YOUTHFUL MATURITY
[p. 55] YOUTHFUL MATURITY
1 John 2:14 - 17; Exodus 33:4; 1 Samuel 25:1 - 9; 1 Samuel 25:14 - 17
In reading these scriptures I had the thought of youthfulness, or more correctly, of youthful maturity, in the continuance of the service of God. God intends to continue. He has gotten the victory in Christ over all that which is opposed, and He gives it to His workmen so that the work should go on — that we should not do as little as is necessary, but all that is necessary, and more — that, as said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, we should he “abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”.
Now God moves on on these lines, and for this the principle of youthful maturity is stressed throughout the scriptures. He intends to go on, as I said, and I believe John’s ministry is that which at the end underlies continuance. The Lord said of him in a somewhat mysterious way, “If I will that he abide until I come”. Peter had said, “Lord, and what of this man?” (John 21:21,22) The Lord’s answer implied that there was to be continuance — continuance in the freshness of life. One would rather continue in freshness than be removed. The presence here of one christian such as John is a testimony to the mind of God in so far that He would have what is living.
And so, in this epistle, John emphasises substance — substance in the way of life. Hence he begins with “that”, referring to Christ. Instead of speaking of Him who was from the beginning, he begins with what implies substance, a thing, and what is to be seen particularly in the young men. They would represent man at his best, and so in this chapter we have the children of the testimony — not exactly the children of God — these are dealt with in chapter 3 — but the children of the testimony, that is to [p. 56] say, what has been effected by the testimony of God, but presented in a graded way.
In the temple reared up by Solomon there were two pillars; these stood out before the temple so as to be visible to all who approached, as if God would remind those who drew near of what He could do. They are but figures. The height is given of both, as if God would present what He can effect collectively. God impressed any who approached with what He could effect, as if to say, ‘If I can do this with one or two or more, I can do it with you’, God would thus indicate a sort of standard; He would have this standard in the minds of those who drew near, and if any one did not come up to it, it was not because He had not the means by Him to effect it. He had the means, in the altar, the laver, etc., standing by.
In this epistle we have Christ presented as eternal life: “That which was from the beginning ... which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated ... concerning the word of life ..”. God was in this way indicating the standard. The standard He had from the beginning is the standard He has now, and the means of bringing us to it now are what they were then, and so this second chapter presents to us what the testimony could effect in such a person as John the apostle. His thought in writing was that the saints should have fellowship with him, saying, “Our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ”. Then he proceeds to speak about “the message”, and in this chapter, as I said, he speaks of his children, which would be in result the children of his testimony, what his testimony had effected; but they are graded, and the Holy Spirit through the apostle touches specially on the young men.
It is under this head that I desire to speak at this time, not simply to the young men, but to all, so that there should be what God would produce, that is, a living, energetic, mature, and yet youthful testimony until the [p. 57] end. John elsewhere (Revelation 10) shows us the principle on which this ministry is to be continued; he speaks of eating the little book and digesting it. Here he speaks about the word of God abiding in the young men, which is akin to that. In Revelation, the word as entering into the inner parts causes bitterness; that is to say, the person who appropriates the word of God digests it, and feels the effect of it. Now it is on that ground that one is to continue; for the angel says to John, “Thou must prophesy again as to peoples”, etc., (Revelation 10:11). No one who serves the Lord in any way would wish his conversion to be the last, and so the way is indicated, that if one feels things with God, if one has spiritual feelings and sympathies, one is qualified to minister ‘again’.
Now I want to show, beloved brethren, from the Old Testament how this principle of youthful maturity is developed in the service of God. It first shows itself in instinct, and when I speak of instinct in the types I go to the book of Genesis; it is the great book of instincts. What you find in the book of Genesis is that things are done generally without any specification, and yet what is done conforms to the divine specification when it is given; that is to say, it is on the principle of John’s ministry: “I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it”. It is a question of knowing the thing in a spiritually instinctive way, and then knowing it in detail, so that what you know by spiritual instinct is found to agree with what is presented to you in spiritual ministry, so that there can be no disparity between them. There is the principle of reception with intelligence. The “good ground” is one who hears and understands the word, (Matthew 13:23). No teacher can teach a child save the child has the power of reception in an intelligent way, and so it is spiritually. I speak of that because of the importance of cultivating instincts.
[p. 58] And so, in the book of Genesis, you find youthfulness in service. The book is to be regarded generally as a book of old men; Genesis abounds in references to old people. In this world old people grow rather uninteresting, but it is not so with God. You find in the inspired word that age continues in the service of God; age adds to interest rather than takes from it. So in the millennial times, we read of men and women who are very aged, but they are not uninteresting. Nor are they uninterested; they are contemplated as sitting there, and then over against them there are the boys and girls playing in the streets, (Zechariah 8:4,5). It is as if God would set down together the extremes of human life. An old man of that day could tell me something about the Lord Jesus coming out of heaven; he could tell me about the great preparatory work of God in the millennial day; he has been through it; he is full of the most precious things. He is an eyewitness; he is better than a written record. Peter says, as an old man about to put off his tabernacle, “Having been eyewitnesses of his majesty”, (2 Peter 1:16). Look at that; he is about to put off his tabernacle, and he is occupied with the majesty of Christ. Who can tell me as much as Peter of the wonders of Christ’s ministry on earth?
