The Lord called all who toil and are burdened to come to Him, and He would give them rest (Matt. 11:28). The religious Jews were toiling and burdened by working under the law. On this earth who is not toiling or burdened? This world is a toiling world, full of burdens, so the Lord called us to come to Him for rest. Rest means perfect peace and full satisfaction.
The Lord charged the disciples to take His yoke upon them and learn from Him because He is meek and lowly in heart, and they would find rest for their souls (v. 29). To be meek means to not resist opposition, and to be lowly means to not have self-esteem. The rest from the Lord is for our souls; it is an inward rest, not something merely outward in nature. The harassment and the troubles are in our soul. Paul tells us to be anxious in nothing and to tell the Lord all our requests. Then the peace of God will guard our hearts and our thoughts in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).
The Lord assured the disciples that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:30). The Greek word for easy means “fit for use”; hence, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, pleasant — in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, bitter. The yoke of God’s economy is like this. Everything in God’s economy is not a heavy burden but an enjoyment.
