HEAT

^[p. 213] HEAT

Psalm 19: 4 - 6; Ecclesiastes 4: 11; 2 Kings 4: 32 - 35; Acts 28: 2 - 5

What I have in mind is to speak about heat. It is referred to in Scripture as beneficial, sometimes as adverse, but generally as advantageous to men and to the earth.

It is mentioned first in Genesis 8: 22, “Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”. The allusion is to a fixed state of things, consequent not alone on creatorial grounds, but on mediatorial sacrificial grounds. The physical state of things, or environment in which we are, is not only on the ground of creation but also of redemption. Genesis 1 is entirely on creatorial grounds: we are not to forget the Creator, we are to remember Him, and that He is faithful.

In chapter 8 we have offerings, mediatorial, as I said, in figure at least; burnt offerings, and we are told, that Jehovah smelled a sweet savour. Noah having offered of every clean animal, and every clean fowl, God said He would not again curse the ground; He would be favourable to it. Indeed in the next chapter He enters into a covenant with Noah, his sons, the fowl, cattle, and the earth, and so He says that all the days of the earth there shall be “seed time and harvest ... day and night”. Other things have modified this covenant, but God never forgets the ground on which He is with men, and with the cattle, and with the earth. The mention of heat is benign, beneficial: cold and heat, Jehovah says, shall not cease. As these are experienced, we name them. A very important thing in spiritual history is to name things as we experience them. We have cold and heat, and then we have the names of ^[p. 214] these two seasons — summer and winter, summer coming first. It is first as of more value; in the naming we give priority to what is specially desirable.

Heat, is marking a season, has a name; it is alluded to here for the first time, and it has its own distinction ever afterwards. Sometimes, as I have intimated, it is adverse, that is, used of God in His governmental ways, so that it scorches. We read of that, but what I have in mind, dear brethren, is the benefit implied spiritually. So it is formally connected with the sun in Psalm 19. In the verses preceding it is made clear that it is Christ, typically. Earlier the sun as set in the heavens on the fourth day of creation would also typify the Lord. There it is to rule the day, and in conjunction with the moon it was to be for signs and seasons, but here the thought of heat stands in relation to it. Significantly too, for it is a question of experience. Whatever we get in the book of Psalms may be rightly regarded as a matter of experience. God allowing His people to put their experiences into words, poetry; helping them to do it; His mind thus coming out through the experiences of His people, and stamping all with His own approval. This is a very great honour. We get, for instance, Sarah, who said she would not have Ishmael brought up with her son, and God honours her remarks, as Scripture. He says, “What says the scripture?” (Galatians 4: 30). A very touching matter that God so honours the experience of His people with Himself. In Galatians we read, “But what says the scripture? Cast out the maid servant and her son”, but they are Sarah’s words in Genesis 21. So throughout the book of Psalms it is a question of experience with God; and God qualified one man to write a great many of them, that is David; “the sweet psalmist of Israel” gives a touch that no one else could give. These beautiful productions, made in the power of the Spirit of God, are set down in beautiful order, and God graciously uses them as His own communication. Sometimes they rise to the direct words of our Lord ^[p. 215] Jesus in the most touching and beautiful manner. The most profound feelings we get of our Lord Jesus are voiced in the book of Psalms, and so here we have one who knew something about the heavens, for it is, as you will observe, a psalm of David. I suppose he had weighed over the accounts Scripture gives of the heavens, for the relation between the book of Psalms and the heavens is very strong. It is said in the scripture that God by His Spirit garnished the heavens, and that God in a vision took out Abraham and caused him to look up to the heavens, and asked him if he could count the stars. They are all called by name. David is really more concerned about the heavens than about the earth, whereas with Solomon it is more the earth.

