SPIRITUAL INSTINCTS AND INTELLIGENCE
[p. 123] SPIRITUAL INSTINCTS AND INTELLIGENCE
1 Samuel 6:7 - 15; 2 Samuel 6:12 - 15; 2 Samuel 6:17
These passages serve to illustrate a subject of which the New Testament has much to say, that of spirituality. In writing to the Galatians the apostle says, “Ye who are spiritual” (chapter 6:1), as if to say that all were not spiritual. The apostle says to the Corinthians too, that he could not speak to them as “to spiritual, but as to fleshly; as to babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1), and he puts their spirituality to the test, saying “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, (1 Corinthians 14:37). We see, therefore, the importance of spirituality.
What I want to present first is the trait of spirituality which can be called instinct, and which also takes the form of intelligence in the believer. In connection with the spiritual man, it says that he “discerns all things”, (1 Corinthians 2:15) although he himself is discerned of no one. The two milch kine brought forward in 1 Samuel 6 can be considered as indicating spiritual instinct. They had to be deprived of their young; their calves were brought home and shut up there, and the two kine then were to be tied to a new cart bearing the ark of Jehovah. It is true that all the instruction about carrying the ark did not speak of a cart, but the Philistines were not to have these instructions. God bears with many irregular things where there is ignorance, but He will not bear with the activity of man’s will. It often happens in the things of God that, in spite of ignorance, there are true instincts. These milch kine do not indicate spiritual intelligence but spiritual instinct. These “milch kine” were God’s creatures, and had little ones, objects of natural affection, and they had to be put to the test on this very point, Could they go against their objects of affection? Whatever was the thought of the Philistine priests God was over them, and it says that the men, the Philistines, did as they had [p. 124] been counselled to do. They tied the two milch kine to the new cart, while their calves were shut up at home, a remarkable picture of nature deprived of the objects of its affection.
We have to learn this lesson, that natural affections must be given up when they are contrary to the rights of God over us. God had a claim over those two milch kine, as He has over each one of His creatures; over us He has a much greater claim than over any other creature, in virtue of redemption. When He calls us therefore, we ought to put aside natural affections; if we refuse to subordinate natural affections to the claims of God, we prove that we are not spiritual. “The kine went straight forward on the way”; they were not forced to follow that road. They had simply been tied to the cart, but they went straight forward on the way to Beth-shemesh; they went by the one high way, lowing as they went, feeling they were deprived of their calves. They went straight forward, on the one high way, lowing at the same time as if to show their renunciation of natural affections on account of the will of God; having arrived at the end of this road, instead of being sent back to their young ones, they had to be offered as a burnt-offering.
Such is the way of spirituality: how it shone in our Lord Jesus Christ who without hesitating set aside all the claims of nature in order to fulfil to the very end the will of God! In His case, it was a question not only of spiritual instincts but of perfect intelligence in all that He was doing; the milch kine, however, represent this side in us, and very often instinct is truer in us than intelligence. Finally the cows are offered as a burnt offering to God; the wood of the cart is cut up and the cows offered, for in God’s service all is made use of. The levites appear at this point; instinct is mingled with intelligence. If I walk in the path of the will of God, having true instincts, I can undertake levitical service,
[p. 125] but what is so solemn is that death comes in, for spirituality never leads into a path where any fleshly activity is exercised. It is in accepting the death of Christ and being in correspondence with it, that levitical service is taken on.
