CHRIST AS THE MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART

1 Samuel 25: 1–3, 23–35, 39–42; 2 Samuel 5: 1–3

PM It is in mind in this reading to see how the assembly enters into the appreciation of the Father’s thoughts as to Christ. Chapter 25 is one where David is in rejection, as Christ is at the present moment. What comes to light in Abigail are assembly features and David claims her as his own. There is much teaching as to this chapter which is set out for us in the epistles, and no doubt we shall draw on it as we proceed. But it struck me that even when David in this chapter was not maintained at the height of a type of Christ, yet what comes to light in Abigail is material that holds God’s thoughts as to Christ for him.

We may often speak of the assembly, but I wonder if I really appreciate the fact that we have been born in a dispensation in which we have part in the greatest vessel that is for the pleasure of God. There is light bestowed in the assembly which Israel never had. The saints of the assembly have that light, and not only the light, but by the Spirit the experience of what the light would open up to us. We ought to value more the very fact that we have a part in the assembly. It is not just a company of persons that gather together, as wonderful as that is, but we have a part in that which is of God and for the heart of Christ.

We might see in this chapter how the features of the assembly come to light in Abigail. She had to be set free from the one she was already united to, and that is spoken of in Romans 7; to be to another. How wonderful that the One that we are to be to, is the One of whom we have been speaking this morning; none less than the glorious Lord Jesus in whom everything for God has been carried through. What is in view in Romans is that we should be set free from the Nabal character of man, and brought in to have our part as united to the heavenly Man and to live on account of Him. The affections and feelings of Abigail come into expression here in this chapter and she holds the ground for David. It has been referred to as a type of the church militant, that in the scene of the absence of Christ she is holding the ground for the One for whom she is to become His wife. I wondered if we could get help as to that together, and to see in second Samuel that there was that carried through in the body of the saints that really treasured what David was to God, and gave expression to it as he is anointed King in Hebron.

RJC She had a thorough judgment of Nabal but she also had an appreciation of David. We have really got to set aside one order of man completely. She had a thorough judgment of Nabal, but she also had a judgment or an appreciation of David. We have to come to that, have we, that we remove one order of man from our sight and fix our attention on another kind of man altogether?

PM We had reference to it this morning, did we not? “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”, Hebrews 10: 9. From the divine side that has been done. God is not looking for anything from the first man. He has removed him in the death of Christ. But she comes to appreciate the One who is the Deliverer. Christ is the Deliverer. I shall never rightly take up my part in the assembly and function normally in the assembly unless I come to this, that God is not working with the first man. He has finished with him, and I have to come to that in myself practically, and the power for it is in the Holy Spirit. The Person of the Holy Spirit is much before the saints in these days and will be before us in these readings. The power for deliverance lies in the Spirit; we do not have that power in ourselves.

CKR What is the significance of the death of Samuel at the beginning of the chapter, and then a whole new epoch really opens up as Abigail comes on to view?

PM Well I wondered if we might enquire as to that. Samuel had been used of God; a great man. But for the moment that period of God’s operations had ceased. The prophetic word had been carried through, but now it is David himself that is going to fill the heart. We thank God for the prophetic word, we thank God for the scriptures and for the ministry, and we need to get a grasp of them, especially before we get too old, because you do not take things in as you get older. We thank God for what we have, but what comes on to view here is that David is the one that is going to fill the heart of Abigail.

CKR It is like the end of an era with the death of Samuel, but there is something immediately of rich potential that comes on to the page of scripture, when Abigail comes on and rises to her true title of the assembly for Christ.

PM Wonderful moment this is in this period of David’s history. Samuel had served David. He had served him in relation to his anointing, he had served him when he had fallen. But now what is coming out in type is that there is an answer to Christ formed in the assembly and able to stand. Really the prophetic word had established assembly features that could be maintained for the Lord here in testimony.

PJM Is there a continuum in Abigail? There was the ministry of Samuel and the prophetic utterances of Samuel, but I wondered if there was something in common with those whose hearts were open to understand the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16: 14), that it says of Abigail that she was of good understanding. Samuel had had a clear understanding, and had spoken of David and understood that he was a man after God’s own heart, and it seems that Abigail understood that. What she says in this chapter underlies the fact that she was wholly in accord with what God had already opened up, and she had something formed in herself which was of that character.

