'SERVICEABLE'

Andrew Burr

2 Timothy 2: 21; Exodus 3: 21-22; 35: 4-10, 20-22 (to "willing heart"); 36: 2-5; Numbers 4: 4-15 (to "to carry it")

I long, beloved brethren, to be able to convey to every one that they really count, and that they have been called into something in which they have a valued part. I suppose from experience in different aspects of our lives that we all know something of the feeling of being unwanted. There is nothing like the discomfort of feeling that you have just been involved in something to make up the numbers, or that if someone else had been available you would not have been included at all. We are engaged here with a circle in which there are no extras, in which everybody counts. It may not be that everyone is yet filling out the part that is theirs, but that does not diminish your value. I do not aim what I am saying entirely at the young. It is not so long ago that I felt that ministry aimed at the young was aimed at me, and I have to confess that I used to find it rather patronising. But, beloved young brethren, you really do count.

I do not just say that you count to the rest of us, but you count to the Lord; He is counting on you. He has a place in His great plan that only you can fill. If you were not here, this company would be diminished, not just in numbers, but by your absence. If you were to discover with the Lord what your place in the company is and fill it out, the whole company would be enriched, and the faith of those who have gone before would be answered.

I read the passage in Timothy just to draw on the thought of being serviceable to the Master. There is not another Master like Him. You could not find a Master who is anything like Him, and He has chosen you to have a part in His service. If you will submit to His instruction you will become serviceable. You will be able to fill the part that the Lord has assigned to you, without any sense of inadequacy. What a prospect, what an honour, what a privilege! You say, you are already speaking about things that I do not feel up to. He will make you up to them. He has not chosen you by mistake, you are certainly not His second choice. You were chosen in Christ before the world's foundation, not because you have a place in heaven only, but because there is a place for you to fill now. The Lord is looking that you might fill it out.

I read about the history of Israel in the wilderness, their exodus from Egypt. It is of interest that this spoiling of the Egyptians is referred to three times. It must be important. The Bible does not repeat a lot of things; there are some things it only says once. There are some things that people hang their faith upon, and they only appear in the Bible once. So, if something appears more than once, it must be important. This idea appears three times in these chapters in Exodus. What is of added interest is that it is not an after-thought with God. He does not say, 'By the way, take a few things as you come out', but when God first set out His scheme to bring His people out of Egypt, He disclosed this plan that they should bring the gold and silver vessels and clothing, with them.

I believe it would be right to say that God saw the children of Israel as gold and silver vessels, or as we have here "utensils"; that is He saw them as having a use. The word is used for other things, the King James Version calls them jewels, but they might have been instruments, tools. The children would know that if they were looking in their home for utensils the place to look is in the kitchen. You will find a drawer there full of things that help you do things. They are not like tools that you have to learn how to use; they are things that come ready to hand to do simple jobs better. You are not being called to anything complicated, but the Lord has need of you. He sees you as a gold and silver vessel, or utensil. You might say, what are these things doing in Egypt? You might as well ask, What are the people doing in Egypt? That is where they were, that is where God took them up, and that is where God has taken every one of us up. Most of us know something about being bondmen in Egypt. The world in which we live is becoming increasingly brazenly a place where nobody is truly valued. There are countries were life is cheap, but I do not just mean countries where life is cheap; even in this country people are no longer really valued. Where, a right-minded person might say, did the idea of redundancy come from? We are not talking about old machines but people, skilled and experienced people made redundant, discarded for short term opportunist reasons to gratify the demands of other people for money. They say, 'We can always get somebody else; if things pick up we can always get somebody else'. You see that people are not valued - it is the spirit of Egypt.

If we look back in history, we see the way that 'working people' have been treated; what a comment it is upon man's honour of God. Think of the children working in the mines, the boys sent up chimneys, think of the hours that people worked, the hours that children still work - robbed of their sight before they are even ten. I suppose it would be right to say that God allowed trades unions to counter this attitude to people's fellows. The trades unions put their trust in the power of combinations instead of in the power of God, and they became a scourge in their right. But look what has happened now that trades unions have been weakened. We used to pray for the weakening of trades unions, and it has come to pass, but now Egypt's oppression returns in areas where it was not previously felt as it is now. People claim the body and soul of those who work for them, they take it for granted that their waking moments are all theirs, they disregard the claim that God has over His people. It is not because they value people; they do not. Egypt is full of gold and silver vessels, the value of which is recognised only by God.

