SHOUTING

Eric Burr

Joshua 6: 1-5, 15, 16; 2 Samuel 6: 12-16; Numbers 23: 20, 21

I would like to say something about shouting, not shouting for its own sake, of course: we do not need to shout at one another, although there is advantage in speaking in a meeting so that everybody can hear. But I draw attention to the fact that creation began with a shout: "the sons of God shouted for joy", Job 38: 7, and the dispensation will end with a shout, "with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God", 1 Thess 4: 16. And the millennium will begin with a shout according to Zechariah: "and he shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings: Grace, grace unto it! " The thought runs not only through scripture but through history: as long as there is time, there will be a shout. I would like there to be a shout in our day.

One thing about a shout is that it displays confidence and triumph on the part of those who shout. Sometimes of course people shout out when they are in pain but that is not normal. A shout is usually a sound of triumph. Psalm 118 says, "The voice of triumph and salvation is in the tents of the righteous", v 15. Now that will be in the millennium when Christ reigns, but it should be characteristic in the present time that there is “the voice of triumph and salvation", and that is expressed in a shout. As I see things myself, I think there is a need for the strengthening of confidence and of power in those who are at the present time committed to the testimony of our Lord. Things are small: nobody could deny that. But things have not expired: things are not just dying away. Everything that God once intended to have on the earth is still here in its substance although we would long that there were more people to share it with. Let us keep our minds open to the vastness of what Christ has on the earth in His people at the present time! Few things do you more good than to meet another believer who has something of Christ in him or her. What a stimulus it is! It makes your day when you meet another believer who has confidence in Christ and will speak about Him. I refer again to what we were saying in the reading that there is a need for us in the confidence that we have in Christ to be here plainly identified with the testimony of our Lord.

Now there are three shouts in the scriptures I have read. There is the shout at Jericho; there is the shout with the ark; and there is the shout of the king. I begin with Jericho. Jericho represents what stands across the possibility of the people of God getting into what God intends to bless them with, the greatness of the blessings which God has prepared for those that love Him. According to Corinthians, "Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart", 1 Cor 2: 9, but by the Spirit they have been seen and heard and have entered, I trust, into the heart of everybody here this morning, the things "which God has prepared tor them that love him". Across our getting into this lies this great city, Jericho. It is a well-off place, Babylonish garments in it and pieces of gold in it, and that is the world in which we live. I think, beloved, that there is room amongst us for the shout of triumph over the world. I recall in the course of a reading here or nearby something to the effect that we need to push back the frontiers of the world. That is still true. We need the shout of triumph over the world. I do not illustrate this with particular points or it might appear that I was pointing the finger at individuals, but the world is around us. The poet, Wordsworth, says: "The world is too much with us, late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers" and we do. We feel the power of the world, especially in getting and spending, and we need to realise that God provides for the believer what he or she needs. We do not need to go out of our way in extra ingenuity to supplement what God has provided tor us. That is a characteristic of the world. God will help us, not in setting standards of living to which we aspire and do all we can to arrive at but in taking account of the resources which He has given us and accepting the standard of living which those things lead to. We need to get things the right way round. The believer tapers his or her circumstances to the resources which God has provided for them. It does not make life easy. Most of us, certainly those of my generation, grew up in times when our parents had to be very, very careful. One thing they kept before them all the time was, "Owe no one anything ...", Rom 13: 8. They brought some of us up in the light of that, to be content with such things as you have.

The occasion of failure in relation to Jericho was that a man saw that there were possessions on which he might lay his hand, but which God had not provided for him. There was a Babylonish garment and a piece of gold. What did he do with them? He did not take them to the market. He hid them in his tent. We need to be careful and vigilant that the spirit of Jericho is not among us and to be sure that the spirit of the world is not among us. The spirit of the world is concerned with material things: money matters. Money needs to be kept in its right perspective. Be content with such things as you have. The spirit of these things is not to be amongst us. This is not just a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of imitation. And who do you imitate? You imitate Jesus: "I have overcome the world", John 16: 33. That is the shout at Jericho: "I have overcome the world". And the walls of Jericho fell flat. He triumphed over the world. When He rehearses things to the assemblies, His closing word is this, "As I also have overcome", Rev 3: 21, but among His closing words in John's gospel is "I have overcome the world". And there is in the antitype the shout of Jesus at the tall of Jericho. I say again that the question of overcoming the world is not just a matter of doctrine. If it is a matter of doctrine, it may never be followed through. Overcoming the world is a matter of imitation, imitation of our beloved Lord.