PM I think what you say is helpful that really she is the product of Samuel’s ministry and she is able to stand. The features that come out in Abigail here are similar to the features that we were speaking of this morning in 1 Samuel 16. The same character is coming into expression here in Abigail as a result of the service of Samuel, but she has to be set free from what she has been held under. The work of God in each one of us takes character from Christ, it is of that character. It may be that I have not got very far on the road, but I will not make progress spiritually unless I am set free from the claims of Nabal, and attracted into the affections of David typically; and find in Christ the glory of One who is able to hold the whole scene for God.

NJH The scripture that we referred to this morning was that, according to Paul, judges were until Samuel; there seems to be a brighter change here, the assembly coming on to view, is that right?

PM Yes it seems as if when Abigail comes in there is what is organic working; and it is of God. It says “good understanding”, “beautiful countenance”; there was what was of God, completely different to what was in Nabal. There is something coming into expression which is in keeping with what was seen in the humanity of Jesus.

NJH Yes I like that. The judgment flows out of what she is actually formed in, is that right? What is organic, I think it is very important, whereas it was more depending on the gift of Samuel for instance, on the line of the judges is, it not?

PM Yes, and a certain official capacity in the judges, involving authority, which was necessary at that point, and is necessary in our own soul experience, but here there is what is formed, it seems to me, of the Spirit. And her availability to David comes when she is set free from any other claim.

JCG Do the resources that are available indicate that there has been contact with divine Persons? The amount of food that she produces in this setting is quite remarkable. Is that a main feature of assembly characteristics in view of progress to be married to another?

PM I think so, and shows what secret history has wrought in this woman. Secret history with God is essential. The meetings are valuable, and we can never underestimate the value of our gatherings together, but unless there is secret history with God the formative work that is to proceed will be missing. We may just come and enjoy the fellowship, but that is not the whole purpose of our gathering together; there is to be a formative work, and that relies, it seems to me, on the secret history with the Spirit of God.

JCG Yes that is helpful. We may think that in a day of breakdown, which we are in, things are generally small in our places, but there are divine resources that have come to light among the saints, and are provided in the assembly that can meet this type of situation.

PM And the brethren are carrying the fact that older brethren are not always going to be with us, if the Lord leaves us here, and the burden of the testimony will fall on the shoulders of younger men. What will strengthen us to take it up is what you speak of; the secret side of history with God.

RG I was just going to ask if you think that something like this occurred one hundred and eighty years ago and the glory of Christ, our Head in heaven, then was related to the body here on earth? and over these one hundred and eighty years the Spirit of God has been drawing out features for us to appreciate and have part in, that would be satisfactory and for the enjoyment of Christ Himself, do you think?

PM I think so and for the exaltation of that blessed Man here in testimony.

RG It seems to me that, as you said at the beginning, we should appreciate the dispensation in which we live, but we should appreciate more the part of the dispensation in which we live, and the Lord has been signifying that He is looking for a full answer and the full answer is seen here in Abigail, typically.

PM I think so, just help us now as to the part of the dispensation.

RG Well I am thinking about the way that the Lord ministered to the saints over these one hundred and eighty years, and now we have reached the time when the last ministry of Mr. James Taylor was in relation to the Spirit; and you might ask yourself why was that? But surely it was that the features of Christ might be formed in the saints so that there would be a full answer to all that is seen in the glory of Christ, so that the day that is soon to dawn when, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 17. Then the Lord will have the bride and the bride will have the Lord. Do you think?

PM I think what you touch is of the utmost importance to us. One of the features of the last one hundred and eighty years that you refer to is that the light of the Head in heaven has shone into the hearts of the saints. One feature of the testimony is that it is a heavenly one, it is not an earthly testimony. We may be occupied with what is earthly, we have to fulfil our responsibility in it, but the character of the testimony is heavenly, because our living Head is in heaven.

JSp I am thinking of the scripture in Timothy, it speaks about, “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth” (1 Timothy 3: 15), then immediately it breaks out into a beautiful expression of the humanity of Christ.

PM You are linking the pillar and base of the truth with the mystery of piety?

