CHRIST WITH US IN TESTING CIRCUMSTANCES

Exodus 15:22-25; 2 Kings 2:19-22; 4:38-41

We might speak from these three scriptures about how we can bring Christ into testing and difficult circumstances. I do not take the subject up lightly; I feel the edge of it. We have three difficult circumstances described in these scriptures; they are each different but the remedy, I suggest, is Christ. Perhaps we can go over them and seek that the Spirit may bring in light in relation to them.

In Exodus 15 we have the waters of Marah, which means bitterness. I speak tenderly and feelingly about different exercises which come upon us individually, in our families and collectively. They do not come upon us without the Lord’s knowledge and indeed the Lord would lead us through them. He has one great purpose in mind and that is that we may learn Him more in the circumstances, and be more like Him and for Him. The children of Israel came to Marah. This would have its application to us; it could refer to our individual soul exercises. They had just come through the Red Sea, and that had been an amazing experience. You can hardly comprehend it, that the east wind had blown and had cleared a path through the sea and they went through. It was dry and the waters were a wall to them on each side. They could see the waters, but they had gone through and it was a way of escape. We often speak of the Red Sea in relation to the death of our Lord Jesus as His death for us. The way was all prepared, God did all the work and they went forward, an amazing number of people. The Egyptians tried to do the same, and once the children of Israel were safe on the other side, God told Moses to stretch his hand out so that the waters went back. The Egyptians were drowned in the sea and they did not come through. God delivered the children of Israel, then they came to Marah.

Marah would be where we learn what we are in ourselves. That is part of our soul history. It is not haphazard; it is the Lord desiring to help us and work for our blessing and for His glory. I was thinking that this was the children of Israel in a collective setting. They are being led. Moses is a type of Christ; he led them, and it says that “Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness”. They were in type under the Lord’s leadership. God led them that way and He had a purpose in mind; the lessons that we have to learn must be learned. We are always in the school of God. But they came to Marah and “the people murmured”. We might have great deliverance, or for a time we might have a peaceful pathway together with nothing much arising, and then difficulties occur. The question is, what do we do when these things occur? The people murmured. That is what we are like naturally; we murmur, we do not like testing, we would rather things went smoothly. They murmured. Moses is sometimes a type of Christ but here he is a type of what the believer should be. It says, “he cried to Jehovah”; that would be a key thing to do in times of difficulty. “And he cried to Jehovah; and Jehovah shewed him wood, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet”.

I would like to speak about the wood. We have spoken about what Marah represents and the bitterness there, but what does the wood speak of? The wood speaks of the Lord Jesus. Can I bring Him into this situation where the waters are bitter and there is murmuring? Can I bring in Jesus? Can I bring the Lord Jesus into these circumstances? And what character is the wood? This was not like the wood of the tabernacle, of the ark and the boards of the tabernacle, which was a strong and enduring wood which was to be overlaid with gold. This is more like the life of Christ, I venture to say, in its sacrificial character, like the wood that was burnt on the altar. It speaks of the death of Christ. Can I bring that in? The One who was crucified bore our sins. He bore the whole question of sin on the cross, raised up in ignominy and shame. Can I bring that in? Do I have an appreciation of that myself, the One who died for me and who was crucified for me?

Crucifixion is an important and evocative word; it means a lot. It was not that the Lord Jesus just passed from this scene, but crucifixion was a violent death. He was nailed to a cross. Have I an appreciation of the Lord Jesus as the One who has died for me, who was crucified? And the old man has been crucified; the man in me who would murmur and rebel against God has been crucified. Can I bring the character of the humanity of Christ into circumstances of difficulty and cause the difficulty to be dissolved and sweetness to come in? We talked in the reading about the Lord saying “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4:34. There is a sweetness that comes out in that. It was sweet to the Lord to obey. He shrank from the cross and all that it meant but He did not turn away from it, He went that way. What sweetness has come out of the death of Christ. The apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians, says “For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Cor.2:2.