So in the book of Genesis we have the old men, and they die; but in the midst of a book of old men you have a very young man — Joseph, seventeen years of age. He is a type in view of what I am saying. Some of you young people here may think it is not for you to take up any responsibility in connection with the things of the Lord. It may be that you have come here to meet other young people, which is quite legitimate, and yet not legitimate if it be merely natural. This meeting is not for natural instincts; it is not a place of natural feelings. It is intended to minister to you spiritually. In Joseph you find a young man of seventeen years feeding the flock, and he is doing it with his brethren. They were not very congenial [p. 59] companions; they were the sons of Jacob’s wives — the maidservants — mothers that would not convey a good character to their children, and therefore their company would tend to corrupt this young man, but they did not; he represents the incorruptible element; what is born of God is incorruptible. John says “He that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him”. That is Joseph; the others were related to him, his half-brothers; but their conversation was bad, and instead of being corrupted by it he reported it to his father; he knew where to place information of evil, that it might be dealt with, like “those of the house of Chloe”, (1 Corinthians 1:11). That is a very fine trait. Right through, Joseph is presented as incorruptible. We read of the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; what a fine ornament that is in sisters! “In the sight of God” it is “of great price”, (1 Peter 3:4). Joseph developed that; he stood for it, and so in the book of Genesis you get this youthful feature in this respect, that it is incorruptible. Without it I can never hope to serve God, but with it I shall stand before Pharaoh. Like Jeremiah, “If thou return, then will I bring thee again, thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth”, (Jeremiah 15:19). That is the principle of Joseph. He stood before Pharaoh. How old was he? Thirty years. There he is seen as a model of the incorruptible. You say, he was a man of like passions with ourselves, but he represents what a christian is as viewed in the light of the first epistle of John.
Now I proceed to Joshua. Exodus is also a book of old men — not as old as those in Genesis, but it is a book that emphasises old men in the service, and an old woman too. When Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh, Moses is said to have been eighty years of age, and Aaron eighty-three, and Miriam was evidently older. Now these were the three whom God sent ‘before’ Israel. They were old in divine principles, old in divine attainments; they represent what service requires from the [p. 60] standpoint of divine culture and preparation; these two things must run together. Joshua in Exodus corresponds with Joseph in Genesis; he is with Moses on the mount. God would thus keep in view this element of youthfulness. In chapter 17 he first appears, and it corresponds with the passage in John. He is a young man; he is in conflict with Amalek. It was a question of the Spirit coming in — that is to say, of the time in which young believers get the Spirit. The rock was smitten and the waters flowed, and then Amalek came up. Satan attacks you through the flesh at this juncture. I want to show you briefly the circumstances in which Joshua overcame. Moses says to him, “Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand”. Young people do not like their elders to direct them, to advise them; but Moses says, I am going up the hill with the staff of God, and you are to be down here; “choose us men, and go out, fight with Amalek”. Choose out men for us — not for yourself; you are not going to be a leader of a party. Able young men often assume that unconsciously. We make special friends, and we do this and that; but Moses does not say, Choose for yourself; he says, Choose for us. You are going to fight for the people of God. We must not be on the line of special friendships; it is destructive of the service of God. “Choose us men”, and Joshua did so, but he had to be entirely dependent upon intercession above. He could never overcome one Amalekite without Moses’ hands uplifted. It is Moses’ hands, not Aaron’s, representing the authority of God, but now in priestly intercession. Without this there could be no victory over the Amalekites; but with it a complete victory. Moses is directed to write the occurrence in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. Typically he was to be established in the fact that the power of Satan in the flesh should be utterly overthrown.
You see in Joshua the first conflict of a young man who was subsequently to become a great leader of Jehovah’s [p. 61] hosts. You see how it began. He began in the recognition of authority, in the recognition of dependence upon another, namely, on Christ. You can never do anything without that.
In the passage I read Joshua is in the midst of extraordinary circumstances; he has had to go “without the camp”. We do not like to be in a small meeting; we like big meetings; it is natural. Moses took the tent and pitched it without the camp. Moses was prepared to be in a minority, and Joshua is with him in it. It is a very fine resolve to accept the consequences of faithfulness to the truth. Here it is as if Joshua said, ‘I must be with Moses, the man of God, the man who stands for God against the whole camp of Israel. I am going to be with him, and not only am I going to be with him, but I am going to be inside that tent that Moses has pitched outside’. It is an educative time; Joshua is in the making. There are great advantages within; he is learning. There is the camp of Israel in the distance; Moses had pitched the tent outside that, and Joshua was in the tent, identified with the minority. Those who follow the Lord are there. The faithful believer says, ‘Be they few or many, these are my society’. “Joshua, ... a young man, departed not from within the tent”, we read. As there he would see the glory, for it is said that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tent. Many of us are very neglectful about meetings; we often miss the very greatest things. We cannot afford to miss divine happenings. Anna “departed not from the temple ... night and day”, (Luke 2:37) and she did not miss the greatest event that ever happened there: she was present when “the child Jesus” (verse 27) was brought in by His parents and was in the arms of Simeon. Here Moses entered into the tent, and Jehovah came down to the door and talked with him. Joshua sees Moses thus honoured, Jehovah speaking to him “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend”. What a wonderful education for a young man! He gets a [p. 62] little glimpse of heaven. That is how things ought to be; they are going to be very simple. Moses and Elias were speaking with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. The great antitype of what is presented in the Pentateuch is Jesus, and there He was, speaking with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend; that is what Joshua could see, a little bit of heaven brought down to the door of the tent in which he dwelt. You see thus how a young man is privileged and formed divinely as he is true to the light vouchsafed even at the cost of outward smallness and reproach. I could say more about Joshua, but I only touch on these two points.