The questions that come up in that connection focus round this, how much do you actually love the Lord? Do you value all that He has given you? Some of us could perhaps be content with less than He has given us. He has been very good to some of us, very, very good indeed, beyond what we might ever have expected, and yet the Lord helps and provides for us all. I have noticed in relation to some of the younger brethren that they have been faced with difficult circumstances, difficult problems, and they pray about them and the Lord answers them. I do not go into particulars but I could easily illustrate this from some whom I know. The Lord does not neglect people. The Lord will give everybody the opportunity to shout at Jericho. The Lord will help you. It is not just young people that need this: older brethren as well need to understand the spirit of overcoming the world. Parents, too, have responsibility in this. Those of my generation grew up in a day when things were much more difficult but they adopted a proper parental attitude to their children and they did say to their children, You are not to do that. The shout at Jericho needs to be in the family because children doing as they like is a characteristic of the world. And the "discipline and admonition of the Lord", Eph 6: 4, demands that there be that "voice of triumph and salvation in the tents of the righteous". Do not be afraid to correct your children! Do not be afraid to say, No. Do not be afraid to say, You must be in at such-and-such a time. They may defy you but that will put them in the wrong: you have to maintain the shout at Jericho in triumph over the world. Sometimes it is painful but what is right will have been insisted on and there will have been a shout at Jericho.

It says, "And it came to pass the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, Shout; for Jehovah has given you the city". That great Model of our who overcame the world is going to have everything in it. Every knee in it will bow at the Name of the One who has overcome it. Is it not worth following this out on the pattern of imitation and not just on the pattern of doctrine? There needs to be discipline in the Christian home and the power to maintain these things rightly. I am not of course referring to anybody in particular. I am speaking in general principles from the scripture and I think that brethren will understand that these things are what the Lord requires. We all have our disappointments. I can remember when I was in the army in Africa corresponding with my mother and saying that I had been disappointed by something. She wrote back and said, 'Disappointment: His appointment: change one letter and you will see’. Disappointment: His appointment. We are familiar with the piece, the Disappointments of Life, but it works out in actual life.

I go on because I would be glad if I were able to say something about David. David took account of the general public situation in the day in which he lived. He was there as a responsible man. If the ark was in the hands of the Philistines, he was not directly responsible. As far as I can tell, he was not even born when the ark went into the hands of the Philistines, but he felt the situation. There are young people here who were not even born when certain crises occurred in the history of the testimony but it is because there were persons who were attached to Him in their affections that the Lord came in. He has changed the picture of things amongst us! He has given us a positive outlook. Instead of arbitrary direction, He has revived the knowledge of Himself and of the power of the Spirit. I would say to the younger people, you live in a day when the Lord in His goodness has come in and delivered brethren and introduced liberty. David had to go through a difficult life: he lived through the days of Saul. Saul was always on at him. Saul was anxious to see that nobody who might take his place ever grew up. But in the end Saul died and David survived. The man who had the ark of God in his heart survived. I commend that to you. The person who has Christ in their heart will survive through every assembly crisis. David had the ark in his heart. He would have said, I remember talking about this when I was at home: they used to talk about the ark. You can understand the enquiring mind in David wishing to get more knowledge of the ark and at last saying, we have found where it is: ''we found it in the fields of the wood", Ps 132: 6, found it in the house of Abinadab. And he says, It must come into its right place. Dear brethren, Christ must come into His right place in the heart of everybody here. He must have the first place in everything. That is scripture anyway. David says there must be a proper place for the ark. He, in effect, says, I know the actual condition of the day! We could not build the tabernacle. We have not got the material. We would say of ourselves we have not the capacity to be the complete testimony to Christ. What we will be is what we can be.

David takes account of things. There must be some place into which in type Jesus can come in His glory and in His longings, and he spreads a tent for the ark. And they go and get it. Of course, mistakes are made but the great thing is that at last the ark was brought up in the right way. And they brought it up with shouting. What a day of triumph when Christ comes into His own, in the heart of a single person, let alone into the heart of a company. It says, "And David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet". That almost sounds like the rapture! They "brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting" to put it in its place. They had it there because they loved it. David loved it in its absence and He loved it all the more in its presence. I have often been struck by the fact that the ark was unchangeable. It was constructed at the end of Exodus and it went through Joshua and Judges and through all that history. It was not heard of in the days of Ruth but from the beginning of Samuel there is a man sitting responsible for it and dying almost by it; he could not get up on his feet and the ark goes into captivity. But the ark was the same. When brought back in David's day, Bezaleel and Aholiab would have recognised it. It was the same as it had always been and a special place was to be made for it.

They "brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting". Have you ever had the experience that Christ dwelling in your heart by faith would make you shout and ''the voice of triumph and salvation" would be in your heart that Christ now has His place? You cannot bring about that Christ has His place in all the rest of the brethren. You would like to. I would credit everyone with that. But you can start with yourself. You can make more room. 'Have you any room for Jesus?', the hymn says. Here is David longing for it and at last it is almost as if he says, This is the day I have been living for that Christ is going to come into His place again. Is it the day you are living for, that Christ will have His place as He has never had it before?

