INFLUENCE
A. McBride
Genesis 2: 10–14; 2 Samuel 21: 8–10; Hosea 11: 4; John 17: 17–21
I want to say a word, beloved, as to the matter of influence. We have been speaking of what it is to come under the influence of Christ, the restfulness of it. I would like to refer, if I may, to spiritual influence. There are many kinds of influence in the world, some, in the mercy of God, for good. Right government, for instance; it is a good influence. Thank God for that; we pray for those who rule. There are other influences. The prince of the power of the air has tremendous influence; sober thinking men and women are concerned about the influence of what is coming over the air, what is in the homes of men and women. Thank God it is not in the believer’s home if it is rightly regulated. These things have no place there.
The whole creational system is one of influence for good. There is the great light, as we read in the first chapter of Genesis, and the small light, these two great lights with their influence which affect the climate and general prosperity of the world. The children know about that; they go to the seaside; the tide sometimes is in, it is right where they are; at other times it is far away out there. That is just part of the influence of these great lights which rule from God in His goodness.
The scripture in Genesis would bring out, I think, the influence of the Holy Spirit Himself, the One who has come out from heaven. The river that went out from Eden divided into four heads. The first one, Pison, speaks particularly about the Spirit in our day, surrounding the land of Havilah. The interesting thing about these heads, as they are called (which would show that they are a leading thought with God), is that two of them, it says, “surround”; of another one it says, it “flows forward”. Pison would allude to the blessed activities of the Spirit in bringing in the circle which is surrounded by the influence of the Spirit Himself.
These other rivers would, perhaps, in their literality refer to another day, but nevertheless the idea is there that one “flows forward”, so there is that in the influence of the Spirit that enables us to look forward. That is Colossians; “the hope of glory” is a forward look, the river flowing forward.
I am interested in this land of Havilah; this river Pison, it says, “surrounds the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. And the gold of that land if good; bdellium and the onyx stone are there”. I suppose there were many other things there; but the Spirit of God speaks about these three things, gold, bdellium and the onyx. Havilah means ‘a circle’. The word has two meanings actually; one is ‘a circle’ and the other ‘anguish’. I think it would point to the fact that while there is wonderful blessing, beloved brethren, in this circle of love which Havilah would speak of, there also is the side of anguish. It is like Philippians, the things that are more excellent come to light there in a suffering situation. So these things go together. We had a word on Tuesday as to not avoiding the sorrows; a brother was speaking to us about the priesthood of Christ and what He is able for; he was exhorting us not to avoid the sorrows—a timely word. But here we have “the gold of that land”. Oh, the blessedness of what it is just to enjoy, beloved brethren, the work of God in the saints for its own sake! Because this land of Havilah is like the assembly, it is like our gatherings; it is what is there, what the Spirit would influence. His influence is not vague; His influence is one of divine power and resource and freshness, and the inference here is that these things are there because the river is there.
Oh, think of that blessed One, the Holy Spirit of God, who has come out from heaven freighted with the atmosphere of heaven, where Jesus is. You think of what that was when Jesus went up there after having risen, received up in glory, received by the Father—how glorious! Oh, what that would be! Take time, beloved brethren, to think about it, what that entrance into heaven would be; and from there the Holy Spirit has come, surrounding us with the influence of that blessed relationship that remains undisturbed up there between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit would bring out the gold, the appreciation of Christ, and also the valuation we have of one another.
Then there is the bdellium, that fragrant resin, suggesting what was exuded in that blessed Man as He was here. Oh, the fragrance of Jesus to His God and Father!—as Mr. Darby taught us, supremely so when on the cross at Calvary (see the ‘Synopsis’ on the offerings). But, dear brethren, the fragrance of Christ is still here in the saints. How fine to appreciate in one another the features of Christ, the fragrance of Christ. And there is also the onyx, speaking of us all representatively, all the beauties of the saints.
You will remember that it was on the two onyx stones that the names of the tribes were put, six on one stone and six on another, according to their birth (Exodus 28: 9, 10); that is, we get some impression of what the saints are according to their glory in divine counsel. The names are also on the breastplate, according to their tribes. That is a blessed thing, too, the way that Jesus, in the power of His own love, would hold us together in family relationships; but on the onyx stones it is according to our birth. How we need to see beyond what we are in our normal circumstances and see the saints according to divine counsel. David makes mention of onyx stones in that long list in 1 Chronicles 29, beginning with “gold for things of gold, and silver for things of silver”. He goes right down the list and he includes onyx stones. Other stones are also mentioned, but the onyx stones are mentioned by themselves and I think it would indicate a kind of distinctiveness.