JSp The ministry that has come to us in these days as leading to the assembly, in some sense is like the prophetic truth coming through Samuel leading to Abigail as typical of the assembly. When the assembly is mentioned in 1 Timothy 3, it immediately goes on to speak about the mystery of piety, and then that beautiful verse that expresses the humanity of Christ, that is the great end that is in view, is it?

PM As if Paul is laying upon Timothy the fact that what is here in the assembly is entirely to be in accord with what came into expression in that blessed Man in humanity here. There is only one standard for God and that standard is the Man that we were speaking of this morning, and that standard is to be maintained. The setting free from Nabal’s claims had in view that there would be one standard here in testimony, and that standard took character from David, and could be united to him because morally she was equal to him, how wonderful that is. I wonder if I have laid hold of that, that I have a part in a vessel that morally is equal to Christ where He is as a blessed Man.

JAB Would you say that the gospel in its fulness has this objective in mind? I feel for myself sometimes the tendency to think of the gospel as being related to things that pertain to this earth as we have said getting rid of the Nabal side of things and salvation, and we can almost be occupied with an earthly testimony, to what it is we enjoy, but the gospel has this heavenly objective in view in its fulness, would that be right?

PM It is right and it is important. You will remember that in Ezekiel the waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house (Ezekiel 47: 1), that has in view, as I understand it, that in the gospel the house of God is in view; what is for the pleasure of God is in view, not only the meeting of man’s need, as important as that is, and thank God for the One who has met our need. None of us would be here today if the Lord Jesus had not met our need, but He has met our need with a view to something else; that we should be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8: 29).

RGr You spoke earlier of communion with the Spirit. I was wondering if the scripture in Galatians 5 which speaks of the fruit of the Spirit would bear on what you are saying. Paul brings it in there not exactly as an initial exercise but rather having in mind recovery, and that would bear on the present course of the testimony, do you think?

PM I think we should just look at that passage. Perhaps you could just read it for us.

RGr Galatians 5: 22, 23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control—against such things there is no law”.

PM Yes, and then he goes on to say, “But they that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit” (Galatians 5: 24, 25). I think that is really Abigail, that typically the fruit of the Spirit came into expression; she did not take on the features of the churlishness of Nabal, but the fruit of the Spirit came into expression. That is how assembly material is brought to light in young souls and older souls, the fruit of the Spirit comes into expression and persons are moving here in that power; in the power of the Spirit.

RGr And do you think the fact that it mentions first “love, joy, peace”, before going on to the more necessary side connected with the wilderness, would suggest that the effect of this would be heavenly, and then we would be maintained in that?

PM Divine Persons have nothing less in mind than that the saints of this dispensation are heavenly. Paul says that to the Hebrews, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3: 1); that is the character from the divine side, and the Spirit’s operations in the saints are to produce that practically in expression in testimony. The fruit expresses features of the manhood of Jesus.

TCM Could you explain further your comment, which you made earlier, that she represents the church militant (which is in the ministry of course) because she does not seem to act in a military way at all? she provides food as has already been mentioned, she hinders acting in a vengeful way, she prevents bloodshed. Could you please open that up?

PM I thought that character was expressed in the fact that she stays David’s hand here. David here is not a type of Christ we must be clear, because if David had been left to himself what devastation there would have been, but she holds the ground in view of David being recovered to it himself. It seems to me that is what the assembly is doing. She is holding the rights of Christ in the spirit of grace in the scene of testimony.

RDP Do you think it particularly bears on, as we have said, a significant change in the testimony? Samuel had died and then this incident comes about, and David was looking for maintenance really for his young men, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of grace; but there is now a change in this man Nabal also in churlishness and refusal of things. I just wondered about the day we live in really, and the changing characteristics from a day that was before, where perhaps we may say ministry is not received as before, and the need therefore for these assembly features to come to light in such a time as our day.

PM And it seems in our day particularly, when thank God we have so many young ones who are interested in the truth, it seems to me that ministry has to work things out in occasions like this, the truth has to be wrought out together. The statement of the truth has been made, we thank God for that, the fathers of the recovery who have gone before have set it out clearly; the present day involves labour, and it did for them of course, but it involves labour in the truth being wrought out in the saints in the way in which it is taken up.

RDP Yes, and not from the side only of the deterioration of the day, but the fact that it is the day when these particular assembly features of what is for Christ are to come to light. In other words we may say the negative features of the day are to lead almost to a fresh expression of what is for Him.

