THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TESTIMONY
To link on with what our brother has been saying, I think a prominent feature of the present testimony is maintenance. That is what is said here, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. Elijah knew that he needed to be maintained and it is amazing that God had had to do with this woman. “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”, so she must have had her own relations with God and God had commanded her to maintain Elijah. I think that in our day, it is not so much the opening up of what we might call fresh truth, but the maintenance of what has been recovered which is very important. Paul was concerned about that in Acts 20 when he committed the elders to God. “I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified”, Acts 20:32. Paul was concerned that what the Lord had given through him should be maintained. We know that at Ephesus there was a falling away, because they left their fresh affection for Christ, but Paul committed them to God and to the word of His grace. Then the word to Philadelphia speaks of a time of recovery, “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Rev 3:11. That is like maintaining what the Lord has recovered, in freshness and love for Christ, feeling the need of Him; “hold fast what thou hast”.
I read this verse about how the “meal in the barrel shall not waste, neither shall the oil in the cruse fail”. These two things were what were used to maintain Elijah, who was, you might say, the vessel of the testimony at that time. So the testimony was to be maintained by the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse. The meal in the barrel would speak of the Lord Jesus, of His humanity, His manhood. It does not say fine flour. We can think of the Lord Jesus as the fine flour mingled with oil; that is the different moral features which were all perfectly blended in the Lord Jesus. But this is meal. In Numbers chapter 5, in relation to the trial of jealousy, the wife’s offering was barley-meal (Num.5:15), speaking of the Lord Jesus. We can think of Him in that way; where there might have been unfaithfulness, the Lord Jesus was marked by faithfulness. I think that gives an indication of the meal as speaking to us of the Lord Jesus. How faithful the Lord Jesus was here; in every connection, He was faithful to God, true to God. He says “I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17:4). Therefore there is a need for us to feed on the Lord Jesus, on His fidelity and faithfulness. How He was tested! How the religious element tested the Lord Jesus, dogged His steps all the time. And yet He was faithful, bringing out precious truth even in the face of opposition, holding on to what was true and right. I think that one element of the maintenance of the truth is faithfulness and fidelity, and that is learned in the Lord Jesus. As we feed on Him, as we appreciate that feature in Him, it is formed in ourselves. So “the meal in the barrel shall not waste”. There is what is inexhaustible in Christ that we can continually feed on. He is a Model for us in every way.
Then “neither shall the oil in the cruse fail”. How inexhaustible a resource there is in the Holy Spirit. The only way in which the truth can really be maintained in freshness and power is in dependence, individually and collectively, on the Holy Spirit. The truth will therefore be maintained. The Lord Jesus is the truth, as our brother was saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14:6. And the Spirit is the truth; it has often been said that He would help us to be formed in the truth in a subjective way. That is how the testimony is really maintained, by formation in us by the Spirit and then our holding things; “Keep, by the Holy Spirit … the good deposit entrusted”, 2 Tim.1:14.
I thought to draw attention to these two things, the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse. Neither of them will fail. May we prove them for ourselves, and may the Lord bless the word.
Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
4 August 2015
G.B. Grant