BEHAVIOUR IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
[p. 53] BEHAVIOUR IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
1 Timothy 3:14,15; Hebrews 11:21
I desire to say a word about our behaviour. Taking up this verse from Timothy we see that the apostle is desirous that things should be orderly in his absence, that there might be right behaviour in the house of God. We all have to own, beloved brethren, that our ways in the house are defective, and I venture to connect Jacob with the subject, since it is with him that we first get the house of God introduced in Scripture.
I shall refer to Genesis firstly, as affording us examples of divine training through discipline, so that the believer might be enabled not only to recognise the house as being in existence, but that it might be his place of abode; then, secondly, that he should learn what is befitting in the house. Hebrews 11 refers to Jacob when he was dying; it speaks of his faith at that moment. If the Spirit of God could have so spoken of him earlier, doubtless it would have been done, but one is thankful that we have the record of his faith when dying, amplifying what is stated by Moses in Genesis, showing us too that he reached the end God intended for him when he was dying, for he “worshipped, leaning upon ... his staff”. That was the end of his course.
Now I desire to trace the history of Jacob from the beginning. I want to show you the roots of his history, for if you have the roots rightly set, you are sure to get the fruits in their time. The first thing stated of Jacob is that he was “a plain man”, (Genesis 25:27) and he dwelt in tents; that is what is said of him at the beginning of his history. Esau was a man of the field, doubtless a good athlete, a good sportsman, as we say, but Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents; he had no fixed abode. He had acquired the habit of dwelling in a tent from his grandfather; Abraham [p. 54] had been his model. Hebrews 11 tells us that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the promise. In that way he had taught Jacob how to live; he had, by his good example, preserved Jacob from building a house; he had shown him what it was to be here a pilgrim and a stranger, though heir of the promises. So we read of Jacob, that he was a plain man dwelling in tents; that is the key to all that is developed later in the history of Jacob. He profited by the example of his grandfather. The thought of a model is seen in our day in Timothy, who was exhorted by Paul to be a model of the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. All believers are the descendants of Abraham, for he is the father of the believing ones, so Timothy is exhorted to be a model for believers in the same way that Abraham was. Personally, one has not had much opportunity of living in contact with those who have opened up the truth to us, but one can see the very great advantage, especially for the young, of having those one can follow, of having a model, and of profiting by the model. Abraham was the father of all believers; he is our father in that sense, and he has shown us the way to live.
Well, Jacob profited by the example set before him by his parents; his roots are rightly set, and thus there is bound to be development in the right direction. I have often thought of the saints at Philippi, and they remind one of a tree planted by rivers of water, they brought forth their fruit in its season. The first movement of Paul there was to go outside the gate, that is a significant action to begin with; he goes alongside the river to a place where prayer was wont to be made. That is where the roots were set which ultimately grew into a tree. What they were at the beginning they continued to be. So Jacob [p. 55] began in tents, a plain man, content to be that. A man with none of the attractiveness of the world about him; be considered not for that. He said, as it were; Abraham lived in tents, and I am going to live in tents. Abraham sojourned in the land as a pilgrim and a stranger, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the promises. Jacob began there. I am speaking of what is very elementary, but I feel it to be essential in this day. See to it, young brother, though we all need it, that you are living in a tent, that you are profiting by the example God has set before you in your elders. Consider those that have taught you the word of God, those who have gone before.
Well, the tent and the house of God go together; if you are faithful in the one you will be faithful in the other. We read of Moses that he was faithful in all God’s house. That does not necessarily mean a fixed abode; it is used in reference to what was moved from point to point in the wilderness. Moses was like a nursing father in the wilderness; he was not like Paul, perhaps, for he did not beget sons like Timothy, but he was faithful in all God’s house, and that is a wide conception, but in every department of the administration of that house Moses was faithful. But it was not a fixed abode, it was a tent. And we, today, are living in a tent period; there is no fixed structure, but nevertheless the house of God is here. That which the wilderness saw in the way of testimony was a very plain structure, composed of byssus, acacia wood, skins of rams, skins of badgers, and so forth; it was a plain structure, just as Jacob was a plain man; the two were in keeping. Of course, on the other hand, every man that has the Spirit is stately; he is like a cedar tree to faith, but the more he is like a cedar tree to faith, the more he is like the hyssop to men; the day of the cedar wood is coming. There was a day when Solomon reared up a fixed [p. 56] abode for God, he lined it with cedar wood and covered it with gold; it shone in all the dignity and glory and beauty of the Spirit, but at present we should be content with our plainness, as Jacob was. We all know the history. Jacob fled from Esau, his brother, and in Genesis 28 we get the introduction of the house of God. It is the plain man who gets the blessing, not the man of the field; the plain man secures it and he goes forth an exile from the land of promise. We find him on his way to Padan-aram, and there he sojourned for twenty years.