David here attributes heat to the sun, and speaks of it in terms that can only have reference to Christ. He says, “In them hath he set a tent for the sun”. Had Peter thought of this, he would not have proposed a tabernacle for Moses alongside of Jesus. That there should be a tabernacle for Moses in the heavens is utterly contrary to any spiritual mind, but that there should be one for Jesus is perfectly intelligible. He comes forth, the psalm says, “as a bridegroom”. Who can fail to think of the warmth that enters into that thought? And then: “rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race”. We have surely, wrapped up in these wonderful words, an allusion to the Lord Jesus in His affections, in the warmth of His affections for us in this cold world. He knows how chilly it is, how frigid indeed it may be, as the devil, who is the god of it, turns his winds against us, but this psalm says as to the sun that, “there is nothing hid from the heat thereof”. I suppose those of us who live in the temperate zones value heat more than others. I have no doubt that christianity flourishes best in those zones, for even physical conditions are used of God to help us. I doubt if there is anything in our environment, as God has ^[p. 216] set it, that is not intended to help us; the whole environment is educational.

So in the recurring heat and cold, we all the more value both. The higher the temperature, certainly when it goes above blood heat, the more we value the cold, and the lower the temperature, certainly as it goes below zero, the more we value the heat. Besides, there is benefit from the changes, to our bodies as well as to the earth. It cannot be doubted that God in His creatorial wisdom, has set us in these temperate zones. Spiritually it is necessary, for the apostle Paul refers to winter, speaking of spending it with certain saints. He evidently spent a whole winter in the island of Melita; he felt the rain and the cold, but the people were “very friendly” to him. How he would value that! Those who move around in the Lord’s service, as he did, greatly value friendliness amongst the brethren. For the word, friend, is really of more value in certain circumstances than the word brother. Brother is apt to be very hackneyed, and to lose its power. There is a Friend, we are told, that “sticketh closer than a brother”, and friendliness is greatly to be cherished among the brethren.

In Melita, as I said, the winter is taken account of. It was cold and they made a fire, and Paul added to it, a significant thought spiritually, but I wish to dwell on this thought of heat, that nothing is hid from the sun depicted in such beautiful language in Psalm 19. I am speaking now of Jesus as Man, up there. No one else has such distinction, for in everything He has the pre-eminence, but He comes out, and “rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race;” and what a race that is, to make the circuit of heaven and to affect all. The benign heat that issues forth from Him, the winds may modify, but there is also the altering of the winds, and how great the change when the south wind blows! By it “thy garments become warm”, as Elihu says (Job 37: 17), but the heat is from the sun. There are modifying ^[p. 217] things, and we thank God for them, but the heat is there, and we know from whence it comes. “There is nothing hid”, says David, “from the heat thereof”.

Now, to follow that up, I want to speak to you from the book of Ecclesiastes, which is from Solomon. He speaks of heat in persons, and obviously it links on very instructively with the psalm; what comes down from Christ is radiated. There is the idea of radiation, not at a distance, but in two lying together; “how can one alone be warm?” is the inquiry. There may be those here who have left the place of spiritual heat, but the wise man says, “how can one alone be warm?” It is for you to answer. Were you to tell the truth, you would own that since you left you have hardly had any warmth at all. The Lord has a word for you here. The passage also says, “if two lie together, then they have warmth”. Such is our constitution. The whole passage bears on brethren seeking one another, as if to say, We cannot get along without the brethren. You say, The Lord Jesus is enough for me. Well, He would say to you, Do not forget the brethren. I never intended you to be in isolation; I have made provision for you; I have provided the brethren for you. They are available for you and with them you shall have heat. Have you not found that you do not get warm spiritually in your isolation? Yet among the saints you get warm. The Lord would have us honour one another. We may be in the same meeting, and breaking bread as we say, and yet not really lying together, for our fellowship, dear brethren, becomes with many just theory, whereas the terms are divinely intended to be carried out in accordance with their meaning, and not only the idea of “lying together”, but that we belong to an organism, for a body is the figure used. Such is the inter-dependency of the saints on one another, that the striking figure of the human body itself is employed to show our relations with one another.