I go on now to Samuel. I wish to speak of David’s ten young men. I believe you will admit there is a certain constructive line in what I am bringing before you. We have a man overcoming the wicked one; we have the young man in the tent, the place of privilege; now we have ten young men carrying a message. The last is a question of preaching, and preaching to a man who represents a very uninterested audience. You have to learn to preach to such people. I have no difficulty in preaching the gospel to saints; generally they are the most interested of all. But here is a man who represents a very hostile element; and what are these young men doing? There are ten of them, as I said; they are designated, “David’s young men”. They are told the tenor of what they should say to Nabal. The gospel may be presented in a million ways, it is such a marvellous subject. How are these young men going to act? Does one of them assert leadership or priority on the way? No; there is not the slightest sign of rivalry in these young men, and yet they are charged with an important message, and it is from David to such a man as Nabal. On the other hand, we cannot think that these young men spoke one by one to him. In scripture a feature of ministry is compression; that is to say, you always convey in what you say that you could say very much more. You cannot exhaust the things of [p. 63] God — they are too great. That I can present what I have to say in the smallest compass, and yet leave nothing out that I should say, is what should mark me. The minister of Christ is not merely concerned about words; he is concerned about substance. Here the question is, What is David’s mind? “And David’s young men came, and spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased”. Now that is what I want to dwell upon — the ability to stop when you have finished, when you have conveyed your message. As serving in this way, no one should appear before men without the assurance that he has a message. “This is the message that we have heard from him”, (1 John 1:5). You have your message, you deliver it, and then stop. That is the principle marking these ten young men. If all of us who serve were to observe that principle in our service, the saints of God would be saved from considerable occasion of trial. The scriptures provide against the saints being wearied either by long addresses or by long prayers. Undue length either in the ministry of the word or prayer is not according to the mind of God. The principle is compression. Of course prayer in an individual way may be unlimited; the Lord spent a night in prayer. As to ministry, the prophets are to speak by two or three, (1 Corinthians 14). These young men speak, and then cease. Surely they are set down here as models.
Now I want to speak about the young man in verse 14. Some adverse thing happens among the people of God; what am I going to do about it? This young man was a keeper of the sheep; he had the advantage of keeping them in the neighbourhood of David and his men. He had been in proximity to David. He hears what Nabal has said, and, in recording it, does not minimise the evil character of Nabal his master. He says, “And he is such a son of Belial, that one cannot speak to him”. He has a true judgment of his master, and evidently he is not governed by natural or selfish considerations. He is a [p. 64] man of courage. That is what is needed in crises amongst us. How am I going to act in a crisis? You say, That is for the old brothers; but this is a young man; it is not a question of gift or experience; it is a question of uprightness, of meeting an impending danger. The matter is serious and must be faced at once, I hear something of this kind; what am I going to do about it? Have a talk with some brother or sister and let it go the round in ‘confidence’? No, that is not the way. He goes and places the information where it can be dealt with effectually, and where it was dealt with effectually — with Abigail, a type of the church. She is a type of the church militant; she becomes allied to David in his military position, and in our localities we have to be militant. We must learn how to act wisely, so as to defeat the constant attacks of Satan. Thus you place information such as we are speaking of where it belongs — before the brethren, those who are gathering and acting in the light and recognition of Christ and the assembly. We want to know where to place information that is calculated to ward off disaster; this is imperative. This young man places his information with Abigail, who was responsible to act; she takes it up immediately; the crisis is met and dealt with, and the position is saved, God’s part in it being secured.
You will see, dear brethren, a constructive line in all this. The apostle John had it in mind when he wrote to the young men, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”, (1 John 1:14). They are men of the testimony. In view of what we have had before us it is as if he said, ‘Be on your guard. You have overcome Amalek; you have been inside the tent; you have delivered your message; now beware of the world; see that you do not hanker after it’. Many a man has refused the world for himself and adapted his children for it, and he has lost them. The young have to be on their guard against the world. “Love not the world, nor the things [p. 65] in the world. If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him ... but he that does the will of God abides for eternity”, (verses 15,17). The testimony goes on and you abide for ever; that is the position.
May God help us to keep this clearly in view. If we are not going on, God is going on, and He is going on with those who as in youthful maturity are free from the world and subject to His will.
Pages 66 - 104, “Spiritual Refinement”, Readings and Addresses, Lincoln and Oldham, 1939 (Volume 107).