SPIRITUAL PROGRESS, INWARD AND UPWARD
[p. 423] SPIRITUAL PROGRESS, INWARD AND UPWARD
1 Samuel 22:5; 2 Samuel 1:1 - 12; 2 Samuel 2:4; 2 Samuel 5:10
I have spiritual progress in mind in linking these scriptures, believing that it is only as we are progressing spiritually that we are safe. Christianity does not contemplate our being stationary, but our being in movement, and I wish to show that movement in a spiritual sense is upward. David’s history, therefore, affords an apt type in this respect, as it does in others, of the present dispensation.
The books of Samuel afford a much more life-size picture of David than the other book does which records his history, namely, 1 Chronicles, which presents to us David in relation to the ark. In Samuel we have what is more personal and more extended, and so we have much more typical detail as to Christ personally, and also as to the believer, and I wish to show that these passages that we have read depict how the Lord, as identifying Himself with us, leads us forward, instructing us as we go, until we reach, in the apprehension of our souls and in our experience, the highest point of spiritual elevation, that is to say, the truth presented in Ephesians.
The idea of elevation is prominent throughout Scripture — the idea of great elevation. We have it in the ark of Noah, built, you will remember, in first, second, and third storeys. In connection with these storeys there were cells, as if in the divine system God would afford us, not only a great elevation, an ascent which can be taken in spiritual power, but also spheres of privacy in which to contemplate and take account of things in an undisturbed way, for God furnishes us bountifully with educational advantages. The divine system of education is much more [p. 424] lavishly endowed than any other; every part of it is suggestive, educative — at every turn you get something of the mind of God. And so as one would move about the ark of Noah, one would catch something of the living variety there is in God’s world — a world created in first, second, and third storeys. Then there are places of retreat, cells or rooms in which the believer may contemplate undisturbed, and meditate upon any of the varieties or features of that world which God has before Him. As I say, the educational system is wide and varied, so that no believer should be uneducated, but that we should be all taught of God.
In the history of David, as I hope to show, these features appear as peculiarly typical of the present time. In 1 Samuel 22 he is seen as the gathering centre; his brethren and his father’s house, and all who are in distress come to him in the cave of Adullam, which is indicative of believers in their initial history coming to Christ and finding Him, in His great moral superiority, acquiring rule over them. David became captain, it says. It was not that anyone appointed him to that position, it was a question of his moral greatness; he secured that place. It is the safety of the believer at the outset to recognise the moral supremacy of Christ; it is due to Him that He should rule over us, because of what He is morally.
What I wish to call attention to is that blessed as that experience of coming under the influence of Christ is, the mind of God is that we should progress, and so the prophet Gad is introduced. The prophet is to bring the mind of God to us unsolicited. A prophet represents God’s patience with us and he would not, therefore, have us to continue in the cave. The word of the prophet was that they should go up into “the land of Judah”. The mind of God for the believer is that whilst he has come under the rule and the influence of Christ, his foot is to be planted on [p. 425] the ground of divine sovereignty and purpose. It is obvious that God is sovereign and that He works sovereignly, and that He has a sphere to which His sovereign work refers. David, therefore, was to go up to Judah. It is the first movement, as I may say. It may be that some of you have not made this move, it may be that you are just resting in the recognition of Christ as Lord. But God has greater thoughts for you. Judah, I apprehend, represents the sovereignty of God as standing out in relation to the other tribes: “The Lord ... chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved” Psalm 78:68. I hope to come to this presently. He has a spot which He loved, and He would have you there. Zion is not mentioned here, it is Judah, but Zion is included in Judah. I only just touch on these features.
