SUSTAINED TO THE END
Genesis 24:61-67; 45:25-28; Numbers 21:16-20;
The reading that we have just had has occupied us with resurrection, and particularly the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That is how the day in which we are began. A great light, the dawn of a new day, one blessed Man out of death risen superior to every other power. For this occasion, the impression I have is to ask, What is the power that is going to carry us to the end of this day in which we are? What will carry us through to the end? There is a word in Ecclesiastes, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning”, Eccles.7:8. You might say, What can be better than Christ out of death?. Christ out of death gives character to the end; He gives character to everything. Of course, what we find at the end is that the saints are also out of death and they are like Him. God has secured more, more for Himself. So the end of a thing is better than its beginning.
Now in man’s world it is generally the other way around. And indeed, when things are committed to men, there is always decline. You can see it in the history of man, can you not? God put him into the most advantageous circumstances and he sinned and he declined. As the history of the world proceeded, it became more and more corrupt until God had to intervene and cleanse the whole earth. And then He took out a man, a man who was marked by faith; God said, “walk before my face, and be perfect”,Gen.17:1. Abram was an extraordinary man, but we find in the history that fills the rest of the Old Testament that his seed declined and declined and declined, until eventually most of them could not be discerned among the nations. The two tribes that were left were in captivity; it was decline. That is the way of man in responsibility, when he has no resource outside of himself. Israel had a resource but they did not rely upon it. We have a great Resource, beloved. We have a wonderful Resource, One who will go through to the end. We sang in our hymn to the Holy Spirit -
‘As, rising, changed, and still with Thee,
We reach our home’ (Hymn 182).
He will be with us forever. In the words of Jesus, “I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever”, John 14:16. It is a wonderful thing to know that we have a resource in Him, a divine Person. Think of a divine Person associating Himself with us. He can do that because there is what is perfect in every believer, there is the work of God. The Holy Spirit is associated with that. We tend to think of ourselves purely as what we are by nature, but the Holy Spirit has begun a work in the heart of every believer. The seed has been sown. The seed was sown in the heart of Nicodemus (John 3), although it does not appear to have developed much at the beginning of John’s gospel. No doubt it developed later, because “he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Phil.1:6. He will complete it! Oh, what a comfort that is, that wherever a work has begun, it will be completed. It is a precious thing.
Well, the Holy Spirit has begun a work in every believer, and as we receive the gospel and we receive the Lord Jesus in our hearts, that work takes tangible form. Yes, it begins to develop in the believer. The apostle speaks of new creation; we mentioned it in the reading. There is that in every believer which is the work of the Holy Spirit and can be identified as new creation. So what is our pathway leading onto eternally? It is leading onto a world of new creation. We have a hymn:
‘The new creation’s stainless joy
Gleams through the present gloom;’ (Hymn 81).
You think of new creation. It is what God will secure, which is infinitely greater than this creation. God will secure it and it is the work of the Holy Spirit that forms what speaks of Christ in our hearts. That shows the greatness of the One whom we have.
Now in the first passage I read, we have this remarkable expression as to Isaac, “he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming”. The camels in Genesis 24 are one figure of the Holy Spirit. We have others. The servant, of course, speaks of the Holy Spirit personally – what He is, you might say, as having taken charge. He has taken charge of this dispensation. Two thousand years have passed under the hand of the Holy Spirit. He has taken control of this dispensation. That is His charge and the charge is to bring an answer to the heart of Christ, a final answer in His assembly to His affections. That is one of the types of the Holy Spirit. Another type is the well, which is the source of refreshment. But we also have here the camels, and they are another figure, suggesting the Holy Spirit as the power for movement down here. Now we have no power to move towards God apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
I have spoken about the new creation and the Spirit’s work in the soul of the believer. That is what energises a believer to move towards God. As natural persons, we would have no interest in approaching God, would we? In fact, we would rather do the opposite if it was not for the fact that we have come into the wonderful light of what the Lord Jesus has done in the glad tidings and received the blessing of that work. If it was not for that, we would not want to approach God at all. But the Holy Spirit is the power for movement, movement to Christ where He is, movement into the presence of God. It says Isaac had gone out and he “lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming.” It does not say he lifted up his eyes and saw Rebecca. This speaks to us of the Lord, seeing a movement towards Himself in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Ah, beloved, how are we moving forward? How are we going forward day by day? How do we progress? Is it in the power of the Holy Spirit? That is what the Lord is looking for. Isaac lifted up his eyes and behold camels were coming. Isaac may have seen many people passing by. He may have seen people going about their business, but he lifted up his eyes and there was something special. There was, in type, a movement in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it was towards himself. What a thing it was for his heart! What anticipation he would have had. He had gone out to meditate in the fields; it was a time of quietness for him, and he lifted up his eyes and there was the answer. There was a movement towards himself; the camels were coming.
