He Ascended into Heaven

Captivity Led Captive

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, which, on account of its numerous references to the Ascension, may well be described as “‘ The Ascension Epistle,” we are told that “When He ascended up on high,” our Lord “led captivity captive,’ and both received and gave gifts to men (Eph. iv. 8).

That quotation is borrowed from one of the sublimest of the Psalms, an ode of almost unrivalled splendour, which was composed by David on the occasion of the carrying of the ark from the obscure lodging, in which it had tarried for many months, to the newly-prepared tent on Mount Zion.

A study of this Psalm — the 68th — will reveal these successive steps. As the priests stoop to assume the sacred burden of the ark, taking on their shoulders what might be deputed to no ox-cart, the white-vestured choristers sing softly

of the Exodus, when God went forth before His 113 people, marching through the wilderness at their head. As the procession moves slowly forward, the Psalmist tells of the quivering earth, the dropping skies, the panic-stricken flight of heathen kings, whilst the women that publish the tidings are a great host.

Finally, as the festal march, accompanied by the blast of trumpets, the clang of cymbals, and the sweet voices of the singers, begins to climb the sacred Mount, there is a new and loftier note in the song. It seems as though the air is full of angels. The old cruel spirits, which had haunted the place in the days of the Jebusites, have given place to “thousands of angels and twenty thousand of the chariots of God” (ver. 17). The obscene and evil hosts, who had for so many centuries dominated the minds of men, are being led in chains to receive their righteous doom. They who were wont to lead in captivity are now reduced to captivity. The hands that used to fix the iron fetters on the wrists of the conquered are now fast closed in fetters. From myriads of voices the victorious refrain is repeated.

Every splint of wood in the Ark, every stone in Mount Zion, and every note in Hebrew minstrelsy were symbolical of Jesus Christ. “The testimony of Jesus” was the aim and object of the entire Hebrew economy; the Apostle, therefore, was in exact accord with the entire spirit of the Old Testament, when beneath the guidance of the Spirit of God, he took up this ancient Psalm, making it a new song, as he applied it to the Ascension of our Lord, and said of Him that He also led captivity captive. This phrase is borrowed from Deborah’s magnificent apostrophe to Barak — ‘ Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam” (Judges iv. 12). What a glimpse of an old-world triumph! First, the war-worn but victorious soldiers, then the car drawn by milk-white steeds, on which the Victor stands erect and garlanded, behind him slaves bearing the spoils, and lastly the long lines of captives, amongst them, sullen, cowed, and silent, the kings whose nod had sufficed to decide the fate of kingdoms.

When our Lord went through the Heavens, it was not as Victim but as Warrior, not as the dying Lamb but as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Thousands of angels accompanied Him, welcoming Him home, and bound in fetters, behold the captive forms of Evil! The world — ‘“I have overcome the world; Death and Hades — * I have the keys of Hades and of Death;” the Grave — ‘‘ O Grave, where is thy victory;”” and greater than them all, he that had the power of death, even the devil, who had kept myriads in his thrall. ‘“* The Breaker is gone up before them; they have broken up and passed through the gate, and the Lord at the head of them” (Micah ii. 13).