I go on to Ziklag. I desire to convey to you that in the progress we make spiritually, the Spirit of Christ, the spirit of the kingdom lays hold of us, and Ziklag is the spot where the spirit of the kingdom is developed. We must get the spirit of things, beloved brethren. What you find in Romans is that the spirit of things is developed, so that we have there newness of spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of adoption; Romans 7:6; Romans 8:9; Romans 8:15. David, we read, came to Ziklag. Ziklag is recovered territory; it is territory which had been lost and was regained. I hope to show that the territory which God has in His mind for us is not quite that, but it is very educational to abide in territory that has been recovered, for recovered territory involves prowess, it involves conflict, it involves tears. How many of us understand what it is to weep in connection with the things of God? Ziklag is a place of tears, the place where you begin to become serious about things. You cease to be light-hearted in attending a meeting, or in reading the Scriptures, you become sober, and solemn, and tearful. Such is the education of Ziklag! Everything [p. 426] that belonged to David — his men, their wives and children — all had been carried away. It was the greatest disaster, and they wept, it says, until they had no more power to weep. I should like to see someone weep like that. Possibly you have never seen a person weep until they had no more power to weep. It is not merely tears coming to the eyes, it involves the whole power of the man, and David was that man; we read he excelled Jonathan in weeping (1 Samuel 20:41); and now at Ziklag he weeps until there is no more power to weep. He faces, in type, the bitterness of Gethsemane and the cross — what it cost our Lord Jesus Christ to become Man in order to restore that which He took not away, to bring back to God that which had been captured by the enemy. And He did it; prowess was there. It is at Ziklag that the spirit of the kingdom is developed in us, and that is what I want to speak of. We become then real men in our fibre, in our character; we are no longer babes or mere spectators in the things of God, we become part of the thing. So you find in the previous part that David recovered all. There were, however, certain wicked men in his army; alas! that it should be so. He does not himself call them wicked men, but the Holy Spirit does: “wicked men and men of Belial” 1 Samuel 30:22. These men say that the two hundred men who were not able to go over the brook, must be satisfied with their wives and children; we shall not give them aught of the spoil. But the Holy Spirit speaks of these men as “wicked men and men of Belial” (1 Samuel 30:22); they were devoid of the spirit of David, devoid of the spirit that characterises the kingdom of God. But David answered, “Ye shall not do so, my brethren ... as his share is that goes down to the battle, so shall his part be that abides by the baggage: they shall share alike” 1 Samuel 30:23,24. Such is the spirit of David! He addresses them peaceably and graciously. It is the spirit of surrender, the surrender of any sense of [p. 427] natural rights — one of the most important lessons to learn in the school of God. David becomes a legislator at that point, for this is not a matter of mere words, for “And it was so from that day forward; and he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel” (1 Samuel 30:25); it must stand in the kingdom of David. I would commend that statute to every one here, particularly to young people — the spirit of yieldingness, the spirit of non-insistence of your rights, the spirit of grace and consideration for others.
In the second book of Samuel it says, after all these things “David abode two days in Ziklag” (2 Samuel 1:1). 2 Samuel 1 is to bring out how this great law that David had set up shone out resplendently in David himself; he himself was already what he had set up as a law. I commend this chapter to you; many of us have read it and perhaps misunderstood it. On the third day there comes to David a man out of the camp of Saul with news of the death of Saul and Jonathan. The bearer of it is a man of no spirituality whatever; he thought forsooth to bring good tidings to David, but David was too advanced in the law of the kingdom to which he was to give character, to admit of any such thing as that the death of one anointed of the Lord should be a matter of good news. We must never take pleasure in the calamity of those who have been anointed. God knows about them and deals with them, if they have turned out of the way, but as possessing the spirit of the kingdom we shall never rejoice over their calamity. So David wept for Saul and for Jonathan. We have not time to dwell upon all the happenings at Ziklag, but one would earnestly desire that all, the young ones particularly, should study it for themselves and become imbued with the Spirit of Christ; in other words, that you might learn the epistle to the Romans, which goes a long way on the line, not exactly of elevation, but of moral adjustment. The [p. 428] effect of that is that you are morally right about every possible question that may come before you. You are never at a loss, for you know how to deal with every several matter that is brought to your attention; you are never less than one of the sons of the kingdom; you are like God who causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45), and you are not overcome by evil, but you overcome evil with good; Romans 12:21. It is for every one of us to learn how to triumph over evil. I would commend to you these days at Ziklag, and what happened as the result of the exercises, in the complete vindication and exemplification of the statute that David legislated in Israel.
Now I come to the next passage. It is in chapter 2 that we begin to ascend. One has often remarked that we do not begin to ascend until we are adjusted. I am speaking now on moral lines. The sovereignty of God has reference to what Gad said (1 Samuel 22:5), and that is special, it is the mind of God; but in 2 Samuel 2, after these things, after complete adjustment, David inquires, “Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah?” Have you ever had a thought like that — shall I go up? Do you ever pray like that? We pray for many things, but do you ever pray like that? We talk about the rapture, and rightly, for we are looking forward to it; we shall be caught up; but that is not in view here. Did you ever ask the Lord to help you into Colossians? You see that is the thing. You are to advance upward. Colossians is marked by prayer. If you look at it, you will find the word ‘combat’ in regard of prayer. In Ephesians we have the “knees” (Ephesians 3:14) but in Colossians it is “combat” Colossians 2:1. The apostle would have them know what great combat he had for them and for those at Laodicea and for as many as had not seen his face in the flesh (what a number he had in his mind) “that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together [p. 429] in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God” Colossians 2:2. It is marked by prayer, and so David here asks the Lord as to whether he should go up to one of the cities of Judah, and the Lord says, “Go up”. How God delights in that desire!
