GOD NOT ALLOWING HIS THOUGHTS TO FAIL
J. Mitchell
1 Kings 2: 1–4; Jeremiah 35: 18, 19; Ezekiel 44: 15, 16
I read these passages, dear brethren, because two of them refer to God saying, “There shall not fail ... a man”. That is a very encouraging thing in the days in which we are. No matter what may come in in the history of the testimony we can be assured of that. If we think of God not failing Himself of a man we must think of Christ. That is the Man God has in view, and had in view for a long time. There are persons referred to in the Old Testament, who, at the time they spoke, might not have fully understood all that was involved in what they said.
Nevertheless, in what they said, you can see that God was looking forward to Christ. In all that came in, for instance, in the tabernacle system, God could see the fulfilment of it all in Christ.
In Luke’s gospel, when He stood up in the synagogue He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”, Luke 4: 21. It is not only that the time had come, it certainly had for the fulfilment of the Scriptures, but the Scripture was beautified and adorned by the standing up and speaking of Jesus in that synagogue as the anointed Man. It often touches me how Luke, the writer, goes into detail about what He did, the way He stood up, the way the roll was given to Him, the way He unfolded it, what He read, what He said, and the very fact that He sat down, as though every movement of Jesus in that synagogue at that time was of great delight to God. Indeed every movement and every breathing of His in the thirty-three and a half years in which He was on the earth was pleasurable to God. He set out fully what God had in mind in a Man. Mr. Bellett, in the introduction to his book, ‘The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ’, says, ‘In his person ... man was reconciled to God’.
Through the whole of the history in the Old Testament, and at times the testimony reached a very low point, God had His Man in His mind. God always has His Man, and He always will have His Man, and that Man is Christ. Every thought of God in relation to man will go through in Christ, and that is something that would cause us to take courage even in this present day. Not one thought will ever fail, the whole will go through in a blessed Man who has been here, and in fulness set out the will of God, but is now established at God’s right hand. He says, “I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness”, Psalm 2: 6. He is established there, and all that He has brought in and secured can never, ever fail. Now that is something in which we need to encourage one another, in these days when things are weak and many exercises have to be gone through sorrowfully. It is a great thing to have our eyes fixed on the blessed Man where He is, on the understanding that every thought of God will go through in that Man.
But that is not all. Not only is there a Man in glory and every thought of God established in Him, but God is here in the Spirit, and that is the guarantee that every thought of God will go through here and will go through to glory. So the dispensation is not going to end in weakness. It is going to end in glory. We need to encourage one another in that assurance and to seek that we might have our eyes opened to see things from God’s side, what He is proceeding in and accomplishing. We are not only to look at it in an abstract sense, but to seek the help of the Spirit to see the thing being worked out in a concrete way here at the present time. There is a double guarantee, in the glory of Christ where He now is, and in the presence of God here in His Spirit among the saints. I trust that that encourages all our hearts however sorrowful the day may be. The days are sorrowful, and it is intended that we should feel the sorrow of them. Nevertheless, we are not to be overwhelmed, not to be obsessed with the failure that there is publicly, but to be encouraged in the great fact
that God is going through with every thought of His, and He will secure them for His own glory.
Now I have read of some of whom God said, “There shall not fail ... a man”. In the first place it was Solomon; David was speaking and what he was saying was conditional, that if certain conditions were met, God said there would not fail a man to sit on his throne. The blessed Man who is to sit on David’s throne is Christ. But He is speaking to Solomon here. He is coming down to the actual conditions that were there at that time. The scripture says, “And the days of David were at hand that he should die; and he enjoined Solomon his son”. It brings out the affections that were there in David, how David laboured, how he wrought in the days of his kingship in order that the very best should be handed over to Solomon his son.
Israel never enjoyed blessing such as they enjoyed under the hand of David. The greatest kingdom that there ever was in Israel was secured through David, and it was handed over to Solomon for the saints to enjoy happy and holy family conditions together. He is enjoining Solomon here. Paul enjoined Timothy (1 Timothy 6: 13), and that is what David is doing here to Solomon. I would enjoin every one here that there is a great future before us. God is not going on in a defeatist way; He is going on in the way of victory, and there is great encouragement for us.
David then says, “I go the way of all the earth—be of good courage therefore, and be a man”.
What a word that is! What encouragement David would give to Solomon—“be a man” he says. That is, he was to act up in a manly way in every matter that came up in his history here. Solomon asked God for wisdom, saying he was but a child, and sometimes we feel that way. But David is saying, “be a man”. But though Solomon thought he was but a child, in turning to God, God gave him wisdom, and He gave him more than wisdom. He gave him everything that his heart desired in order that the kingdom of Solomon might be seen publicly in all its
glory. We need to encourage one another that very shortly, I say that without a shadow of a doubt, very shortly the kingdom will be seen. I know there is a period between the saints being taken up and the Lord coming into the millennial day but, as far as we are concerned, it is only a short time to the kingdom coming out in its public display in glory. But the present time is a time of suffering, and it is a time of manhood. Paul says to the Corinthians, “quit yourselves like men”, 1 Corinthians 16: 13. There is a great need at the present time of manly features among the saints; not childish features. The Corinthians were acting like children, and Paul has to speak to them in a very severe way, but he concludes with “quit yourselves like men”. That is what David is saying to Solomon, “be of good courage therefore, and be a man; and keep the charge of Jehovah thy God”.
