WORD AT A BURIAL
C. R. Byng
The Lord would give us, beloved, a very real sense of His own personal movements in relation to the home-going of our beloved sister. As we have been reminded in prayer, He has gone down into His garden. He has gathered one of the lilies; He has gathered our beloved sister to Himself. We do not think of our sister as cut off; the Messiah was cut off and had nothing (see Daniel 9: 26). We think of our beloved sister as tenderly and carefully gathered as a lily, ready to be gathered. There is a glory about each star, as we have been reminded, and there is a glory about each lily, and the Lord has valued our sister and has gathered her. It is always important to discern what the Lord is doing, and even more important to seek to discern what He has in mind in what He does.
We think of Christ, with our affections stirring towards Him, as the One of whom we can say, “My beloved”. He has gone down into His garden; this is a matter which affects us all. It has taken place in this locality, but it is intended to affect us all because the Lord would bring about body feelings in every one of these occasions when He moves in this way. Our beloved brother is peculiarly feeling the sorrow of it, but we are all feeling it with him, all the members are feeling it with him. And if we can think of our beloved sister as glorified because she has gone into a realm of glory, all the members rejoice. So body feelings would enter into this, because when it speaks of “his garden”, the Lord would be saying, ‘My assembly’.
But then it says, He has “gone down ... to the beds of spices”. I think that is one of the ways in which the Lord would touch our affections afresh. The “beds of spices” are needed for the holy anointing oil, one of the primary elements in the holy anointing oil being liquid myrrh.
The Lord’s own suffering love would affect our hearts at this time. He has not moved without care and deliberation, the Lord never does. The Lord knew the grief that would come into our hearts in this matter, but it is intended to bring about with us a fresh impression of the suffering love of the glorious Man who went into death and has come out of it triumphant.
What a victory indeed there is as we think of the Lord out of death and moving in an area which belongs to Him. “The beds of spices” would have in view the anointing of the whole glorious system so that there is more for God, more fragrance for the Father and the Lord and the Spirit out of this very matter.
So it says He has gone down “to feed in the gardens”. We sometimes put things the other way round; we look for food from the Lord. But the Spirit would have been carefully over Solomon as he wrote this, “to feed in the gardens”. Is that what the Lord is finding as He comes into the local assemblies? This is not exactly ‘my garden’, it is “the gardens”. This has in view every locality where there are persons who are seeking to move in the light of the assembly, and as the Lord comes in He looks for food. Are we giving Him that? Is there going to be more for Him from this locality as a result of this matter? Is He going to draw all of us more into this great spiritual area of things where He is moving?
None of us would want to bring the Lord back into flesh and blood; He has been in flesh and blood in perfection of humanity; but now He is in a glorious spiritual sphere. When He moves in this way I believe it is particularly to draw our hearts and lives and minds more and more into the realm where He is, where death and sin and sorrow never have entrance. As He comes into His local assemblies He looks for us to be in the gain of this glorious victory; so He looks for food. He came into one of His gardens, according to Luke 24, and there was a little trouble there at the time. But the word from the Lord soon brought in peace and His inquiry was, “Have ye anything here to eat?” (Luke 24: 41). Is the Lord going to secure more? Our beloved sister was ready to be taken, and I think the Lord would have discerned that our beloved brother was ready for this fresh spiritual test, that he might have some fresh experience of the comfort of divine Persons so that by way of even deeper experience than he has had before he might be able to comfort the brethren. Then all of us are to get some gain from the Lord’s movements in this way and to see that there is more by way of food for the Lord as he comes in. “Part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb” was what they had on that occasion in Luke 24, and the Lord looks for something fresh as He comes in. He comes in “to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies”. We are all going to be gathered very soon, as our hymn (No. 140) reminded us. Our beloved sister has been gathered now, but we are all going to be gathered very soon; the waiting time is a test as to whether we are going to provide more for the Lord as the fruit of His own movements in patient love at this present time.
And then this brings out a fresh movement in our hearts towards Christ. How we delight to say, “I am my beloved’s”. What a comfort it is to be conscious that we belong to Christ, and then we can say too, “My beloved is mind”. Then He Himself brings in the food, “He feedeth his flock among the lilies”. What a glorious area we are brought into in the assembly! The assembly belongs to Christ; it is His assembly, and from it He has the right to call one as He will and He has the right to move as He will in His own sphere. May our hearts be encouraged, beloved, to be more drawn out to Christ in the sphere which is living to Him and, under Him, living to God, so may we provide more for Him at the present time until He takes us all to be with Himself in glory for ever, for His name’s sake.
Word given at the burial of our beloved sister Mrs. T. Broughton, Richmond
30 January 1975