SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING
[p. 284] SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING
Colossians 2:1 - 3; John 12:1 - 3; Genesis 15:8 - 21
What is before me to speak about is spiritual intelligence; the importance of it, and the place it has in Scripture. Spiritual intelligence is to mark us as in relation with God both at the present time, and in the future. Intelligence and affection will stand out particularly in those who form the assembly, the vessel, as it is said, in which glory to God in Christ Jesus will shine unto all generations of the age of ages.
And so, in keeping with this, we find saints referred to in symbolic language in Revelation 4 as “twenty-four elders”. They represent the intelligence which accompanies experience with God, so that, as in heaven, they know what to do. They are not out of place there, or at a loss in anything they do or say. It is our privilege to have part in that august company expressed in these twenty-four elders. These elders are not simply twenty-four literal persons, but are representative of a vast number of persons all made to fit into this comparatively small numeral having a symbolical meaning. How blessed to have part in that distinguished company who are thus marked by intelligence which involves the knowledge of God and of the love which has come down to us in Christ!
The apostle has this in mind in writing to the Colossians; there the new man is said to be “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him”, (chapter 3:10). This was to appear in that locality. The Holy Spirit gives us a scene in John’s account of the Lord’s ministry (John 12) which conveys the working out of what Paul had in mind in establishing assemblies in various localities. The divine thought is that the church should take form in this manner. It is well to remember that there is only one church, but then it takes definite form in localities. Hence we have the plural, ‘churches’, for all local assemblies are subdivisions of one great whole.
So Colosse and Laodicea are referred to in this letter; they were adjacent to each other but each was a distinct company. The letter to each was to be read also in the other assembly. The apostle therein expresses his exercises in relation to them and others whose faces he had not seen in the flesh. Those exercises had in view their intelligence, for he was made minister of the assembly to make known the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations. Paul had the administration of it — it was Christ among the gentiles, the hope of glory. As Christ has this place in our hearts the mystery becomes intelligible to us.
The Lord’s enemies questioned as to whether He would go among the gentiles and teach the gentiles (John 7:35). This in truth He did in coming into the western parts of the world. He came through the gospel, by the Spirit, so that the mystery is spoken of as Christ in you gentiles. It is right to make much of Christ in heaven, but the mystery is not that. There is really no mystery about that; it is a plain fact. The disciples saw Him go up, and He will come back as He went up. The mystery is how He can be among the gentiles now; how He can be in us. And in that connection there are treasures in the mystery, as the apostle says, “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. So you see that there is here on earth that which is of a mysterious nature, which is alone understood by the saints of God, and as understood, there is discerned that in it are all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. Nothing in the way of wisdom and knowledge as God views them, lies outside the mystery.
Now that is what the apostle had in mind, and what I had in mind in a lesser way, wishing to point out how it is expressed concretely in the scene at Bethany. What I wish is to shew in detail how each believer comes [p. 286] into the good of it intelligently. It is a most important suggestion, and should appeal to every believer: how I am to get into the knowledge and certainty of things; how I am to know that I really have a place in the wonderful inheritance of God.
Now I take up Abram because he represents the believer. No one in the world is of any value morally unless he is a believer. Abram is “father of us all”, (Romans 4:16), the great type of all believers; in this very chapter he is designated as having believed God. God was shewing him that he should have a son; and it is said that “he believed Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness”, (verse 6). You see thus how there is prefigured in Abram the wonderful dignity and gain of a believer. So it is repeated in Romans 4 that Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. That is how we are taken account of as believers; and this is brought within the range of everybody; everyone who believes God is accounted righteous. That is a leading feature of this chapter: Abram was a believer, and thus reckoned righteous. Then he rightly inquires: “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” He desired to know how he should possess the inheritance. He says, Lord God, how shall I know? One can understand how that question re-echoes in our hearts, for many are not very sure. You will remember how Luke wrote to Theophilus that he might know with certainty the things wherein he had been instructed. So Abram desired to know with certainty. Now I wish you to follow carefully what we have here; in doing this, we shall see how we can know with certainty that we shall possess the inheritance which God has prepared for us.