PM And it was in the scene of the churlishness of Nabal that the radiance of Abigail shone. She shone in the scene of the rejection of David. The assembly is shining in the scene of the rejection of Christ today. We were speaking in John this morning of the Lord Jesus being hated, what a thing that is, we are in that day. John is writing for the last days. But what is going through are lovers of Christ who hold Him in their affections and are holding His rights here in the scene of His absence.

RFW I notice that in speaking to David, twelve or thirteen times she refers to him as “my lord”. Would that be basic do you think? Would that enter into what you are speaking of, secret history, the appreciation of Christ and His rights in the face of what is public? I wondered if it would lead on to an appreciation of that wonderful name, our Lord Jesus Christ. What do you think?

PM We have been helped to see that that title suggests His full dominical rights. Abigail holds for David his whole sphere of dominion; to her he was lord. He took no lower place in her affections. What it opened up to her. She came under the influence of David. What opens up as we come under the influence of Christ! Any thought on my side that may replace His sway over my soul will only limit the appreciation of the glory of who He is. Abigail embraces the glory of David, she speaks of what he is before Jehovah, she says, “Jehovah will certainly make my lord a lasting house; because my lord fights the battles of Jehovah, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days”. She is really holding in type to what God thinks of Christ.

GBG I wondered if Abigail shows what an overcomer is.

We get that in the Lord’s addresses to the churches, the features of an overcomer, even in Philadelphia. I wondered if that was a feature seen in Abigail; whatever needs to be overcome at any point in the testimony has to be overcome. There is what is to be overcome in ourselves and what might militate against the testimony needs to be overcome, do you think? PM Yes, what is it that forms an overcomer?

GBG Well he must first of all appreciate what is in Christ, what is real, and it is not a heroic matter, it is simply holding on in love to the truth, do you think?

PM Yes, I am sure that is right, and lying behind it is affection for the Man; that is what makes the overcomer, affection for Christ. Affection not only in the appreciation of what He has done for me, wonderful as that is, but in the appreciation of what He is carrying through for God.

RH I do not suppose there would be any affection at the end of Judges for Christ, would there? I was just thinking over what was said there that “every man did what was right in his own eyes”, Judges 21: 25. I wondered whether the dispossessing of this Nabal feature, or the Nabal man is an experimental matter, we need to know what it is for ourselves do we? He needs to be dispossessed, I need to dispossess him do I?

PM Yes and the power for that is in the Spirit; we could not dispossess him ourselves, the power for it is in the Spirit. Has every one of us here been conscious of receiving the Spirit? I just ask that question. It is an important question. Have we all been conscious of receiving the Spirit?

RH Would the motive for our being preserved in this matter be affection for Christ, would that be right?

PM Yes and that is really what comes out in this chapter. This woman comes to appreciate him for what he is, not only to her, but what he is in the counsel of God.

JCG Is understanding another feature that would help us like Paul in dealing with difficult situations? She was a woman of good understanding. Does that bear very much on the way that she conducts herself, and then it leads to the fact that she is able to call on the young men, and then she has maidens? I was just thinking of the next generation having to move forward intelligently, do you think?

PM I am sure that is right. She has good understanding, and then David says she has good discernment; those two features are necessary in the present day. Really the work of God in that woman’s soul ensured that she had good understanding, then what comes into expression as the chapter proceeds is that she has spiritual discernment. She is able to identify things, able to name them, able to see what God is doing, and what David is doing, and what he will do, all that is on her view and it is to be on the view of persons that are formed in relation to the Spirit’s work would you say?

JCG Very good. Paul said to the Corinthians, ye have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2: 16); the understanding bearing on any situation brings the whole mind of heaven through the assembly do you think?

PM Well we had better look at that. It is in 1 Corinthians 2, perhaps we should read from verse 14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him”; (that is Nabal, it was folly to him. Who is David? “he says)”, “and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned; but the spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, who shall instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ”; that is formed by the Spirit, the ability to think as— Christ thinks.

WMcK So would you think that what is seen here in Abigail is really seen subjectively in Rebecca? 1 think in a certain sense she represents what precedes Abigail, coming to light in her dealings typically with the Spirit; and Abigail apparently moves here in the power of what she understands, but underlying that would be really what Rebecca is; in a certain sense the two could be one type could they not?

