SPIRITUAL AGRICULTURE
[p. 365] SPIRITUAL AGRICULTURE
Ecclesiastes 5:9; Luke 8:15 - 18
I have been thinking, dear brethren, of substance, the substance that is acquirable, to use the figure implied in these scriptures — tillage of the ground, for it is the divine thought that we should be thus enriched. There are two senses in which believers in Christ may be regarded as rich. The first is what may be called objective riches, riches that are available, but not always availed of. The Corinthian believers were of this class; their wealth was of this class; they were enriched in Christ, in all doctrine, in knowledge, in gift, but they were very poor subjectively, that is to say, they were unintelligent and unpractical in regard to the new commandment that is spoken of in the first epistle of John. You remember that there the apostle speaks of the old commandment, that which was from the beginning, “The word” he says, “which ye heard”; that is, all that had come out in Christ. There was substance in Christ. In Him was life we are told. It was not only that He spoke of God — He did — He declared God; all that was from the beginning, but besides what was spoken, there was the substance there. The life was there. Life was subsistent there, and it shone; it was the light of men. All that is involved in what was from the beginning, the old commandment; and the apostle says, “I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which ye have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye heard” 1 John 2:7 That must not be lessened or weakened in any way. The Corinthians had it. There was the presentation of the truth to them for a period of eighteen months at least; the truth in its objective features was presented, and they [p. 366] heard. They were enriched thus; all was in Christ and perfectly secure in Christ, and available there but not availed of to any extent by them. They were defective in regard of the new commandment, and so John, to show the two sides, immediately proceeds to say in his epistle, “Again, I write a new commandment to you, which thing is true in him and in you” 1 John 2:8 That could hardly be said of the Corinthians; and the apostle John confirms that remark by saying, “because the darkness is passing and the true light already shines” 1 John 2:8 What is true in Christ is true in the saints according to the new commandment, and thus the saints are enriched not only in Christ but in themselves. Not that one would in the least occupy the saints with themselves unduly, but it is necessary at times, in order to see the truth in its completeness, to look at the saints as the work of God. And so the word was, “Which thing is true in him and in you” 1 John 2:8 Need I add that the coming in of the Holy Spirit to a Christian or to the assembly involves immense riches? It is not only what He is personally but what He is potentially in a Christian. He is everything potentially, and the more room that is given to Him the more we consciously possess wealth, for He is the earnest of the inheritance.
Well now, I want to speak of the ‘ground’ as that which is figuratively the saints viewed from the subjective side; we are, as it were, the field which the Lord has blessed. You remember how Isaac smelt his son Jacob. He smelt him and he says, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed”, Genesis 27:27. That was potential, for there was very little yet in Jacob. It took time to work out, but it was all there in principle. And so it is as we receive the Spirit of God the potentialities are immense, but they have to be worked out. Hence we get this passage in Ecclesiastes, “the earth is every way profitable”
[p. 367] The king himself lives of the field; he is dependent upon it, or as it may be rendered, “the profit of the land in all respects is a king addicted to agriculture” That is the alternative reading, meaning that if the full result is to be acquired from the field the king himself must be addicted to its cultivation. So the profit in every way, whether for the Lord Himself or for us, hinges upon His taking up the agricultural occupation, and, dear brethren, He has done so. Cain was a tiller of the ground. He was a tiller of cursed ground. Man was never cursed, I mean man as such; individuals were, and are, and shall be, but in the abstract, man was never cursed. Christ having become man, man is held now not as cursed but as blessed, as indeed is suggested after the flood: “I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man” Genesis 8:21. And so the Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as a tiller of the ground. “Man acquired me [as bondman] from my youth” Zechariah 13:5, He says. You see, dear brethren, the place He takes, and now as king He is addicted to agriculture. It is as if all depended subjectively on His attention to it, and you may be sure that there is no slackness. It is not now simply that He is a bondman acquired to till the ground, but He is the king. We have to contemplate the words of Ecclesiastes as the words of the king in Jerusalem, and if the king takes to agriculture, you may depend upon it he has the means to work the land, and no device will be ignored that would tend to bring out its best results.