What it means to the heart of Christ when He sees any one of His own relying entirely upon the power of the Holy Spirit and seeking greater communion with Himself, to be with Himself, to be entirely in the Holy Spirit’s power. If I rely upon my own mind or imagination or power, I could come up with all sorts of things that would be totally unsuitable to the presence of Christ. But as I rely upon the Holy Spirit, He would form that which would answer to the heart of Christ Himself, and Isaac, in the type, recognised this immediately. Whatever else had gone on that day, whoever else he had seen, was of no account at all; he saw that the camels were coming. There was one who in type was being brought to him by the Holy Spirit’s service.
What a wonderful resource the Holy Spirit is to bring us to Christ. Beloved, may we depend upon Him. If the Lord should leave us here for another day, we are hoping to be in His presence tomorrow. We can be in His presence before tomorrow, but we are hoping to know His presence tomorrow in a special way, are we not? Will there be something there which has been formed by the Holy Spirit, which has been drawn to Christ, suited to Him as part of the Holy Spirit’s work? I am sure there will.
Now in chapter 45, we do not have Isaac, we do not have a figure of Christ awaiting His glorious bride. No; we have here an old saint, one who is down in his soul. He is not what he used to be. Jacob is a wonderful saint actually. You see the way in which he had gone and at the end he had to say, It is God who has brought me through. But Jacob here had experienced terrible discipline in his family, troubles that you could scarcely imagine. He had lost Rachel and he had lost Joseph, and then he had lost Simeon; they were his family. Earlier in the book the poor man said, “All these things are against me”, Gen.42:36. His sons said, We have no resources, we must go to Egypt to get corn, and Jacob agreed, but added, “And I, if I be bereaved of children, am bereaved”, Gen.43:14. Poor Jacob! I do not want to sound critical of Jacob, because we know our own hearts, but Jacob had Jacob before him. But the time came when in type, he had another Man before him. His sons came to him and they said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt”. He did not believe them until he saw that there was supply sent from Joseph in Egypt. You think of Joseph in Egypt, speaking of Christ exalted in the present day. Christ had been rejected by His own – “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John.1:11) – but He is now exalted among the nations. That is what He is in the hearts of those who form the assembly – Christ is exalted in the affections of His own.
Jacob had to make a journey. In a sense he had to move from one sphere to another, as we do. Christ is exalted in glory. We were speaking about Him where He is at the right hand of God. That is the present time and that is what Joseph represents as governor over all the land of Egypt. He was the head of the system there, the source of supply for all who came to him. We sing of the Lord Jesus:
‘Great source of wisdom, power and food’ (Hymn 199).
That is what we see in Joseph, do we not? Pharaoh said, Is there anyone so wise as this? (Gen.41:39) and Joseph was given official greatness. The source of power was there; he could move people about, he could organise things and he was the source of food – that was what Joseph was, a great source of wisdom, power and food. That is a description of the Head, and that is the position that Joseph had in figure. The supply was sent; Jacob saw the waggons, he saw the provision that Joseph had made. How do we find that? That is the Holy Spirit’s service again; He brings to us what is of Christ in order that we should find our place with Him above. The Lord Jesus said, “He shall glorify me”, John 16:14. Joseph is yet alive! “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”. You see, they had the waggons; they came from Joseph. There is provision for the weakest saint, whoever you are. Whether young or old, provision is available for you to come and find your place in the sphere where Christ is over all and the supply is to be found.