PM The features formed in Abigail are spiritual features, as they were with Rebecca, whose affections are drawn after the man, and could say, “I will go”, Genesis 24: 58. Such was the service of the Spirit that He had ministered to her as to the glory of the heavenly man that she no longer wanted to remain.

WMcK And the wifely side is stressed with both. Rebecca “became his wife, and he loved her”, Genesis 24: 67. It is that side that draws out the Lord’s affections at this point in the testimony, and that is what was drawn out on David’s side when he sent and communed with Abigail to take her as his wife, do you think?

PM It is a remarkable expression, “to take her as his wife”, because it shows her entire suitability, not only to be in his presence, but to view things as he views them, to hold things as he holds them, to answer to his affections and to respond to them in a way in which no other family ever could; that is seen in the assembly.

DBR I am wondering about the expression of Paul in Ephesians where he speaks about “being enlightened in the eyes of your heart”, Ephesians 1: 17. It seems that both discernment and affection are linked in that statement. Personally I have been very much exercised, and perhaps wider than that about the need for discernment amongst us; for instance John exhorts us to prove the spirits whether they are of God or not (1 John 4: 1). Sometimes things arise and they are quite subtle, so do you think we need to have a keen discernment to see what has been developed suitably for Christ, and to reject other things?

PM That is important and the unction would help us as to that. The unction it seems to me involves acquaintance with the Spirit. It is not exactly that the Spirit will help me from a distance, the unction involves acquaintance; the actual meaning of the word involves rubbing in; it is acquaintance with the Spirit. And the believer, as becoming acquainted with the service and operation of the Spirit is immediately able to discern what is of God and what is not.

DBR Would Romans 7 involve clarity in the inwards? You referred to that earlier, to be to another. Romans 7 is not a legal necessity, it is a moral one, but it develops clarity of inwards, and of course leads on to the very great truth of chapter 8, where the function of the Spirit is so wonderful, do you think?

PM I think what you say is important, that it is the believer who feels the need of deliverance. It is not that he is told to be delivered, but he feels the need for deliverance within himself; in order that he might be to Another and that his heart might be held entirely for Christ, and that Christ might be everything to him; and that the power in which he moves might be that of the Holy Spirit; he feels the need of that in himself.

DBR The stamp of Paul’s ministry is the one Man Jesus Christ, and that really is the crux of all our exercises, and the Spirit would help us to have that Man filling our affections, do you think?

PM And to be conscious that that Man is filling the Father’s heart.

PJM What comes out in this chapter, one of the things, is the fixation that David has with Nabal at this point and his ingratitude; but Abigail says, Do not even think about him, do not consider him, and she goes on to speak about what God would do with the sling. I just wondered whether we could have some help on this, not becoming obsessed with personality, but to see what God has in Christ and how He will deal with what is opposed. The matter of discernment has been mentioned, but is it important to see what God is doing rather than what man is not doing?

PM I think so. The enemy will always try to becloud our view with personality. Abigail is past that, she says “my lord fights the battles of Jehovah”. I might just say that the battles of Jehovah are not personal battles, the battles of Jehovah that have entered into the history of the testimony have not been personal battles. I have heard it said that most of the conflicts have been personal feeling, but behind every conflict there has been a moral issue, and the battle of Jehovah has been in relation to the rights of God. I read recently Mr. A. J. Gardiner’s book on ‘Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth’, and I commend it to the brethren to read it again—‘Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth’, and in that book, our dear brother who wrote it sets out clearly the principles that were at stake, and the way in which the Lord met them. He has done right down through this dispensation, the Lord has fought the battles of Jehovah. Would you go with that?

PJM Yes I do. I think often things become personal, but I think it is important to see what is beyond that, and this was much bigger than Nabal and David; this is what God is going to do. It would be a dreadful thing to be detained in personal vendettas when God has in mind to fulfil His word concerning David, and we should let nothing get in the way, of besmirching that, or detracting from the glory that was to be David’s when he was King.

PM Look at the language she uses here, “the bundle of the living”; that is the portion that she held in her affections, that David would have his place in the “bundle of the living”. What language was filling her heart, what thoughts of God were on her view.

