THE PROPHETS (3)
THE PROPHETS (3)
JT We began these readings with Acts 3 where we are told by the Spirit that the heavens must receive the Lord Jesus until the times of the restitution of all things, of which God has spoken by His prophets. The suggestion was made that the prophets being thus mentioned and the times to which they pointed, that is, the times of refreshing which are to come, we might look into the general position in that respect, considering Elijah and Elisha to clarify the subject. We considered the Lord viewed in the Acts as received into heaven until the times of the restitution of all things. He is thus there and, while not on His own throne, He is occupied. The book of Acts and the epistles would unfold in due course how He is employed now in this provisional time until He takes up the government of the universe, including the earth, and sits on His own throne. This led us to considerable inquiry into Luke 9 and Matthew 17, which chapters tell us of the holy mount of Transfiguration; but the point especially in mind was in Luke 9, that Moses and Elias appeared in glory. They appeared as identified, not simply as figurative persons or persons that might be ordinarily seen in a vision; they were real, being referred to as ‘men’, talking with the Lord about His departure which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, facts which open up a wide theme as to what exists now in heaven. The divine thought is already reached. Although the resurrection in its full sense has not yet taken place, yet some have been raised and some have gone to heaven without having died; so that eternal conditions are already effected, the Lord indeed having said in John 14:2, “I go to prepare you a place”. The Lord is ready, but in the interim much is being done, according to Acts 3. Indeed, the greatest things are being effected, namely, the calling out of the assembly, its formation and service. Paul’s doctrine enters into all this, so that we understand on the one hand what is already literally in heaven, and on the other what is of a piece with it here. Christianity involves that the purposes of God are in principle already effected, and that the services of God are proceeding already in a spiritual way here, although those who have part in them are still in conditions of blood and flesh. Nevertheless we reach finality, what is in heaven and what is here by the Spirit implying this; all is, in principle, effected.
We did not really touch this chapter (1 Kings 17) at our last reading, so we have read it again that we might see how Elijah himself, who is said by James to be a man of like passions to ourselves, was taken up by God; and what he had to experience in order to enter into the full service that was in mind for him. This chapter takes him up on that line: “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. It opens up to us certain facts relative not only to Elijah’s service but to his discipline and education. Although he is taken up in a certain sense as a symbolic man, pointing to what is coming, and is seen impersonated by others in the prophets and also in the New Testament, yet he was a man of like passions to ourselves. His services were carried on on the principle of dependence on God, for it is said by James that he prayed with prayer and God shut up the heavens for three years and six months in answer to his prayer. He prayed again and the heavens gave rain. Now we are in a chapter in which this great prophet and servant is before us as an example of how the service of God is [p. 314] to be carried on, and what the experiences of the servant are as dependent on God.
AAT Is it not a principle with God that the servant is educated for the service beforehand?
JT That is particularly so with Elijah. He is said to have been of the inhabitants of Gilead, the suggestion in that statement being that outwardly he was not an extraordinary man, he was just one of the inhabitants of Gilead. Gilead was not relatively a distinguished place. The designation “the Tishbite” does not seem to add any special distinction to Elijah. Jephthah belonged to Gilead, too, but he was primarily a sort of freebooter. Therefore that section of the country would be somewhat rough and crude, without any special human culture or distinction. Nevertheless Elijah appears from those circumstances without any notice beforehand and just says, “As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. It is as if he represents what God can do sovereignly in a servant without human aid or education. That he could say that he stood before Jehovah the God of Israel affords immense importance to what Elijah said.
RWS The verse we read in Acts connects the prophetic speaking with the restoring of all things. Is Elijah connected more with our day than with the day when all things will be restored?
JT Well, he is a prophet. He represents prophetic service exercised sovereignly, that is, God takes him up sovereignly. Properly his service, according to the facts in the New Testament and even in Malachi, will be largely in relation to the coming day, the millennium or what precedes it. As with all other servants seen in that connection he is a model and example for us, James presenting him in that very way. He prayed and God answered his prayer. Why not let it be so with us? The point [p. 315] here is not so much the burden of his service or prophecy, but that God has taken him up sovereignly and he is able to speak with confidence that certain things will happen. The intent is that King Ahab should be impressed with what this man is, and it is for each of us to take the matter up on those lines, so that whatever our ordinary circumstances may be we may learn to depend on God and to be confident in His service.
JB Is there any instruction in the fact that the prophecy of Joshua is fulfilled in the end of chapter 16 before Elijah is spoken of in chapter 17?