I do not dwell on Michal but I say this: if you give way to that spirit of celebration that Christ has His place, there will always be somebody who despises you. You may find someone saying So-and-so got carried away this morning! Do not let it put you off! Celebrate that Christ has come into His own place! It makes a real difference to you if Christ is in your heart by faith. He is there in a sense by the Spirit: but in some way He comes Himself and He desires to fill every heart to which He has a claim, and if you believe that He died for your sins, He has a claim on you and He desires to fill your heart now. Will you shout about the ark? - not literally, but will you shout that you have found a place for Christ that you never knew before?

You have not yourself brought Him out of the Philistines' hands; out of the place where He was no doubt almost decorative to make that place more approved than it previously was. But you have brought Him up to His own place. If the outward conditions are not really adequate for Him, He will be content with what you will provide for Him in the heart that you yourself have. He is not looking for ecclesiasticism; he is not looking for formality or convention. What He is looking for is hearts in which there is room for Him. I say again, Have you any room for Jesus?

I go on to Balaam. It says ''the shout of a king is in his midst". There is a lot that is wrong in Balaam, as a man, but he is right in what he is made to say, prophetically, of the place that Israel is going to have on the earth. It says, "Jehovah his God is with him". That relates to what I have just been saying. "Jehovah his God is with him". Christ is in His place. Now, he says, ''the shout of a king is in his midst". Because there is a King for believers, you will shout: "God always leads us in triumph in the Christ", 2 Cor 2: 14. What a place Christ has! What a place is to be acknowledged as His. As we sometimes sing, "A King, despite a crown of thorn! " (Hymn 322) The crown of thorns is still the token of people's rejection of Jesus. The deliberate rejection of Jesus, while purporting to honour Him, is characteristic of the world at the present time. But the shout of a King is to be amongst His people. There is only one King for believers. I will not say there is only one King for the assembly because Christ is not King to the assembly. Christ's relations as king are with the earth and with Israel: you do not thus refer to the assembly as a queen. But there is only one King for the Christian company. I do not like the expression 'a universal lead'. There is only one universal lead for believers and that is Christ, known as Head and as Lord, and known thus in the company, and ministered and sustained by the power of the Spirit. The concept of a universal lead in a Christian company is ecclesiastical and ultimately papal, but it has a weakening effect in the company because it tends towards people not personally living in relation to Christ but in relation to an individual teacher or brother among them. Unless there is personal attachment to Christ in the Christian company, the idea of universal lead will ultimately lead to fragmentation and break-up. If a particular brother is looked to for direction in the Christian company, it can stultify personal growth in relation to Christ and when difficulties arise or circumstances change, there may not be the capacity in individuals to make judgments for themselves. In no way do I diminish the value of what is distinctive that the Lord has given amongst us. In Ephesians 4 when the gifts are mentioned, it just speaks of gifts which the Lord has given. We need to have great respect for gift which the Lord has given as finding in it a manifestation of Himself rather than in leading us to look to particular individuals to bring things out among us. You may say, how then are we to find our way? The Spirit of God is here and what is needed in order to maintain life and vitality and power in the Christian company is that the place of the Holy Spirit is bowed to, and the place of Christ as Head is bowed to, and is not an alternative to my own mind. It is the only thing that matters. There needs to be the ability, a readiness, to work things through together: Christ holds everything in order and He puts everything in order and He works things out among the brethren: "But whereto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps", Phil 3: 16. I know that that verse has been used to maintain an 'open' position, but the shout of a King is not in an open position. The shout of a King is where things are held by the authority of Christ in His Headship and by the authority of the Holy Spirit of God in the Christian company. I sometimes, be loved, detect this shout amongst us. I go to a meeting and I say, the Lord was there, the shout of a King was there - even though nobody raised their voice. The sound of triumph was there and you have taken a step forward in your Christian experience because you have been where you could listen to the Lord. How blessed these things are!

There is another generation that needs to be rightly directed and held in relation to Christ and in relation to the truth and in relation to obedience to the Lord and obedience to parents and obedience generally. But what I would long to see is the power of life in the company demonstrating in every brother and sister and every meeting that the shout of a king was there. And it was there because the shout of Jericho had been there and because the shout of David was there too. They "brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting".

I just leave these thoughts with you. There are things that exercise me and I think the Lord will help us as we seek to go on with Him, acknowledging His own place, and in the power of confidence and reality and liberty, to know what it is to live on account of Him. May the Lord help us for His Name's sake!

SUNBURY

9 March 1996