VALUING THE INHERITANCE
VALUING THE INHERITANCE
Judges 1:1-7; Judges 1:12-15; Judges 3:16-20; Judges 7:16-20; Judges 8:1-3; Judges 16:25-30
I believe the incidents we have read in the first chapter of Judges are intended to show us the lines upon which we may take possession of our inheritance, and when I speak of our inheritance I mean all that God has prepared according to His purpose and in His love for those whom He has called. Then I think in the subsequent passages we have certain features that are intended to characterise us with a view to meeting anything that Satan would endeavour to introduce that would hinder the enjoyment of the inheritance or rob the people of God of it. When Joshua had died, unlike the position when Moses died, there was no leader already on the scene to take his place. When Moses was about to die he appealed to God to “set a man over the assembly, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them,” Numbers 27:16,17, and God indicated that Joshua, a man in whom was the Spirit, as He said, was to be leader in place of Moses. But when Joshua died no such leader was indicated, rather what God had in mind was that His people were to move together mutually. They ask who was to go up first, and Jehovah said, “Judah”; that is, the tribe of Judah, it was to be a collective movement, and then without any instruction from God Judah says to Simeon, “Come up with me into my lot... and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot,” Judges 1:3. So there is at once brought under notice this great thought of brotherly love, of being together in the things of God, which is a most important matter if we are to take possession and to enjoy the inheritance, because God’s thoughts involve His saints all together.
John the Baptist had said of the Lord Jesus that He would baptise with the Holy Spirit, and it says in Corinthians, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body,” 1 Corinthians 12: 13. One body suggests being together in a most intimate way, for all the members of a body are interdependent and rightly move in relation to the good of the whole, and “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member he glorified, all the members rejoice with it,” 1 Corinthians 12: 26. And there is the further thought of our all being given to drink of one Spirit, which implies that we are happy in that position, contented and satisfied. That was seen on the day of Pentecost, all that believed were together. The Spirit of God never works in the way of disruption among the saints. He always works with a view to binding and holding the saints together, so the word together is to be continually in our minds and hearts. We were singing of the moment when the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven, and it says in 1 Thessalonians 4: 17, “then we the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord.” So that the thought of together is characteristic of Christianity. There is no real enjoyment of the things that God has prepared for them who love Him, save as together. I do not mean, of course, that any who, in the ways of God, are isolated, may not have in the Spirit the enjoyment of the things belonging to the saints. I have no doubt John in Patmos had such enjoyment, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus,” Revelation 1: 9. But no-one who puts himself in isolation in an independent way or is not governed by the will of God can expect to have much enjoyment of the inheritance of God’s people because in the nature of things, things are to be enjoyed together and this principle of brotherliness, of drawing all into these things is to be cultivated by us. Judah set it in motion here and Simeon responded, and it says, “And Judah went up; and Jehovah delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand,” Judges 1: 4. Then they found a man, Adoni-Bezek, who had moved in entirely different lines. No thought of brotherly love, no principle of bringing out all that was in the brethren, had marked him. “Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gleaned under my table,” verse 7. He had evidently been a dominating personality who insisted on his own will and robbed the seventy kings of all power of action and movement. That kind of spirit is entirely inimical to the inheritance. If God finds such a spirit in any one of the local companies He greatly resents it. It is not derived from Christ and what has to be recognised is that God’s government is all the time operating in a most infallible way among the saints. This man, Adoni-Bezek, recognised the fact that the government of God had overtaken him, “as I have done, so God has requited me.” It says, “they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died,” verse 7. If we can only bring souls into the good of the assembly, for Jerusalem represents the assembly in actual expression among the saints, “a city that is compact together,” Psalm 122: 3, where brotherly love is, it will be the death blow to everything that marked Adoni-Bezek. “And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.” It was the end of that kind of clement when once he was brought to where the assembly was found in living expression. So the first feature that is so essential if we are to enter upon our inheritance is brotherly love in practical expression, and I of course include the sisters. Brotherly love simply means the love of the brethren, love of that character, love that belongs to the circle of those born of God.