Jehovah says, “Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old”, and also, as you notice, “a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon” — five things. Abram was to be in [p. 287] covenant relation with God. Hence in effect God says, I wish to shew you how you are to come into this, and become assured, as you desire, that your seed will actually possess the inheritance. Hence He says, “Take me”. Abram was already a believer, but now it is a question of acting for God, in what He is doing. “Take me”, He says, “a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old”. They were all to be of three years old. Three years old in a heifer, a goat or a ram, means much more than three years of age in a person. Typically, it is maturity, perhaps youthful maturity. I refer, of course, to spiritual maturity in the believer, set out in Abram.
Many of us remain babes too long. In 1 Corinthians 3 the apostle has to say that the saints at Corinth were babes, when they should have been grown men; hence he exhorts them to go on to maturity. It is quite right to be a babe at one time, but not to remain a babe; for that would indicate a dwarfed condition. So you see that this certainty is based upon our mature growth. “In malice”, the apostle says, “be babes; but in your minds be grown men”, (1 Corinthians 14:20). That is the idea of the three years old.
Then you will observe that the first two creatures prescribed were to be females, a heifer and a she-goat. When the female is presented affection is in view, i.e., the subjective side of things. This feature, as in this passage, suggests that you love and know why you love and whom you love. It is a great thing when we arrive at the moment when we consciously love. The first one in Scripture contemplated as saying, “I love”, was the Hebrew servant, Christ typically (Exodus 21). Romans presents the elements of love; it is said in that epistle (chapter 5) that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; and that God commends His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In chapter 8 we have the response to this in ‘those who love God’. 1 John 3:16 says, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”. We learn love in that way in Christ; and then we love. That is what God would make known to us; and it indicates a certain maturity. The apostle says to the Corinthians, in effect: If you remain babes I can never speak words of wisdom to you. In writing to them, Paul strongly reminded them of the necessity of growth in wisdom and in affection. He says, “we speak wisdom among them that are perfect”, (1 Corinthians 2:6). Love in God is not based on responsiveness, but on the principle of sovereignty. With us it is a question of response: “We love him, because he first loved us”, (1 John 4:19). Thus Jehovah reminded Abram, here in type, that there must be a certain maturity and a certain responsiveness in the way of affection. It is as we love that we attain knowledge according to God; there must therefore be growth in love. Knowledge acquired aside from this is spurious, and it is sure to puff up. We may pride ourselves in it, but it really comes under the heading of leaven; and should be so classified.
There is also the ram of three years old, it also is matured, and would denote devotedness and progenitiveness, for God had in mind from the very outset, that there should be fruitfulness. Then besides that there was to be taken a turtle-dove and a young pigeon. They are indeed typical of smallness, but if we analyse the use of these birds in Scripture we shall see that they denote a certain spiritual sensitiveness. Spirituality is a small element with most of us, but it is absolutely essential that it should be accompanied by intelligence; our intelligence must be spiritual. The turtle-dove and the pigeon have a great place in the offerings. God values them though they are small, for they represent what is spiritually sensitive, and God sets a great price upon that!
[p. 289] Now these are the requirements, if we want to have knowledge. God says, Take Me these things; and Abram does so. But He did not tell Abram what to do with them. What is so beautiful here is that Abram knew exactly what to do. What appears in this respect in the book of Genesis is most important, namely, that intelligence comes from instinct. We have no law in Genesis as to sacrifice and approach to God; Abram and the men of faith acted under the intelligence of instinct, which is the surest and truest. Then come Exodus and Leviticus in which we have the law to regulate the service of God. But Abram here anticipates these books in what he does. Indeed the very thing he does here, the dividing of the sacrifices, is alluded to much later, in Jeremiah 34:18,19, shewing the far-reachingness of faith in the way of intelligence; it shews what faith is in this sense. He divided the larger creatures but he did not divide the birds; he knew exactly what to do. Then he set up the parts of each victim over against the other parts; this provides for the covenant, a passage being made between the pieces. It is a remarkable scene in which the believer is acting. Let us take it to ourselves, since it is for us. Here I am face to face with God, as answering to His mind. I ask intelligence and God is shewing me the way to it.
