WIDOWS

Ruth 1: 3-6, 19-22; 2: 1; 4: 13-17; 2 Samuel 11: 26.27; 12: 24,25

E.C.B. I wondered if the Lord would have something to say to us as to the widowed condition of things. We feel the way He has worked at the present time so that, while not both in the same locality, two of our beloved brothers are with Christ and awaiting burial and their widows are amongst us. That the Lord Himself has feelings in regard to this we know very well. He speaks plainly as to one who says she is a queen and no widow, as if He would have the feelings of widowhood to be experienced and understood: but out of them comes what is quite distinctive.

It is interesting to go over Scripture; I do not think it is really until Ruth that widows come to light. Genesis is a book of widowers, it is the wives that die. In Genesis 5 the men die but that is not so much to bring before us the death of individuals as the passing of the generations. But Sarah died and Rebecca died and her nurse died, and some of the most affecting verses in Genesis are where Jacob speaks of the deaths of Leah and of Rachel. The idea of widowhood is thus not something that God brings on to our view immediately. He would have us, I suppose, feel the other side of things. But Ruth is a book of widows and it is interesting that Jesus says in regard to the day of the prophet after this that "there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias" (Luke 4: 25), as if a condition arises in which that peculiar aspect of things is to be experienced. But while the Lord fully understands and provides for the sorrow, He anticipates that something will be secured from it that is richer than what has been before.

Things are very reduced; in Ruth things are so reduced that you might wonder how they could continue at all, but God has a way of bringing things through until He is able to point the way to the Man after His own heart - Obed, Jesse, David. You might have thought in chapter 1 of Ruth that Orpah had done the best in the circumstances. She had gone back to her people, and you would not have thought that Naomi had any people or that Ruth had any people. You might have thus thought that the position was abandoned, but Naomi had an acquaintance of her husband (see footnote to "relation", not only 'acquaintance' but 'friend'); Orpah has gone back to her people and of course to her gods doing, I suppose, what naturally might have seemed the most expedient thing in the circumstances, and Naomi and Ruth come in the sorrow of their condition in the beginning of the barley harvest, a very fruitful time to come; but they had a friend. I think the Lord would bring before us in relation to things that we experience currently that there is a Friend who not only has the right of redemption, but He is a Man of wealth.

I have alluded to the history in relation to Bathsheba; much enters into that that God has to say to in His government - the verse we read says that what David did was evil in the sight of Jehovah. But if we could get the positive side of that incident, Bathsheba has to go through the experience of widowhood and David has in some sense to be her comfort in widowhood before Solomon is born. David had many other wives - chapter 3 tells us the other wives and children that he had - but what God had in view after David was Solomon, not the other children who are mentioned. But before Solomon can be arrived at the experience of widowhood has to be touched. These scriptures are very familiar to the brethren. I wondered if the Lord would give us something that bore on us currently.

E.C.M. Is there a link with the references to widows in Luke? I was thinking of your reference to many widows and then how the widow maintained the prophet; then the widow in Luke 7, and in chapter 21, where the Lord saw the rich casting in their gifts, He saw a poor widow who cast in two mites.

E.C.B. Many of these things fit into Paul's own experiences as recited in Corinthians. "Persecuted but not abandoned" (2 Cor 4: 8), not forsaken although the outward experience may suggest that; "seeing no apparent issue", that is Naomi, "but our way not entirely shut up" is her acquaintance. I think Paul felt even in his day the widowed condition of the assembly. It might be said that the assembly does not touch that yet because she has not yet been united to Christ in marriage as she will be finally, the Lamb's wife , but the experience of widowhood is entered into in relation to the whole of the public position.

S.D.K.R. Would Anna be expressive of the condition of Israel at that time? I was thinking that there were some results in "a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel", Luke 2: 32.