Then we, come to the incident of Othniel and Achsah, and Caleb presents Achsah as attractive. He says, “He that smites Kirjath-sepher and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife,” Judges 1: 12. That is, Achsah is presented as someone who is attractive. If she had no attractions then no-one would be induced to take Kirjath-sepher in order to have her, so that Achsah represents the attractiveness of the assembly. What follows is that she represents the assembly as appreciating the inheritance, but here she represents the assembly as attractive. Othniel is attracted by Achsah. He says, I would like to have her, and in order to have her for a wife he is prepared to take Kirjath-sepher. Achsah represents the idea of the assembly, God’s thoughts regarding the assembly presented objectively in their attractiveness, and there was one in this man Othniel who was concerned to have it for himself. We read and speak a lot about the assembly and it is of God that we should do so, but the point is to have it for ourselves in the good of it, to have it in power. What comes to light in Othniel is the energy of the Spirit, for Kirjath-sepher represents the city of the book and Othniel has to overcome it. He has to overcome any thought that these holy matters regarding the assembly can be entered upon merely by reading a book. Books are all right in their place. The Scriptures, of course, are invaluable, and the written ministry gives us light as to divine thoughts, and is most valuable, but these things by themselves will never put us in possession of the truth. They are there in order to induce in us the energy to go in for it, and the only energy by which divine things can be laid hold of and made our own is the power of the Holy Spirit. Othniel comes forward and takes Kirjath-sepher and the result is that he has Achsah as wife. He is one who is really concerned to apprehend divine thoughts regarding the assembly in its marital relations to Christ. Othniel represents the believer who has the light of the assembly presented in an attractive way and is determined to lay hold of it and that can only be as the Holy Spirit is made full room for.
Then Achsah goes further. It says, “she urged him to ask of her father the field,” verse 14. Othniel is to go further, to be enlarged, and with a view to his being enlarged she urges him to ask of her father. I believe that is what we have suggested by the apostle Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians; as presenting the truth of the assembly in all its attractiveness, he sets us the example in chapter 3 of asking of the Father. “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts,” chapter 3: 14 - 17. He tells us how he asks of the Father that the saints might have enlargement, might have the apprehension of the truth of the assembly, because in order for that we must have the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. He speaks of the breadth and length and depth and height, and I believe if we want to lay hold of these things we shall take to our knees and ask of the Father. I am sure the idea in Paul telling us how he bowed his knees is to induce us to do the same. These are the lines on which we shall really get the truth of the assembly into our souls as having power to move in it in liberty and spiritual intelligence.
Then Achsah goes further. She does not only urge him to ask of her father a field, but she herself is marked by spiritual energy, “she sprang down from the ass. And Caleb said to her, What wouldest thou?” She is asking. It may be that Othniel and Achsah suggest what may he taken up in individual exercise on the one hand, and in assembly exercise on the other hand. Let us see that we ask the Father on these lines, not only when together at the prayer meeting, but let us also see that each one makes it a matter of individual prayer to ask of the Father on these lines. Achsah says, “Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a southern land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs,” verse 15. She recognised the need of the Spirit. She says, You have given me a good land. Who could improve upon the inheritance that God has given us? Let us read the epistle to the Ephesians and see what a goodly inheritance God has provided us, but then we want the springs of water; the upper and the nether springs. The inheritance is to be enjoyed in power and freshness. The upper springs refer to the Spirit of God in relation to all that is unfolded in the epistle to the Ephesians, and the lower springs the Spirit as we have it in Romans in relation to our responsible path here, because if there is any breakdown in practical righteousness there will be no power to enter upon divine things. The more precious the things the Lord opens up to us the more important it is for us to see to our foundations, and what is practical, and to see that the epistle to the Romans has as much place with us as the epistle to the Ephesians. I believe these features of brotherly love and mutuality and the energy of the Spirit, accompanied by continual prayer and supplication to the Father, indicate the lines upon which we may take up our inheritance.