JT There is. It is a solemn thing that in Ahab’s day, hundreds of years after it was pronounced, a curse is fulfilled. “In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho”. Joshua had spoken about this; there was a curse attached to it, so it is said “he laid its foundation in Abiram his first-born, and set up its gates in Segub his youngest, according to the word of Jehovah which he spoke through Joshua the son of Nun”. That is a solemn fact. It precedes our chapter, but it reminds us how a curse can be executed even after long years if will is active. In that case it was “according to the word of Jehovah”, not simply that Joshua had said it. Here, however, Elijah says, “except by my word”, and I think, therefore, we are to learn how to be assured in our service that God is helping us. God is working with us so that we may be confident that what we are saying is in principle according to the mind of God, for it surely must be that in some sense. We cannot attempt to labour in a haphazard way or on the principle of venture, but with the sense of assurance. So Elijah says here, “except by my word”. He had been praying to God according to James, though just an ordinary man as we see here — a man from Gilead.
FC Is that in line with what they say of the Lord, “Search and look, that no prophet arises out of Galilee”? It was an untoward place for anyone to come from.
JT Yes, there are such places; and through my own experience I know that the brethren sometimes think little or nothing of those who come from certain localities; but God would say that wherever human judgment arrives at such a conclusion He will deny it and show it is otherwise. God determines. As we had yesterday, there were seven assemblies in Asia. The Jewish mind would say, If there are seven assemblies selected they must be on Jewish territory; that land must have priority. That is really how matters stood. But the assumption to priority is denied by spiritual history; it existed at one time in the history of Israel, but it does not any more. God has gone out among the Gentiles and He has selected the seven assemblies to which the Lord writes in the small province of Asia.
AM Would Mark 16 indicate that we should have faith and be on the same lines as Elijah?
JT That is the teaching of the gospel of Mark; the Lord reproached them in that scripture; He found them without faith, and that is a serious situation that Mark contemplates at the end. From Mark 16:9 to the end is a doubtful passage in the minds of certain persons who think they know, but these verses are Scripture and they particularly stress unbelief. So it is said (verse 12), “after these things he was manifested in another form to two of them as they walked, going into the country; and they went and brought word to the rest; neither did they believe them”. Other evidences of unbelief are previously mentioned; then it goes on, “Afterwards as they lay at table he was manifested to the eleven, and reproached them with their unbelief and hardness of heart”. These persons were favoured more than any others and this is the way the Lord had to deal with them; and it is for us to enquire [p. 317] in the present day as to whether we have faith. If we are attempting to serve we must be on the watch for this; He reproached them “because they had not believed those who had seen him risen”. The Lord goes on to say, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation. He that believes” (that is, faith is stressed in this gospel peculiarly) “and is baptised shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow those that have believed: in my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them; they shall lay hands upon the infirm, and they shall be well”. That is the position in Mark and surely it has a voice. Elijah believed; he must have had experience with God, training in the school of God, although it is not stated. James tells us hundreds of years later that he prayed and God answered him.
AM So you would say if we have faith we can be on this line?
JT Yes. Without faith it is impossible to please God. That applies to the whole faith period which began when the Lord Jesus went up and the heavens received Him. That is the time we are in now. It is a waiting period, a provisional period, but it is the church period, and great things are being done and being done this very day.
AM Would you say certain things are fixed, the state of certain persons is fixed by the Lord? Paul says he prayed three times but the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee”.
JT That is right. If a man is filthy, let him be filthy still. We get that statement and others like it in the book of Revelation. If our gospel be hid, Paul says, it is hid to those that are lost, and that is fixed, too.
GMcP “As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand”: does this indicate there is something of moral worth in Elijah in that he can stand before God, as linking up with Luke 9, Peter James and John with the Lord on the mount?
JT “Before whom I stand” would mean that Elijah is in the position of a servant, one standing before Jehovah. It would be for Jehovah to send him. “Before whom I stand” alludes to the attitude of service, but the service can only be taken up by divine appointment.
AB At the end of the previous chapter the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joshua is presented in a historical way; but the name of Elijah means ‘whose God is Jehovah’; he has a present link with God even though there is a historical side, too.
JT Quite so, he has a present link. It is not ‘whose God was’, it is “whose God is”; so in his prayer at the end of the chapter it says, “And he ... cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God”. His name involves “whose God is Jehovah”, and Elijah is claiming that and God owns it. So it says, “And Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived”. Elijah had prayed for the soul to come back, and Jehovah uses the same word to show how God moves with us in our prayers and exercises.