E.C.B. Yes, even though Anna was a widow for a very long time and there were evidently few left in Jerusalem who were really committed to God's thoughts about Israel, yet she did not depart from the temple night and day. I suppose that that would have a bearing by way of application that, in the circumstances to which things may be reduced, the area of the light and the presence of God is not given up; and as you continue in that light you find, as you say, that a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel does actually come in. It is not that you go on waiting, expecting, hoping for the best: on that day the light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Israel actually came into the temple; she was there and had lost nothing; she was still speaking to those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem and yet she was a widow. I think these things helps us in the way the Lord brings to bear on us the actual condition of death but also in relation to the general experience in the assembly.

T.J.B. Does that experience of the condition to which you refer relate to the Lord's absence or in any sense to the failure that has come in on the responsible side, or both?

E.C.B. I think it relates to both. The failure that has come in on the responsible side is a consequence of the Lord's absence, that persons have not been able to hold in His absence what they would surely see was required for Him if He were present. The woman in Proverbs 31 is not actually a widow but she holds things as if her husband was there, and in the public failure in the assembly things have not been held as if He was there. There is the experience of widowhood in His absence but also in the poverty and smallness to which things are reduced publicly, yet there is still a Friend who is a mighty Man of wealth.

J.M. ls the spirit of it seen in Philadelphia whereas the spirit of "I sit a queen, and I am not a widow" (Rev 18: 7) is in Laodicea? There is a suggestion of external public poverty in Philadelphia but an inward link with Christ that is exceptionally beautiful.

E.C.B. Yes I think so, and He says that they "shall know that I have loved thee" Rev 3: 9. Now it is clear that from the external condition of things you would not have known that; you would have said 'Well here is Philadelphia, here is this church trying to keep things going', but a day will come when He will make it known that He has loved her; that is when the period of widowhood has been gone through and again she is able to rejoice in being in His company and His presence. I think it bears very much on the present day. An interesting thing as to Naomi is that she says "Call me not Naomi - call me Mara", and according to this book nobody ever called her that name. I think that is very touching. Nobody ever said 'Here is bitterness'; throughout this book she retains the name of Naomi, and that is to characterise things even if we may feel the attenuation and breakdown that exists all round us.

S.D.K.R. It is very encouraging.

E.C.B. Yes, I think we are meant to be encouraged. If you consider the actual condition of widowhood, if you meet a sister who is a widow, you will not say to her, 'Well you must learn what widowhood is'; you will say something that will encourage her. Now that is what the Lord would do with us. He takes us in the condition in which we are and encourages us, and He calls the assembly by the name by which it has always been known - "My assembly"; He does not call it Mara.

E.W. So is the reference to honouring widows, those who are really widows, to affect the assembly? (see 1 Tim 5: 3).

E.C.B. Yes, I think that is to affect us; you are able to penetrate to those who are really widows. We relate that a good deal to circumstances and in its context rightly, but it is a question whether we can penetrate to what the actual situation of widowhood is. Do you think that?

E.W. Yes, and provide something for those conditions.

E.C.B. That is just it. The list as it is referred to in that chapter has its material side, but it seems to indicate that there is a committal to provision in relation to the widowed situation.

D.A.B. Would you say something as to the distinction between widows and orphans? The Lord says "I will not leave you orphans" (John 14: 18), but He does not exactly make any corresponding remark in relation to what you are bringing before us; as you say, it marks the present character of the testimony.

E.C.B. I think that from His side the Lord does not take account of things as apart from a link with Himself, and as was remarked, the widowed condition is due to His absence; a link with Him remains but the condition arises from His absence. The orphan condition belongs to Genesis. "I will not leave you orphans" is Joseph in chapter 50 of Genesis. He found the family all disgruntled and ill-assorted, all their mothers had died years ago, and now their father dies and they are orphans. Joseph says in effect 'I will not leave you orphans, you come and I will maintain you'. That fits in to Genesis which is not, as I said, a book of widows; but now we come into a book that is a book of widows, and what is provided there is - I like these words in Mr Darby's note - a 'friend' or 'acquaintance ' who is wealthy, not just a relation; arid that seems to me to be a character of things that is needed in the widowed situation. So the Lord says in John " I have called you friends", John 15: 15.

