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WISDOM'S CHILDREN

WISDOM’S CHILDREN

It is on my mind to show how we are to walk together. You will observe that the locusts referred to here are one of four species of creatures that are said to be exceeding wise. Christianity is a dispensation in which wisdom shines. The gospels present to us wisdom personified in Christ, and the effect of the ministry of Christ was to produce children of wisdom, and these children of wisdom were to carry on wisdom’s activities during the period of the absence of the Lord from the earth.

Among other things, what you find in the Acts is that the children of wisdom walk together. The word together is very prominent in the record, at least, the idea conveyed in it is. We are told that the Lord “added to the assembly (probably it is ‘added together’) such as should be saved”. In the light of that in the next chapter, you find two of them, Peter and John, walking up together into the temple.

It may seem a very insignificant matter that they should have walked up together, but they walked in wisdom to the temple, hence they walked together.

Now, there was a man lame from his birth lying at the temple gate, and here are two of wisdom’s children walking together. It is a most remarkable incident in its bearing. There is human need at the gate of the temple, but the temple was unavailing; human need was unalleviated by the temple. Peter said to the man, “Look on us”. He did not say, “Look on me”. He said “Look on us”.

Look on whom? Two of wisdom’s children walking in wisdom’s dignity, walking together.

Now that is a pattern of the Christian dispensation in its bearing towards the need of this world. Suppose you contrast that with what we have today.

Here are two outwardly insignificant men, they have ^[p. 312] no silver, they have no gold, they have no learning according to man; they have no social or religious status; they have no political status, and yet they appeal to the man in need; and they say, “Look on us”. Now, contrast that with what we have become accustomed to. Suppose we, as outwardly responsible for and connected with Christendom, say, “Look on us”. What a spectacle! Is there any wisdom, any love, outwardly? The whole fabric is so far removed from that which Peter and John presented to that man, that it is utterly unrecognisable. We have to accept it; we cannot escape from it. Obviously it is wisdom on the part of God’s people at the present time to accept it; yet, if we are to be locusts; that is, among the wise but weak things in the world, our course is to go back to first principles. You only require another and yourself to get the working out of first principles.

In referring to first principles, I would for a moment suggest the idea of brethren. We can lift up our heads in regard of that precious designation. I know of no designation that one cherishes more than brethren, and what one finds in Scripture is that recovery is to that. Referring back for a moment to the Old Testament, Joseph is the type of Christ as having brethren. It is true that Isaac had brethren, and it is true that Jacob had a brother; but Joseph is singled out by the Spirit as the type of Christ as having brethren. Let me call your attention in this connection to the fact that at the first meeting of Joseph with his brethren he elicited from them the truth as to first principles. What was that truth?

It was confessed in this way: “Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man”. Not eleven brethren. Never omit from your mind or your heart any one of the saints. The confession made was remarkable, a forecast of the ultimate result of the meeting with Joseph. What a happy prospect for ^[p. 313] us as having come to the acknowledgement of the truth of brethren. You say, They are but few. Wait a bit; we shall find them all presently, and there will be many. The moment is fast approaching when the “many, brethren” shall appear. Judah and his brethren had not very long to wait to find the twelfth. They had only eleven; they confessed that there were twelve. Presently, Joseph the twelfth appears in glory. I ask you in passing whether you have come to that. For the moment I am not raising the question as to the state becoming to brethren. I want to come to that directly, but I do ask you whether you have come to recognise the principle that there are twelve brethren. What I mean by that is that the complete number exists; there is not one left out.

When we proceed with the narrative in Genesis we find that Judah is brought to the state becoming to brethren. It had been a long, I may say painful, process that brought him to it; but in the final crisis the state which is found in Judah is becoming to brethren. In this respect it is no question of having them all. The point is for you and for me to see to it that we are in the state of a brother. If the state suited to a brother is found in you, you will find others. Now Judah says to Joseph in the crisis at the end, “My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father, or a brother?” A wonderful question to be raised! Has it ever been raised in your soul? The question as to your Father and as to your brethren? That is a family question; that is not a national question. There is far too much national sentiment among God’s people. It is quite right to have national sentiment in regard to a “holy nation”, but where is the holy nation? Is this country a holy nation, or any other country today? There is none. Do not put up one against another; not one of them is holy; not one of them. The patience of ^[p. 314] God lingers over them, not on account of their holiness or their righteousness; the explanation of it is all found in the nature of God; He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. There is only one “holy nation”, and that is God’s people, who have His Spirit. But there is a family, and that family has one Father and it is composed of brethren. And so you find Judah evincing the state becoming a brother. He is prepared to be a bond-slave for ever for Benjamin. Is not that the spirit of a brother? How different when he became a party to the selling of Joseph. Now he is prepared to be a bond-slave for ever for his youngest brother Benjamin. The state becoming a brother is that which is seen in consideration for the Father and in consideration for the brethren.