Now these are things that the Spirit of God would bring out. How beautiful just to appreciate His blessed service! He would serve us so faithfully, so uninterruptedly, like this river, that we may see Christ in His own place up there, but Christ too in the saints down here. How fine! Paul in writing to the Philippians associates the overseers with himself and Timotheus, as if he would emphasize the idea of a right influence. It would be seen in a place, and that would be the result of the Spirit’s work.
I wanted to touch on Hosea because it alludes, I think, to the influence of ministry. “I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love”. Oh, think of God’s love for His people! Think of His love for us! Think of the love of Christ—what love! Whose cords of love were these?
You say, it is Jesus. Yes, it is Jesus, but, you know, the reference actually is to Aaron. I understand that the reference is to Exodus 16, where the people were murmuring. There they were in the wilderness in the ways of God, delivered from Egypt and brought into the wilderness but looking back to where they had been. How sad it is, beloved brethren, how terribly sad, if persons want to go back to something they have left. Moses tells Aaron to speak to the people. Now it is not in any sense to belittle Moses, because Moses was representing God to Aaron, but at that particular juncture there was a need for a particular kind of spiritual ministry that would turn things, and it was Aaron who spoke to the people.
Think of the history of Aaron. What a man he was, a man who was said to be a brother, a man who knew how to love. When he met Moses on the mountain of God it says he kissed him. What cords of love he knew about, what bands of a man he knew about, and he spoke to the people in Exodus 16 and brought them into the presence of Jehovah. What an important thing that is, to be able to bring saints into the presence of God by the word of God itself.
What skill is needed! It says they turned towards the wilderness and saw the glory of Jehovah. They are no longer looking back to Egypt, no longer looking back to what had been judged and left behind, but turning, turning under the power of affectionate ministry. How God would take account of us. I think the bands might suggest the idea of what is strong; the cords might suggest what is pliable, what is able to get round the problems, what is able to meet everything without giving. Bands do not give, you know; Aaron surrendered nothing in speaking to the people, but he held them. O, beloved brethren, would that we turned our faces to see the glory! Let us be amenable to these bands, these precious touches of Christ in the ministry, the way that He would help us, take us in control, and draw us in these cords of love. Oh, the power of it! Someone said in our meeting recently that love is the most powerful thing in the universe. How right that is! I think Aaron in speaking was able to bring in the gold, to turn them to the wilderness to see the appearing of the glory of Jehovah; he was able too, in priestly skill, to hold the people according to what the onyx would speak of; he was able also to bring in the bdellium. You know, there is a beautiful touch in Numbers 11, where the people lost their taste for the manna; they tried to change its taste, but the Spirit of God in that chapter records something about the manna that we do not get anywhere else; He says it was “as the appearance of bdellium” (Numbers 11: 7). How beautiful! We may lose our taste for the fragrance of Jesus, the life of that blessed. Man, but the Spirit of God never. He would remind us at any time, dear beloved brother and sister, if there is any waning of affection for Jesus, of the fragrance of that blessed Man.
Now 2 Samuel 21 is a different setting, a setting where David is not at his best. Now we need to be careful in speaking about David because God says of him, and He never changed it, that he was a man after His own heart. He was a man taken up by God who was characteristically with God; who felt for God; who thought for God; who sacrificed for God. What a man he was! David held to this idea of a circle; indeed it says as to Jerusalem that he built “round about from the Millo and inward”, 2 Samuel 5: 9. What a need there is, beloved
brethren, to appreciate what is within the circle. David did that, he even entered into the reality of these rivers that we read about, because we read of him also in this book going as far as the Euphrates to recover his kingdom (2 Samuel 8: 3). But here he is not at his best, and we just have to be humble about that. I do not want to put more on this woman Rizpah than Scripture would warrant; we do not know much about her, but what she does bring out is spiritual feeling, a feeling influence, that was the only right element at that particular time.
There was this famine, and David enquired of Jehovah. Well, you might wonder about that, “year after year”, but still he enquired of Jehovah; that was good. But then, somewhere along the course of the exercise something went wrong; he listened to these Gibeonites, and at the end of it there were seven persons who were hanged on trees.
Now this woman brings out the side of feeling; she had her personal sorrow; two sons of her own had been hanged; but there were others. O, beloved brethren, if we understand the value of the circle we feel for one another! How precious to be able to take in the saints in our affections, and this woman did that; she took on the sorrows of others, and she spread this sackcloth “for her upon the rock”. I sometimes feel I am more able to spread sackcloth for somebody else, but she spread it for herself. There is no record of what she said, what is recorded is what she did. Persons with right exercise tend not to say too much; they tend rather to feel; they tend rather to get into the presence of God; they tend rather to do what this woman did—to get back to the rock. Get back to that precious Rock that was smitten, Jesus.