The obvious point in Solomon’s remark here is that isolated brethren should not remain so. The Lord has provided the brethren in whom there is spiritual heat, and it is for you to get as close to them as possible. To make clear what this means, I read in 2 Kings, which affords us a figure of a young person who has become spiritually dead. The coldness of death was there, but happily there is a mother who feels the calamity, which would by extension suggest the mother feelings of the saints for one who is thus affected. It is a question of his head. The chapter is full of instruction, but the mother laid him where he was most likely to get help. She laid him on the prophet’s bed, the man through whom God had promised her the child. The Lord had given, and the Lord had taken away, and she turned to the man of God. She took a long journey to reach him, but found him. She would have no one else, no one but Elisha, not even his staff. She would have the prophet, and he returned with her, and went up to the room where the child lay. This is the moment, dear brethren, of recovery for these cases, and there are many like it. Elisha completely identified himself with the boy — his eyes, his mouth, and his hands. It is a question now not only of his head, but of his whole body, because the whole body has to be of divine use, not only the head. Some of us would assume that it is only the head, but it is every member. Our members are to be instruments of righteousness to God, and Elisha had the divine thought in mind for this boy. He is to be restored, but restored in all his members, not only in his intellect, but his hands, his eyes, and his mouth, and then the prophet bent over him, that is, deep exercise. If there are persons to be recovered from spiritual death, the Lord looks for this. He has gone all the way Himself, entering into death, so that we might live, and so Elisha, in this performance, remarkable as it is, and full of instruction, brought ^[p. 219] warmth into the child. He was not to be warm alone. Left alone he would be in the cold hand of death, but he begins to get warm. Applying it today: he will now come to the meeting, and seek out the brethren; a sure sign of life, and of heat. You will find in all the cures in the gospels, every one is “made whole”. Every one is a finished matter, the Lord leaves each person whole; and there should be no less thought in our minds as to anyone who has strayed. Then Elisha walks in the house to and fro; there is evidently something wrong with the house. If there are some novels on the table, he will see them, or other things like that, with which even christian houses are often strewn. He walked to and fro in the house. The eyes of the Lord look all round. Why is this sorrow? What is the secret of it? Is it that those in charge have been loose or worldly? It may be the state of the meeting; it may be that something there is to blame for all this, but still, warmth has come in, and there is hope, and if the eye of the Lord sees what damage is in the meeting, you may be sure He will not fail to speak about it.

Elisha walked to and fro in the house — a most searching thing. I have seen in some houses the words, ‘Jesus is the silent guest in this house’, but He will never be silent if there is anything to correct. Where is the house that does not require some reproof? A silent Christ is not the thought at all, it is a Christ that sees things, that walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and He speaks with the voice of a trumpet. There will be no mistake. If He enters into a house and there is anything wrong; He will not fail to tell those responsible, and to tell us too that any spiritual death in the family is largely due to it. Elisha again bent over the boy, and he sneezed seven times. His lungs are operative, and he opened his eyes; and Elisha called his mother and said to her, Take up thy son. He is ^[p. 220] restored, using the mother as a figure of the assembly, and indeed it is so used: “Jerusalem above ... which is our mother”. The Lord, as it were, delivers back a young brother, who had been spiritually dead, not only warm now, but with the breath of life in him, and with his eyes open.

To finish, we see in the passage in the Acts to which I have already alluded, how friendliness in a meeting is most desirable. The word meeting has acquired a meaning amongst us of its own, I mean among christians who have light from God. It refers to a number of saints who are accustomed to meet in a certain place, under certain principles, but there may be such, and yet a lack of friendliness. One may say, I have a letter of commendation, and I will be allowed to break bread, but more than that is required; that in itself is not christianity. It is just, as I might say, an initial thought.