Now, the confirmation of all that you will find in Genesis 1, in that the earth comes out of death figuratively. God said, “Let the dry [land] appear” (Genesis 1:9), and He named it, but in naming it, it was to bring forth, that is to say, there was potential power in it to yield all that was necessary for man — the herb bearing seed and every tree bearing fruit. All was to come up out of it, as the Lord Himself says, “The earth bears fruit of itself” Mark 4:28. There is in it power. All this is a question of the saints typically; and so on the third day, which is the day of resurrection, the earth emerges from the deep, and is named, having all its potentialities in the way of fruitfulness. But on the fourth day you have the sun, moon and stars, that is to say, a fixed order of things above, upon which the earth was intended to be dependent, for whilst there may be that in it innately for fruitfulness yet without the heat of the sun and the rain from heaven there can be no results. You see thus that Christ in heaven, the king, is in control, and so the rain comes down and the dew to the end that there should be the full result; as the apostle Paul said speaking literally, God “did not leave himself without witness, doing good and giving to you from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness” Acts 14:7 You see thus, beloved brethren, how the Lord is in control. The land is His; the earth is the Lord’s, not only on creational ground but on redemptive ground, and so the question is of evil in us, for when I come to the antitype I have that which is not in the earth, namely, will. I am conscious of that in myself. You can understand, therefore, how the king in taking to agriculture is obliged to resort to severe measures. “Prepare thy work without” we are told again, “and put thy field in order” That is the Lord, and He is never slack in those matters, for it says, “Afterwards build thy house” Proverbs 24:27. There can be no material for the house until the field is set in order for Himself, that is to say the wealth of the field and the order of it, and then the house, and not until then. It is futile to talk about the house, the order, and comfort of it and the joy of it in family relationship, unless the field is attended to; and so the Lord, as I said, has taken to agriculture. He has to resort to severe measures [p. 369] so that the earth should become fruitful, so that all that is in it may come out of it. What you find in God’s land is “store corn” meaning that which is carried over; it was not grown that year, and there was plenty of it. The land has to be fertile and the Lord sees to that, hence the discipline. Sometimes He has to allow the wild beasts to enter upon His territory — a terrible thing — but He much prefers to deal directly. I would rather have sickness and poverty in temporal things than to have the enemy devastating the land — dividing the saints. David says, “Let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great: but let me not fall into the hand of man” 1 Chronicles 21:13 If a saint die, it is the Lord; if a saint be sick, that is the Lord; if a saint be poor, that is the Lord. “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love” Revelation 3:19. And again, “For this cause many among you [are] weak and infirm and a good many are fallen asleep” 1 Corinthians 11:30. It is the Lord, for He has taken to agriculture; and He will have fruit, and if there be fruit we shall get our share of the results. The husbandman must be the first to partake of the fruit, but others also partake of it. It is right that He should have the firstfruits — the firstfruits belong to God always.
All this challenges our hearts. It may appear that the Lord is exacting, but is He? As Elijah arrived at Zarephath, the widow woman was at the gates; she was active. God had commanded her to maintain the prophet. She is evidently the first one he meets. She is at the gates of the city. True enough she is governed by thoughts of unbelief, but she is active and ready for adjustment. She was gathering two sticks. She had a little of the fruit of the land, a little meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse. She had it, but had it unintelligently and in unbelief, but she had it, and Elijah says, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel” 1 Kings 17:10.
He might have said, ‘Bring me a little water’, for that was what he needed, but the point was the vessel. If it is to be served it must be served in order suitably. She goes to get the water, and he says, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand” 1 Kings 17:11 She was a worker. Two features of the Christian in this service are that we are vessels, and we are workers. But see the test for faith! She says, “I [am] gathering two sticks ... for me and my son that we may eat it and die” 1 Kings 17:12 Such unbelief! What is the fruit of the earth for? It is to sustain man here that he should live. But then God would have His part in that, and the prophet, representing Him, demands it, and in demanding it, he causes light to come into her soul, that the barrel of meal should not run out, nor the cruse of oil fail, until God should come in, and it says that she and he and her house — not her son only, but her house — lived for the full year from the ‘little’ that she thought she had. Thus, while God demands His rights from us, His firstfruits, He shares bountifully with us. What wonderful partnership that woman proved — she, and he, and her house lived for a year on the ‘little’. It was the fruit of the ground. And so it is, that the Lord looks for that. It is a question of what we have in any locality, and what is the result of the tillage.
