“I DWELL AMONG MINE OWN PEOPLE”
R. S. Renton
There is a moral history preceding this statement, “I dwell among mine own people”. Men generally do not reckon in this way for they are always aspiring to reach a higher stratum of society. For instance, it would be esteemed a very great favour to be invited by the Queen to her palace; then as we come down the scale there are titled persons such as lords and knights, and some may have a strong desire to be associated with them. But this woman, who had shown such alacrity in respect of Jehovah’s servant Elisha, said, when asked, “Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?”—“I dwell among mine own people”.
Who would compare the outward status of earth’s so-called ‘high society’ with the secret joy of companionship with lowly persons who are heaven’s aristocracy?
Now, dear brethren, all this comes as a challenge to us and I would raise the question with each one—Are we content in a world marked by increasing discontent? Paul in 1 Timothy 6: 6 states that “Piety with contentment is great gain”. As we bring God into every one of our circumstances we experience the great gain of contentment, and this wealthy, or it could read ‘great’, woman was characterised by this feature in her links with company which could not be surpassed.
This is a very instructive chapter. The first section, 2 Kings 4: 1–7, corresponds with individual exercise outlined in the Epistle to the Romans; verses 32–37, where the son is received from the dead again, would link with Colossians; and the man from Baal-shalishah in verses 42–44 would correspond with Ephesian truth in that he comes from a heavenly clime and country.
The chapter begins with death and debt and the dire threat of slavery, and the first section ends by showing the illimitable resources which are available as full room is made for the Spirit of God, suggested in the oil. Elisha asks in verse 2, “Tell me, what hast thou in the house?”. What a word for us, beloved brethren. What have we by way of spiritual resources, that which we can appropriate as our own? The woman replies, “Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil”, as if the pot of oil was an afterthought and scarcely worthy of mention. Many believers require light regarding the Spirit and need instruction as to how to make use of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. In Romans 8 the believer is “in Christ Jesus”, and the Spirit of God dwells and operates in him; in place of death the Spirit is “life on account of righteousness” (Romans 8: 10); instead of debt “the righteous requirement of the law” is “fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit” (verse 4); and in contrast to slavery, we read in verses 14 and 15, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”.
To arrive at all this, the woman had to go through some measure of exercise in borrowing empty vessels, shutting the door upon herself and her sons and pouring out the oil into all the vessels, in regard to which Elisha says, “Let it not be few”. When she says, “Bring me yet a vessel”, she seemed to reach the idea that limitation was in the vessels and not in the Spirit of God for, when there was not a vessel more, we read, “And the oil stayed”.
It is a definite landmark in our spiritual career when we realise consciously that the Spirit of God dwells in us for power and thus renders us independent of anything that worldly streams may offer, and that He is the source of present satisfaction as the Lord states in John 4, “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14). The prophet then instructs her to “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest”—and there is no cessation to “the rest”.
Morally the wealthy, or ‘great’, woman mentioned in verse 8 is the same person who was in spiritual affluence as living, she and her sons, on the rest. She perceives that Elisha is a holy man of God and proposes to her husband that they should make a small upper chamber with walls for the man of God and provide a bed, a table, a seat and a lampstand. We might think that the room was sparsely furnished, but she saw to it that every requisite was available for the man of God; the bed to enable him to have rest in view of further service, the table for the enjoyment of fellowship, the seat in order that he might meditate on the great things of God, and lastly the lampstand that fresh light from God might be continually imparted.
Elisha says to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite. And he called her, and she stood before him. And he said to him, Say now to her. Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she said, I dwell among mine own people”. She must have had a very enlarged appreciation of her own people in that the suggested honourable mention of her to the king or to the captain of the host had no appeal. Her “own people” were of such value to her that she was just delighted to dwell among them.
You will see, therefore, how she arrives in moral history at such an appreciation of the saints of God, and I have an impression, beloved brethren, that in the measure in which there is full room made in us for the Spirit of God there will not only be “piety with contentment” but there will be unfeigned love for one another and holy joy experienced in dwelling among our own people.
Some of us here belong to small companies and in one way it is almost an asset to be in a small meeting where each is known to the other in a more intimate way than in a large company and there is thus more opportunity for love to express itself personally. I trust that the brethren, therefore, may be encouraged. Oh what it is to be sufficiently near the Lord Jesus to gain an impression of what the saints are to Him for His own heart’s delight and also what they are to the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory”, as we read in Ephesians 1: 17, “what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. The Holy Spirit of God is with and in us to lead us into a fuller understanding of these things and may we desire increasingly to have the divine viewpoint of the people of God. In Psalm 137 the writer in verses 5 and 6 says, “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill; If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to my palate—if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”. Might I ask, wherein does our joy lie? What supreme delight is connected with Christ and His assembly, and as we are committed to His chief interest on earth we shall be able, like this wealthy woman, to state, “I dwell among mine own people”.
Word in meeting for ministry, Helston
30 May 1978