E.C.M. I was thinking of the psalm regarding the Judge of the widows (Ps 68: 5), how He took account of this condition. In the history of the revival God has taken account of that; we might interpret it that way, do you think?

E.C.B. Yes, I am sure that God has taken account of it. Naomi says in chapter 1, "Are there yet sons in my womb?", but she says that in a particular context. In chapter 4 there are; "There is a son born to Naomi". I think that is because the widowed situation is accepted from God at its deepest and, that having been accepted, God brings in not only the wealth but the ability to provide for the situation, and out of it there is a son born to Naomi.

E.C.M. That is what I had in mind in that reference to the psalm. God is a Judge of the widows; He seems to assess the whole matter here in Ruth and bring in fruit as the result of it.

E.C.B. I think that. We speak of body feelings in relation to the way the Lord takes one and another, so that we feel with one another. The widowed aspect of things is not a situation that people grow out of. We know that as things work out sometimes people marry again, but if you are a widow you cannot stop being a widow of the man whose widow you are; whatever circumstances change, you are still his widow and these things continue; but the Lord comes in in. relation to them to bring out of them fruit that is going to be after His own heart. I think that the Lord would seek that from us at the present time, fruit according to His own heart.

J.T-n. It is a question whether we feel the widowhood at the present time, passing through the circumstances; it is something that should always be with us.

E.C.B. I think that side is important and that we carry it with us; yet we apprehend that God has provided for us in a way that will fully meet it. Verse 1 of chapter 2 almost suggests that Naomi had forgotten that she had a wealthy friend. Now we may do that and think that the only solution is to go to our people. Naomi said that in chapter 1, 'You go back, go back to your mothers, they will look after you', and Orpah went "to her people and to her gods"; but there is not brought on to our notice, and perhaps forgotten in chapter 1, this wealthy acquaintance; and God now brings it to light.

J.M. Is the acquaintance on another level? You remarked that the barley harvest comes in at the end of chapter 1, but the word is, weeping endureth for the night and joy cometh in the morning (see Ps 30: 5).

J.T-n. It all comes to light on her return, does it not?

E.C.B. Yes, and when they came back to Bethlehem the whole city was moved on account of it. Now we apprehend that currently. The assembly, or those who walk in the light of it on the earth at the present time, would just about make up a city. In fact there are probably less people in fellowship now than have made up some city positions in exaggerated ways in the past, and therefore we feel the character of things in the city, that is, what corresponds to the assembly. The whole city is moved but it is the beginning of the barley harvest; God is already setting on something fresh.

J.M. The exercises that you refer to are intended to be gone through - the weeping endureth for a night - but the result is that we come practically in our experience on to resurrection, do you think?

E.C.B. Yes I do, and there is the counterpart scripture to that: "He goeth forth and weepeth, bearing seed for scattering; he cometh again with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves", Ps 126: 6. The question is whether we apprehend precious seed in relation to the circumstances of weeping: You really get that in John 12 do you not?

J.M. Yes I think so. You have referred to the actual matter of widowhood and the two instances among us which draw out our feelings. Then alongside of that there is a good deal of pressure in one way or another in many localities that is forcing this exercise upon us, but we need to have the goal before us so that we are not swamped by it.

E.C.B. I think that very much, in fact that is largely what I had in mind, and to get the sense, especially from the book of Ruth and indeed from the scripture in Samuel, that God will bring out of it what is after His own heart and what reaches the highest point that is touched in the service of God. Do you think that?

J.M. Yes. It is remarkable that in both of these sections from which you have read, which deal very largely with these very sorrowful matters, you get the expression, 'Arise, wash thyself and anoint thyself' (see Ruth 3: 3; 2 Sam 12: 20). David did that and went into the house of God, as though the inward side is to be carried in balance with the public side of feeling widowhood.