Some of the men who have gone before us kept the charge. That is what you could say of them, they kept the charge that was laid upon them. Now it is our time, and the Lord is looking for us to keep the charge. That is a priestly feature. He is speaking here to the king who was a kingly man, but that was one of the functions of the priesthood according to Numbers. The priesthood in Numbers is viewed in a slightly different way from the priesthood in Leviticus. In Numbers, very largely, the priests had to keep the charge. Let us keep the charge, beloved brethren. Paul puts the charge on Timothy (1 Timothy 1: 18), and later he says, “Have an outline of sound words ... Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”, 2 Timothy 1: 13, 14. He was looking to Timothy to keep the charge. The Lord is looking at the present time for men who are prepared to keep the charge, and the way we can keep it is by the Holy Spirit, the good deposit. There is no other way of keeping it. We need to give ourselves over to the Spirit of God so that we might be formed in features of manhood and keep the charge.
So it says, “to walk in his ways, to keep his
statutes”. We are directed to the walk of Jesus, a walk to follow after for the pleasure of God, and then it says, “to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest and whithersoever thou turnest thyself”. That is what David is enjoining Solomon. I believe the Spirit of God would enjoin us here today that we might be characteristically such persons who keep these things. David’s reference to the written law of Moses reminds us of the way the truth has been opened up to us. As we look at the bookshelves and see the rows of books, it should impress us that the ministry has come to us at cost, beloved brethren. It has involved suffering, it has involved labour, and it has come down to us, and the responsibility is upon us to keep the charge. There should be an answer to all that has come out in this dispensation and in this period of recovery. How wealthy this revival of the truth has been! There is no impoverishment in what has been brought out in this period of revival. It has been a time of extreme wealth, and the Lord would look to us that we might be among those who keep the charge.
Then he says, “that Jehovah may confirm his word which he spoke concerning me, saying. If thy sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he, a man upon the throne of Israel”. He says, if you fulfil these conditions there shall not fail a man. I think that is an encouragement at the present time; God would say that to us, that there shall not fail a man. It is a conditional matter. God has set out the conditions, as it says, “to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul”. It involves our affections, and it involves a full committal. I believe that is something that is required at the present time not a partial committal, but a full committal to the truth. The result is that there shall not fail a man. I leave that with us that it might encourage us, and at the same time
that it might exercise us, to fulfil the conditions on which this promise is made to David, that there would not fail him a man to sit upon his throne.
I come to Jonadab, the father of a very remarkable family. The word comes to Jeremiah to take the Rechabites into the house of God, and to set wine before them. Jonadab had charged them that they should not drink any wine, and they are faithful to that charge. They said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, ye nor your sons for ever; neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor shall ye have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye sojourn” (Jeremiah 35: 6, 7). I am not suggesting that we become prohibitionist, I do not think that is the point of it for us. The point of it is that God was bringing out the beauty of the committal of that family. There was Israel, gone astray, going their own way, disregarding the claims of God, disregarding the promises of God, disregarding the appeals through His prophet, but here was one family in their midst who were respectful of the commandment of their father. Let us remember, beloved, the commandments of our fathers, what they have passed on to us, and let us be faithful to them.
Jeremiah brought them into the house, set bowls full of wine and cups before them, and said to them, “Drink wine”. What God was bringing out was that there were men at that time in the midst of Israel whose portion typically was heavenly. The joys of earth and all the facilities of earth, houses and that kind of thing, meant nothing to them. Their affections were centred, typically, on a Man in another world, and their affections were thus centred in that world. The great need, beloved, is to get our eyes off things here whatever they may be. We are in a world that is marked very largely by materialism, and there is always a danger of what is in the world infiltrating among the saints. If I might use
the word of a politician some time ago, ‘We have never had it so good’, that is the public position at the present time. We need to be sobered about that, and yet accept God’s mercies, but the great thing is to take them from God and use His mercies for the testimony. When Gideon’s company was brought down to the stream to drink, there were some that went down on their hands and knees and lapped, but there were others that lapped like a dog. There were some who wrapped the mercies of God around themselves and settled down here, but others used the divine mercies in view of the conflict. A brother told me that there is a certain kind of hound that they use on the chase that drinks on the run. They follow whatever they are hunting, they never stop and only drink on the run. Let us be like such, beloved, fully appreciating the mercies of God and thanking God for them, but using them, not in any aggrandisement of ourselves, but in view of the testimony.