JTJr Do you think Elijah was in a sense outside the regular service of the prophets in Israel? He seems to be something special over against the prophets that were under Obadiah, that Obadiah preserved. Was he distinctive over against what might assume to have priority?
JT I think so, and not only that, but he was beyond the range of Jezebel. He, alas! failed in general as to that, but he really was beyond the range of Jezebel. Obadiah speaks of the prophets he had hidden, fifty in a cave. He takes pains to tell [p. 319] Elijah that he did that and that he fed them with bread and water. But I think God is finding in this prophet a man who is outside the range of Jezebel, and God is saying today that His prophets, His ministry, are outside her range. There was a time when it was not so; the Middle Ages were marked by Jezebel’s power and the ministry was restricted, almost hidden, almost blotted out, you might say. But God has come in and taken it out of the range of Jezebel. Of course in England after the Reformation there was a certain attempt to restrict ministry, and even later, but God has taken it out of the range of that. Prophetic ministry is now free and I think it is very wonderful that God has brought it about. The Atlantic Charter makes room for liberty for the Christian and for the Bible, and we ought to thank God for that.
CAM Do you think the restoration of this son of the widow is typically one of the items in connection with the restoring of all things?
JT I think that is a good suggestion. The chapter really opens with the history of Elijah himself and has in mind how the restoration of all things will be effected; particularly in the resurrection, that the souls of persons come back. Someone said to me years ago — discrediting this country, and with some justice — ‘It is a place where men have no souls and the birds do not sing’. It is a soulless condition of things, whereas Christianity involves souls.
CAM I suppose that would be the Jericho idea of things, where from the eldest to the youngest they perish under a curse; but this is a marvellous revival.
JT I think what is set out in the history of Elijah in this chapter shows what God can do. It begins with the ravens and then takes up a woman. The ravens were used in the east, but this woman lived in the west, in a Canaanitish district. Jehovah says, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. As regards the ravens it says, “Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the torrent Cherith, which is before the Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the torrent; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there”. The torrent means that the water comes of itself. “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the torrent”. That is how God looked after him, by the ravens and the torrent. But now he has to go across the country to see how God can provide for him there. “And it came to pass after a while that the torrent dried up, for there had been no rain in the land”. Of course we have to refer back to his prayer in that respect, how he has to suffer with the others, but God is showing him how He will continue to care for him. “And the word of Jehovah came to him saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which is by Zidon, and abide there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. It is a very full word, “to maintain thee”, and it is to be carried out by a person already under divine command. I think we are encouraged in this chapter, if in any way in God’s service, to pray and to count on God even for details.
Ques Does this bear on the need of household hospitality, especially as Paul’s ministry comes in in the movements of the testimony? I had in mind that Paul requires households, lodgings and care, which would connect with what we had yesterday, love among the brethren over against the ravens.
JT Yes, especially in regard to Asia. I do not know whether the polygamy prevailing in the east may not be hindering the gospel; whether referring to Asia — the continent generally — the conditions Elijah found in the east may not allude to what has come about in the sufferings of humanity through the arrangement that disregards the marriage institution.
[p. 321] This woman is a widow. She lived in the west near Zidon, and she is under divine command. She has a son and she is industrious because Elijah finds her occupied as he reaches the town. It is said, “And he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow woman was there gathering sticks”. She is the first one that he met apparently, and she is industriously occupied with work for herself and her son.
ABP Why did she think she was about to die if she had been commanded to maintain the prophet?
JT She has to learn with the prophet. The ravens are not to learn from him nor does he influence the torrent, but he can by word and example help and serve this woman and her son. I think it is the family that is to be noticed, it is a family matter. The head is not there; he is dead, for she is a widow; but she is true to her responsibility which is most important as to households, that persons should be true to their responsibilities.
RWS It puts a great responsibility upon our sisters with children whose husbands are now in military service.
JT Yes. God loves a person who takes up his responsibilities; and if He has ordered in His government that these increase, I am sure He is especially pleased with sisters who are taking up the burdens caused by their husbands’ absence. This chapter would encourage them. In that way they are in widowhood with children to look after, but God is telling us that He helps them and looks after them. This woman is industrious, although more or less in unbelief; still she is doing something with her son in mind.
ABP What light does the Lord throw on this in His word that “There were many widows in Israel ... and to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta” (Luke 4:25,[p. 322] 26)?