E.C.B. I think so. Of course in regard to David the natural side and what we speak of as the governmental side is extended because the child is born and then it lives a little while and then it has a lingering illness and then it dies, and it is after that that David arises and anoints himself. So the Lord does not discount - I am not emphasising the governmental and the evil side in relation to David - the side of sorrow through which we are bound to go, but what He will have out of it there is Solomon: "and Jehovah loved him"; that is what He will have out of it.

J.T-n. In John you get that "a man has been born into the world" (chap 16: 21). It is as coming through the exercise that you arrive at that, do you not?

E.C.B. Yes, and in that scripture there is the trouble no longer remembered; that is a very great thing. The conditions that have arisen from the sorrow in some sense remain but they are now able to be viewed from the point of view of what has positively come out of them.

E.C.M. Would that be the male son?

E.C.B. Well, that comes into Revelation (see chap 12: 5). The woman there is evidently alone; and God operates, and indeed the earth operates, to protect her. But I think that we get very positive suggestions in Ruth, the kind of things that, if you had been just looking at the circumstances, you would never have thought were there; and that is what happens to us in things the Lord passes us through, that there are elements in the situation that we never thought were there. How crucial it was that it was the beginning of barley harvest. How crucial that Ruth should go through that harvest and glean along with the young men and discover whose field it was, then that she should mark the place where Boaz lay down. The Colossian exercises in relation to widowhood seem to me to be essential. Then in chapter 4 of Ruth you touch in principle redemption through His blood and sonship.

T.J.B. So we need to grasp that the current experiences through which the saints and the testimony are passing and have passed in recent times, are all ordered in the ways of God for the working out of something which is precious to Him.

E.C.B. I think that, and not only something that is precious to Him but something that is substantial. In 2 Samuel 12 Solomon is born and he is named; he gets two names but he is named. Who would have thought that that child would one day have such revenue of gold as Solomon had, six hundred and sixty-six talents in one year? (see 2 Chron 9: 13). Think of the wealth that he had! Of course there was a time when Solomon himself did not fully appreciate the wealth and the currency was depreciated because it was made so free, but think of the wealth that came to Solomon. Such was it that you had to distinguish between different kinds of gold: there is the gold of Ophir and there is the gold of Parvaim.

S.D.K.R. In one case it was perfect gold.

E.C.B. Yes; these things suggest to us the fruit that God intends to acquire through experiences of sorrow through which He allows us to go.

S.D.K.R. Would Mary in John 20, be expressive of it? What that led on to in the glory of the service of God!

E.C.B. "They have taken away my Lord" is an experience of widowhood. Then she comes back with very great fulness in that message.

J.M. The message is most touching; "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God"; and He says "Touch me not", that is that there was a relationship established on a totally different platform.

E.C.B. Exactly.

J.M. In regard to what was said, that we might have thought that because of the smallness of conditions the Lord might specially preserve the saints among us, we discover that we are not immune from the things that generally lie upon men: indeed, the Lord is bringing in a good deal of suffering. Is that not to establish what He has as on an entirely different basis?

E.C.B. I am sure that that is right, and we need to be able to penetrate into that area where things are on the level of the barley-harvest. The barleyharvest is "the first-fruits, Christ" (1 Cor 15: 23) and we need to be able to enter habitually into that sphere. I was impressed this morning with our already touching the sphere where the things that God will wipe away no longer exist; and it says, "and death shall not exist any more", Rev 21: 4.

S.D.K.R. Would it be right to think of the Lord Himself experiencing the feelings of this in connection with Israel who had departed from Him, His entering into the feelings of those who are literally widows?

E.C.B. I think so, and hence there are references in the Psalms that would provide language for these circumstances. Naomi says in chapter 1, "Jehovah has brought me home again empty" but it was not true. She might have thought it was true but it was not true, and chapter 4 shows it was not true because, as I say, they said "there is a son born to Naomi"; but she thought it was true. It may be that the Lord allows us sometimes to touch things, as the scripture says, in the bitterness of our soul (see Isa 38: 15) but we may find that our first impressions prove to be untrue. Now it was not true that Naomi was brought back empty; she was externally impoverished. Think of the wisdom that she had, think of the instruction she is able to give to Ruth. These are not from an empty vessel.

