POWER TO PROGRESS
N.T.Meek
Numbers 13: 26-30; 14: 24,25; Genesis 45: 25-28
In reading these Scriptures I am thinking of the power that there is to make spiritual progress, that power being the Spirit. We read elsewhere that "the flesh profits nothing" (John 6: 63) but the power to make progress in divine things lies in the Spirit.
I have read about Caleb and the land because the land represents the way that God's thoughts are laid out before us - not exactly heaven, but God's thoughts laid out before us now, like the rolling country, with the hills and the valleys, the shafts of copper, and the stones containing iron. Past and present ministry is full of the way God's thoughts are laid out before us. As the people come through the wilderness this inviting land is before them, this land which God Himself had described as a land that flowed with milk and honey. For us the apostle Paul especially lays out God's thoughts, His divine thoughts and purposes and what is for our present enjoyment; but only too often we see the difficulties, even as to finding time to go in for them.
God has protected His thoughts from the mere mind of man. The mind of man as such is incapable of taking in divine thoughts and they are protected thereby. It is part of divine providence; they are too precious for the vulgar eye of man. There are many scriptures which speak about the emptiness of man's mind, such as "they are but fools, the princes of Zoan" Isa 19: 11. God has protected His thoughts so that they should be intact, and laid hold of by us in the way that He wants us to lay hold of them. To this end He has provided the Spirit. Now Caleb here is one who really availed himself of the Spirit; this is just what I would like to draw from this chapter. The land is described, and the difficulties too. It is a land that is taken by overcomers, it is laid hold of by overcomers. It is not a land that you can enjoy, so to speak, from the guide books. It is a land that you eat your way into, you must put your foot on it to enjoy it. But the difficulties are real. The housework, to speak simply, and the stress of business, also (one cannot speak personally) the raising of a family takes time, and rightly so; these things are right in their way, but nevertheless the land is to be laid hold of and the Lord would encourage us to go in for it. We may feel our inability. We may sometimes reproach ourselves even with lack of desire. We often feel our inability but the land is to be gone in for. God's thoughts are to be gone in for, and by the Spirit there is an element in us that can lay hold of them. New birth has put in the believer an element that can appreciate and lay hold of and understand God 's thoughts and enjoy them.
So Caleb here is an example, a pattern. The difficulties are gone over - Anak is in one place, Amalek in another. No doubt these things have teaching in them. Anak is a great looming difficulty, which casts its shadow a long way. Amalek is another difficulty. Amalek is in the south, and the Jebusites and the Amorites are in the hill country - that would be a good place to get but there is more difficulty. There is only Amalek in the south but there are three in the hill country. Then the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the side of the Jordan. Such an element might bear on the testimony because on the one hand it would prevent us getting close to men and on the other it would militate against our being kept near to the death of Christ. Nevertheless, in the face of all this, Caleb says "Let us go up boldly and possess it". Such words are a cheer for us, to cheer us and strengthen us in our faith. A man like Caleb is not the object of our faith but he is to cheer and strengthen us in the path of faith. He says "We are well able to do it". Now that was not an idle boast, dear brethren, because God said of him, "he hath another spirit in him".
The only way we can rightly apprehend God's thoughts is by the Spirit. The Spirit is available for us, without prejudice, without partiality. Let us ask for the Spirit, ask and ask again. I do not mean that we keep on getting the Spirit afresh but we can keep on proving His power as freshly anointed with oil, freshly invigorated. "We are well able to do it". It may seem impossible but it is possible by the Spirit. One would desire to be able to convey to us the assurance that the whole land is open to us and the One by whom we can enter is available for us. The power for movement, the power for progress in divine things lies in the Spirit; so let us give ourselves to Him in simplicity and dependence. Let us read the Scriptures, let us read the ministry, and let us learn what it is to trust, and to pray to the Spirit that He might help us. Caleb says "We are well able to do it". Faith rejoices in the difficulties because there is power in the Spirit that is greater than the difficulty. A man like Caleb must have been a man of portent at this time. You think of Achsah, his daughter. She evidently became quite spiritual herself. But you can think of her as a girl in the home pondering how things were going in the wilderness, how so-and-so had died, and then another of her father 's age had died, and eventually she would ask herself on what principle was her father being sustained in life. You see, they all died except Caleb and Joshua. A thinking child would ask herself, On what principle does father live? Well, he lived by faith, by laying hold of God's thoughts. God had not delineated the land as something to be admired from a distance, it was a land to be occupied. But also she would come to it that he lived by the Spirit. He would have been a great object lesson, a man of portent, as we read elsewhere, someone to be observed as a sign and a type. It says "Caleb the son of Jephunneh, lived still of the men that had gone to search out the land", chap 14: 38. Others had gone, they had seen it, but the report had not been mixed with faith and it did not profit them. Let us learn to speak to the Spirit more freely, individually. Ask Him to give us entrance, ask Him to give us understanding, ask Him to help us to lay hold of God's thoughts, what they are. They are delineated for us in the writings of holy men. As we go in for them the difficulties become reduced. According to verse 25 of chapter 14 there appear to be only two difficulties left. Where has Anak gone? There are only Amalek and the Canaanites left. The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites have all gone, the hill country is yours. These things are to encourage us, dear brethren, there is always something for us to overcome, of course, but faith and the Spirit together will see us through.