Moses was able to bring in something of that character to meet the situation. Can I do that? Can I bring in Christ in that character to meet a situation that may arise in the journeys of God’s people, so that the people are stilled? They moved on from Marah; there was the ordinance and the statute, and then they moved on and came to Elim, to the twelve springs of water and the seventy palm trees. It reminds us of the way in which the Lord went out Himself and then He sent out the twelve and then He sent out the seventy. There is wonderful blessing, richest blessing as we get the benefit of these exercises, but without someone who could in type bring in Christ, these people would have been turning back to Egypt – how terrible that would have been!

In 2 Kings, we have Elisha in Jericho, and the men of the city came to Elisha and said “Behold now, the situation of the city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is barren”. It was a right concern in relation to the conditions that were there. Sometimes such situations arise; the Lord allows them and there is to be exercise on our part in relation to them. The situation of the city was good. When the people first came into the land they had to overcome Jericho. It was the first great obstacle that was there in front of them and everything in Jericho was dedicated to destruction; it was under a curse. They went round the walls for seven days. For six days, they went round once each day, and then on the seventh day they went round seven times. That adds up to thirteen times that they went round the walls and the children of Israel had to be absolutely silent for these seven days. Then the trumpets blasted and they shouted, and the walls of Jericho came down. The place was overcome, and there was a curse put on it; “Cursed be the man before Jehovah who shall rise up and build this city Jericho!”, Josh.6:26. But we live in a day of grace, and the men of the city said “the situation of the city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is barren”. What a sad situation that was. It was a right exercise that there might be something done to resolve it. We would not want such a situation to continue, with the water bad and the land barren.

Elisha says “Bring me a new cruse, and put salt in it”. What is the man of God going to do? Has he an answer to the problem? You can be sure that there is an answer. The Lord has the answer; He is the answer to everything. The man of God had an answer; “Bring me a new cruse” – that would be like a dish or a pan – “and put salt in it”. Somebody had a new cruse; it was not what was old, or to do with the old order at all. It was new. That is important. And somebody had salt and Elisha took this cruse and “he went forth to the source of the waters”; he went to the source of the problem. That requires the Lord’s direction, no doubt. What is the source of the badness and the barrenness? He “cast the salt in there”. Elisha had the answer but what does it speak of? What is the answer? I am thinking of the new cruse; it may represent what is of assembly character. Somebody in the place has an appreciation of the assembly – a vessel that is not attached to the old order at all, and does not have its traits and characteristics but is entirely new, based on the work that Christ has accomplished and secured for Himself.

What does the salt speak of? Salt speaks, as far as I can see, of three things. One is that you put it on your food to bring out the flavour. Another is that it is a preservative; it preserves things. In years gone by before they had refrigeration, meat and other things would be salted to preserve it. But salt is also a purifier and I wondered if there might be that aspect in its use here. Think of the purifying effect of the life of Christ here, a Man who was entirely for God. Again, we touched on that in the reading, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”. The whole world stands in provisional reconciliation to God because of the work of Christ. Think of what a purifying thing it is, and you can lay hold of that for yourself. That is the gospel, that you lay hold of the work of Christ for yourself. I am thinking of the purifying effect of bringing Christ in, that Man who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners”, Heb.7:26. He could say Himself “for the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14:30. There was nothing in Christ that could be contaminated or corrupted, rather the opposite; everything had a purifying effect. There were those who gathered round Him and received the benefit of that character of His. Can I be a person who has that appreciation of Christ, that purifying, ‘making holy’ character? The scripture says, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”, Heb.2:11. Can I bring that character in? This holiness is to bring in life; the waters are to be healed and “there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness”. It brings in life, it brings in goodness.

In the first scripture, the water supply was secured in sweetness, and in this scripture, the land is really secured in fruitfulness and life. Life is the answer to corruption. Even in our natural bodies, it is life that keeps corruption at bay; that is the way that God has ordered it in creation. But think of a life that is incorruptible, a Person so wonderful that He can convey to each one of us an incorruptible life. What a Person the Lord Jesus is! Do I have an appreciation of Him in this character as the Holy One who has secured everything for God? Can I bring that in? Can I identify that and bring it to bear in a situation where there might be difficulties? I draw the attention of my beloved brethren to Christ and to His work. It says “And the waters were healed to this day”. The situation of the city was good, and now the waters were good so the land would not be barren any more. It would be a fruitful land, a good place to live, a land that Jehovah has blessed. Well, that is the result of someone having an appreciation of Christ in this character and bringing in blessing.

