Synod Sermon by Rev J R Tallach
Isaiah 60:13. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious.
In chapter 1, Isaiah speaks of the effects of sin and the fall of man: “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint” (v 5), while in chapter 53 the remedy provided by the suffering Saviour is plainly set before sinners: “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied”. The glory of man in his state of innocence had departed (see 1 Sam 4:21), but the promise in Christ was clear: He will make the place of His feet glorious.
Isaiah is well known among us as the Old Testament prophet of the gospel. Due to the Fall of man, “the whole head [was] sick and the whole heart faint”. Isaiah foresaw a second Adam who would die for His people (Is 53) and give a glory to His body, the Church, which eye had not seen nor ear heard. He would make the place of His feet glorious. There is an obvious reference here to worship in the tabernacle in the wilderness or in the temple in Jerusalem.
There are three matters I would like to bring before you as the Lord may be pleased to enable us, from these words in verse 13:
(1.) The glory of the Lord in the worship of the Old Testament tabernacle, under the ceremonial law. There is an obvious reference to that here. Though the revelation in the New Testament has a glory that excelled it, there was still a glory about the worship of God in the Old Testament ceremonial law – depths of the grace of God; depths of the wisdom of God; depths of the power of God; depths of the gospel, the good news of the message of redemption.
(2.) The Old Testament Church, as it spoke of His coming, foretold that Christ would “make the place of His feet glorious”. Every Old Testament prophecy of salvation had its fulfilment in the coming of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have such a promise: “I will make the place of My feet glorious”.
(3.) The glory foretold in the Redeemer. It is figurative here: “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary”. This is, first of all, of course, a reference to the house that Solomon built – David providing the materials and Solomon, guided by the Spirit of God, building that great temple. But
1The sermon preached by the retiring Moderator at the opening of the meetings of Synod in May 2022.
there is a reference here also to the body of Christ, the Church of Christ, the blessedness of that Church and the ultimate blessedness of each individual member of that Church, the blessedness of those who are united by faith to the Lord and united to each other by the Spirit of the Lord. As the Lord formed Adam out of the dust of the earth, fearfully and wonderfully made, and then breathed His Spirit into Adam and he became a living soul; so it is with the Church of God, the Lord forming it out of the individual members and uniting them to form the one body – His body the Church of God, a living, breathing, praying, desiring, growing, sanctified Church.
1. The glory of the Lord foreshadowed in the tabernacle and in the temple. The footstool of the Lord was the Ark of the Covenant. This is evident from what David says, “I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God” (1 Chr 28:2). So the footstool referred to is the ark of the covenant of the Lord. This is the ark that we read of in Psalm 132 which had been so markedly ignored by Saul and left to lie in the field during Saul’s reign. Saul was more interested in capturing and killing David than he was in bringing the ark of the covenant of the Lord back into its proper place in the tabernacle. Saul was much more concerned about establishing his own kingdom than in establishing the Lord’s kingdom in Israel.
Here was the footstool of the Lord, the place of rest for the feet of the Lord. It was as though the Shekinah glory sat on the wings of the cherubims spread out over the ark and rested His feet on the ark itself. Thus He sat in the place of His glory. This was the rest that is spoken of here, the footstool of the Lord. This was the place which was fundamental in the ceremonial law, in the furtherance and maintenance of godliness in Israel, and was at the very centre of the feast of atonement in Israel. The atonement (at-one-ment) between Israel and Israel’s God was to be effected formally and ceremonially at this meeting place.
The High Priest would take the goat to be sacrificed and confess the sins of the children of Israel upon the head of that goat, and he would then kill the goat and take the blood into the tabernacle or the temple. He would take it into the tabernacle, beyond the veil, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, the footstool of Jehovah, in the very presence of Jehovah – in the light of Jehovah. The light in the Holy of Holies was not from the candelabra, which was outside in the holy place, but the light in the holy of holies was the presence of the Shekinah glory itself. The priest sprinkled the blood in the very presence of Israel’s God upon the footstool of Jehovah.