And now Satan comes; the birds of the air came down upon the carcases. Satan would always interfere with a scene like this; we may be sure of that; he will always be set to defeat the desire of a soul in relation to growth in spiritual intelligence. Thus we come to conflict, and what do we get without it? Nothing. In Exodus, as the children of Israel moved towards the land of promise, Amalek came up; he represents Satan working through the flesh. In this scene the birds of prey come down, symbolical of evil spirits which would rob us of the intelligence we would seek, and which God has for us. But Abram scared them away. I wonder how many [p. 290] young people here have learnt to act against Satan? How many have definitely taken up the conflict? The coming up of Amalek (Exodus 17) shews that the conflict begins as soon as one gets the Spirit. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh”, (Galatians 5:17). We must first learn to discern evil, and then to act against it. We shall never be of use in the house of God unless we do this; and if we do not so act, Satan will surely rob us of our goal, of all that God has for us; at least, of our realisation of it now. Faith in Abram scared the birds of the air away. His faith was effective, it gave him moral power; he gained the victory, for the sacrifices were preserved for God.
We further read: “When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him”. I wonder how many of us have known exercise of this character? It came upon him at the end of the day. You may have been a believer for some time, but now you say to God in prayer that you would like to know more; that you would like to be sure of things, and so God allows you to go through some bitter experience. There is one lesson necessary to learn early, i.e., that the flesh is our nearest enemy, and it has to be judged. God has to allow Abram’s seed to dwell in a foreign land the long period of four hundred years that they might learn this typically. Here, as you see, one day in Abram’s experience was finishing. Our lives are made up of days. It is said that Abram died in a good old age, old and full of days. This was one of Abram’s most important days. So the believer on the high-road to intelligence with God must have these bitter experiences. It is not that God has pleasure in them, but He sees them necessary for us (compare Romans 7); He loves us too well to permit the flesh to continue unjudged. He knows what is within, the working of the flesh, which is our greatest enemy, in a way, appearing in a thousand forms to thwart us on the [p. 291] high-road to the knowledge of God; to conformity to the image of God’s Son.
And so a horror of great darkness came over Abram. Let us face this also, for it is certain that a similar experience must be passed through by us. Jehovah then said to Abram that his seed should serve a nation in a strange land, and be afflicted by it four hundred years, and that afterward He would bring them out with great substance. Is not all this worth while? It is in this way that knowledge comes to us. God’s people are to be immensely wealthy in the full knowledge of Himself. They are to know, as the apostle says, “the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe ... which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, (Ephesians 1:18 - 20). Then God impresses upon Abram what these four hundred years would mean. His seed were to be in a foreign land and to undergo that long period of oppression. This really began in Abram’s own lifetime, as if he himself had to share in this awful experience by what he passed through so that his state as in the flesh should be discovered and judged.
Then we read: “it came to pass when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flame of fire which passed between those pieces”. Here we have another thing: God is coming in, and we see how He comes in. The smoking furnace and the flame of fire are symbols of His power. The former refers to our Lord Jesus Christ entering into death in all the blackness of night. All was black night as the Lord Jesus entered into death, as it were, between the pieces. It speaks of His death in the awful reality of it. And the latter speaks of God’s power, as He comes triumphantly out. In His death God secures and establishes everything. Christ in love has entered into death willingly and freely. God’s love was in it, as is said, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The flesh therefore has to go, and we must accept this fact; none of us can pass by this truth. We have to learn that the flesh is utterly abominable in God’s sight, and therefore utterly futile in the purpose of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ entered into death even as the smoking furnace and the flame of fire passed between the pieces. It is alluded to in Jeremiah 24 as a form of making a covenant. The Mediator passed between the pieces on God’s behalf. It was deep darkness when God withdrew His shining from Jesus. The sun had gone down, it was black night. Love did that. Can we doubt, after that, that God would give us everything? No, indeed, for He spared not His own Son.