Oh what riches of supply there are! You might say ‘Are you making a lot of a few saints who gather together?’. No, I am not. Although a few Christians gathering together do not exactly have the supply in themselves – although they do have much in themselves – the supply is drawn from heaven and it is available wherever we are. The supply is still available. Ah, beloved, we have experienced much reduction, but there is no reduction in the supply; it is still available from heaven. No wonder Jacob’s spirit revived; he was going to live another seventeen years in Egypt after this. He only had death before him before this point, but as soon as he saw the waggons, his spirit revived. He had another seventeen years of life, seventeen years with Joseph in glory. Jacob had had seventeen years with Joseph in humiliation before he was taken away from him, and now he had seventeen years with Joseph in glory. Ah, those last seventeen years were the best years of Jacob’s life, and he says at the end that it was all down to God, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day”, Gen.48:15.
In Numbers we have the children of Israel going through the wilderness and we know what they were like. Forty years under God’s governmental hand, forty years in which they were tested, forty years in which it was proved that the flesh profits nothing, forty years in which it was proved that all supply comes from God. They reached this point when they came to the well – another figure of the Holy Spirit springing up in life. It says, “that is the well of which Jehovah spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water”. And then they sang this song, “Rise up, well! sing unto it”. How glad we were to do that at the beginning of this meeting. “Well … which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. They drank of that living water; it would give them life, but life to do what? Immediately to move on. As soon as they drank of that well, it says they went – from the wilderness they went from one place to another. You might say there was no stopping them then!
A couple of chapters later on we find a man who was not a believer at all; he was a wicked man. Nevertheless, God put in his mouth words that he had to speak. Balaam saw the children of Israel and he said, ‘they cannot be stopped’. God had brought them out of Egypt, and Balaam said of Israel, “he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo”, Num.23:22. Israel would consume the nations, his enemies. Balaam could see what was going to happen to Israel. What a terrible state Balaam was in; he could see that and he was unaffected morally by it. A terrible, terrible position for a man, but he could see that there was power in Israel: “he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo”. You think of that; I suppose that might be a figure of the greatest power. Psalm 22 speaks of the buffaloes; it says “from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me” (v.21). That is the very point of death. In Psalm 22 we get many beasts – “Dogs have encompassed me” (v.16) and others, but when the psalmist speaks about death itself, he says “from the horns of the buffaloes”. Death is the greatest power known to man; the greatest power is the power of death. But we have been speaking of a greater power in the reading, the great power of resurrection and there we have it. “He hath as it were the strength of a buffalo”.
There was no greater power which Balaam could think of to compare with Israel than the strength of a buffalo. But the life-giving Spirit gives the believer a greater power, power to move forward, power to go in to claim that heavenly inheritance, that portion which is ours – association with Christ in the assembly. That is the land, that is the inheritance, and there is power to enter into it and it is found in this well. Now Israel has the brazen serpent and the springing well. Until then they had been under divine direction but they had had no outlook but the wilderness. But now they see that God has finished with one order of man and the Spirit is rising up, although this is in type. Where the Spirit is springing up, there is power to move forward and they do not stop now. There is no more hesitation, they go on and what you find in this section is one reference after another to the brooks and the rivers and the streams, one thing after another moving forward in the power of the Spirit in principle, and this is to claim what truly belonged to them, their inheritance. We have our heavenly inheritance and it is the desire of divine Persons that we should claim it. It is available, it is available through the One who would spring up and give life and power.
Now I read at the end of the Old Testament because it is so much like our own day. “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?” Some of us can remember meetings where brethren could be counted in their hundreds. “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”. It is not as nothing, beloved. It is what is most precious to God that goes through. The enemy can do what he will, but what is most precious to God will go through. Haggai says “be strong, all ye people of the land, … and work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts. The word that I convenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit, remain among you: fear ye not”. We may be fearful as to how things may develop, if the Lord should leave us here a little longer; that would be natural. The word is “The word that I convenanted with you … and my Spirit, remain among you”. We have the word of God, the living and abiding word of God. That word comes to His own; we experience it regularly. We come together, and hear what is being said and it affect our hearts and our consciences. If something affects my heart and my conscience, it is evidence that it is the word of God to me. That will continue to the end. “The word … remain among you”. Of course the word that God covenanted literally with Israel would refer to what was laid down with Israel in the wilderness, but the principle goes through, the word of God. We have what has been established, we have it here in the Scriptures. We have what has been expounded to us too, light which has come down, which is very, very precious and which we should value, and value very much. It remains, and what was true when God gave a word is just as true today as it was the day He gave it. “The word … and my Spirit, remain among you”. The Holy Spirit still remains:
‘As rising, changed and still with Thee’.