Here in Acts 28 is a suffering saint; wrecked in the Mediterranean; suffering physically, and with others he has landed on these shores. What will he find? So in regard of any saint who goes through a town where there is a meeting, what would he find? He would find those called brothers and sisters. These are largely technical words used by us, and hence do not always convey what is needed by the wayfaring man. The people on this island are not called brethren at all. Publius, the most prominent, is “the chief man of the island”, and his father is sick. “But the barbarians”, it is said, “shewed us no common kindness”. And of Publius it is said: “who received us and gave us hospitality three days in a very friendly way”. All this was in the winter time. The first mention of this particular season is in Genesis 8, and it had come all the way down and now it is being experienced in the island of Melita by this honoured servant of God and his companions, and these barbarians show them great kindness. There is not a ^[p. 221] word about brethren or the assembly, but what should mark the assembly is stressed, namely, friendliness. That can only be truly found today amongst those who have the Spirit of God. It is to them that God looks for these graces as a testimony in this world. Where else could God look for it? “The barbarians shewed us no common kindness”, it is said, and the first thing is, they built a fire, “because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold”. It is also said, “they took us all in”.

What I would say here, dear brethren, is that in these circumstances, visitors must not expect everything. Certainly Paul did not, yet if there was any man righteous it was he. Every christian trait, I believe, was found in that man, the most simple of men, he always had a sense of obligation to others. “These hands”, he says, “have ministered to my wants, and to those who were with me”. He never failed in a sense of obligation to others, even in the smallest of things, nor did he fail here on the island. He did not let the barbarians provide all the fuel, he provided some too. Indeed the passage says, “a certain quantity of sticks together in a bundle”. He gathered them himself, and placed them where they should be placed, that is on the fire, to maintain what was needed in the place. I am here, not to put the fire on, the fire is on, but to add to what is of God here. That is what every visitor should have in his mind in coming to a place. I am trying to bring out the thought, that if I am going to travel, I must travel with a sense of obligation; if I visit the brethren, it is not to tax them, but to add to what is there, to make it greater. I do not believe in christians who travel except with that in their minds. To add to what they find, and that is exactly what the apostle did. It is not that he brought the sticks, he gathered them in the place. The idea in christianity is not only what I bring, for if I come where the Spirit of God is I will find ^[p. 222] something that I can use to further what there is in the locality. You may have an outline of the word to give, but the freshness and applicability of what you give is obtained at the moment. These sticks were in the island of Melita. The point is that the fire was on, it was kindled in love and friendliness towards him and those with him, and he says, I will add to that, I am under an obligation as to it, and so he did. The devil said, You will not do that again. The devil hates such thoughtful service, any effort to maintain the balance of obligation.

One of the finest words there is whilst we are down here is obligation, and so the devil intended that that hand would never gather a stick again. The viper was not in the sticks, but when he put the sticks on, it says, the viper came out of the heat, and fastened on his hand, but he shakes it off into the fire. See the power of God in the man! What can Satan do to a man like that; a man engaged in the fulfilment of righteous obligation? He was answering to the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, who took our sins upon Him and discharged to the glory of God the terrible obligation He took on. The viper was thrown off and did no harm. I need not proceed further, for the facts are well known to us, I am only speaking of heat, and that even a viper may come out of it, but as met by the power of God it only brings defeat to the wicked one. It exposed him, and it brought to the servant greater prominence perhaps than he would have otherwise had in that island. The apostle remained there three months, evidently winter months. However, they had a good time; spiritually there was no cold after that, for it is said of those healed that they “honoured us with many honours, and on our leaving they made presents to us of what should minister to our wants”. The friendliness was maintained throughout. It was not just a novelty, people from a ship-wreck are always interesting, but ^[p. 223] they maintained the hospitality for three months. It is a great test, as to how we treat the brethren that come to us; and on the other hand that those who are treated well by the brethren should add to what there may be of God in the localities they visit. As we add our quota we maintain the level of heat as in a bee-hive.