I notice that later on when they start preparing to leave Moses says, "speak now in the ears of the people that they ask every man of his neighbour and every woman of her neighbour utensils of silver and utensils of gold". The time has come and God is going to make His claim for what is of value. He demands that Egypt relinquishes its claim on that which He has appointed for His own service. It may sound a bit impractical to say so, but that is the day we are in; Moses says "speak now". We must answer to the claim of the One to whom we really are worth something. God is redeeming things out of Egypt because they are of value to Himself and because they have a place in His great scheme of things.

Do you hear the call? Do you hear God's call? There are wonderful things in the call. I want to speak about three of them. The first is that it points to a way of escape from a world that is under divine judgment. Think of the awful judgment that is about to fall on Egypt. Have you noticed that God did not tell Egypt exactly when it was going to happen? It could happen at any time. The world is under judgment; the people of God are called upon to escape from divine judgment. There is only one way. The way is out through a door that has blood upon it. Think of that! We have been bought with a price! We can hardly speak of God's valuation, but it was at any rate a price that He was ready to pay. What He has bought with it must be of considerable value to Himself. Think of that! When you give thanks that the blood of Jesus was shed for you, consider what it has to tell you about your value to God.

The second point I want to make is that the way of escape is not just a way of escape from a world under judgment, but it is a way that provides a complete answer to your own guilt. The people of God were not brought out of Egypt because they were morally different from the Egyptians. We see that in the wilderness, and in any case Egyptians came out with them. Their guilt was met in the way that God delivered them, again by precious blood - "we have been redeemed", Peter says, "not by corruptible things ... but by precious blood" 1 Peter 1: 17,18).

The third thing I want to speak about a little more is that there is a call to service. God is calling you, not just so that you can escape, not simply so that you might be justified, but He is calling you that you might be serviceable. That is why I read the other passages.

Before I come to those passages I just want to say a little word on one side about the clothing, because I have often wondered why it was that God told them to bring clothing. The people were not ready for a journey in some ways but God is wonderfully practical. We have sung about life's storms; God is ready for every one of them. He is going to see that you will be fully provided for if you answer to the call. I cannot tell you what tests you will meet; God knows them all. You may take it as a promise from God that He will be ready when you reach every one of them. His resource will see you through if you draw upon it. They took these clothes. I imagine that they also did not grow old. Forty years later they had the clothes in which they had come out of Egypt, they had the clothes for which they had spoiled the Egyptians. Right to the end of their course they still had God's provision for them, serviceable provision for them. I just want to say a practical word, because some of our aged brethren have been brought up in a very pious way. They have been brought up to understand that the believer is not to depend upon the world. They have put their trust in God and God has looked after them, and some of them have reached a very advanced age. The time comes when some of them are not able, any more, to look after themselves. Nowadays provision is offered for people in that position, and aged brethren, with what they have learned, hesitate to accept it. Beloved, accept it from God! If it is the world's, God has spoiled the world. There was never any suggestion that Israel should feel guilty for bringing these things out of Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt and Israel travelled through the wilderness with provision that God had made for them right to the end of the journey. If you come to the end of the journey and find you need provision that you never expected to need, take it from God. Beloved young brethren, learn from that: there is not anyone who has put their trust in God who has found themselves short. There was an old brother who lived not far from here who used to quote the Psalm, "I have been young, and now am old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken" (Ps 37: 25) - nor has anybody else.