E.W. "They came to Bethlehem" is repeated several times. I do not think it says anywhere that she returned to Bethlehem, as though she had gained something.

E.C.B. Yes, I think she had. The first thing she had heard was "that Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread", which was a great incentive to go, but "they came to Bethlehem" is almost as if it is a milestone on the way. It is actually the place where everything was worked out, but it seems as if it is marked as a milestone on her way and at that point she is going to learn that God has already provided everything in relation to her own condition.

E.C.M. What do you understand by "she lay at his feet", and then "Let it not be known that a woman came into the threshing-floor", and then in verse 18, "for the man will not rest until he have completed the matter this day".

E.C.B. Has it not been remarked before that chapter 3 corresponds largely to Colossians - "mark the place where he shall have lain down" - but in one sense Christ's apprehension of what transpires there is known to Him but not, as it were, to be published, things are gone through secretly and in a hidden way. But Christ does not rest in what is arrived at in Colossians, does He? Colossians leaves us here and Him there, He above and we below. There are exercises to be gone through as to circumcision and His death and so on; things are not completed. The completion of things "this day" necessitates our going on to apprehend redemption according to Ephesians, does it not?

E.C.M. Yes, the full heavenly position. I was thinking that her continuing until the wheat-harvest would involve the heavenly position, the saints raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ (see Eph 2: 6).

E.C.B. I am sure that that is so. The Lord speaks in the gospel of "his wheat" - in one gospel "his wheat into the garner" (Matt 3: 12) and in another "the wheat into his garner” (Luke 3: 17) - but what He has in view is "his wheat", and I think that is what He gathers for Himself in Ephesians and on the heavenly level of things. As Mr Mitchell said, the area of supply is on a different level from that on which we are characteristically living.

E.C.M. Do you think the threshing-floor experience which you refer to (I take it in Colossians 2 as to being buried with Him and then raised with Him through faith, and so on) has to be gone through in order to reach it? So in Colossians 3 we are to set our minds on things above, where the Christ is; but the full position is Ephesian, is it not?

E.C.B. Yes, and things are set out for us in some order in Ruth as representing the progress by which we come into things. In 1 Corinthians 15 things are presented in a much more immediate way. You sow bare grain and God gives it a body as it pleases Him; that is compressed into a verse. It almost takes Romans, Colossians and Ephesians to develop that in the epistles, does it not?

E.C.M. Yes, I like what you say.

E.C.B. The fruit of this is in chapter 4: "There is a son born to Naomi". The women say that, they seem to recognise that something has taken place, "the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed". Now it has often been dwelt on that his name means 'worshipper' or 'servant', but the Spirit does not say here 'which being interpreted is worshipper'; what the Spirit says is "He is the father of Jesse, the father of David", showing that God had in view that out of these experiences of sorrow should emerge the man after His own heart.

E.C.M. Do you think too the reference to David would involve the service of God in the most refined features of it, what God has in mind is His own service and what would contribute to that?

E.C.B. Yes, I am sure it does; it is filled out in Solomon. As we know they in a sense merge into each other as the history unfolds; but I am sure that is what God has in mind. It is a very interesting thing to note too that when David comes on to our view in Samuel there is no fault in him, the faults in David come out later in his history. Now that is the fruit of Naomi, that is, a man who is ruddy, of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance, with no fault in him referred to; that is the product, Christ in formation.

J.M. Is it exercising that in the practical working out of this we have a large element of sacrifice? Boaz has to raise up the name of the dead, not his own name, and he was wealthy enough for that, and then although the son is born to Ruth, the women say it is to Naomi, that is that there was a correspondence in her to the sacrificial spirit that was seen in Boaz. The whole history indicates that what is in Ruth's view is not herself but is really Naomi and the establishment of that line of things under Naomi which is to work out in David.