I want to show how we arrive at right behaviour in the house, how Jacob was led on to that. In Genesis 28 he lay down on the ground with a stone for his pillow, and he dreamed that he saw heaven opened. That plain man, a lonely fugitive, fleeing from the heart of a murderer, but the light of God was in his heart, the blessing of God rested upon him, and what could he need more? Heaven was occupied with him, and what are the dignities of earth compared with the dignities of heaven? The angels of God were ascending and descending upon him. What a moment that was in the history of Jacob! God Himself expressing His interest in him. Jacob awakes and he says, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. He arrives at a just conclusion, for God was there, heaven was brought near to him. But he says, “How dreadful is this place!” (chapter 28:17). He knew nothing of right behaviour in the house then, he was wholly untaught as to behaviour, and sentiments, and language suited to that place, and he breaks out, “How dreadful is this place!” That may not be our case, beloved brethren, but, on the other hand, do we not often appear in the house of God in clothes which are too big for us, clothes which are far too great for us. I am not complaining, beloved brethren, but God is looking for right behaviour in His house. Do not let us borrow [p. 57] clothing for that place, let it be our own clothing. The clothes Samuel wore in the house of God were made for him by his mother every year; they were suited clothes, made to fit him each fresh year. You know what I mean, do not let us borrow other people’s language, let us approach with our own language.
Well, Jacob called it a dreadful place, but one thing he does in keeping with his intelligence is, that, he rises early in the morning, and rears up the stone on which he had slept and pours oil upon it. In chapter 35 he pours wine on first and then the oil, but here he simply pours oil. He avowed in that act that at the moment he was not pleasurable to God. How sad a confession that is, beloved brethren. To have the Spirit and yet to have to avow that one is not pleasurable to God. Let us pour the drink offering first; that is for the pleasure of God. You will remember when David longed for the water of the well of Bethlehem, how the mighty men procured it for him at the cost of their lives, but he would not drink it, he poured it out to God as a drink offering.
Now just think for a moment of a young man setting out to get a place for himself in the world; is he considering for God in that? Is he desiring to be for the pleasure of God? May be he has the Spirit, and sufficient intelligence to know it, but he is not pleasurable to God in that which he is doing. Jacob says, There is the pillar, and there is the anointing, and if God will take care of me and prosper me, then this shall be His house, and I will give Him a tenth of all that He gives me. I do not enlarge upon that. It is a good thing to make resolutions. I believe in making resolutions, because if you are conscientious you will be brought back to your resolution; God will bring you back to it.
So Jacob makes this resolution and then he went off to the land of Padan, and there he remained for [p. 58] twenty years. But in the end, after many exercises, he returns, and then we read the Lord met him. He is on the way to his father, but he has to go to the house of God, and God meets with him. He wrestles all night to the breaking of the day. I touch on this for one reason; he asks the Lord for His name. It was a right desire on the part of Jacob, for if you have it in your heart to worship God, you must have a name by which to address Him. It is not a question of what others might say, but it is a question of the measure of light that has come into your own soul. So God says to Jacob, Why do you ask after My name? I have given you a name; you shall be Israel, a prince, for you have power with God and have prevailed.
One loves to hear people pray; our prayers disclose just where we are; that is, if we pray in our own language. To pray intelligently we must know what we are with God; we must know our power with God. God takes account of all the wrestlings of heart that go on within, however unintelligent they may be. We do not know what we should ask for as we ought, but God knows. He searches the heart, and He says, ‘You have prevailed; you shall be Israel’. The power we have with God is exactly the power we have with men. We see that in Jacob’s journey up to Bethel; the terror of God falls on all the cities round about, and he arrives at Bethel. It was a moment of great activity with Jacob; God had said to him, “Arise, go up to Bethel”. A man is never so interesting as when he is exercised as to the house of God. Jacob was exercised.
With us no doubt the ministry of the Spirit is always to encourage us to go up to Bethel; we all need the exhortation, the old as well as the young. God says to us, “Go up to Bethel, and dwell there”. We should take an example from those who have gone before. It is a time for models, a time for [p. 59] examples; the word has come; Let us go up to Bethel. Beloved brethren, the exercise of the moment is not as to our path here, but as to our going up to the house of God. Let us go up to the house today. That is what Jacob said to his household, and he hid the idols away under an oak, and they started forth, and the terror upon the cities kept the inhabitants from pursuing after them. Our exercise today should be as to the house of God. God will never allow an evil to come to us, but what He comes with it, beloved brethren. He will cause His terror to be on our enemies. The house of God is the point today, and what goes with that is, dwelling in a tent. Now see how the sense of protection enters into the heart. Jacob says, “let us arise, and go up to Bethel”. He is not afraid of the cities round about, though they had righteous cause for their anger, as Jacob recognised in chapter 34:30. It is an indication to us that as we take care of the house of God, all our enemies will be terrified. God will take care of His house and of every one in it.
