TRANSPORT
Dr. S. D. K. Roberts
Deuteronomy 32: 11, 12; Genesis 45: 25–28; 46: 1; 24: 54–I wish to say a few words about transport. The first passage we have read would apply especially to the young, then we read of an old man, and finally about a maiden.
Boaz speaks to Ruth as to her having taken refuge under the wings of Jehovah the God of Israel (Ruth 2: 12), and the passage in Deuteronomy, speaking of God’s care for His people, refers to the wings of an eagle. To encourage the young birds to leave, the mother bird removes the inner lining of the nest, making it uncomfortable. The eaglets might need courage also to leave the nest, and maybe the Spirit is urging us now to make the attempt.
The Lord said to Peter, “Draw out into the deep water”, Luke 5: 4. We need to ‘cut our moorings’ and move out. We come to meetings like this—some of us have been coming to meetings most of our lives but what is the effect? Does it give us a fresh urge to move? Has it done something spiritually in us? The Spirit would urge us to move out into the heavenly realm now. These eaglets would wish to fly—they have been furnished with wings to do so and would not enjoy their life properly if they did not—but they must make the first attempt to do so. In the same way bathing is not properly enjoyed until one can swim.
The little eagle might fear that it would not be able to fly and that it would fall from that great height. It must make the attempt. The scripture says, “As the eagle stirreth up its nest, hovering over its young, spreadeth out its wings, taketh them, beareth them on its feathers, so Jehovah alone did lead him, and no strange god was with him”. If the eaglet should fall the mother bird would swoop down and take it on her powerful wings. Exodus 19: 4 refers to this; God says there, “Ye have seen … how I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”.
If I do move out, God’s affectionate care for me is sure. It means that in spirit I leave natural and material things to find my life in the spiritual realm. An eagle, having found its wings, must delight in soaring in the heavens. The writer in Proverbs 30: 19 refers to the way of an eagle in the heavens as one of the things too wonderful for him. An eagle can draw over its eyes a third eyelid and is thus able to go directly through a storm. So the power of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to bring us through any storm. Trust yourself to those powerful wings and He will transport you to where Christ is.
The passage in Genesis 45 indicates a different mode of transport. We find in Jacob an old and discouraged man. There are those like him today. Their discouragement has led them to do nothing. For Jacob, when Joseph had gone, everything had gone, but when the light came to him that “Joseph is still alive” it says, “his heart fainted, for he did not believe them”. We were speaking in the previous meeting as to faith being light as to facts received in the heart, and the Spirit enables me to make it my own. The fact is that our Joseph is alive—a living Man at the right hand of God raised from the dead, ascended, and glorified. However, when Jacob saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him, his spirit revived. The true Joseph has sent all the transport that is required to bring you in spirit now to where He is. The Holy Spirit is power to carry us into a sphere of light and love and liberty. Looking on the glory of the Lord we are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18). By the Spirit we behold the face of our Moses, the Lord Jesus, and thus take on that glory.
Now Jacob receives the light and moves in relation to it. It was not only that he said, “I will go”, but he takes his journey to the source from which the waggons came. Merely saying, ‘I will go’ is not sufficient. Deborah tells us that “in the divisions of Reuben there were great resolves of heart”, but they abode among the sheep-folds (Judges 5: 15, 16). Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba—the well of the oath. We can count on divine promises as moving in obedience to the light in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 24 is a beautiful type of the assembly being carried over to the heavenly Man as a present experience. She must state her decision. “Let us call the maiden and inquire at her mouth”. She is asked, “Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, will go”. The man would represent the Holy Spirit—He has adequate power for the journey. Let us go, with His guidance, to the heavenly sphere where Christ is to find now our life with Him there.
However, the first step has to be taken. If a diver stops at the end of the spring-board to see how far down it is, he is unlikely to take the plunge. “Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”. As we thus commit ourselves God will not deprive us of anything that would be for our good, but we must keep the goal before us—one object, the Lord Jesus—each step of the journey. I do not think Rebecca found the journey very long. She would be like Paul, who kept the goal before him (Philippians 3: 13, 14).
In closing I refer to the wings of a dove (see Psalm 55: 6). The Lord speaks of the wings of a hen as protective and we have had before us the wings of an eagle as strength, but the dove is a homing bird. If you bring it far from its cote it will find its way straight home. The Holy Spirit here will bring us now in our spirits back to the place from which He came—Christ in glory. Let us use those wings. May the Lord bless the word.
Address at Liverpool
18 November 1978