JT I think it is God’s sovereign way of going beyond those who might assume to be in privilege. The same thing applies to Naaman. There were many lepers in Israel, but God went out to a man in Syria. I suppose we know more about the globe today than ever before, as to what God has down here, what rights He has. The thought is that we should be broadened, thinking not only of the nations but of men as such.
AB In the first instance it is creation connected with the raven and the brook, but in the second instance it is the widow who is commanded, and she has water which would be scarce in Israel at that time.
JT Yes, she has water, oil, and meal; and she not only has these things but she is keeping them where they should be kept, that is, in vessels. She is a careful person. We are very often careless in the way we hold our property whereas she has things in vessels.
ABP Does this correspond to “a widow indeed” that Paul refers to in 1 Timothy 5:5?
JT Quite so. But notice she is very industrious in caring for her one son as well as for herself. She is in unbelief, she is gathering a few sticks to cook what she has and die, but the testimony requires that she shall live. She has to wait to see how it is to come about, but we can see that it does come about. It is a yearly matter, too.
CAM What is mysterious enters into the chapter in that way. Often you do not know how things are going to work out but in due time God works them out in a marvellous way.
JT Quite so. She did not do any budgeting; what she had she was going to eat, and then die. She made no provision for a minute later, whereas there is a whole year provided for by God.
ABP Would you say that such would not have [p. 323] been the case if she had not come into touch with Elijah? Would it indicate how important the ministry is, that the saints may live and go forward?
JT She might have died, but faith is not using any ‘ifs’. The light of God has come in. It is a question of faith, as we had in Mark, and that is the point with Elijah, a man of faith. Now he has come in touch with a widow and the truth develops through him; she and her house are provided for for a year. He says to her, “Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first; and bring it to me; and afterwards make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: The meal in the barrel shall not waste, neither shall the oil in the cruse fail, until the day that Jehovah sendeth rain upon the face of the earth!” That is, it was a period that Elijah already had had to do with.
JH-t This woman tells Elijah what she is going to do and he does not correct her, but he brings in this idea of putting first things first: “Go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”.
JT That is very important to come to, but we ought to stress this point that we are on — what she has and what she is doing in view of it. It is only a small thought, and she was thinking of dying immediately, but she had the things where they should be, in vessels. Then it is said, “The meal in the barrel shall not waste, neither shall the oil in the cruse fail, until the day that Jehovah sendeth rain upon the face of the earth! And she went and did according to the word of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, ate a whole year. The meal in the barrel did not waste, neither did the oil in the cruse fail, according to the word of Jehovah which he had spoken through Elijah”. That is, now we are in the presence of the divine economy and what God is doing, and He is doing it through His selected vessel. Now the [p. 324] woman comes under the word of the selected vessel and she is in it; they are all in it. It is an economy, a house, and she is called the mistress of it. All that is important as to the service of God.
JRH Do you think she is receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet?
JT Well, she was commanded, of course. The divine command enters into it. Matthew 10:41 says, “He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet”, he is stressing the name of a prophet; and even the name of a disciple is important. Names are important if they have their origin in God.
JRH I was thinking of the matter of hospitality in relation to the testimony.
JT Just so; it is a question at first of the ravens and the torrent, and now of a widow that God has selected Himself, who is under His command; and what she is to do is a full thought — she is “to maintain” Elijah. She is to do it according to the divine command and to do it well; but then, she is helped to do it well and that is the principle of the divine economy. We are brought into it on the principle of faith and we learn to do things properly; as we come into the service of God let us learn to do things properly, carefully and industriously. Then we get dignity and we get help in the house itself; we read of the mistress and the son. Finally we see how she is learning: she says, “I know ... that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth”. That is, God has things according to divine appointment. Everything in the divine economy is according to appointment, it is not haphazard, and it is for us to come into it and see what regulates it.
ABP Are these Philadelphian conditions, “hold fast what thou hast” (Revelation 3:11)? There is no restitution of Ephesian conditions, but the meal is in the barrel and the oil is in the cruse. The whole idea is in [p. 325] mind although there is only a small outward indication of what might be there.
JT “Thou hast a little”, quite so. This woman had something.
CN Would it be right to regard this woman as a figure of the assembly, and that the prophetic word or ministry brings to light the restitution of all things? Is she a figure of the assembly which requires the prophetic word to bring to light the resources God has?
