"BY RACHEL'S SEPULCHRE"
F.C.Mutton
1 Samuel 10: 1,2 (first half); Genesis 35: 16-20
This was a divine arrangement in 1 Samuel 10 in the early history of Saul, and it is remarkable that Saul, when he went from Samuel, was to meet two men by Rachel's sepulchre. It bears in on me, dear brethren, that the Lord would meet us today and speak to us, we might say, by the sepulchre of our sister. I have no doubt that the Lord, when we are impressionable, when our hearts are softened I trust, would take advantage of such an occasion in a peculiar way, to say something to us by way of direction, using the appeal of the life of the one whom He has taken to affect us. This setting should have appealed to Saul, because he was a Benjaminite. It surely would have affected him to think of Rachel's death - a peculiarly moving incident in that family history, how that beloved woman died but in her death was fruitful. And that is our desire and expectation. Our sister's life has been fruitful, but may her death be fruitful, may our meeting today at her sepulchre be fruitful. I am sure that the Lord would desire to work with us at this time, those of us who remain, and perhaps in a special way with our beloved younger brethren. The Lord has spoken to us on this line a good deal recently, that in a succeeding generation the excellent features that we have valued in those who have gone before may be perpetuated in devotion and in power until the Lord comes.
Our brother has spoken of our sister as a believer in the Lord Jesus; we can say she was a sister of rock-like faith in her Lord and Saviour, and committed to the truth of Christ and the assembly. Oh may we perpetuate that, beloved, in our own lives! May there be fresh resolves as we stand by her sepulchre.
I just wish to draw attention to two other features that have marked our sister. One is, that she has been a helper and succourer of many. This raises the matter of our spiritual and moral influence, what it is during our lives, and what it might have produced if the Lord takes us, that there should be a generation, some abiding result, as was seen in Benjamin. What a precious typical expression of Christ there was seen in Benjamin. It was the fruit of the way Rachel went.
Another feature that marked our sister was her intelligence in the truth. If I may say so simply, she was a great reader. Some might say they are not great readers but, beloved, let us go in for the precious truth, the rich heritage which is ours. Our sister was addicted to it. I think that one of our greatest needs, especially for the rising generation, is to be addicted to reading. "Give thyself to reading", Paul says to Timothy (1 Tim 4: 13).
I just express these exercises, feeling that as we are by our sister's sepulchre the Lord would say, 'I desire that what I have secured in the one I have taken be continued in those who remain'. The Lord grant that it may be so, for His Name's sake.
COLCHESTER
15 September 1988
THE LOVE OF JESUS
Henry Hutson
John 13: 1; Revelation 3: 19 to "love", 9 from "behold, I will cause"
I was just thinking over the reference in prayer to the words of the hymn 'the thoughts of Jesus' love' (No.213). How many thoughts there are, how many references in the Scriptures to the love of Jesus. There are other references in this well-known gospel. Think of chapter 11, think of the disciple whom He loved. It came to mind particularly that His love remained unchanged when He knew that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world. One has often wondered about the order of the words "having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end". The love was there; He had loved this company, and by extension it extended to all those who were His own, as He says in chapter 17: 20: "those who believe on me through their word". Having loved them, now knowing that His time had come, He did not change His love. It reads that way, I think - "loved them to the end". As Mr Darby says in the note, it implies going through with everything. What that meant for Him we shall never really know, what it meant for Him to go through everything, everything that was involved from that point on in relation to the will of God that we might be secured, involving as He says in chapter 15: 13 that He should "lay down his life for his friends". There is no greater love than the love of Jesus.
Then these thoughts in chapter 3 of the Revelation bring to mind that there is a good deal of discipline and pressure. We were reminded last week of the way it affects both old and young. In the way it affects those who are very young, they are not exactly themselves the subjects of discipline, but the beloved parents and grandparents, and others who have particular interest and care for them, feel the pressure of the discipline upon their spirits, and we have this assurance that it is in His love, that He does it to as many as He loves. What a comfort that is! It is apparently the love of attraction. There were even those in this declining state of the church who were attractive to Jesus. How precious that is! We can look around and know that wherever there is love for Jesus it is attractive to Him, and we would desire that it might be stimulated and quickened into the expression of that of which we have sung, the longing eyes and the desire to see Him face to face. One thought, as far as we are concerned, the outshining of His glory will be the knowledge of His love. In relation to the world it will be the outshining of all that is due to Him, the expression of the power and the glory that are rightly His and the honour that is due to His name. But as we think of His outshining in relation to those who shall have their part with Him, I believe that in a peculiar way it will be the outshining of His love, and the blessed knowledge of it in which we can rest. May our hearts be encouraged with a fresh impression of the fulness and the depth of the love of Jesus, for His Name's sake.
LONDON
12 July 1988
THE CHILDREN'S WINDOWS
The youngest children will be familiar with the use of windows. They are a means of letting into our rooms the light and warmth which we need and also allow for the circulation of fresh air. They do not in themselves add to these benefits. Thus our faith is a God-given window to us for heavenly blessings to our souls, but it does not exactly add to them. The sun of divine grace and love shines brightly for everybody and is enjoyed by "whosoever" will open the window of his or her heart to receive its beams. Sometimes we may wonder if our faith is sufficient for our salvation and blessing, but if we appreciate God's grace in Christ and rejoice therein as the only thing that can meet the needs of our souls, we may be at rest.
Light can also shine out of a window! I remember reading of a man who was lost in darkness and storm. Without realising it he was in danger of a very serious fall but just at that moment a light shone out from a nearby mansion. This was bright enough to reveal to him his danger but also to save him from it. His one thought was to go to the mansion and see who it was who had been the means of his salvation. Thus, heaven's object in the shining out of the gospel is that sinners in mortal danger should not only be saved but should, in spirit, come to know God as Father in His own heavenly home. The first and last Books of the Old Testament refer to the windows of heaven being opened. Sad to say, wickedness was so great of old that judgment of the whole world must take place, and the windows of heaven were opened in a flood of waters. The few who were saved with Noah were saved through the very waters of judgment which bore up the ark in which they were as their appointed means of salvation. The work of the Lord Jesus in bearing the penalty of death is today the God-appointed means of salvation for the obedient believer. The prophet Malachi, many years later, was sent to tell God's failing but longed-for people that they should bring into His treasure-house the corn and other fruits due to Him. These really spoke of the future fruitfulness of the Lord Jesus in risen life. God would then open the windows of heaven and "pour you out a blessing till there be no place for it". He said, "prove me now". Have you done so?
J.C.Evershed