I come to the passage in the middle of Exodus because here we see the use that God had in mind for these utensils. You say, they had come out of Egypt: was God making His tabernacle out of Egyptian things? The people had come out of Egypt, and in God's eyes the people and these utensils were pretty much the same thing. They were things He had redeemed, things that were His and His to use. Now there is another aspect of the call. This is not so much in the way of a commandment or an injunction like the call for repentance is, or the injunction to escape from Egypt, but this is an appeal for our affections. God does not say everyone has got to do this; He says "everyone whose heart is willing, let him bring it". That is the other side of recognising your worth in the sight of God. If you understand that you mean something to God, when God asks you to give yourself, give, and give willingly. Give what God calls for readily. You forgo a blessing if you do not. God is ready to answer richly those who have willing hearts and prompted spirits. Think of them, all these men and women! What they brought with them was far too much. The tabernacle in the wilderness is a wonderful type that you could speak about for hours, but even such a wonderful picture is not great enough to capture the greatness of those thoughts of God in which you are included. You are assigned a part in something that is even greater than this. I would say it is orders of magnitude greater than this. The system into which we have been called, in God's grace, will never be over-topped by willing spirits and willing hearts. Think of that, a great monument to the willingness of God's people! Would you aspire to have a part in a monument like that if one was being constructed? People make monuments to those who have died and they are not perhaps so concerned about the way they live, but what if a monument was erected to the willing spirit? Imagine it! Would you like to subscribe to a living monument to the willing spirit? If you really count, do not hold anything back. This is where your fulfilment lies. This is where your hopes, your expectations can be realised. Give what you have, what you are, to this, as one for whom God has paid to redeem from Egypt and bring to Himself. Perhaps your job claims so much of your energies - yes, it claims quite a lot of mine too - but beloved, it does not deserve them like this. Here is something where there will be a perpetuated testimony to the value that you are in the sight of God. Some of these things came out of Egypt. Why do you think it was that God told them to bring them out of Egypt? It was because He wanted them in His service.

So, you hear the gospel preached, and you feel perhaps the preacher is speaking to you: get some sense of God's desires, His longing about that special place reserved for you. Fill it out with a willing spirit. I may not be gifted, there are lots of things I cannot do, but I cannot imagine that there could be anyone who was unable to be willing. That is the qualification here. Some of them were very skilled craftsmen. Think of the person who made the lamp stand. It was not poured into a mould; you cannot imagine Jesus in a mould, can you? They took a talent of gold and fashioned out of it a lamp stand with seven branches to it and ornamented with almonds and these other things. Imagine that, beaten out of a block of a talent of gold. Think of the skill. You say, I have not got that sort of skill; no, but God is setting a very simple pre-qualification for part in this service - willingness.

We could all be willing. Is there anyone whose spirit could not be moved by the greatness of what God has in His heart for every one of us. "Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard ... which God has prepared for them that love him" 1 Cor 2: 9. The things are not just there to be taken. God is not just dispensing, He is also calling, and one of the things that He has prepared is a place which your willing spirit has to fill.

I come on to Numbers because there is another thought here. The ark and the tabernacle system is being prepared to move. There are different ways of applying this - we speak of the testimony moving, but we can boil all this teaching down to apply to every one of us. We all move through the world, through the wilderness, and the question arises, How do we do it? What is the manner? What is our life-style?

I wanted to draw attention to these cloths. When the quantities for the tabernacle system are enumerated and when the various things are made and brought together there is no reference to these cloths. The question arises, if the tabernacle is being taken down, have you got one? There is quite a big need for these cloths. It is not simply that they took the curtains of the tabernacle and draped them over these things; they were far too big for that. So who has them? Paul speaks about those who "adorn the teaching" Titus 2:10. What do we bring to the testimony of which we have spoken? I would just like to say a simple word about these four different types of cloth. There is a badger skin, there are many cloths wholly of blue, there is a scarlet cloth and there is a purple cloth.

The badger skins have been likened to the principle of separation maintained among the people of God. I am sure that could be explained. I am sure it is right. They were, among other things, waterproof so that the elements of the wilderness did not penetrate into the holy place. The badgers (I do not think we would call them badgers, but hyraxes) lived in the desert and unlike these other cloths, they were suited to the desert. They were not conspicuous, in fact I imagine their skins were a form of camouflage, but the tabernacle system made extensive use of them. I make the observation about that, that the principle of separation is fundamental, but it is not intended to make you peculiar. It enables you to go through a contrary scene. You say, I am always having to explain to people that I cannot do this or that: that is not the badger skin. The badger skin is a life-style. I am not suggesting that you should falsify, compromise or water-down the principle of separation, but let me say again, it is not to make you peculiar. I want to show that the believer is distinctive, but not peculiar. People may think that a lot of your ways of looking at things are a bit different and they do not understand them, but there is no need to feel embarrassed about them. Think of these Kohathites travelling through the wilderness carrying all these things covered in badger skins. I suppose attention would have been drawn to the people carrying them, but the skins themselves were relatively inconspicuous. God is not putting you in a pillory and deliberately making you an object of man's ill-mannered attention; that is not what the path of separation is about. The path of separation is the only way through the desert. It is a way in which the support and the power of God, the priestly service of Christ, is proved. Think of all the things that were gathered up in badger skins and put upon a pole. Imagine the Lord carrying you in all the tests and difficulties through which you pass.