The High Priest appeared at this footstool. He did not appear there according to His own ordering but according to the ordering of God. This
appointment was another glory of the Day of atonement and of the footstool of Jehovah. “And there I will meet with thee”, the Lord said, “and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat” (Ex 25:22). It was, by divine plan, a tryst between God and His people, reminiscent of when Moses turned aside to see the burning bush and the Lord commanded Him to go and set Israel free. Moses, under God, led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the wilderness, to the foot of Mount Sinai, to the place that the Lord Himself had already appointed.
The Lord also met with His people in the person of the High Priest. The High Priest represented the people. He was clothed in the dress of the High Priest for glory and for beauty. He was set apart by the Lord to this great work and he had in his hand the censer containing the incense. This incense was ascending all the time that the High Priest and the Lord were communicating in the sanctuary. “There I will meet with thee”, the Lord said, “and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat”. That was the footstool of Jehovah, and those promises were precious to the spiritual Israel of God through the wilderness and in the promised land. “That I Thy power may behold and brightness of Thy face, / as I have seen Thee heretofore within Thy holy place.”
The High Priest had two great functions; one was to present a sacrifice suitable to the occasion, the blood of an animal, “for the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Sin had been confessed upon the head of the animal; therefore the animal must die. That was the lesson of the blood: “without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin” (Heb 9:22). That was a great truth for the children of Israel in the wilderness, and it is true today for sinners in the wilderness of this world. God was glorified. He was worshipped and His righteousness ceremonially vindicated by the death of the animal which had the sins of His people confessed upon it.
Another great work of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is typified by the incense brought by the High Priest. He was in the attitude of prayer and supplication to God. He came as a suppliant to the footstool of Jehovah to plead for His people, to speak for them all, to seek the good of them all. He brought them before Jehovah name by name, circumstance by circumstance. He was bearing their names upon His own breast; He had their names upon His shoulder and He thus brought them before Jehovah. The blood was upon the mercy seat, the very footstool of Jehovah; and it was for them.
One other observation concerning that meeting under the ceremonial law was that the mercy seat, the footstool of Jehovah, was of solid gold. It was the lid of the covenant ark, within which were the two tables of stone. They had the Ten Commandments written on them. These commandments put
their finger, as it were, on the sins of His people, but the blood of the sacrifice was spread over the mercy seat and covered the people’s sins. There was much of the gospel there. Indeed, all that is required to save us from a lost eternity and bring us to heaven is represented in the footstool of Jehovah. The teaching of God Himself and His divine Spirit in relation to the taking away of sin by the sacrifice of Christ, at the footstool of Jehovah, is found there. “I will make the place of My feet glorious”. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). This is where the High Priest stood, who was typical of Christ Himself.
2. How the coming of Christ was foretold in the Old Testament Church.
“When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal 4:4). Jesus was conceived by the Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her at Bethlehem. He came to be the High Priest of His people, to bear their sins upon His own body upon the tree. He fulfilled every hope that had been raised by the Old Testament ceremonial law and was Himself the flowering and fulfilment of that law.
All His life was one of self-emptying and self-abnegation, as we read in Philippians 2: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (vv 6-11).
We read in the inspired, inerrant account of Jesus’ life, in the Gospels, many cases of which Christ says, “I will make the place of My feet glorious”. Did He not make the well of Jacob glorious when He revealed Himself there to the woman of Samaria? She came seeking water for her waterpot, but the Lord Himself had in His mercy a far, far better matter in view: something that would satisfy her soul, something that would take her from the land of rebellion and sin, the wilderness of this world, to the better country. That is the place of which we read: “He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1). He made the place of His feet glorious.
You may remember what He said to the woman of Samaria: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou
wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water” (Jn 4:10). That is how glorious it was, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. He spoke with a glorious intention also, an intention of salvation. Remember, though He was tired, though He was hungry, “He must needs go through Samaria” (Jn 4:4). That “must needs” was the fulfilling of a covenant obligation. A sinner had been given by the Father to Christ, that He might save her with an everlasting salvation, that He might wash her in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, that she might yet shine as a star in the firmament of heaven itself for ever and ever. “He must needs go through Samaria”, to make the place of His feet glorious.
