WISDOM IN THE PRESENCE OF APOSTASY AND THE ANTICHRISTIAN REBELLION

^[p. 60] WISDOM IN THE PRESENCE OF APOSTASY AND THE ANTICHRISTIAN REBELLION

James 3:17; 2 Samuel 14:1-5; 2 Samuel 14:14; 2 Samuel 14:21-27; 2 Samuel 20:16 - 22

On this occasion I should like to speak of wisdom and bring out how wisdom appears in the presence of apostasy and the antichristian rebellion. The epistle of James specially distinguishes between the wisdom which comes down from above and earthly wisdom. We shall see both exemplified in the second book of Samuel; but for the moment we are going to be occupied with the wisdom which comes down from above. It is this wisdom that normally characterises Christians, who are indeed children of wisdom, as the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Wisdom has been justified of all her children” Luke 7:35. And in which epoch of the history of the people of God has there been a greater need of wisdom than at present? We have come to the days of antichrist. John says, “According as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour” 1 John 2:18. An “hour” indicates a crisis; the last hour is an hour of trial; wherefore it is necessary to have wisdom from above. And James says, “If any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him” James 1:5. Now you can see how the matter stands in Scripture. There is a very special emphasis on wisdom. In Daniel it says, “The wicked shall do wickedly”, (Daniel 12:10) and that is all we can expect from them; whatever modification there might be in this world, the wicked will do wickedly; then it says, “None of the wicked shall understand” (Daniel 12:10); they are outside divine understanding, and have not wisdom. “But the wise shall understand” Daniel 12:10. “And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the ^[p. 61] expanse; and they that turn the many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever” Daniel 12:3. And when, in Revelation, it is a question of facing the antichristian problem, it says, “Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast” Revelation 13:18. You see that the Spirit of God mentions wisdom in view of the spirit of antichrist. It would be good, if we do not possess this wisdom, to ask God to give it to us: He gives liberally to all, for He desires that His own may be known as children of wisdom. I would commend to the young the book of Proverbs. It is entitled “Proverbs of Solomon, son of David” Proverbs 1:1. He is the son of the father’s love. It is a book that belongs to the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. We, Christians, have been delivered from the authority of darkness and have been brought into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. The book of Proverbs is for all those who are found in that kingdom that they may be saved from the man that speaketh froward things and from the evil woman, “from the flattery of the tongue of the strange woman” Proverbs 6:24.

I come to the second book of Samuel where antichrist is typified by Absalom. He is a murderer; he is a rebel. He was justly banished; he deserved death. But we find what corresponds to the modern wisdom of this world which is used in current preaching. The woman of Tekoah is one of those who can be used in view of others. She was employed by Joab who was himself a murderer, and while professing to serve David, he had no love for him. He was an ambitious man, only seeking to carry out his own schemes, and he made use of this woman to attain his end. No child of wisdom would lend himself to this stratagem, but he holds himself at the service of Christ. This woman’s wisdom was impure, while the wisdom of the Christian, “the wisdom from above first is pure, then peaceful, gentle, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits, unquestioning, unfeigned”. The woman was not characterised by that wisdom; she pretended to be a widow and to have two sons, one of whom had killed the other. She is like thousands who, nowadays, are employed to achieve the aim of others; and with all that, this woman preached the gospel, but whence had she received it? She had received it from Joab. I may study Scripture as a science, as theology. I may get at it through the theological schools. The words may be put into my mouth by another, and I may repeat them like a parrot; but the true preacher receives his words from Christ. This woman had the words from Joab; and they were, however, the words of truth. I refer to her own words: “For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again”. We can give thanks for such words, for God can use them; we can thank Him for the bibles that are in the churches. God makes use of His word, even when it is in the mouth of Balaam or his ass. But God desires to use children of wisdom. He desires the preacher to be in correspondence with his preaching. God revealed Christ in Paul, that he might announce Him as glad tidings among the nations.

I would like to show you how the gospel preached by this woman brings back the banished one. The end of the gospel was not to bring back Absalom as he was formerly, an assassin, typifying someone who hates the Lord Jesus. The king allows Absalom to return. This is what we have in our days; man according to flesh has a place among Christians, and so all kinds of falsehoods and blasphemies are taught at the present time. What did Absalom do two years after his return? He ^[p. 63] set the field of barley on fire. Barley represents God’s firstfruits, and Christ is God’s Firstfruits. All wisdom’s children love Christ, and give Him the pre-eminence, while Absalom set the field of barley on fire. On all hands the truth as to the Person of Christ is attacked and given up.

I wish to show you how in chapter 20 a true child of wisdom preserves God’s inheritance. We need to study these chapters in the second book of Samuel having regard to what is happening around us. The wisdom of this world is opposed to that which comes from God. You will see the wisdom of Hushai opposed to the wisdom of Ahithophel. If you study these chapters you will see how the return of the true king depended on the wisdom which comes from above. It was by the wisdom of Hushai that the counsel of Ahithophel was brought to nought; and that led to the return of David.

