THE program in seven parts, announced by Christ Himself to all His churches in the earth, with respect to him who overcometh, refers to what follows after death, and not to salvation or glory already in this life.
He that overcometh shall eat of the Tree of Life, … but only in the Paradise of God. He shall not be hurt of the second death … after he shall have passed through the first death, and so here: He that overcometh receives the hidden Manna, and the white stone, … but not now, … only when the last battle shall have been fought, and he of us who dies as conqueror, shall have entered through the gate of heaven.
For one moment let that “Hidden Manna” rest, and take first that white stone.
The value of that white stone does not hide in the stone as such, the word stone is not even mentioned 1; and all the emphasis falls on what is engraven in that stone.
Already this points to a higher state of soul.
A dealer in jewels gives fabulous prices for a sapphire of unusual size, even though in the vignette there is but a single letter engraved; for an agate, though it bear a royal coat of arms, he offers almost nothing.
Finer sense, on the other hand, personally feels richer with a seal of ancient nobility, though the stone be less precious, than with the most expensive stone, which lacks the noble engraving.
In heaven that nobler stone is perfect. Not the stone, the engraving in the stone determines its value in the Father-house. It is the same which the foundations of the new Jerusalem tell you. One is of Sapphire, another of Topaz, a third of Chalcedon, according to our price-list of jewels altogether different, but one in the new Jerusalem.
Not the stone, but what the stone tells determines the value in the hereafter. And the stone here speaks of two things, for it is white and bears a name.
It is a white stone, in keeping with the “fine white linen” of God’s saints, alluding to the fact that they are cut off from what was sin, or was called sin, or bordered upon sin.
And the engraving on that stone tells a name. That name will be your name. Not the name, by which you were called on earth, not the name whereby you were baptized, but the name which God shall give you. Your name for ever in the heavens.
THAT white stone with the mysterious name is a seal. It is not a stone as ornament in crown or neck-chain. It is not a stone, as a precious jewel to be kept in hiding. It is the stone that belongs with the robe.
When Pharaoh elevated Joseph, he gave orders, that he should be arrayed “in vestures of fine linen,” and took off his seal-ring from his hand, and “put it upon Joseph’s hand” (Gen. 4, 41, 42). Also Mordecai received from Ahasuerus an “upper garment of fine linen,” and he “took off his seal-ring from his finger and gave it unto Mordecai” (Esther 8, 2, 15).
The garment and the stone together are the symbolized glory of him whom the King elevates to honor.
The believer who died in Christ, and as victor appears before his king, is thereby placed in honor, so that the “fine white garment” is put about the shoulders, and the ring with the engraved stone is put upon his finger.
Here disdain and abuse, but for him that overcometh at his coming into glory honor. Always Joseph who comes out of prison, and afterward obtains elevation and glory. An antithesis, which goes through even in the sense, that the measure of abuse on earth, determines the measure of glory above.
The more deeply the spring here was pressed down, the mightier it will rebound in the hereafter.
And such with causal connection.
It is the very deep disdain which here makes faith strike root the more firmly, and which makes the fruit of faith in Paradise above bloom the more luxuriantly.
CHARACTERISTIC of that white stone is the name engraven on it. Not one name for all believers, but for every one of God’s children his own name. A name which expresses his being. Even a name which expresses that being so profoundly and so fundamentally, that mysterious to every one else, it is only understood by him or her, whose being it expresses.
For so it reads: And in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it (Rev. 2, 17).
Thus not the name you bore here. That will then have become your old name and will fall away, and in its place comes then the new name. And you will not receive that new name from human lips, for no one knows it, but from your God, Who knows it, and on that white stone gives it to you in private, forever to remain a secret between you and your God. And so gives it, that you can never forget it, for it is engraven in a precious stone, which even as the white raiment, remains your possession forever.
Says the Scripture of God: “His name sees2 the being” (Micah. 6, 9).
Such it is not here on earth. Our names are labels. They express nothing. Here you bear a name, which hundreds of others bear likewise. Mostly even you bear your name, because your father or mother bare that name before you.
With us the name is a family tie. Nothing personal. Not something your own. Not something in which your being is expressed.
And that can not be otherwise. For you received your name as an infant, before any one knew what was latent in you or what would develop from you.
And even if later on you would have wanted to change your name, in a proper name to express your person, you would not have succeeded in it, simply because you do not know yourself.
No one on earth has ever fathomed his own being.
Until we die we remain to ourselves the deepest mystery.
BUT this then is the glory, which awaits us after dying, that the veil will be taken away from our face, and as in a clear mirror God will show us our own being.
Then only. Not before.
And herein is grace. If here on earth we were ever to have a sight of our own being as we actually are, we would be terrified at ourselves. Even as the loving wife, who hastened to the hospital to see her husband, who had been wounded on the field of battle, when she saw his misshapen, bandaged face, involuntarily recoiled, so would our soul shrink back from ourselves, if we were to see in clearness our own being soiled by sin and enwound by grace.
And therefore Jesus tarries. And He will only let you see yourself, when the latest trace of sin is gone and the last bandage has been removed, and you can see yourself as a model of Christ’s redeeming love, altogether sound and altogether healed.
Then the mystery of your person falls away from before you.
And God Who alone knows your being, because He Himself has fore-ordained and created you, and has kept you, and has restored you, will then discover you to yourself, reveal your own being to you and in your own being, for God’s sake, make you rich.
FOR God’s sake!
For therein consists the majestic richness of God as Creator, that He did not create millions of people alike, but that He created no two who are the same, but in every child of man something else, something new, the embodiment of a proper Divine thought.
Therein glorifies itself the infinite richness of His manifold wisdom, that every child of God, every elect is something by himself, something which no other one is, and something that therefore can not be missed, because not one child of God can ever take the place of another.
Think that one child of God fell out, and there would forever be a blank. In the Divine diadem a gem would be wanting.
So that own name speaks of an own being; that own being of an own thought of God; and that particular thought of God regarding you of a particular calling, a proper task, a place all your own, which you are to occupy in the kingdom of God.
And when you arrive above in the presence of your King, and your King discovers to you your own name, and in that name you discover your own being, you will perceive as cause of eternal thanks, how you indeed have all your life long failed to appreciate your own being, given you of God, and have neglected it, but how the God of all grace, apart from you, and in opposition to you, has maintained this your being, has protected it, saved it when at the point of perishing, and now shows it you not only as He created it, but also as He re-created it, and now discovers it to you in chaste and unblemished glory.
What here in your selfishness you loved, was a false image of yourself. What you will then love in the love of God, is your real being, which you do not owe to yourself, but solely and alone to your Creator and your Redeemer, your Father and your God.
← 19. The Hidden Manna · Contents · 21. Power Over the Heathen →