Another instance of this occurred as He was coming from Jericho. He stood at the foot of the tree in which Zacchaeus was. Being short of stature, Zacchaeus must needs climb a tree in order to see Jesus, but He had seen Zacchaeus from a much, much greater distance in time, and in eternity had set His love upon him. Jesus said to Zacchaeus standing at the foot of the tree: “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house” (Lk 19:5). Calling him down from the tree, He took him away from the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and He gave him a desire after holiness, “without which no man shall see the Lord”. He gave Zacchaeus a new heart and brought salvation to his house. “This day is salvation come to this house” (Lk 19:9). Jesus gave him a new mind concerning sin and an indebtedness to the Saviour. Did He not make the place of His feet glorious? Each sinner saved by grace is an occasion for praise and honour, and dominion and power, to the Saviour of sinners, to the Redeemer who came in God’s great name to redeem.
But as far as the words before us are concerned, “I will make the place of My feet glorious”, the great occasion of their fulfilment was when, in the end of His days on earth, Jesus set His face as a flint to go up to Jerusalem. He astonished His disciples because they knew something of the danger that lay before Him in Jerusalem, but they saw His determination to go there and remembered the words of Psalm 69, “The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up” (v 9). It was with this in view that He went to Jerusalem and, as He Himself predicted, they laid violent hands upon Him, set Him at nought, and bound and crucified Him. Although He was greeted as a King coming into Jerusalem, riding on a colt and welcomed by the voices of many who praised Him with Hosannas on every side, and although they laid palm leaves before Him for the animal to walk on as a mark of triumph, yet He was betrayed into the hands of wicked men and brought before Pilate, and before Herod, and back to Pilate again and counted worthy of death, even the accursed death of the cross.
He was led out of Jerusalem bearing His cross and numbered among the transgressors, raised up between heaven and earth just as foretold. The purpose was plain, as it had been spelt out by the ceremonial law. The offering to be given for the sins of His people was to be without spot or blemish or any such thing, and Christ Himself was God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever. He Himself was the sacrifice. He offered His offering for the sins of His people according to the fiat of heaven itself. He became a curse for His people. He bore the curse for His people upon His own body on the tree. That curse was bound up with the manner of His death: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13). The Holy One of Israel was numbered among the transgressors.
This picture had already been drawn for the Children of Israel, in the mercy seat as the footstool of God. The golden lid of the ark represented the divinity of Christ. That divinity had the blessed effect that all His sufferings, all His cries, all His tears and all His sorrows were of that special, divine, prevailing quality in relation to His intercession for His people. He was, as it were, a living incense ascending into heaven above, bringing the case of His people to the attention of God on high, in His pleading for them. In His intercession for them, as hell-deserving sinners, Christ passed through deep waters. The fire of the wrath of God fell upon Jesus and the incense of His intercession ascended to heaven. “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given Me; for they are Thine” (Jn 17:9). There was prayer on Calvary which ascended into heaven itself, and such a prayer as was holy, and such sufferings as were of a quality that was given them by the divinity of the sufferer, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me”? (Mt 27:46).
On the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament, the blood was put upon the golden lid of the footstool of Jehovah. Thus it both covered over the sins of the Lord’s people and satisfied the law and made it honourable. His shed blood was an atoning blood and fulfilled the requirements of God’s law on behalf of His people. “I will make the place of My feet glorious”. In this was the glory of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the glory of His sacrifice, the glory of His death, the glory of His overcoming at Calvary, the taking away of sins by the sacrifice of Himself – the sins of His people laid upon Him. And He bore them away into the land of the forgetfulness of God, never to be remembered again. Even Satan searching maliciously cannot find the sins of the Lord’s people. “I will make the place of My feet glorious”. The mercy seat was the footstool of the Lord.