We will be with Him for ever and He remains among us. “The word … and my Spirit, remain among you: fear ye not”.
And then the word goes on to refer to things that will take place. Many of these things are yet to take place. God says, “I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea”. All the things that people have regarded as stable, the dry land where you walk – yes, all these things could be shaken. The whole world is going to be shaken, beloved, and you can see it. It is being shaken now, is it not? “I will shake all nations”. Well, the nations are being shaken. It does not do to feed on these things, but you can see what is going on in the world. Things are being shaken in the world around. Well, are they being shaken in our hearts? No! “The word … and my Spirit, remain among you: fear ye not”. God says, I will shake these things and “I will fill this house with glory”.
And then He says, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine”. You see what God has secured. Silver – every saint who has been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. The silver was the redemption money of the children of Israel; half a shekel of silver had to be paid. Every redeemed saint, Jehovah says, is mine; “The silver is mine”. And then He says, “the gold is mine”. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within, that divine work, the work of God in the soul. God says, ‘it is mine’. Satan is not going to have it, I am not going to lose it; God says, ‘it is mine’. It will go through. The nations can be shaken but the silver is mine and the gold is mine. That is what is precious to Him. And He says, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”.
Oh, you think of what will yet be displayed, beloved. How great it will be! No wonder the Lord Jesus will be “wondered at in all that have believed”, 2 Thess.1:10. You think of the glory of what God is yet to display – greater than anything that has gone before. And He says, “and in this place will I give peace”. How is He going to give peace? There is the One who will be the Prince of Peace, the One with whom we are associated. He says just before that, “the desire of all nations shall come”. You know, the Desire of all Nations came once and they did not recognise Him and they cast Him out. That is why there has been no peace in the world, because they have rejected Him. Then “the desire of all nations shall come”; He will come again and He will surely be accepted and honoured by all, and in this place there will be peace. It is wonderful to think of it! Believers can anticipate that in their souls. There is absolutely no reason why, in the heart of the believer, there should not be a little world to come; “and in this place will I give peace”.
Well, we go on in dependence and I think that is what we see in Malachi. “Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another”. It may be that that is the character of our day. There are many places where the full assembly calendar cannot be held, many places where brethren are isolated and far from one another. Maybe this is becoming the character of the day. “They that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another”. It is a very precious thing to go to a brother’s house and have a reading of the Scriptures. I have found it a very blessed thing just to sit down and have a reading of the Scriptures. You get a special touch from speaking one to another, and “Jehovah observed it”. What does it mean to Him? “Jehovah observed it … and a book of remembrance was written”. Would you like your name to be recorded in heaven? It is recorded, of course, if you are a believer, but would you like this to be recorded about you, that you feared the Lord and spoke with His people? The Lord observes it. He keeps a book of remembrance, one of heaven’s books. Heaven’s library is very interesting, it is well worth studying; “a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and thought upon his name. And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, saith Jehovah of hosts”.
If we are seeking to be faithful to the Lord to the end, in a sense it does not matter how we feel about what we can do, it does not matter how other people feel about what we can do. What matters is what the Lord sees. What does He think? What does He think of what I seek to do? Am I seeking to please Him? Does He come first? There is a poem in the house where we are staying and it is titled, ‘God First’. Do we think of divine Persons first, because that is the way in which we will be preserved to the end – those who fear Jehovah and serve Him.
Well beloved, it is a simple thought. I trust the Lord may bless the word to us, for His name’s sake.
Cullen
9 November 2019
Andrew Martin