RDP I was just thinking that the issue really here was not only that Nabal refused the supplies but he downgraded David. He said there are many servants of their masters who have run away these days; one of the enemy’s efforts at the present time is that he would reduce Christ to ordinariness, and the assembly could never tolerate that. I just wondered if that was the important thing that he says there are many people like him. I think that may be another danger of the day really, to reduce the glory of Christ; perhaps in line with what you are saying the maintenance of that One.

PM It is important that he was a shearer, that was his activity, and eventually he tried to strip David of his glory. The true work of God and the work of the Spirit builds Christ up in the affections of the saints, and builds the saints up in relation to Christ.

JWr Abigail was really concerned as to how things affected David, was she not? Do you think a true lover of Christ would see how things affect Christ? I was thinking of what you said as to the issues. How have they affected Christ? How do things affect Christ? that would really help us to get a right view and help us in our discernment, do you think?

PM I think so, and it would keep Him before us. When matters arise, and they will arise, may we be helped to view them in relation to Christ, and hold the truth, and hold the saints in relation to that blessed Person. The more we do so the more we shall see things clearly.

WMcK What would you say about the fact that God views Abigail rather than David? It says in verse 37, “And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things; and his heart died within in him, and he became as a stone”. Does it not dignify the assembly in conflict, that God can use the assembly to maintain the rights of Christ, and to deal with what is opposed to Christ.

PM It is most encouraging that in this situation, when it appeared that there was so much departure and failure. David himself in rejection, and yet there is what is here that is maintaining the rights of God. It would give us some sense of the greatness of what we have been called to, that in the assembly there is that here which is capable of holding the ground in affection for Christ, and holding it in the scene of His absence.

RT So at the fall of Babylon it says, “God has judged your judgment upon her” (Revelation 18: 20), and that made way for the marriage of the Lamb, did it not?

PM Yes, that is helpful. Morally that was already present in the assembly, and God takes that up. He says, I will take that judgment up and I will execute it.

RT It is worked out in our localities. In Corinth Paul always thought of them as a chaste virgin for Christ (2 Corinthians 11: 2), but he had to get the spirit of discernment and judgment stirred up first in order to make room for that, did he not?

PM And he had to work with them in order that that assembly feature might come into expression, and that the mind of man which had played such a part, and the exaltation of man, might be removed and that the Spirit might be given place to.

MGW Is there another prominent assembly feature here with Abigail and that was humility? She took the blame for the whole sorrowful business. Then as in the prospect of becoming David’s wife, all she wanted to do was to render the humblest of services to David’s men, “to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”. Have you some thought about that?

PM It seems to me that she really expresses the features that were seen in the manhood of Jesus; the humble Man, the One who did not exalt Himself. If matters are to be carried rightly among us until the Lord comes they must be carried in a spirit of humility.

MGW So you are thinking that while she took the blame, the Lord Jesus supremely took the blame, did He not; bore it all. But oh, how He humbled Himself, “But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves” (Luke 22: 27); very precious feature therefore, do you think?

PM Yes indeed and valuable to God, that spirit of humility that was there in Jesus. We have often been reminded of what Mr Lyon said that ‘men came to humiliate Him, but they found a Man who had already humbled Himself’.

RHB I was thinking that Peter writing about the holy women (we have been thinking of this woman) speaks of the “hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price”, 1 Peter 3: 4. Does that express what you have in mind?

PM Very fine, yes, “in the sight of God”, not counted for much in the world, but in the sight of God it is of great price, it reminds Him of Jesus.

JWeb I wondered if when Paul addresses the Corinthians in the second epistle he says, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 1), and then he says, “For the arms of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful according to God to the overthrow of strongholds”, 2 Corinthians 10: 4. I wondered if that would link with what we have here in Abigail.

PM I thought that, she really moves in a way which even disarms David at this point. And as you say, she is not moving in fleshly lines, she is moving typically in the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything in the assembly, if it is to be rightly effected, must be in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul brings that out to the Corinthians, how important that every function, every operation must be in the power of the Holy Spirit. May we become more acquainted with Him.

We come to second Samuel. There was that here which was carried through in the body of the saints, through Saul’s reign that centres everything in David, it says, “Even aforetime, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel; and Jehovah said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel”. He was held in the affections of the saints. We are in a day when things outwardly are broken, but what is being carried through is Christ held in the affections of His people, such that they come to anoint him King as typified at Hebron.