E.C.B. I think that. When these difficult circumstances arise, as they do in assembly history (take the last four years), we are very prone to say 'Call me Mara' , but the Lord will not allow a root of bitterness to grow up. What the Lord does is to retain the name of Naomi, that is, 'my pleasantness'. We may foster bitterness which can be expressed in ways that almost sound pious. People speak about their circumstances and you can discern the bitterness in what they say, but Naomi has no bitterness. She seems to touch it for a moment and then to leave it behind, and I think it is very interesting that no one ever called her Mara, that is to say, what God saw in her is what prevailed.

In Samuel we are familiar with the actual details of the history, that David's wandering eye led him into the gravest sin. I was not thinking of that side but that, before Solomon is arrived at, again the experience of widowhood has to be gone through: "the wife of Urijah heard that Urijah her husband was dead and she mourned for her husband". David has been reached but God still had in mind, as I said, not the children of 2 Samuel 3 and not even the wives of 2 Samuel 3; God has in mind Solomon, but he is arrived at after the experience of widowhood has been touched again. "There were many widows in Israel" (Luke 4: 25); it seems as if the Lord who knew all the history draws attention to that, as much as to say, 'You did not realise it at the time there were many widows'. He said to only one of them was Elias sent, but the experience of widowhood has to be gone through again before Solomon in all his glory actually comes on to view.

S.D.K.R. Thinking of Mary the mother of Jesus "even a sword shall go through thine own soul'; ( Luke 2: 35); the Lord on the cross says to her "behold thy son" (John 19:26), and John is used to develop the glory of the Son of God. Would there be some link there?

E.C.B. I think there would, the way that Jesus commits her in affection to John and that disciple took her to his own home". Mr Taylor sen said that Mary the mother of Jesus would have impressions of Jesus that nobody else would have, things that she would have seen in Him in the house that no one else ever knew. He said it is that character of things that is carried over into the upper room (see Acts 1: 14). It is not Mary of Magdala, it is Mary the mother of Jesus, and John would acquire from her impressions as to what "the holy thing" (Luke 1: 35) had actually been.

E.C.M. That is very interesting. He also connected the widow who put in all her living with the beginning of Acts and what was there in the way of wealth in the upper room.

E.C.B. Yes, and very early in Acts no one called anything they had their own: that is like the widow with two mites.

J.M. You remarked as to 2 Corinthians; we were noticing yesterday in fact how extensive are the references to glory in that epistle, Paul speaking in the first chapter of what he had gone through in spirit with the Corinthians as a result of the first epistle. Do you think that is really this line that you are touching now?

E.C.B. I wondered whether the reference in 2 Corinthians 1 to "so great a death" is not intended to have more impact on us than it does. We relate it to Paul having had to face various very oppressive circumstances in his life but the expression "so great a death" is something that easily fits in our minds into the death of Christ; but then the experience of widowhood necessarily involves touching "so great a death". What greater death can a woman have touched than the loss of her husband? She would say "so great a death" but He delivers us and will deliver, do you think?

J.M. Yes I think so. I wondered too, not to multiply examples, if the way Peter writes his first epistle brings on to view that spirit of widowhood in the way he speaks to the saints, and then in the second epistle he can expand on this line of glory in speaking there of the "excellent glory".

E.C.B. Yes, I think that that side of things is to be brought in to supply us in order that we may not be over-borne by the conditions through which we have to pass. We remarked yesterday upon the need for getting deeper impressions of such scriptures as, "in everything ye have been enriched in him", 1 Cor 1: 5.

E.C.M. It is a beautiful touch here as to Solomon: "and Jehovah loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, for Jehovah's sake". Would you say something about that.

E.C.B. I think that he was attaching the name of Jehovah to the child. The ending 'iah' in these names is a direct connection with God, is it not, and David was marking this child in relation to a link with God. In Jedidiah I think that is what he is carrying through, " for Jehovah's sake". Again I do not think that Solomon is ever called Jedidiah in the scripture, but it is not that that name is replaced but in a sense it is 'called by that secret name' .

E.C.M. Would you link it in any way with the Lord as in the gospels, for instance at His baptism and then the transfiguration: "this is my beloved Son"?