Now, getting into the house, we have the opening up of the name of the Lord to Jacob. It is as if God said, I have a name which belongs to this place. I could not tell it to you before, for it belongs to this place. “I am God Almighty” (Genesis 35:11). It is as if He said, I have a name, and I can tell you of it now, for it belongs to this place. If it meant so much to Jacob to have the name of the Almighty God revealed to him, how much more, beloved, have we today. We have had the name of the Father revealed to us; Christ has declared to us the Father’s name. His first service, as heard from the horns of the unicorns, was to declare the Father’s name. He said, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. He would have us to know by what name to address Him. He comes to His brethren, and instructs them, so that all the members, all those of the company,
[p. 60] should know how to address the Father. We have been given the “Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”; that is the beginning of the house language; we cry “Abba”, by the Spirit of adoption. I daresay you have noticed that it is the Spirit Himself who cries in Galatians. That has reference to the state of the Galatians, I should suppose, but in Romans 8 we are given the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”. But with Jacob it does not go as far; he learns Him as God Almighty, not yet as Father.
Then a further thought in chapter 35:14 is, that Jacob sets up a pillar in the place where God talked with him; it was the place of divine communications, and there he sets up the pillar; he stands by it there; he will hold the ground there. The pillar stands upright, and you take your stand by the communications of God to your soul; you support the light of God just there. I am a great believer in local responsibility, and I would say, If the light of God comes to you in your locality, stand by it; take your stand there; support it. It was in the place where God talked to him that Jacob set up his pillar. One has to stand upright and support the light that has come to you, publicly in your life, and words and ways. The drink offering is the man’s appreciation of the communications made to him. He treasures them in his heart; he values them. He is like those the Lord spoke of in the gospels who hear the word and do it; there is a testimony to how we value the communications granted to us. That is the meaning of the drink offering. The assembly is spoken of as the “pillar and base of the truth”; it is something by which you take your stand. You stand up in the power of the Spirit where the light of God has come to you, and you seek to support the testimony; and as you do that you have the sense that God can look on you with pleasure; you pour [p. 61] out your drink offering. There can be no greater joy and blessedness than to know that you are pleasurable to God. Then Jacob pours the oil on that. Jesus Himself was anointed, when He came up out of the waters of Jordan; as He prayed the Holy Spirit of God descended upon Him and abode there. He knew the Father’s will; He was in the secret of it, but He was praying that it might become effective; that is the Man that is anointed, beloved.
Well, Jacob had come back to the house of God. He stood up in his place there, and the pleasure of God was in him, and he is anointed; dignity according to God is put upon him for witness. Now the more Jacob proceeds on his path the more honest he becomes, the more he admits his failures; he does not hide them or deny them. Though he blessed Pharaoh in all the dignity of his position as heir of God’s blessing, yet he confessed that “few and evil have the days of the years of my life been”. “Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage”. My pilgrimage; how one loves that thought; his life was a pilgrimage; he was passing on to the end of his course. He had to say that his years “have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my father in the days of their pilgrimage”, but for all that those few and evil days had been a pilgrimage. In Hebrews 11 we learn that as dying he blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped; he did that when he died. It is not a question of dying with us, beloved brethren, but of living; we worship while we are living. “The living, the living, he shall praise thee” (Isaiah 38:19). I need not remind you of that. The Spirit of life from God has come into our souls. What for? That our lips should praise Him; that our [p. 62] hearts should worship Him. So the apostle says, “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God”.
Well, I took up the history of Jacob as representing spiritual education, and if God takes in hand to educate a man He never gives up till He has brought him to the point He had before Him; He brings him to worship. Jacob becomes a worshipper. I would say one word as to worship. The Father seeks worshippers, not just worship. You may say that is a distinction without a difference, but there is a great difference. God is seeking persons; He is seeking hearts, intelligences, worshippers. His house is to be filled with them. We might as well have a form of worship unless the thing is the result of His work in our souls. God measures the worshippers, do not let us forget that. And why does He measure them? Nothing is said as to the measure they attain; it does not say how far they reach, but simply that they are measured. It is the kind or character of the worship that God is occupied with. What God looks for is that the thing should be there in character. He never alters that, “they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24); it is that He looks for. So the language in His house in addressing God should be the language of our experience, it must be in truth. Do not let us use borrowed language, or we might as well go back to ceremonial religion, for both are ready made. But worship, to be acceptable to God, must be in spirit and in truth; that is not ready made, but is the result of the knowledge of the Father in the heart; it is the outgoings of one s experience of God from the heart.
I believe that you will agree with me, beloved brethren, that Jacob gives the outline of how one is to behave oneself in the house of God. He goes through certain experiences with God, and the result [p. 63] is that he worshipped, leaning on his staff. That is, he began as a pilgrim and he finishes as one, and he worships God. God grant, beloved brethren, that we may be fitted more and more to be worshippers, that we may be before God according to the wonderful light in which He has been pleased to make Himself known to us. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come” (Isaiah 60:1) is the word for us. It is for us to answer to it, that we may finish our course, as Jacob did, with worship.