That is what the family of the Rechabites typically sets out. When Jeremiah brought them into the house and poured wine for them, they could have thought, as they were in the house, such conduct was perfectly all right. Others are doing it. Why should not they? But they had respect for the commandment of their father. It says of them, “Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his injunctions, and have done according unto all that he hath commanded you”. They kept every injunction of his, they were not prepared to be tempted to depart one iota from them. God was behind this, through Jeremiah, to bring out the beautiful feature in this family of resoluteness. They would not come down to any earthly level or settle down in matters here. They were going to follow the injunction of their father in order that they might live many days in the land. That was the point of his injunction, and because of their resoluteness Jeremiah says, “therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, There shall not fail to Jonadab the son of Rechab a man to stand before me, for ever”. In the
first passage, the not failing was conditional upon keeping the injunctions. In this passage, it was consequential. God was reflecting back on what they had done, and He is giving them the promise because of their committal. May we be among those committed to remain faithful to what has been committed to us, that there might be an answer to it in our affections, in our hearts and in our souls.
In Ezekiel, although it does not say there it shall not fail thee a man, the inference is there.
God is showing Ezekiel what the millennial day will be like. He is showing him the house, the temple, and He is showing it in its millennial setting; a very encouraging thing for a man like Ezekiel who was among the captives. He saw what God’s thoughts were as far as Israel was concerned going right through to the millennial day. As already remarked, beloved, let us have God’s view of things. God has glory in mind. I suppose, what is finally in mind is eternal glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations to the age of ages.
That is what is in the mind of God, and the Spirit of God is active to bring that into our affections. The whole period of testimony will end in glory—glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore be encouraged, and let us go on.
It says, “But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok”, not the sons of Aaron. They were, of course, the sons of Aaron, but there were other sons of Aaron. He is bringing it down to the sons of Zadok. Why is that? Because Zadok was a faithful priest. It says that here, “that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me”. That is why.
Abiathar was there, contemporary with Zadok, and he suffered and remained faithful to David in the rebellion of Absalom; he took his life in his hands, standing by the ark, there in the city where Absalom was. Abiathar was a faithful man at that time. There was a system that held the ground for David in the very
centre of the enemy’s opposition. But then it came to Solomon. God was bringing forward Solomon. He had named him Jedidiah, ‘for Jehovah’s sake’, and it says that Jehovah loved Solomon. When it came to that matter Abiathar was not faithful but Zadok was at that critical time. Was it to be Christ? God’s thought. Christ, or was it to be some other king? Adonijah wanted to be king; he said the kingdom was mine. It was never his, God gave it to Solomon from the very beginning. God has His man, Christ is God’s Man. Let us be with God, beloved, and let Christ be our Man, every one of us.
Zadok was faithful at that time, he was a priest that stood, and the Spirit of God records it here. He says to Ezekiel, “that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall approach unto me”. The service of God is committed unto such. It is a very responsible and a very blessed matter, to have the service of God committed to us. You might ask, Do you mean that we are the only persons that are going on with the service of God? I am not saying that, I leave that matter. What I am saying is that the service of God has been committed to us. Let us go on with it, beloved, in its purity and in its richness and in its value; what it is for the heart of God. It says here, “they shall approach unto me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to present unto me the fat and the blood”. The fat is the choicest portion for God. In the offerings, the fat was taken away and was burned on the altar. The fat is the richness. Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock and of their fat, that is the fragrance of what there is for God (Genesis 4: 4).
Well, dear brethren, that is our charge at the present time. The sons of Zadok are going to serve in the millennial day, that will be literal, but the encouragement is for us to go on in faithfulness, keeping the charge of God’s sanctuary. The sanctuary is where God Himself dwells. Perhaps in your locality you are only a few, but is God’s sanctuary there? If God’s
sanctuary is there we want to keep the charge of it; we want to see that there is nothing there that might intrude upon dwelling conditions for God. It is a very great matter that God should dwell there. He has in mind here the millennial day, but God dwelt in the sanctuary all through the wilderness, and He dwelt in it in the land in Solomon’s house. I suppose the present day might equate more to the tabernacle system, and God is dwelling amidst His people in testimony at the present time. Let us remember that, so that our localities are truly representative of the dwelling place of God. God’s sanctuary; and we need to keep the charge. It should appeal to our affections. God appealed to the affections of His people at the beginning, you remember, in Exodus 25, saying, “they shall make me a sanctuary” (Exodus 25: 8). Every one whose heart prompted him was to bring a gift that they might make Him a sanctuary. Think of the beauty of God’s thought in proposing that He should dwell among His people. He will dwell with them eternally and that will be a very blessed matter. He will dwell among men family-wise, but God is dwelling among His people today, and He is looking to persons like ourselves that we might keep the charge of His sanctuary.
It was when the children of Israel went astray. There may be a great going astray, and there has been, but the question is, Are we among those who will keep the charge of His sanctuary?
God says, “they shall stand before me to present unto me the fat and the blood”. May we be encouraged to be among such, that will stand before Him to present the fat and the blood.
That, of course, relates to Christ, every offering is suggestive of Christ. It is a great privilege that we have in our day to present Christ to God for His own pleasure. May the Lord bless the word to us for His name’s sake.
Address at Peterhead
15 June 1996