E.C.B . I think it would, that is Jehovah loved Him, or Jedidiah, but David calls him that "for Jehovah's sake". I think it is, as Mr Darby says, 'called by that secret name', not the name that is given to Pergamos but a name that is directly known in one's link with God.

E.W. There is an experience: "she became his wife"; that comes in in Ruth and it comes in here. I was thinking of what we had yesterday as to becoming a man; there is a link: "she became".

E.C.B. Yes I think so; the word 'became' conveys to our minds some sense of gradualness and progress. It is not immediate although it could have an immediate bearing, but I think that the widowhood is transcended in that process of becoming and a new relationship is established now. If you go back to Ruth 2 it is, 'I've found a Friend, O such a Friend' (hymn 187); it is more than what you get in the gospel, she had a relation or a friend. That is what is to be found in the widowed circumstances that the Lord is pressing on us.

E.C.M. Would you connect that at all with the Song of Songs? In the early part of the Song "my beloved is mine". but later it is "I am my beloved's". Would that answer to "she became his wife"?

E.C.B. I think that. So 'And thus He bound me to Him' is something to be touched. There is more in that than just attachment to Christ in the gospel.

E.C.M. To us it is "my beloved is mine". We experience that in our link with Boaz the mighty man of wealth; but then the change is that "I am my beloved's", conscious of the link in union.

E.C.B. Yes, that expression in that hymn, 'And thus He bound me to Him', puts us in mind of the word in the prophet as to the bands of a man (see Hos 11: 4). Now that is what is needed in widowhood, the bands of a man.

E.C.M. And the cords of love.

E.C.B. And that is what the Lord supplies and He is wealthy in the supplying of it.

S.D.K.R. "And David comforted Bathsheba his wife". It is the same word as the Comforter, not only the Spirit here but the Lord where He is as managing our affairs. Is that the sense that the Lord will come in in relation to widowhood in care?

E.C.B. I am sure it is. You will remember that Acts 9 (which is a chapter against the background of persecution of the assemblies) says that the assemblies were "increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit" (v 31), that is the operation of the Spirit as Comforter sustaining them and supplying what they needed in the persecution that they had been suffering at the hands of Saul of Tarsus.

J.M. Is there a substantiality in David that helps us through these exercises? As we remarked, in Ruth you have the friend, but David is to go through the thing alone here; he goes through it on his own with God. What is substantial in the saints can go through such exercises severe as they may be. What seems to hold David is perhaps typically purpose, and he sees the thing right through, he does not break up in the midst of it.

E.C.B. No, I think that is important and significant for us that it is substantiality in divine formation in us that takes us through these sorrows to bring out this quality of fruit.

J.M. No doubt you have in mind the extension of Solomon into the Kings and the great system of things for God that is established under him linking on with the Ephesian line that you spoke of earlier.

E.C.B. Yes, what Solomon has in view is what is exceedingly magnificent above everything else, but Solomon's mother was a widow, at least she had been through that experience.

J.M. We have been noticing locally in reading Kings that, whereas in the tabernacle system everything speaks of smallness, in Solomon 's temple there is nothing small at all.

E.C.B. Except the ark.

J.M. Except the ark, it is there unchanged, but the whole system is one of largeness and beauty and awe.

E.C.B. Yes. I think that we should keep in view what the Lord intends to be produced out of the experiences through which He is taking us all. There are so few of us now that we are all able to enter into the feelings that arise that might otherwise have been confined to a family, we can all enter into it; but w hat is the Lord going to have out of that? I think that He intends to have something that is distinctive.

 

CROYDON

8 December 1974

 

 

Key to initials

D.A.B. D.A.Burr London; E.C.B. E.C.Burr London; T.J.B. T.J.Burr London;
E.C.M. E.C.Muggleton Croydon; J.M. J.Mitchell Bromley; S.D.K.R. Dr.S.D.K.Roberts Croydon; J.T-n. J.Thomson Croydon; E.W. E.Woodford Dorking