Adjusted here, Ziklag for the moment left behind, you want to progress into one of the cities of Judah. It is not now merely Judah — the forest of Hareth (1 Samuel 22:5) — it is one of the cities of Judah. Then David wishes to know which city. God will direct you, He will never fail you even as to detail. He says, as it were, ‘I have a world and I want the believer to come into it’. There are things you never thought of or saw, things that never entered into the heart of man, nor is the heart of man capable of receiving them — “that hidden wisdom, which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7. There you have moral elevation; God says, I will bring you into my world. Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt (see Numbers 13:22), that is to say, it is before the world. It is wonderful that God should direct your soul there, where, so to speak, you see the hill-tops of eternity. It is not final, but it is on the way to finality, it is the highroad to it. You will remember that the numbering began there in regard of those who came to David. In 1 Chronicles 12 we have the gathering of the people to David first at Ziklag; then they gathered to him to the hold in the wilderness and finally they gathered to him at Hebron. At the first two places we have no numbering. It is of no use to count unless we arrive at Hebron; until then we are on doubtful ground. There is the possibility of falling in the wilderness until we arrive at the purpose of God, until we arrive in our souls at the knowledge of God who raises the dead, to the knowledge that we are raised indeed with Christ on the principle of faith, raised by the power of God.
[p. 430] It is not until you reach that point that you are counted, that you are taken account of for heaven, that you are reliable and no longer “drawers back to perdition”, but reckonable as of “faith to saving the soul” Hebrews 10:39. Earlier — that is to Ziklag and the stronghold — certain ones came to David of this and that tribe who were distinguishable by their names, but the number of the persons is not given; it was a question of the names only — individuals of prowess standing out like mountain peaks; but when we reach Hebron we have the numbering — a vast number, thousands of Israel came to David to Hebron to make him king. They said, so to speak, ‘We have done with Saul for ever’; they came “to transfer the kingdom of Saul to him” 1 Chronicles 12:23. There is the utter refusal henceforth of the man after the flesh; he is abandoned for ever: everything centres in Christ, the Christ of God, at Hebron. Christ is everything and in all. There are only two men who stand out at Hebron whose names are given — Jehoiada, the prince of the Aaronites, and Zadok, a young man mighty of valour. In the one we have spiritual wealth and priesthood, and in the other we have youthfulness, energy of life, and these are the features that mark the Colossians. “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above” Colossians 3:1. The world is left behind. Your eye is fixed on Christ: and “when the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory” Colossians 3:4. In accord with the answer Jehovah gave David, he went up with his wives and his men and their families and dwelt in the cities of Hebron. That is to be noted.
In closing I go on to chapter 5. I should like to have had a little longer time, because it is a wonderful chapter. We have no prayer in it. David knew God’s way; it is no longer a question of guidance. The full purpose of God is in his mind; as I was [p. 431] saying, he sees the hill-tops of eternity, speaking figuratively, and he goes up to Jerusalem (verse 6). Jerusalem answers to Ephesians. You remember that when he slew Goliath he took his head to Jerusalem — a fact a little difficult to explain historically, but perfectly simple spiritually and typically as regards Christ, for “Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men” Ephesians 4:8. He has gone far above all the heavens. Spiritual altitude is emphasised in Ephesians; we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. He is supreme. He has gone far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. That is what Jerusalem is the type of. David goes there, but before going there Hebron had become the gathering centre, not only for Judah, but for all Israel. Colossians is entering the sphere of divine territory and all the saints must go that way; there is no other way from the standpoint of experience; you pass that way — through death into the light of a divine world, to the place where Christ has gone. He says, I want you to go to where the blessings are. You may say, I would like the blessings here; but the Lord would say, You have to go there, they are all there. Many of us are merely millennialists, but every spiritual blessing with which we are blessed is in the heavenlies; we have every incentive to go there — Christ is there, God is there, and our blessings are there. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,)”. “With” there refers to the saints. We do not go up severally. We often say that such and such a one has gone to heaven. They have gone to be “with Christ” Philippians 1:23. Going to heaven is collective in Scripture. We are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ.
David was seven years and six months in Hebron.
[p. 432] It was a time of learning for all who were there. They all recognise him and they make him king. Saul is abandoned, David is anointed; he then goes to Jerusalem. No one who clings to Saul can go there, but David goes to Jerusalem, and it says “the inhabitants of the land” (2 Samuel 5:6) were there. There is nothing said about that at Hebron. The operations of the devil are specially in relation to Jerusalem. “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities ... against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies” Ephesians 6:12. The Jebusites are the inhabitants of the land, they are characteristically of the land, they occupy the citadel; they represent spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. These have to be dislodged. We have to overcome, our conflict is with them, hence we have to put on the whole panoply of God, not part of it, if we are to make headway. It is true we shall come into possession at the rapture, but this passage is not the rapture, but, in type, it is believers entering in now. So it says, “David took the stronghold of Zion” (2 Samuel 5:7), that is to say, the site of the sovereign mercy of God. It is a marvellous thought! “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us” (Ephesians 2:4); David says, I will take that, and he took it and it became “the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:7) — “the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David” 2 Samuel 5:7. What is that for us? It is the heavenlies in Christ; Christ is supreme there. The reference is spiritual, it is that which is wholly Christ’s, where every purpose of God is fulfilled. Presently He will operate outwardly; at the present time all is inward. It is a question of getting in and up; that is the line of progress at the present time. There is a definite line of progress in which we are to move, if we are to be according to God, and if we are to reach the sphere of His purpose in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.