THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
[p. 453] THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
Genesis 24:1-6; Genesis 24:61-65 (omitting last phrase); Ephesians 3: 14 - 21
I read the verses in Ephesians, not to comment on them in detail, but that we should have in mind “the power which works in us”, a phrase calculated to be found in such a scripture, for Ephesians must be regarded as the greatest of Paul’s writings, and perhaps the greatest of the apostolic writings. We have to learn (one ventures to say) to place the apostle’s writings in the first place in the holy book. They are written directly to the assembly. The gospels may be regarded as having a greater place, but from the standpoint of the divine way, Paul has the first place, and the other apostolic writers have their place following on in the order in which the New Testament has them. Those epistles written in prison should be regarded as superlative, and superlative in quality as well as in word. Paul’s imprisonment was not only because of persecution, but was a requirement, and undoubtedly the Lord meant His servant to have a sabbath, not that he should enjoy the sabbath, but that his products should be refined, and so the prison epistles of Paul have the very first place in this sense, Ephesians above all, in which he tells us he is “less than the least of all saints” (Ephesians 3: 8), the greatest moral statement one can think of, which should have a voice to anyone entering upon the service.
I have read from Ephesians 3, not to comment upon it; it is too great, in one sense, for anyone to enlarge upon; its place is unequalled, written from Rome, from prison; it is a refining epistle. So I connect it with Genesis 24, one of the most definite and complete chapters that the scriptures afford; I mean to say, of what I may call the marital chapters, for that is what it is, and it is a very long one. The personnel affords [p. 454] such a matter for holy contemplation on this point, that one can hardly complete the chapter in the time.
We have now come, dear brethren, to the final time of the assembly service down here, and the feminine side of the service has been before us for a long time. In a word it is ‘Christ and the assembly’, as Paul says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” — Ephesians 5: 32. I want to speak a few words to elevate the saints, our minds and our affections. The word I have quoted says, “according to the power which works in us”. Genesis 24 begins with Abraham, but it is calculated that he should make way for Isaac; as a type he may, and does, represent the Father, but types only go so far, and Abraham drops out in the chapter, and Isaac becomes the master of the servant, because the point is to bring out Christ and the assembly. So Abraham is old, indeed it is stressed in the patriarch, as it says, “And Abraham was old, and advanced in age; and Jehovah had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put thy hand, I pray thee, under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by Jehovah, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth, that thou take not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am dwelling; but thou shalt go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac. And the servant said to him, Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land: must I, then, bring thy son again in any case to the land from which thou hast removed? And Abraham said to him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again. Jehovah the God of the heavens, who took me out of my father’s house, and out of the land of my nativity, and who has spoken to me, and who has sworn to me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land — he will send [p. 455] his angel before thee, that thou mayest take a wife for my son thence. And if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be quit of this my oath: only, bring not my son thither again. And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore unto him concerning that matter. And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; now all the treasure of his master was under his hand” — verses 1 to 10. Thus we have the two persons in mind, Abraham and his servant; not Eliezer as in chapter 15: 2, he is not called that here, he is too great for that. He is Abraham’s servant here, and hence fits in with the greatness of the chapter. Hence we must be ready for great things. As I said the chapter deals with Christ and the assembly. Some bring in the Father and the Spirit in the Supper, but it really treats of Christ and the assembly. In speaking of the Lord’s supper, it is to bring out that Abraham leads in the chapter, and the Lord’s supper is at the end of it. We have to understand that the Lord’s supper is the Lord’s supper, and that it is a question of Christ and the assembly. And so it is the servant here; not Eliezer, but a great general position, having a person typifying the Deity, speaking with reverence. Abraham drops out, and the main theme is Christ and the assembly; and so the greatness of Abraham comes first, to give way to Isaac. The greatness of Abraham is stressed first in his age, and then in what he had, and then greatness in this servant and how he had all that Abraham had “under his hand”; he was “the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had”. Presently Rebecca comes to mind, and as the servant proceeds in his work, he wonders at Rebecca; so we have, “And it came to pass before he had ended speaking, that behold, Rebecca came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother; and she had her pitcher upon [p. 456] her shoulder. And the maiden was very fair in countenance; a virgin, and no man had known her. And she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, sip a little water out of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord! And she hasted and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink. And when she had given him enough to drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have drunk enough. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw water; and she drew for all his camels. And the man was astonished at her, remaining silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not” — verses 15 to 21. He was wondering at her, for she shines peculiarly.