JT That is good. What has been remarked about Philadelphia is also very suggestive. As to these two prophets, it is remarkable how the characteristics of Elijah work out in Elisha. He has to do with a widow, too; he says to her, “what hast thou in the house?” (2 Kings 4:2). She had a little and she had to borrow vessels, but this woman already had them. She had the cruse and the barrel. It is most important that we have things that correspond to these. So the Lord says, “Have ye anything here to eat?” (Luke 24:41). Again, what had they when the five thousand were to be fed? It was just a little, but they had it. The Lord takes up what there is; it is what belongs to Him.
JWD Would the mistress idea be a local thought?
JT I suppose so; it is not a term applied to the ruling of a kingdom. There are terms that have to be understood; here it is ‘mistress’ as corresponding to the word ‘master’, but restricted to the idea of the house.
JWD It would seem to be limited to a household in a locality.
JT Yes; and I suppose we may look at the local assembly in some sense as a household that each has to do with; but here it is “the mistress of the house”.
RC Does this woman indicate a repentant state when she says, “I have not a cake”? She says what she has not; she owns her position, as suggestive of a true sense of what was in her.
JT Well, we have to wait for a later word as to repentance, that is, when she brings up the matter of sins; the question of sins must come up with her. She says in verse 18, “What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come to me to call mine iniquity to remembrance, and to slay my son?” I am only speaking of that to show the order of the truth. The question of sins has to come up in these circumstances because we cannot evade the matter of our sins and how they are brought to remembrance, whether by sickness or by a prophetic word. She is affected morally now. Earlier it was a question of her property; she was an industrious person, keeping things properly; now she comes into the benefit of divine intervention. As God approaches us He carries things with Him that are needed, and He has His property here.
Ques Would the prophetic word show us how to make a little cake? There seems to be more than just an ordinary suggestion of dressing a little meal and a little oil and eating.
JT Would that not bring in and enlarge the idea of the economy into which she is brought? Elijah alludes to her ability. When it was a question of Joseph selecting his five brothers to bring before Pharaoh, Pharaoh recognised them and raised the question of their ability, what they could do. He said he could use them. This woman has a little meal and oil; it is said, “a widow woman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink”. That does not require very much skill. “And she went to fetch it, and he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As Jehovah thy God [p. 327] liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said to her, Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”. It seems to me that we are reminded that God would use us according to what ability we may have. Not only have we material, but ability to use it or make it usable.
SMcC It seems interesting that when the servant is in power the household institution or economy is brought into this matter of making a cake; but when the servant is in weakness and marked by breakdown, it is miraculously provided on the hot stones — the cake and the water in chapter 19.
JT Very good; Elijah is in harder circumstances there. He is talking about dying. Where did he learn that? He is not simply thinking of dying by hunger, he asked God to take away his life. That is a poor situation. It seems to me we are all challenged in these Bible readings as to where we are. What have you in the house? If you are a Christian, what have you? You ought to be able to say to the Lord, Can you make it usable? The little maid in Naaman’s house had information about a man in Israel. The world is being opened up to us today; it is remarkable what we hear of God’s work around the globe these days. This little maid had the most precious knowledge the Syrians could have had at that particular time, knowledge that was needed, and she is very feeling about it. We are in a day of small things, a Philadelphian day, but we have a little strength; and whatever we have, can we not as belonging to an economy learn to use it? Let us learn to pray to God about the little we have and see if we cannot have a little more skill in using it. If this woman had not had some baking skill she could hardly have answered to the prophet’s request, “Make me thereof a little cake first”.
JTJr It would give us a proper outlook, which is needed in our households and in our local assemblies. The woman says she is going to eat and die. That is a poor outlook for a Christian.
JT Quite so. ‘Outlook’ is a fine word. God is opening up such thoughts and enlarging them for us. When Paul was about to be taken in Damascus he was let down through a window. A basket was used to let him down, but in the window he had undoubtedly the suggestion of an outlook. I believe there is a great outlook now and God would have us to see “from afar off”. People forget they are purged from their former sins; they cannot see afar off; they have not gone on with the truth. This poor woman could not see afar off, she saw only to death.
ABP Is she in one sense taken out of Sardis conditions, “strengthen the things that remain which are about to die” (Revelation 3:2), and placed in Philadelphian conditions?
JT Yes. Sardis conditions are very narrow, people cannot see much there. I believe Philadelphia corresponds with Ephesus. Hope revives in those conditions.
RWS It is a long time for this man of God to be in one house, a whole year. Is there something in that for us?
JT It must have been very exercising and in a way irksome. When you go around in the Lord’s service you have to face conditions in households where you cannot cultivate priestly skill to get the best they have! I think Elijah must have gone through serious exercise in this house for a whole year.