We know how it was that the levites came to light in Israel; they were taken in place of the first-born in Israel. Each of them had to be a first-born in dignity, and could never forget that a lamb had to be slain in his place in each house. Had the lamb not been slain and had the blood not been sprinkled, he himself would have had to be slain. Dignified as first-born, the levite then had to accept death, and so the levite’s life is spiritual. Paul said: “I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I should be myself rejected”, (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Now, what is the lesson which comes from the scripture that we have read in 2 Samuel? This thought of spirituality is fully seen in David, who is the type of it in the Old Testament. We see David generally acting with intelligence, he becomes head as knowing what should be done. He is not like Moses who received commandment from Jehovah as to what must be done, David knew what he ought to do. So in Revelation 22:16, the Lord declares Himself to be the “root and offspring of David”: He presents Himself to His assembly with this title, “I am the root and offspring of David”. All that was choice in the Old Testament had its root in Christ, and all has found its development in the prosperity of David. So we see in 2 Samuel 6 David’s spirituality; it is true that he was a man of like passions to ourselves, and with failings, alas! like us. When he wanted to move the ark from the house of Abinadab, he used a ‘new cart’ and fell to the level of ordinary religious customs, doing just as the Philistines had done. God could not accept the same way of doing things from David, for He expects [p. 126] something better from those who have reason for being intelligent, than from those who have not. Now David’s preparation to bring back the ark was not even at the level of that of the Philistines; they had provided two milch kine, a most remarkable thing, whereas David used the ordinary way, with oxen. He simply copied current religious means; he did not even use the distinguished way of the Philistines. We are warned in this way not to borrow religious customs which open the door widely to the actings of our own wills. The oxen stumbled, not being kept under God’s control. A spiritual man is evident in that he is under God’s hand, but by his way of acting David seems to say that the service is too hard for him, and is greatly exposed by adopting in self-will religious customs. God desires that those who are intelligent may recognise His word as coming from Himself: “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, (1 Corinthians 14:37). The apostle is addressing himself to the Corinthians when he says that, and in the letter which he writes to them, he praises them for having kept certain directions as he had given them to them. There were, though, other directions which they were not keeping, and for these he did not praise them; he said to them, “If any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God”, (chapter 11:16). There were customs belonging to the house of God: “thus I ordain in all the assemblies” (chapter 7:17); everywhere there should be the same principles.
David learned his lesson; a spiritual man is marked by confessing his failure, when he has fallen into it, and by profiting thereby. He says, None ought to carry the ark of God but the levites that is, what represents the Lord Jesus is not suitable to be on a cart, but the levites should carry it on their shoulders. The ark had staves, so that the cart was not suitable. God’s testimony is [p. 127] presented in such a way that we can carry it, we can lay hold of it by the Spirit and carry it in our hearts. In the passage which we have read, nothing is said of the thirty thousand chosen men of Israel whom David had assembled (in the first verse). They are mentioned bringing out the ark from the house of Abinadab, but not when he takes it the second time from the house of Obed-Edom. They “told king David, saying, Jehovah has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that is his, because of the ark of God. And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with joy”. David did this by himself, not that David carried it himself but it was he who acted, and he had at heart to bring the ark into the city of David. Then he takes care that those who were carrying the ark should not stumble; it says that “when they that bore the ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted beast”. If it is true that the most sure-footed creature can stumble, it is true, too, that a christian can stumble, yet he is the most sure-footed of any creature. An ox had to be sacrificed, it speaks of Christ who never stumbled and whose feet were anointed by those who discerned this sureness. He was never turned aside from the path of the will of God; He preferred to go into death rather than depart from it. He came into this path, saying, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”, (Hebrews 10:7). His feet carried Him steadfastly into death. David feared lest at the last moment one of those who carried the ark should slip; the ‘six paces’ refer to an exercise incomplete though almost complete. One can stumble at the seventh step and so spoil everything, and so one must not fail to be in exercise continually in going the whole way. “He sacrificed an ox and a fatted beast”; the fatted beast would doubtless indicate the prosperity of the six paces, for the fact of carrying the ark six paces shows spiritual power.
[p. 128] We are always in danger of thinking that we have done something rightly; even the apostle Paul was in danger of being puffed up. The fatted beast offered as a sacrifice shows that all the prosperity was for God. God causes His people to prosper but all the fat is for Himself. We know that Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked; if we have been successful in the service of God, there is the risk of attributing it to ourselves and taking credit to ourselves. Many christians have served God like this, and in the end have been turned aside. David therefore offers an ox which is sure-footed and a fatted beast which is for God. He is typically a spiritual man, and he brings the ark to the place prepared for it. “David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet”. Others, too, have their part in this, for although David was the head, all this work was not only for one person; it can be said that each one of us has a part in it. The end is that the ark is placed in its place in the tent which David had pitched for it.
That is, dear brethren, all that I had on my heart to bring before you tonight; following on all that we have considered today, it seemed right to me to insist on the importance of being spiritual. We are called to a spiritual order of things. “God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”, (John 4:24). Peter confirms that, as he says, “yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, (1 Peter 2:5).
May God bless His word.