In the passages that follow it is a question of certain features that should mark us in dealing with influences that the enemy might seek to introduce that are inimical to the inheritance and would rob the saints of it. I have not attempted to deal with all the judges, I have no doubt that each one represents some feature of importance in this matter of which we are speaking, but I have selected these incidents as sufficient for the present time. So we have this judge named Ehud brought before us. The enemy oppressing the people of God was Moab, which refers, I believe, to fleshly pride and self-indulgence, particularly the latter, for Eglon the king was a fat man and all his warriors were fat, so that he represents that feature of self-indulgence which may easily come in amongst us and is very detrimental to spiritual prosperity. The Moabites had power over Israel and they cried unto God and He raised up a saviour, Ehud, and the power Ehud used for deliverance of the people was, I have no doubt, the word of God; that was what his weapon signified. The dagger or sword had two edges; it was a short dagger and he made it for himself. He made him a sword. If we want to be able to use the word of God in any effective way it is important that we should first see that it has had its effect with ourselves. It is only as the word of God has had its effect with ourselves that we are able to use it effectively towards others. It says in Hebrews, “For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do,” chapter 4: 12, 13. It is a most important matter to read the word of God in that light. It brings us into the presence of God, and God is the One with whom we have to do, and the One before whom all things are naked and laid bare. Even though one might conceal things from others and even in measure succeed in concealing things from oneself, for “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable,” Jeremiah 17: 9, the heart of the believer is deceitful above all things, not merely the heart of an unconverted person, our own hearts are naturally capable of any amount of deceit, we cannot conceal things from God, and our only safety lies in resorting to the word of God in its searching character. David wrote Psalm 139 as one who knew the searching character of the word of God. He says, “Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising,” verses 1, 2. David was made to feel that when he did such an ordinary thing as to sit down, and when he rose up. God knew what was in his mind, but then did it repel him? It did not; it attracted him. Everyone who desires to go on with the truth is really attracted by the thought of the word of God being capable of making everything known exactly as God sees it, so he says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting,” verses 23, 24. That is the secret of safety. So that the passage from Jeremiah, where it says that the heart is deceitful, goes on to say, “I Jehovah search the heart, I try the reins.” It is the answer to the felt need of a soul who wants to have to do with God and to be delivered from the subtle influences of the flesh. He who is wise and wants to go on with God, will continually seek the presence of God that his motives and thoughts may be searched, so that all that is displeasing to God may be made known to him, and we have power in the Spirit to renounce it and go on wholly with what is pleasing to God. If Ehud had been marked by any tendency to self-indulgence he had come to a judgment of it, and so he was able to use the sword effectively in regard to the king. He said, “I have a secret word unto thee, O king,” Judges 3: 19. It is the character of the word of God, a matter between the soul and God, and the king said, “Be silent!” “And Ehud said, I have a word from God unto thee,” verse 20. It is the authority of the word of God and the way God looks at things, and that was brought to bear upon Eglon and he was slain. The true character in its obnoxiousness to God of that which had held the people in oppression is all exposed, and as exposed, the people of God become delivered from it.
I pass on to Gideon; his history is a very full and interesting one and I think it has in view the development of manhood, and links with the epistles to the Corinthians. At the end of the history, the kings Zebah and Zalmunna say, “As is the man, so is his strength,” Judges 8: 21. It is a question of developing manhood according to God. The Corinthians, alas, had not developed in manhood. The apostle had to say that they were babes. At the end of the first epistle he says, “quit yourselves like men,” 1 Corinthians 16: 13. To be marked by the features of the flesh is a mark of spiritual babyhood. It is not a feature of manhood at all. It shows that the gospel has not been properly apprehended and is not being cherished in the soul. It is an indication of stunted growth if we are marked by the features of the flesh, and the apostle puts it on the Corinthians, “quit yourselves like men; be strong.” In Gideon’s day the enemy was the Midianites and the Amalekites, and in the incident in the seventh chapter I want to draw attention to two things that go together in meeting any condition in a locality that is contrary to the truth. The two things that go together are involved in the words, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” The sword of the Lord represents the authority of the word of the Lord so that the apostle said to the Corinthians, “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. So it is imperative, it has authority, and those who are insubject to it come under the discipline of the assembly.
But then there is that which accompanies it to make it increasingly effective, and that is the great power of example. That is what Gideon represents for he says, “Look on me, and do likewise,” Judges 7: 17. He would set out the great idea of exemplification and that has wonderful power. If we not only state what is right according to the Lord’s commandments but also exemplify it, there is added power in a way that commends the truth and makes it attractive, and I believe that was what the apostle used in dealing with the state of things in Corinth. He not only wrote his epistle which was authoritative, the Lord’s commandment, but he also sent Timothy among them, “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly,” 1 Corinthians 4: 17. What the apostle wrote to the Corinthians was enforced in a tender, patient, attractive way by the movements of Timothy in their midst. There was the power of the truth set forth in Timothy as he brought to the mind of the Corinthians Paul’s ways as they are in Christ. I have no doubt it was this two-edged weapon, “the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon,” which God, worked to effect the deliverance that came to pass in Corinth. It was the skill of the apostle in setting out what was authoritative, and yet staying away and enforcing the authoritative word by one who set it forth in his ways. You may rest assured that the Spirit of God is with those who are walking in the truth, those who set forth Paul’s ways as they are in Christ “according as I teach everywhere in every assembly.” Every assembly should be marked by the same features, and they are features that are learned from Christ, features of the heavenly One.
