THE DIVINE VIEW OF THE SAINTS
L. McFarlane
Numbers 23: 5–10; Ephesians 2: 4–7
One would suggest, dear brethren, we cause it to be a matter of prayer that we might get a divine view of the saints. It has impressed me this day that it should be a subject of prayer, earnest , prayer, that we get a divine view of the saints, God’s people. With those He would use in the testimony He made it a point. I refer first of all to Moses at the burning bush, Moses’ first impression of God amongst His people. Moses would be tested in the wilderness by these same people, but he would not have lost sight of this view—he had, that despite their naughtiness, despite how ‘sticky’ they were. God was there amongst them. So it is essential, I would say, that we get this view.
So we have Balaam, a well-known personality in Scripture; he is brought to curse the people, he is intent on cursing the people of God. But this word is put in his mouth. God would bring in His word in a meeting like this, bring in the prophetic word that we might be helped. So despite this man’s state he is speaking the truth. I enjoyed what our brother has been saying as to the side of pressure and how God uses this to beautify His people, to ennoble them. So it is from the top of the rocks. As someone has said, when the brethren come into your house you do not take them to the basement, you do not take them to the basement to tell them about the failures of the brethren, you take them to the attic. Take them up, speak about the saints and what they are to God, the dignity and glory relating to the people of God. So this man is given this view from the top of the rocks. What does he see? The saints collectively, he sees a collective setting of the saints. Soon, according to Ephesians, this is to be displayed in the coming ages, it is going to be a display of what God has wrought in these conditions in which we are.
So Balaam is affected by this, he says, “How shall I curse whom God bath not cursed? or how shall I denounce whom Jehovah doth not denounce? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him”. This man was given to see something of the beauty of God’s people. “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations”—a separate people. The thought of separation, brethren, is God’s mind for us. Let us not lose our identity; let us not meddle with the world and lose our identity; it is a people that shall dwell alone, involving a separate people in this world; separation from the world, God’s principle of unity. So it goes on to say, “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the
death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!” Yes, he sees the righteous nation, he gets a view of the people according to God, a redeemed people; no spot, no blemish; it is what the work of Christ has effected, dear brethren. ‘Not a cloud above—not a spot within’, the hymn writer says (Hymn 22), not one. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1: 7.
So the Lord would help us to view the saints, what they are according to Himself, and be here as giving Him the glory that belongs to Him. I think it is just this that affected Paul. Paul was given his first impress in Damascus; a handful of brethren, that was Paul’s first impress, a handful of saints in a house. But then the Lord had said to him, “Why dost thou persecute me?” (Acts 9: 4), referring to these lowly people. So Paul had a great, elevated view of things, who else could write an epistle like this? So in this second chapter he brings in the God who is rich in mercy. We have been speaking of mercy and we have been speaking of grace, we have been speaking too of sovereignty; these thoughts underlie what we are saying, that God has taken us up, “ye are saved by grace”. How we need to be maintained in this, dear brethren; “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”, 1
Timothy 1: 15. How Paul was maintained in the grace that took him up!
So he is saying that God has “raised us up together”—I just want to underline this word
“together”—“and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”. Oh the greatness of God’s thoughts; .how great is the sum of them! He is thinking of the saints collectively as I said earlier. Balaam is given this collective view; thank God for what we enjoy
individually; but the Lord would have us have our sights lifted in relation to what is collective. That is my simple thought. May the Lord bless the word.
Word in meeting for ministry, Brooklyn, N.Y.
11 October 1983