But I must speak of the power that carried her, this “power which works in us”; it is the nature of it, “the surpassing greatness” of God’s power, Ephesians 1: 19, the power by which Christ was raised from among the dead. So the camels must come in; there were ten of them, and what one would say here is, the impression left spiritually is, that one wonders at the peculiar kind of wealth attributed to Abraham and his house; what is it, but the power which works in us, working out the truth of Christ and the assembly? The “power which works in us” is superior to creature power, where there is graded power, which is not equal to resurrection power. We have to see what we are brought into, and what is available to us. It is this power, the wealth of Abraham, ultimately coming down to Isaac; one is pressed to lay it before the brethren; what the service of God is that we are going on with, what we are attached to; it leads us up to heaven. That is why I read Ephesians 3; verse 14 reads, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the [p. 457] heavens and on earth is named, in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”; it is “through faith” because it is a faith system, “God’s dispensation, which is in faith”, 1 Timothy 1: 4; in Ephesians it is especially this; not what we see, but faith; so Paul says, “while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen eternal” — 2 Corinthians 4: 18; the power which works in us is in relation to that. I want the brethren to see what we are brought to; beset on all hands by what is around us, in the powers that be. God has almost reached His end, and one wonders whether we are alive to it: “Wherefore he says, Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee” — Ephesians 5: 14; and that shining is to be “unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen”. Ephesians 3: 21. I just wonder if the brethren realize it, for it is no myth; these are verities, dear brethren, and we are about to be ushered into eternity, into the presence of Christ. The Spirit has been here all this time, but He is not taking us to heaven, Christ Himself is coming, the position is so great He has made us worthy, but we have to work these things out to verities, for working out this great matter of the assembly. How terrible for anyone to drop out of it; to even contemplate such a thing! What are you dropping out of, out of anything so great as the assembly; it is so great, it is the nearest to Deity, the nearest to God and to Christ; we are entitled to be there; sons of God; He has brought us near; “Joseph said to his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near” — Genesis 45: 4; so God Himself has brought us near, and the measure [p. 458] of the nearness is as Christ is to the Father, for as He is, so are we.
To come again to my chapter; I am speaking of great things; I wish that I could speak with greater power and unction! This servant of Abraham’s, the greatest in his house; it is the Spirit in Paul; and typically, the counterpart of Christ in this chapter of divine and eternal realities. What can one say in the midst of an eternal state of things (not millennial) when flesh and blood have passed away; “we are of his flesh, and of his bones” — Ephesians 5: 30; we shall be as He is in His body of glory, not simply in His body as raised; it is not here as in Acts 1, but subsequent to that, as in Philippians 3: 21, where it speaks of His body of glory, and we shall be changed into conformity to that; it is therefore suitable that we should come into this now, “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”.
In speaking of the Holy Spirit, we are speaking of a divine Person. The three divine Persons have come into an economy; the second and the third have taken a relatively lower place than the Father. I am speaking of what is true, not merely abstractly in deity, but as having come into this place in the economy, They have come to do it. The Son is never said to have been sent from heaven as the Spirit was. It means His relative place. He is operating here, as seen in Acts 13: 2, “the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. He speaks there as a divine Person. I want our minds to be balanced; Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth; God is working in us so that we should understand; we are so glorious; we are Sons of God, and of the assembly. The servant wondered at Rebecca, “And the man was astonished at her, remaining silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not”. We ought to learn to wonder at the assembly; what a vessel she is! — “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints” — Colossians 1: 26; and we are part of her! yet we are humbled in so doing. What the assembly is in the mind of God! So you can see how this passage fits; the Spirit of God goes over the facts of the servant’s mission, of Abraham’s greatness, and Isaac’s; it is a long chapter, but well worth going over. The more one goes over it, the more one finds. So the servant says, (verse 48) “And I stooped, and bowed down before Jehovah; and I blessed Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, who has led me the right way to take my master’s brother’s daughter for his son. And now, if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; and I will turn to the right hand or to the left”. Then verse 50, “And Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceeds from Jehovah: we cannot speak to thee bad or good”; they are subdued in their minds; the matter is from God, and that is all I can say in the presence of such great things, but to bow!
Now verse 61, “And Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man”. Her brother and her mother had found a way that would have kept her here ten days, but no! the servant says (verse 56), “Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way: send me away, and I will go to my master” (that is Isaac). “And they said, Let us call the maiden and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebecca and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And they sent away Rebecca their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men”. So that all is a [p. 460] question of being sent; a question of the will of God. So Christ and the assembly is all a question of the will of God.
Well now for verse 61, “And Rebecca arose, and her maids, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. And the servant took Rebecca, and went away”; it is a question of the will of God, and of leadership and obedience too. Then verse 62, the well, “And Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi; for he was dwelling in the south country”. Now we are coming to Isaac coming down, I would say. He is a man of leisure; not even coming in to a meal, but here a man of leisure, and one thinks of Christ, sitting on His Father’s throne, not ruling over the nations, but coming from the well, a type of the Spirit; the camels speaking of the same thing, the power by which she takes the journey, and is about to finish it. It was the same well that Hagar had to do with, but here Christ is dealing with Israel’s well. Verse 63 reads, “And Isaac had gone out to meditate in the fields toward the beginning of evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming”. Why should we be told this? It is not said that it is Rebecca he sees. There is a moral point in that, for it is not heaven yet, but on the way. “I will go”, she had said, and now the camels came into view, not Rebecca. The Lord says, as it were, ‘Look, what power is carrying you, what power is bringing you into fellowship!’ Let us be challenged as to the power that holds us, these camels. Is she coming on a Presbyterian or a Church of England catechism? No, it is camels, as typical of the Spirit of God, and we each have to challenge our hearts as to the power that is carrying us. Isaac went out into the fields to meditate, “And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she sprang off the camel”. We see how Christ is being occupied with the power that we are being carried on, but Rebecca is occupied with Christ; she knew the camels, there were ten of them, the servant had marvelled that she should give them all to drink, for they would each take so much! But she is now occupied with Christ; it is perfectly beautiful, and speaks of the service of God we are about to start on the morrow; it is still going on by “the power which works in us”. “And the servant said, That is my master!” Christ is now the master; we are dealing with types, we must understand this. Christ is supreme at His supper; some may question it, but it is the truth. So the servant tells Isaac all that is in his heart. Well, dear brethren, I am speaking of “the power which works in us”, and we are having part in it, and that we are about to come to the end of the journey. May the Lord bless His word!