Now I would just like to refer to Genesis as typifying in Jacob a believer who found it difficult to apprehend Christ in glory. I think most of us, speaking simply, would say that we can say more about the Lord Jesus as He was here on earth than as He is now. It is very blessed to be able to speak of Him on earth, as He was and how He was. We have the four gospels and Mr Darby wrote a whole volume of his Synopsis on the four gospels; which has point, I think. He did not write a whole volume on any other four books. It is lovely to read the gospels and to think of Christ as He was here. It is not so easy to lay hold of Him as He is now, at least I do not find it so. We need the Spirit in a peculiar way to bring to us the knowledge of Christ as He is now. Of course, we need the Spirit rightly to think of Him as He was here, otherwise we can become sentimental; but to think of Him as He is now we peculiarly need the Spirit because He has been with Him in heaven. When Christ went up the Spirit was there for those ten days and has come back with a full, complete knowledge of Christ in glory. Now Jacob may represent one of us who finds it difficult to apprehend Christ in glory. He had known Joseph, we might say, in his lifetime here, seen him in his perfection, seen him here and had appreciated him, appreciated his moral worth, the way he was different from others, the way that moral quality, purity and beauty were seen in him. Then the time had come when he had lost him, in that respect, and he finds it difficult to lay hold of the fact that he is still alive and in glory. Well, if we speak simply and honestly, I think we would say that we find it more difficult. What happens here is that Joseph sends the waggons to convey him. They are a type of the Spirit as the carrying power, the power to progress to Christ where He is. We can think of this in many ways. In some ways it could be regarded as the last journey of the believer as he goes to be with Christ. Jacob had many journeys, and many tortuous journeys too. To very many places he had gone: to Padan-Aram, to Shechem, to Bethel. He traversed many journeys, like a believer in his lifetime. Many things as he went over them he would regret, many things he would become adjusted about in his mind, but the time was coming for him (in type) when he was going to be with Christ. That time will come for us all, dear brethren, and even in that we shall find that the Spirit will encourage us and will see us through. If I might speak simple to any old person here to whom death may seem comparatively near, the Spirit will see you through and will carry you through to see Christ as He is. But, in our minds and in our affections it is possible for us to lay hold of it now. It is intended that we should be governed by Him as He is, as we have often been taught: "As He is, we also are in this world", 1 John 4: 17. It would be a great matter of testimony, the life of a person who actually in their affections has been with Christ in glory, who has actually laid hold of Him in His own realm. Dear brother, dear sister, the One who died for you, your Saviour, the One who came here and died for you, who took your place as a substitute, was raised again, and He ascended and is now in glory. Do you not want to see Him? Would you not like to know Him as He is? You think of Him there on the cross as bearing your sins but would you not like to see Him as He is? Would you not like to see Him in His own realm, aside from sinners, aside from all the degradation? Think of Him in that realm, filling even heaven. He will fill all things; every spiritual intelligence was filled when Jesus went up and the Spirit would help to carry you in your affections to apprehend Him and to be with Him. You say, Finally? Yes finally, but in our spirits and in our experience, in measure at least, even now. Joseph sent the waggons because he wanted Jacob to know him thus; and the Lord wants you and me in our affections to be with Him, not to be thinking of Him only as He was here, a Man amongst men, but to think of Him in His own realm. The Lord, dear brethren, wants us to take this journey and He has provided the Spirit to encourage us. This dear man, Jacob, rose to it. To begin with he fainted, it appeared to be too much for him. Of course you can understand it literally. It does not take much to think of this in its literal sense, but let us try and think of it in its spiritual sense. It says "And he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him. And the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough". He said, so to speak, It is all I want. The Spirit is enough, dear brethren, to take us.
Now this involves subjection, it involves obedience, does it not? One takes these things as read, that we are characteristically subject and obedient to the Lord's word. God has given the Spirit "to those that obey Him", Acts 5: 32. You say the gift of the Spirit is sovereign - that is true in one sense; but there is also the side of our obedience. Mr Taylor sen said 'let no one speak of having the Spirit aside from the element of obedience' (VoM 43, p.433). I will take it as read that we are characteristically that way. We are very conscious, when we are young especially, how we fluctuate, and we are kept aware of it constantly; but still, the Lord would, so to speak, bring before us these waggons that He has sent expressly so that we might see Him as He is. May we be encouraged in these things, dear brethren. The greatest things, the deepest things, are the things to go in for. They are too sacred, as I have said, for the mere mind of man but they are available for us in the Spirit, and may they lay hold of us and may we in our affections and in our desires go in for them, for His Name's sake.
EDINBURGH
13th July 1974