We see in the parable in Luke that the word is sown by the Lord Himself, “a wholly right seed” Let no one deny the principle here in the precious seed sown that the light has come to us in purity, but how easily we develop in degeneracy. As was said of old, God planted Israel a noble vine. In time she degenerated into a wild vine. What is nature in us but wild will — degeneracy? The beginning excellent, noble, the seed wholly right, but the development degenerate; these are solemn facts, beloved brethren, for every one of us. Are we not exposed [p. 371] to the danger of degeneracy in spite of the precious holy seed that has been sown? And so in this parable in Luke the Lord explains to His disciples about the good ground. Bear in mind that I am speaking about agriculture figuratively — the good ground, as the Lord says here, “an honest and good heart” Luke 8:15. Now that is not in man as he is naturally. There are thirteen evils that flow out of the heart of man naturally as recorded in the gospel of Mark. It is not therefore man naturally that is in view here, but ground divinely wrought, “hearts purified by faith” as Peter says. Only such hearts are ‘honest’, only such hearts are ‘good’. They are a divine product It is in such hearts that the Lord is operating, and so here the word is received honestly, with a purpose, and acted upon. It says, “That in the good ground these are they who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” They keep it; it is treasured. Now, dear brethren, what about all this? What about the word of God as the good seed? Has it continued developing as you received it? Has it been kept? I often think of Mary the mother of our Lord, as the typical representative of soul history as Luke gives it; what you get with her is that she kept certain things and pondered them in her heart. And what a wonderful culmination in a woman of soul history it was when she stood by the cross of Jesus when He was on it, when all the forces of evil were against Him! She stood by the cross of Jesus. What is needed is soul history, continuing as we begin, keeping the word, and bringing forth fruit with patience. Now what is interesting about Luke, about this particular instance is this: he does not give the hundred fold in the Lord’s explanation of the parable, but he gives it in the parable itself. In the parable we have the full result in the hundred. In Matthew we have an hundred, sixty, and thirty — [p. 372] reducing numbers. In Mark we have the ascending numbers, thirty, sixty and a hundred, and both are given in the parable and in the explanation of the parable, whereas Luke only gives the number in the parable, that is to say, the full result of the seed sown. In the explanation of the parable that number means patience — one of the greatest things there is. The prophets are the witnesses of God’s patience. He rose early and sent them, and He sent many of them. Marvellous witness to the patience of God! And so here the greatest result in the fruit is patience. “Let endurance have [its] perfect work” James 1:4. “Ye have heard of the endurance of Job and seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful” James 5:11. We must exercise the utmost patience in our dealings with one another, for it is in that that the fruit lies, according to Luke; I mean to say that the thing is continued, for the fruit in Luke is the answer morally to God. It is what God is in Luke, and so here the seed is “the word of God” I keep the word, and I bring forth fruit with patience. Do we not need to be reminded of this, beloved? “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord” James 5:7 That is the limit of it; it will not be needed after that, but it will be needed every moment till then. It is not that I am simply patiently waiting, He is patiently waiting too, it is the patience of Christ. “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5), and as John says, The “kingdom and patience in Jesus” Revelation 1:9. I am waiting, I should be; it is not only that I am patiently waiting, but I am patient with the brethren. I am patient in tribulation; I am patient in everything I have got to contend with; it is a question of bringing forth fruit to God. “The signs indeed of the apostle were wrought among you in all endurance” (2 Corinthians 12:12), says the apostle. And so the patient [p. 373] soul sees the end of the Lord, and what an end it is — pitiful and of tender mercy! In time even Job gets his rings from the brethren, but I may have to wait for that. If I am under discipline, God will bring about the rings; it is for the brethren to give these. God brought Job into a state where his brethren gave him rings. There was then no longer any doubt in his mind as to their love for him, nor was there any doubt in their minds that he was worthy. We have to become lovable. It is not a question of expecting love; it is a question of inducing love and to induce love I must be lovable. God made Job lovable and he was a marvellous man. God brought him to it, and when he was brought to it his brethren surrounded him and gave him rings, and money for support, for he needed it. He was impoverished spiritually, but now he has a token of affection in the rings, and he has the money to support him. Then he becomes wealthy, for he had more cattle and more sons and daughters at the end than he had at the beginning of the divine tillage. Need I say that God took that man, that land in hand and brought about these results? He alone could do it; and He is doing such work still. Let us then be patient, so that we may see the end of the Lord. Let us not deprive the Lord of His end. He is very pitiful and of tender mercy and He works to bring about His desire in every one of us, so that we may become morally lovable, as was said of the Lord Himself, “The disciples rejoiced therefore having seen the Lord” John 20:20. That should surely mark every one of us to some extent that the brethren are glad when they see us. It is the fruit of the work of God.
Thus the Lord has taken up the work of agriculture; He is working it out for a full result. He will have a full result, for, as Scripture says, the king Himself is dependent on the field. In keeping with [p. 374] all this we have here the light of the candle which is set on a candlestick so that every one who enters in sees the light. There is no more darkness or uncertainty; things are seen as they are. There is nothing hidden; the light is there. So “Take heed therefore how ye hear”; now it is a question of hearing aright, and treasuring the result you have acquired; “for whosoever has, to him shall be given; and whosoever has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken from him” Luke 8:18. That is the setting of things in this passage. May God bless His word to us.