Perhaps I should also say a word about the veil. The veil is used here as a cloth. The veil is the most beautiful thing in the whole tabernacle system. It speaks of the perfection of the glory of Christ. That perfection was an impenetrable barrier to Israel. It so measured their state that it was impossible to pass. Jesus has died and "the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is His flesh" Heb 10: 20. We stand before God in all the worth of that perfection before God. As you walk through the wilderness here, carry that thought with you. It was spread over the ark, recalling the place that Christ has at the very heart of everything for God: He could be the heart of everything for you, secured in your appreciation of what He is to God. These are things to aspire to. They are things to make you want to read, to make you want to come to the meetings - if only I could find out a little bit more about the detail in that glorious furnishing. Think of the embroidery of it, put in a stitch at a time. Would you not like to gather up things that enlarge what was in your heart answering to that glorious furnishing? You have that opportunity. You can carry the precious result of it as you walk your daily pathway here.

Then there are all these cloths of blue. I am not going to say that blue is heavenly. I do not say it is not, but the thing about the blue cloths were that they were wholly of blue. There was a purity about them. That is very much the lesson of 2 Timothy 2. It is about the purity, "follow righteous, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord out of pure heart". You cannot put your hand to divine things impurely. If you have ever done it, you will know how guilty you feel, but we can walk through a world full of defilement in this pure way. It comes in every aspect, all these parcels had blue cloths on them speaking of what was pure. If you stood inside the tabernacle in the holy place, and you looked round you, what you would see besides the gold was blue. It speaks of what is pleasing to God, it speaks about what suits God, it speaks about the conditions where God is at home. If you ever went to God's home, if I may say so, you would come away with a wonderful sense of how pure it was. What a restful place it is on that account. Your heart can be the same. I wish I knew more about this, but my spirit could be enfolded in a cloth wholly of blue. How different I would feel, how differently I would take the storms of life and the pressures of the way.

Then there is the table of the show-bread, that is Christ as the one who sustains us before God. They spread a cloth of blue upon it and put all these vessels on it and the bread, and then they put over that a cloth of scarlet, and then over that a badger skin. We are not intended to be peculiar, but it is inescapable if you are answering to the call that you will be different. If people get to know you, underneath what they might find a rather plain exterior, they should find something distinctive. Could you say that there is something about you that is distinctive? Peter says, "Sanctify the Lord the Christ in your heart" 1 Peter 3: 15. Paul says, let His peace preside, "and be thankful" Col 3: 15. There was an old sister local here, as brethren will remember, who lived to one hundred and three, and one of the things she used to say was, 'there is always something to be thankful about'. When that sister reached the end of her time she was not really able to speak at all. She lived in one of the homes that I have spoken of, and the people in the home used to go and sit by her bed - not to have any conversation with her, but because, as they said, 'this is what they imagined a believer really ought to be'. The testimony was only in her spirit of thankfulness. I like to think of a scarlet cloth laid over the show-bread. Not much is in expression except something that is recognised to be quite different. Beloved, God has called you so that you too might be quite different and distinctive on that account.

I go on lastly to the altar. Over the altar was a purple cloth. It reminds us of John's gospel. I suppose the scarlet cloth reminds us of Matthew's gospel, but a purple cloth was spread over the altar. Think of the Lord Jesus going out to die wearing a purple robe. Very simply, does the One who died for us really come first to us? Would somebody who took account of the way I walked get any impression of an altar being carried in a purple cloth? I sometimes feel that I shuffle through the world, prizing what I have of God but not making very much of it. But here are the Kohathites striding through the wilderness, carrying between them the brazen altar on which the sacrifice had been, covered with a purple cloth. They would say, You look at this, this is what really matters, this is what is really important. If there is one thing they would like you to go away with, it is some impression of what that speaks of. It speaks very simply, and the youngest can grasp this, of the One who suffered and died. He is worthy to be distinguished by everybody, not just as a matter of an assent, but in our daily lives. It should be Him and His glory that comes to the fore.

All these things lie behind the call. They are things of the utmost value, but you too are of the utmost value and you are worthy of these great things. God would help us all by His Spirit to be equal to them, "serviceable" - not just assigned to something that you feel you do not know how you are going to do, but one who in divine teaching has been shown how to fill the place that is theirs and to distinguish Christ in the doing of it.

May He bless the word.

 

LONDON

18 March 2000