MO Why is it that in this instance the moral side comes into view last, whereas in John 4 the Lord raises it first in regard to the woman?
JT Well, it was raised. He said to her, “Go,
call thy husband”, and that brought out the truth as to her and she says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. Then he calls her “Woman”, as if she did not deserve that name before, she had degraded it. But this one was already called “a widow woman”, she had not degraded the name. It is most important that families should be preserved; but at the same time there may be conditions inwardly that perhaps we have not found out, that we all have to find out. That is what God has in mind as to this woman’s iniquity.
GMcP Would the upper chamber suggest the Ephesian position?
JT Well, it may be moral elevation, it is called an ‘upper chamber’. Elijah took the woman’s son there; he must be revived in the conditions of the dispensation. If I am to be in the economy let me learn to be in it, and in the conditions that belong to it. Elisha had that in mind when he had to do with the Shunammite’s son; he had in his room a little more comfort: “a table, and a seat, and a lamp-stand”, but the Shunammite’s boy was revived there. So we are to learn that the circumstances in which the light comes to us are those of reproach and suffering; let us learn that, even if we are children, but growing up in the light.
MO So Elijah says, “Give me thy son”.
JT Quite so, he took him from his mother’s bosom, away from the natural into his circumstances, into the upper chamber, or ‘loft’ as translated in the Authorised Version.
SRMcC What is the idea of stretching himself upon him three times?
JT It is the idea of identification. It would mean the Lord Jesus identifying Himself with us in manhood; His vicarious work is carried out as Man.
JH-t What would you say is the difference between the house and this loft? There are certain [p. 330] questions arising among the brethren such as the matter of conscience; it is not to be decided in any locality or by any meeting. Would you say the light comes through prophetic ministry?
JT Yes. The whole point now is that the ministers, whether Christ or those He sends, are identified with the economy. If anything is to happen, a revival or a recovery from sickness, it is on those lines. So that here the sick son of the woman is taken out of the natural source of influence.
JB Would you say Dorcas in the Acts was taken out of natural conditions?
JT Quite so, that is, after she died. But here Elijah takes the boy out of his mother’s bosom; she had to hand him over to Elijah because it is a question of God’s representation in a servant. “And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed”. It goes on to say he cried to Jehovah, he has to go back to prayer, and he says, “Jehovah, my God”. He is in direct relation with God as His servant. “Hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again!” Notice that — how he understands spirit, soul and body, as Mary, the Lord’s mother, did. “And Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah” — it is not the voice of the mother here, but of Elijah, God honouring His servant and using the word ‘soul’, the very word Elijah used — “and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, See, thy son lives”. So we can see what an exercise Elijah went through, and how in view of the restoration of all things life is brought back, the [p. 331] principle of life from among the dead. The boy’s soul is brought back. “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6).
FC It says, “Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah”. Do you think the man’s personality is in mind? As you say, it is not the voice of the mother. There is something that God can take account of in the man.
JT Quite so; it is a question of the mediatorial system; one Man, Christ Jesus. That all comes in here with the idea of soul. The Lord speaks of it as to Himself, “Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27).
JWD Do you think the Lord’s supper is largely a soul matter — that part of what we are spiritually that involves spiritual feelings, sensibilities and affections?
JT I am sure that is so. We have already remarked about the soulless character of things in this country. People are callous and hard, fathers, mothers and children, too. This boy’s soul is brought back to him, and doubtless he would now think more of his mother than ever before.
HB Would you bring in the principle here of “death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12)?
JT You mean death worked in Elijah? Just so. He went through the thing with God.
AB Is there a moral procedure here in this woman? First she is spoken of as “a widow woman”, then she is called attention to as “the mistress”; but in relation to the recovery from death the Spirit of God says the child was delivered “to his mother”. It is a mother and a son. In the last verse the widow says, “I know that thou art a man of God”.
JT Yes, “and that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth”. What a result in her! As sisters come to see the ones whom God is using and honour [p. 332] them, God brings these things about. The chapter is to adjust the whole position, so that we have Elijah now capable of the great service that comes in later.
JRH Is there a link between this woman’s declaration and what the disciples said to the Lord, “thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God” (John 6:68,69)?
JT They had come to that, “we have believed and known”. They had arrived at that some time before, but here the answer is instantaneous: she says, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth”. The immediate result of this particular matter, this miracle of the child being revived and his soul coming back to him, is that the woman of the house knows things; she says, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth”. She comes into knowledge of this kind through experience. It is the kind of knowledge that stays with us and forms us.