Now we have the next day. The day began with sundown. The evening and the morning composed the day. It was the day following the night of the vision of the smoking furnace and the burning lamp passing between the pieces. It says, “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram”. It is most touching that God has entered into covenant with us in the death of Christ. Every time we take the Lord’s supper we are reminded of it, as it says, “The new covenant in my blood”, (Luke 22:20). We should emphasise that word ‘my’; it was Jesus’ blood, for none other could suffice. So on that day God entered into covenant relations with Abram; and we can understand that God would later enter into such relations with His people. Do we understand that God has done so in regard of us? And further, do we understand what the covenant is? Here it was that Jehovah would give Abram’s seed a wide territory, one of very great extent. Think then of the extent of what God has given us! If He has given His own Son, will He not with Him freely give us all things? Here the inheritance was from the river of Egypt to the [p. 293] Euphrates, but that is not our inheritance. Our inheritance provides a very great subject, too great to speak of fully now. One simply refers to it.
In 2 Corinthians 1 the apostle stresses the faithfulness of God; then he says that He has anointed us and sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit. This latter refers to the inheritance, and is thus not any longer merely a matter of promise, but is made as sure to us as possible. If I have the earnest of a thing, I have the thing itself in principle. The earnest here is not like a mere piece of money which men give in purchasing a piece of property. Here a divine Person Himself is the earnest, so that the earnest is greater than the inheritance itself! And it is placed in the heart where we may feel and enjoy it every moment. God has shed abroad His love there by the Holy Spirit which is given us; hence a divine Person is in the heart, who is Himself, as I said, necessarily greater than the inheritance.
Abram, the believer, is now in covenant relation with God, and is ready for divine instruction; even as the saint who understands the New Covenant is prepared for all that God in His love will do for him and give him. The books following open up typically what God is to us: Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers present wonderful things. What a range of things is before us as we recognise the Spirit of God! It is written: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”, (1 Corinthians 2:9,10). Hence the necessity of our recognising the Spirit who is in our hearts, who searches the depths of God. He brings us into touch with an immense range of things, extending back before the world.
In Colossians we find all these things in the mystery. The mystery involves my practical relations with the brethren. The truth of the mystery can never be attained in a mere individual way; the working out of [p. 294] it requires that I stand in relation to the brethren. Again if we elect to remain babes we shall never arrive at it, nor shall we reach it through merely reading books. Some depend too much on books. Reading is of course necessary, but if I am to gain spiritual intelligence I must recognise my place in the body of Christ and stand in it in a very practical way. The mystery implies this; it is realised as the believer maintains his place in the body, as he stands in a practical way in relation with the saints. We must link ourselves with the brethren to find it; and must seek to get on well with them. All this is most essential for us. The mystery is the assembly in which Christ is: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, (Colossians 1:27). We must renounce the principle of independency or we shall not know what it is, nor the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in it. There is one body and one Spirit, and we must recognise this in standing by the brethren. Hence the burden of the apostle’s conflict in relation to the Colossian saints: “that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God”. Is it not worth while thus to give up the principle of self-will and self-esteem to be in that “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge”? We cannot get the gain of these outside of it.
I would now seek to stress the wording employed relative to the conditions and the sequence of conditions set forth at the beginning of John 12. In the New Translation the word ‘therefore’ occurs three times in the verses read. It indicates that what happened took place on account of certain existing things at Bethany. I would ask you to apply the principle set forth there to your own locality. Am I doing things as a matter of sequence? Am I being governed by conditions? I can never work out the truth of the mystery if I am not. The movements of Jesus were governed by conditions;
so we read, “Jesus therefore, six days before the passover, came to Bethany”. Why did He come to Bethany? Because of certain conditions found there, especially because Lazarus was there, whom He had raised from the dead. Lazarus is one of the most interesting men in Scripture. The Lord loved him and Martha and Mary. How interesting he was to the Lord’s eye. He loved him before He raised him, and He loved him likewise afterwards. But more than that, He came to Bethany, not now to raise Lazarus, but because Lazarus was there, who had been raised. Lazarus is typical of a brother resident in a locality. It was not simply that he was occasionally there. It says, “where Lazarus was”; he resided there; he was “of Bethany”. Thus the Lord came in relation to conditions. He might come to any locality in the same way, for instance, to you or me or any brother or sister who might correspond with Lazarus. The conditions at Bethany were most interesting to Him; all believers are interesting to the Lord, but saints who understand that they have been raised through faith of the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead, are peculiarly so. That is the feature here, so that this is a Colossian scene.