Come back to Jesus; enter into His sufferings, what it was to Him that He had to die. The blessed Spirit, of whose influence we have been speaking, came to us, as we are taught in Exodus 17, on the basis of the smiting of Christ.
While you would not put too much, as I say, on this woman, nevertheless the Spirit of God records that she took sackcloth “and spread it for her upon the rock”. Oh, think of that; what a thing to do! What depth of spiritual feeling came to light in that woman; bereft of her sons; feeling too the sorrows of others, but feeling perhaps even more the awfulness of what had come in, what was not in keeping with the kingdom of David, not proper to the kingdom of David. She is doing this, and doing it “from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens”. The beginning of the harvest is like the saints going on enjoying the meetings, and that is perfectly right and good and proper, but through all that time, many months, this woman carried her sorrows, carried them with God. Her influence in her sorrow and in her feeling was such that it came to the ears of David. Would that we could influence in some way by our feelings things that may be bearing on the consciences and spirits of the saints! One way to acquire influence is to get back to Christ. Oh to spend time in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to dwell feelingly on what it was for Him, the Rock, to be smitten, pondering the extremity to which Jesus went, and then it may be (and I am not saying that we should not say anything) that there will be influence, so that these bones can be finally buried. The end of the section is that “God was propitious to the land”. Is that not fine? That is what we long for.
Now we come to John 17; we are coming into a holy area. John loves to speak about circles. We spoke about one today in John 12. There is another one in John 13, a circle of love and devotion where Jesus laid aside His garments and went round His own one by one washing their feet, and wiping them with the towel. Oh, these blessed activities within this circle! They belong to the land of Havilah. Then, following the teaching as to the Spirit in John 14, 15 and 16, we come to this beautiful chapter 17. I would like to touch on the influence of the Lord Jesus with the Father.
How wonderful is this beautiful chapter! What gold is in it!—“That they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17: 3)—what fragrance is in it! “They are not of the world” (John 17: 16). Think of Jesus speaking to the Father about you and me, beloved saints. Oh, that blessed Man, that Manna that was here on the face of the earth. It was not of the world; it was another kind of Man, another kind of manhood, and as to the saints, we are privileged to look at them and say they are of the same order—“not of the world”.
Now He continues and says, “Sanctify them by the truth—thy word is truth”. What a privilege we have to listen to the very words of Jesus to His own Father, and He is saying, “Sanctify them by the truth”. Oh, the influence of that blessed intercession! We are in it now, dear brethren, we are still in it—“Sanctify them by the truth—thy word is truth”, it is still here, the blessed influence of Christ over the whole of this dispensation. He goes on to say, “and I sanctify myself for them”; that refers to His death; that was immediate, that was absolute. There are two sides to sanctification, as the brethren know; one is the absolute side relating to what Christ has done in giving Himself in death. He has sanctified us; that is true of us; true of us because of what He has done. But then there is the progressive aspect of sanctification, like the river that goes forward; that comes by the Father’s word, the word coming from the Father, the whole resource of heaven, the Father there with Christ in His presence.
We have these openings up of the truth—in Ephesians for instance—these glorious things, all coming to us now as a result of this prayer of the Lord Jesus. He says, “Sanctify them by the truth—thy word is truth”. Dear brethren, the dispensation was set on in that way on the basis of the Lord Jesus in His influence there in heaven. Anticipatively He is already in heaven in John 17. Then He speaks about those who believe, and brings it right down to us. We are still in the good of this wonderful prayer, beloved brethren, still in the benefit of it, this sanctification by the word, the Father’s word.
Oh, let the influence of what the Father is in all His blessedness, His perfect grace and love, let that come down to us. “Thy word”, He says, “is truth”, so that we are regulated, we are helped, we are brought into holy divine relationships, as He says, “that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. Oh, how beautiful! “That they may be all one”, He says, “as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee”. Oh, think of that! Who could penetrate that? Let us enjoy it, beloved brethren; let us bathe ourselves in the influence, the atmosphere, of Jesus in the presence of His Father so that we may get the benefit and come into the gain of this that He says, “That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.
Beloved brethren, the only right testimony to Jesus is in our links together at this level. Well, may the Lord, may the Spirit, yea, may the Father Himself, help us into these things for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Address at Redbridge
9 March 1985