Well now, having said all that about brethren, I turn to the passage in Proverbs, because in the light of Christianity it is really based on the relationship suited to brethren. The love that is becoming in brethren works out in such wise as to bring us into reproach in the world. The locusts are little but they are wise. Now wherein is their wisdom seen? It is seen in this, that they go forth by bands. In the economy set up in Paul’s ministry the brethren were to go by bands. I want to show you how it came about in a simple, practical way. Because, although we can never, as a whole, hope to present anything in the way of public testimony now, we can return to first principles and maintain them in so far as we are in touch with our brethren. And I repeat, the more you find the state becoming to brethren the more brethren you will find. You never surrender in your soul the principle of the twelve. I use the number twelve as a symbol of the whole. So that you meet a Christian anywhere, and if you have evidence of his genuineness, he is one of the number. I want to show you how you are to treat ^[p. 315] the brethren. I refer to the passage I read in Matthew 5. Now the gospel of Matthew is distinguished from the other gospels, and among other things, by this, that it presents a new legislation. I have no doubt that Mark gives us a new kind of ministry, whereas Luke gives us a new order of things. Matthew gives us from the ministry of Christ a new legislation. Hence the Lord is seen in this gospel as going up into a mountain and sitting down and calmly setting forth a law for the government of His people. Now He comes to a phase of the law which has reference to brethren. How are we to regard them? How are we to speak to one another? The Lord begins by saying, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill ... but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment”. Now the Lord intends to convey by this teaching, that we are to regard each other not as in the flesh. I believe that the secret of all the dissension and dissatisfaction amongst the saints lies in taking account of each other as in the flesh. First of all you are angry without a cause; then secondly you say, My brother is vain; he is a vain fellow, “Raca”. He is vain if you look at him in the flesh. There is not one of us who is not vain after the flesh, and if you look at your brother in that light he is certainly vain. But what are you doing in looking at him in that light? You are uncovering his nakedness, and I leave it with you to find out from Scripture what that means. The Lord does not hesitate here to indicate to you the seriousness of it. I want you to follow what I am saying as to uncovering the nakedness of a brother. In Genesis 3 you have the idea of covering. God brought in a covering for both Adam and Eve, but in chapter 9 Ham would set it aside, and he became witness of the nakedness of his father; he disregarded the covering.

^[p. 316] Now it is quite possible that a brother may expose himself. Alas! we are all too conscious of this danger. Noah exposed himself, he got drunk. You might say Ham had a very good reason for speaking about his father. Very well. The Spirit of God tells us that Canaan was cursed for it. Shem and Japheth, on the other hand, went backwards with a garment and covered the nakedness of their father. I refer to that so that you may see the importance of taking account of the saints as covered by Christ. If you habituate yourself to taking account of them as in the flesh you will come into judgment governmentally, depend upon it. The Canaanitish nations came under God’s curse for it. “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be”. And for what? For disregarding, for thinking and speaking lightly of the nakedness of his near relative. There is a heavy penalty attached to it, and so in the typical books you find that the uncovering of a near relative is prohibited with the curse of God. The opposite to that is that we look at each other as clothed with the glorious garment of Christ. How different a brother is now! You would not go without him now. So you come to the altar of God with your offering, Matthew 5: 23. What about your brother now? You remember him there. Depend upon it you will have cause to remember him there. “And there rememberest that thy brother” — thy brother — “hath aught against thee”. What about it now? He is your brother. Ah! you say he has no good reason to have anything against me; he has no reason to be angry with me. Is that the language of your lips? Well, your brother has aught against you; you must have him, he is your brother, he is one of the twelve, and God will not have a vacant space; they must all be there. You will remember how in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16, all the males are told to appear before God three times in the year.

^[p. 317] You would not be there without one. Here is one man coming down from Dan, another coming up from Beersheba, another from the west of Naphtali; they are all together. You will remember again, as recorded in the book of Judges, chapter 21, how that Benjamin was missing. Rightly he had come under severe punishment, but the tribes felt the loss of their brother. It is a true sign of being with God in your soul when you feel the absence of a brother.

Well now, you have come to the altar of God, and your brother is not there. Well, you say, why is he not here? You kept him away. He has something against you, that is why. You say, he has no reason, but nevertheless he has something against you.

What are you going to do about it? God is raising the question with you. Go and get him. Depend upon it that is largely our responsibility today. We are to be set for the recovery of our brethren. God will take up their side some day, they will come to the altar; there is no hope for them if they do not. They may claim to be brethren, but if they do not come to the altar of God they have no claim to the title. But some day they will come; they will all come and then you may depend upon it that God will raise the question with them. But never mind, for the moment your brother is not there. The twelve are not together. Now the Lord says, “Leave there thy gift before the altar ... first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”. You do not bring him there, but you go and remove what hinders him coming. That is according to the Christian dispensation; and it is now a time of recovery, recovery to first principles.

Now the Lord proceeds to a stronger and more serious view of the situation. It is not now simply that the brother has something against you. There is an adversary. He has anger in his heart; he is against you. What about him now. Agree with ^[p. 318] him. Get into agreement with him. What agreement? Agreement to differ? No; that is the most abominable theory of the moment. To agree to differ with a man is a most abominable theory in the light of Christianity. How then are you to agree with him? You must bring him in the state of his soul to the truth as it is in Jesus. In Jesus the truth of a brother is seen. He is the real Joseph, the brother born for adversity. He had ten enemies, but he recovers them; ten of his brethren were his enemies, and he recovered them all. No one was left out. So the present time is the time of recovery.

But it comes about in one arriving in his soul at the true state becoming to brethren, and if he arrives at that state he must have them all.

Now it is in that way we come back to the idea presented in Proverbs 30: 27. We come back to the idea of a people who have no outward leader, no king. The locusts, it is said, have no king, yet they go together; they go in bands, and that is said to be their characteristic wisdom. The conies have wisdom, and the ants have wisdom, and the locusts have wisdom, and their wisdom is seen in the fact that they go together. They are together in heart.

It is a most painful thing to be agreeing to differ, or for the sake of outward appearances; to present a good front to others. The thought of God is that we should be free in our affections, Christ being the commanding object of each of us; as it is said, He is the Firstborn among many brethren.

The best way I know of to arrive at the truth of conditions in heaven is to apprehend what Christ is to His brethren, because that is a great feature in heaven, Christ with His brethren in the enjoyment of the Father’s affections.

May the Lord give us in these last days to cultivate the brotherly spirit!

Pages 319 - 407 — “The Body, Holding the Head, and Union”, London, 1914 (Volume 23).

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