He comes to the place where Lazarus was whom He raised. Then it says, “There therefore they made him a supper”. We see here again a sequence of conditions. They are now moving in relation to conditions. So the Lord may come in relation to you or me, and when He comes we move on account of His having come. They therefore made Him a supper; Martha served, and her service was commendable here. Then Lazarus was one of those who sat at table with Him; that was another very interesting circumstance.
Mary now takes account of the conditions, bringing in the idea not only of affection, but also of intelligence and worship. She acts in relation to the conditions: “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of [p. 296] pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair”. She gives us John’s idea of intelligence; she knows what to do, and what she does indicates the measure of her love. The ‘pound’ does not suggest a great quantity but the quality of it. Mary treasured it, and had kept it; it was not bought that day. She anoints the Lord’s feet with it, setting forth wonderful intelligence. The Lord says, “Suffer her to have kept this for the day of my preparation for burial”, (verse 7). She understood those feet were carrying Him to the grave; for in John the Lord is presented as laying down His life of Himself (chapter 10:18).
So that in principle all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were found at Bethany. It was the abode of love and intelligence, and Mary was the expression of all this in her actions. How does this strike us, beloved brethren? What provision do we make for God and for Christ in view of such precious conditions as are indicated here? We can plainly see that what is done is the outcome of spiritual calculation. Paul says he would rather speak five words with his understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. He also says, “I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding”, (1 Corinthians 14:15). That is the thing. The assembly is eternal in character. In it, as seen in John, we begin eternity now; and in this sense we must connect this passage with chapter 20. Intelligence marks those who take part in the assembly; it is properly associated with the first day of the week, as in chapter 20; those who form it are there seen as the brethren of Christ as ascending to His Father and their Father, to His God and theirs. We sing with understanding and we speak to edification; we are thus in the thing in intelligent affection, and are touched in our inmost being by what is presented to us there. Mary’s ‘pound’ is within the reach of every one of us; but, as [p. 297] I said, it is to be used on the lines which have been indicated; so that as here, the house will be filled with the odour of the ointment. It was apparently small in bulk, but great in effect, and it is that which counts. Five words, for instance, might be very effective, whereas ten thousand would be a strain on the brethren. It is a most serious thing to undertake to speak, or to teach, in the assembly; the emphasis is placed on the edifying others by using the five words with understanding. Here the house was filled; there was no need for more. What a marvellous thing it is. Christ fills all things — one Man great enough to fill all things in heaven and earth! Here is a pound of ointment the odour of which fills the house, and all present were affected by it. Thus it will be where five words are spoken with the understanding, or a hymn is sung with the spirit and the understanding also.
Divine sensitiveness is of the utmost importance, so it says, “let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge”, (1 Corinthians 14:29). If something is revealed to one sitting by, the first is to hold his peace. We thus have divine limitations; and such is the sensitiveness of the assembly that we need a spirit marked by this, to be effectively there. There is no room in the assembly for fleshly activity of any kind; we are to be there in self-judgment. Then, if one is ministering, and something is revealed to a brother sitting by me, instead of continuing to speak, I hold my peace. There is to be such sensitiveness that I know just when to sit down to make room for another. That is the assembly, and there is nothing like it in the universe! It is that in which divine intelligence is expressed; as we read in Ephesians 3:10 that “to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God”. We have part in this, as called to it. It is wonderfully great! May God help us all to enter into it intelligently!