We are on the eve of the Lord’s return, and we are on the eve of the coming of antichrist. The children of wisdom have knowledge of these things and they see that the assembly is the vessel in which the all-various wisdom of God is displayed even now. But how can this wisdom be seen by the angels, if it is not manifested in the localities where the saints are? This wisdom is, so to speak, woven into 1 Corinthians. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Thus there is not a wise person among you!” 1 Corinthians 6:5. What a challenge for the Corinthians! He could not speak to them as to grown men; he could not speak to them of the hidden wisdom. They were only carnal babes. Is there not a wise man among you? How shall we find our way through the labyrinth of this world? A wise man in a locality may become the salvation of the whole locality. You see that the carnal state of babes is able to hinder us from obtaining the hidden wisdom which none of the wise of this world knows, the wisdom that God prepared before the world for our glory. You see, dear brethren, how important it is that we should be enlarged as to wisdom, to have part in the hidden wisdom which God prepared before the world for our glory, a wisdom which God ^[p. 64] evidently did not use in the creation of the universe. It is a wisdom which is developed in the affections of the saints. The angels and heavenly principalities see the all-various wisdom of God in the assembly. In the second book of Samuel, this wisdom defeats human wisdom. The result is seen in that David shortly after returns into his house. Wisdom prepares the place for the Lord among the saints; it is found with Solomon who built the temple and it is essential to have it in order that Christ may have a place now among us. How serious this challenge is, addressed to each company — “There is not a wise man among you!” 1 Corinthians 6:5.

I wish to show you now how wisdom protects the inheritance. A glorious inheritance is given to us to share in, and one man can spoil many things. Another rebel rose up against David. How great was the need of a wise person! The principal man was a murderer. It often happens that such a man acquires a place among us — an ambitious, unsubdued man, someone who desires the first place. He pretended to act for David. He would have the rebel and he would destroy the inheritance of Jehovah.

“And a wise woman cried out of the city, Hear, hear: say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. And he came near to her; and the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he said, I am he. And she said to him, Listen to the words of thy handmaid. And he said, I am listening. And she spoke saying, They were wont to speak in old time saying, Just inquire in Abel; and so they ended. I am peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of Jehovah?”

This discourse contains two things: the mother in Israel and the inheritance of Jehovah. Joab thought of neither the one nor the other; he was occupied ^[p. 65] with himself. It was right that Sheba the rebel should be destroyed, but then what would become of the mother in Israel and the inheritance? How many mothers in Israel are there among us? Yesterday evening we were speaking of fathers. The Lord said to His disciples, “Call not any one your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, he who is in the heavens” Matthew 23:9. It is one thing to have the name of father and another to be truly a father. We do not ourselves give to anyone the name of father, but we reverence those who are fathers, who know Him who is from the beginning, and those who exercise fatherhood. They have great value. We ought to cherish them. And as to “mothers”? Each sister may become a mother in Israel. This woman was wise; she was thus “a mother in Israel”. As we need the influence of a father, we also need a mother in Israel. She is wise and she has victories. Deborah is a typical mother, the wife of Lapidoth, whose name means ‘light’; she was related to one who had light, but that is not sufficient. She had personal exercises and she was a mother in Israel. She dwelt “under the palm-tree of Deborah” (Judges 4:5); it was not that of her husband, but it was a question of her personal triumphs; she had her own exercises before God. She is none the less a woman for that, but she has her own relations with God and she has maternal instincts; she judges Israel. There was one wise person among the people who came to her to have her judgment. Those who need wisdom will come to her to obtain it. This wise woman was truly a mother in Israel, and facing the situation she said, “They were wont to speak in old time saying, Just inquire in Abel; and so they ended”.

The true mother does not go in for novelties; she does not say, Times and principles have changed. She goes back to the old times. In other words, she goes back to apostolic days. Like a father, she knows ^[p. 66] Him who is from the beginning. She recognises the present voice of the Spirit; she holds to first principles, like the first Christians who “persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers” Acts 2:42.

It is a very beautiful thing when, we can finish a discussion among us according to divine principles. This woman accuses Joab of having been willing to destroy a mother in Israel and the inheritance of Jehovah. She was right, and Joab says, I only want Sheba the rebel. Then it says the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. A mother in Israel seeks to exercise the conscience of all the children of God. She does not want things to be adjusted only by a group of Christians, as sometimes happens. Each one has a conscience. The apostle speaks to intelligent persons, and his epistle was addressed to the assembly of God, which includes all. In everything that occurs, the conscience of each one must be considered. Her wisdom led her to all the people. And the result was that they brought the head of Sheba and threw it to Joab. It was the people of the city who did it. Things ought to be done by the assembly, which alone has administrative authority. Even in apostolic days, after a great discussion among the apostles and elders (Acts 15), they were all assembled and the decree was promulgated by the apostles and the assembly. The decree expressed the mind of heaven. That is exactly what God wishes. And the all-various wisdom of God is seen by all the heavenly intelligences.

I believe that this is enough to show how wisdom bears on our position. It is wonderful that the all various wisdom of God should be seen in us. This thought ought to encourage us to ask for wisdom which is available to all. “If any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him” James 1:5.

^[p. 67] On the one hand, we discern antichristian principles; but we have wisdom to know how to go forward. On the other hand, the all-various wisdom of God is seen collectively; there is a testimony rendered to God in each locality.

Address by J.T. at Livron, 5th May, 1926, evening.