3. The glory foretold in the Redeemer. “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the
place of My sanctuary.” First there is an allusion here to the materials Solomon used when he built the temple of the Lord. As you may remember, it had been in the heart of David his father to build it, but the Lord said that he, David, was a man of blood and that his son Solomon would build it; and so it came about. He used the very best of materials, like the cedars of Lebanon, but he did not despise using other materials also. In the Word of God we are given an understanding of this – these trees representing the spiritual Israel of God, the people in the covenant of grace.
You will remember the righteous man is likened in Psalm 1 to a tree planted by the rivers of waters bringing forth fruit in due season, taking root downward and bearing fruit upward, a tree which is “the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified”. The different characteristics and talents given to the Lord’s people are exemplified by these various trees. Some are cedars like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and some are the box trees mentioned here, “the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together . . . beautify the place of My sanctuary”. They all had their place in the glory of the temple.
And so it is with the body of Christ; different talents are given, different opportunities given, different events passing over each individual, but all of them have their part or lot in the body of Christ Himself; all of them have been called out of darkness into His marvellous light, to His glory, as well as for their temporal and eternal good. In Isaiah 61:3 we read that this is so “that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified”. We read of the Lord Himself speaking to a church: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20).
Where the gospel comes, where the invitation to come to Christ is given, where the Word of reconciliation is brought to our ears, where the Saviour’s hand is “put in at the hole of the door” (Song 5:4), where the response of saving faith comes from the heart, and the sinner says to Christ standing outside the door, “Come in, Thou blessed of the Lord” (Gen 24:31), then the Lord enters into the heart, and the blessing of the presence of Jehovah into the soul of the sinner. And we read the Lord saying concerning Himself: “I will come in to him, and will sup with him” (Rev 3:20). This is the Saviour finding a lost sinner, the Saviour who came in God’s great name to save finding a hell-deserving sinner. The sinner can then say, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Ps 40:2-3). God does so “to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious”.
That sinner who, by grace, embraces the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has the Lord taking up a place in his heart, and the more the Lord dwells in the heart the more the work of sanctification progresses. The sinner dies unto sin and lives unto righteousness. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14). He will make the place of His feet glorious. We read, “Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless before the presence of His glory” (Jude 24). That is an amazing promise! If it was not the infallible Word of God, you would wonder that it was written concerning worms of the dust such as you and me that they are preserved faultless and presented faultless before the throne of His glory. What an incredible statement about a fallen man!
This is an outworking of the words of our text here, that He Himself will make the place of His feet glorious. The Apostle Paul complains of himself and the power of sin in his heart in Romans 7: “In me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing”. But that same apostle was yet to realise the fullness of what we were singing of in Psalm 45: he is “all glorious within”. The Lord took up residence in the heart and made the inglorious heart glorious, by His Word and Spirit. It is His work. It is His grace. It is His power. It is by His authority. “I will make the place of My feet glorious”.
This promise then has its further expression in Ephesians 5:26,27: “That [Christ] might sanctify and cleanse [the Church] with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish”. Notice the phrase, “not having spot, or wrinkle or any such thing”. This was required of the morning and the evening lambs, offered in the Old Testament. These lambs represented the Redeemer, and now His people are made gloriously like Him, being without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The high calling of God in Christ Jesus is above and beyond what we ask or think, above our comprehension.
No wonder it is called the high calling of Christ Jesus! It is something we ought to be praying for, and seeking after, and desiring with all our hearts. Is the Lord in our hearts indeed? You remember the two on the way to Emmaus and how the Lord made His feet glorious in their experience, opening to them the Scriptures, causing their hearts to burn within them as He talked with them by the way. He was bringing home to them their folly and unbelief. He was also setting before them the glory of His own death and rising again: that it was entirely according to the Scriptures of truth and essential for the salvation of even one sinner, but powerful in the salvation of a number that no man can number. “I will make the place of My feet glorious”.