JRW I was wondering how we learn these things because Abigail had not actually met David, had she, when these things were formed in her heart? and Rebecca had not met Isaac. But I was wondering what the Lord Jesus says of the Spirit, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. Do you think typically those two women knew something of that service, and is it for us to know something of it today if we are to enter into what you are speaking of?

PM It is vital, is it not, that we should know the present operation and power of the Spirit in glorifying Christ in the hearts of the saints?

JRW I was thinking that that service again typically must have entered into what they said here to David, “when Saul was king over us”, well David was in rejection for a large part of that time, there must have been typically the feature of the Spirit taking the things of Christ and showing them to these people, and then it came out in this affection that was shown here, do you think?

PM I think so, so they do not come to Jerusalem, they come to Hebron to make David king. Hebron stands related to the purpose of God. Really what these persons had held was the purpose of God for David. “Even aforetime, when Saul was king over us”, that was not the purpose of God. The purpose of God centres in Christ and in Christ glorified and these persons are holding that in their affections. We may have touched on things that to some of us may appear negative in this reading, and I trust we shall not go away with the feeling that working out the truth of the assembly is negative, but holding Christ unreservedly in our affections will involve that I will stand for no alternative, and no challenge to the rights of that blessed Person. It says, “Even aforetime, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel”. Christ has done it right down through this dispensation.

RT Is this them rising to be his bone and his flesh? They are rising up here to really being of his bone and his flesh. Publicly it did not look like that, it was a long time, but that spirit of judgment that we have been talking about gets us back to the divine work in our souls does it not? “Even aforetime”, they come to be what they are, the dross gets removed, and they were of his bone and of his flesh.

PM Yes, they are really tracing everything back to him, they have derived everything from him, they have come to exalt him in a way in which he could never have been exalted before; he is crowned and anointed in Hebron.

NJH Is Hebron then the Father’s thoughts of the Son?

PM I thought so, and brings out the Man after His own heart. I think that is Hebron—that there in the purpose of God, God ever had One who would be a Man after His own heart.

NJH It is the great final thought, but I was just thinking that Paul’s intelligence of the mystery was not for himself it was actually for the church, it was given to him for the church, the assembly. I was just thinking we are touching divine thought, divine purpose, counsel was referred to this morning. We are weaned away from everything that would hinder, that is the intent is it not, so that we might enjoy the Father’s thoughts of the Son, do you think?

PM That is just the exercise in this reading; that what has been bestowed in the assembly by the operations of the Spirit, glorifying that Man in the heart of the assembly, the whole object in view is that we should be apart from everything else and just hold ourselves unreservedly for Christ. Abigail’s affections for him were affecting David’s heart, and David’s affections for her were holding hers.

JDG It is not negative, the garment for the wedding day is being made now; the righteousnesses of the saints; all the exercises contribute to that.

PM You are referring to Revelation. It is given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen which is the righteousnesses of the saints (Revelation 19: 8). What we go through in our experience, we might say, what is it in view of? What is being woven is what is capable of being brought out in display in a day to come. Who will be wondered at in that? it will be Christ. He will be wondered at in all those that believe (2 Thessalonians 1: 10). The Man that fills the heart of the assembly is the Man that will fill the gaze even of Israel later, when she comes to see Him in that glorious vessel.

CKR Now we are able for kingship in that sense, looking on to that as amongst those who love His appearing, looking on to the One who truly is King of kings and Lord of lords, in a glorious administration with the assembly as united to Him.

PM He has not actually taken it up yet, but He is soon going to, but we would desire to take it up for Him now. And as we put our hands to the loaf in the breaking of bread, one thing that we do is to announce His death until He comes; until He comes to take up those rights, until He is vindicated in the scene of His rejection.

Reading No. 2 at Glasgow
13 August 2010

KEY TO INITIALS

J. A. Brown	N. J. Henry	C. K. Robinson
R. H. Brown	R. Hodge	J. Spinks
R. J. Campbell	W. McKillop	R. Taylor
R. Gardiner	P. Martin	J. R. Walkinshaw
G. B. Grant	T. C. Munro	J. Webster
J. C. Gray	J. Mutton	R. F. White
J. D. Gray	R. D. Plant	J. Wright
R. Gray	D. B. Robertson	M. G. Wood