In the next, incident at the beginning of Judges 8 we have the spirit of Christ in Gideon, and that is another thing that will often save a situation, for this was a situation that arose very suddenly and unexpectedly, and really there was no reason for it at all. It only arose out of jealousy and self-importance of the men of Ephraim; Gideon had given no occasion for it, but the men of Ephraim said, “What is this thing thou hast done to us, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with Midian?” verse l. God had determined who should fight against the Midianites. We know well that first of all Gideon had had thirty-two thousand men and then it was proclaimed that those who were faint-hearted were to go back home and the number was reduced to ten thousand, and then God said that was too many and He would bring them down to the river and try them there. In the end there were only three hundred men and God said, “By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and give Midian into thy hand,” Judges 7: 7. Gideon would have been justified if he had reprimanded them for taking up such an unreasonable attitude, but he says, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer?” chapter 8: 2, as though suggesting what God had effected by the Ephraimites was greater than what was effected by Gideon. He meets it in the spirit of going down. He was not there to stand for his own reputation. That was not marking him. If any thought of having or wanting a reputation among the saints begins to assert itself, what about the One of whom it says, “made himself of no reputation”? Who was entitled to a greater reputation than Christ Jesus? The Scripture says, “Let this mind he in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” Philippians 2: 6, 7, so the mind which was set forth in Christ Jesus is to be found characterising us in our relations with one another. It will be seen from Philippians 2 that the setting of that passage is our relations to one another. The point is how is the flesh to be met, and Gideon shines at this juncture and takes account of what God had effected by the Ephraimites as much more than anything he had done. “In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves,” Philippians 2: 3. Well, you might say, Is that possible? It is possible, and only on one line and that is on the line indicated in Philippians, “regarding not each his own qualities but each those of others also,” chapter 2: 4. You begin to look at the work of God in others, at the spiritual features that mark certain brothers or sisters and you say, They are greater than I am. You see how patient a brother or sister is under trial and you say, He is far more patient than I would be. You see another marked by faithfulness and you say, He is far more faithful than I am. It is not anything unreal at all. It is a question of whether your mind is in that direction, and if so the Lord will show you the value of the work of God in one another and it works out for peace among the saints.
Finally we come to Samson, and it seems that what we come to in Samson’s history at the close is that he lays down his life for the brethren; that is, that love shines in Samson. There was no other way to meet the position now save that of complete sacrifice of himself for the sake of his brethren and he arrives at that. It is what is arrived at as a result of recovery. We know that Samson had failed and relinquished his Nazariteship. His long hair was the evidence of Nazariteship, being suggestive of a kind of feminine character taken on by the saints individually. They are not here now as moving and acting in their own ability or according to their own will, but they are deriving from the Head, they are holding Christ in their affections and seeking to be kept under His influence, so they take on feminine character. While in the sight of men they surrender their manliness as a true Nazarite does, they take on true power and true piety in the eyes of God, but Samson had surrendered that. He had allowed his hair to be cut, but then it says that the hairs of his head began to grow again, there began to be recovery. He began to be recovered to the true principle of Nazariteship, to be separate to the Lord, to have no one else before him but the Lord, to take character from Christ, and fear moving otherwise than under the influence of Christ. There was recovery. Then there came the time when he says to God, “Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may take one vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes... And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines!” Judges 16: 28 - 30. He lays down his life for the brethren. It is the strength of love, “love never fails”. It was something infinitely greater than anything the Philistines could produce, for the Philistine is never marked by love. Samson gives up his life in that way and he slew more at his death than those whom he had slain in his life. It seems to be what is finally arrived at that love is developed among the saints, love that expresses itself in laying down one’s life for the brethren. God is labouring at that I believe. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives,” 1 John 3: 16, not the love of Christ but love as the divine nature, what is of God. So in the third epistle of John we read of one man Diotrephes who was the exact antithesis to love. There was no love in him and John the apostle says to Gaius, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good,” verse 11. Then he brings forward a living example in Demetrius, “Demetrius has witness borne to him by all, and by the truth itself: and we also bear witness, and thou knowest that our witness is true,” verse 12. That is all that John says, but it is a most striking testimony, “and by the truth itself,” a most remarkable thing. I do not know anyone else in Scripture of whom that is said. It is as though John would say, If you take the truth abstractly as I have given it to you in the first epistle, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us,” chapter 3: 16., and then you look at Demetrius, you find that the two exactly correspond. Measured by the truth itself there was Demetrius exactly corresponding with it. That is what the Spirit of God is seeking to develop among us in these last days, for love never fails, and love is of God. So we find that Samson has greater power when he lays down his life than ever before in his previous history.
May the Lord help us that we may claim the inheritance and make it our own in spiritual power, and also know how to meet anything Satan may seek to introduce to rob us of it.