In our final scripture, we have a famine. Elisha went to Gilgal. When the children of Israel came across the Jordan into the land, they came to Gilgal. We speak about the Jordan as our death with Christ. At the Jordan, the waters were rolled back out of sight and Israel went over on dry land. The ark was there in the midst of the Jordan, so it is our death with Him. We can see Him; we cannot come near because of the distinction and holiness of His person, ever beyond us, but what an appreciation we can have of Christ as we cross the Jordan on dry land. The river had been overflowing all its banks, and yet it was out of sight. How wonderful! And then what came next was Gilgal. The children of Israel were circumcised there; it speaks of cutting off the flesh. Our flesh has been cut off in the death of Christ; that is how drastic this matter is. Gilgal is a very important place on our journey, not a place we visit only once but a place we come back to. “And Elisha came again to Gilgal”. We always have to come back to the place where the flesh is cut off. “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt” (Josh.5:9); it was not only cutting off the flesh, but the whole reproach of Egypt rolled away.

Elisha came again to Gilgal, and there was a famine. It is a difficult time when there is a famine, with not enough to eat for various reasons. There was a famine in the land and the sons of the prophets were there, they were gathered around the man of God. No doubt they had a sense that he was a man with resource, who knew what God would desire to bring in to answer the situation. He says “Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets”. It is not a banquet, it is pottage; simple food, suitable for the time. And then one man goes out to gather herbs, which was all right; it says in Proverbs: “Better is a meal of herbs where love is, than a fatted ox and hatred therewith”, Prov.15:17. This would have been a meal of herbs where love is; the prophet would have had that influence. But this man found a wild vine and he gathered his lap full of colocynths and shred them into the pot. I understand that in large doses they are fatal because of the effect they have on the body. He shred them into the pot and he did not know what they were; he thought they looked good. I tremble to think that I might ever do that, bring something in, cast into the pot what is not Christ. It was a wild vine, and they did not know what it was. That is not food, things like that are not food for our souls, but it says “And they poured out for the men to eat”. Thankfully, they realised there was a problem. That is important. If they had continued eating, then it would have been fatal; there was “death in the pot”. But the man of God had the answer. “And they could not eat it. And he said, Then bring meal”. In type, he had an appreciation of Christ to bring in to the circumstance.

What would the meal speak of? We had a reference in the reading to the fine flour of the oblation. Perhaps there would be a link with that in the meal, what is grown in the field, but it speaks to us of Christ in His humility. It is simple food, it is the grains that grow in the field like barley and wheat, ground down so that you can use it, and the prophet says “Then bring meal”. It was a day of famine and you might think that it was a bit unreasonable, but somebody had meal. It was as if the prophet knew that; he had the confidence that somebody there would have what was required and he showed him what to do with it. “Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot”. It is our appreciation of Christ in the humility of His manhood here. Think of what He was as He moved amongst men, always doing good. “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12:24. That is the meal which we can eat, the fruit of the death of Christ and it is that kind of Person, that kind of man; the spirit of the lowly Lord Jesus. He said “for I am meek and lowly in heart”, and “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened”, Matt.11:28,29. It speaks of Himself, meek and lowly in heart. Do I have an appreciation of Christ in that character which I can bring in to circumstances of difficulty where someone has brought in what is wild? How easy it is for that to happen, but can I bring in the meal? Elisha “cast it into the pot, and said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot”. We can bring Christ in to these circumstances and then there will be no harm in the pot. The pot might speak of the fellowship that we can enjoy together; we can sit down and eat of it. Can we bring Christ in? Can I bring Christ into every circumstance of difficulty and have it resolved in that way by that blessed, holy One? That is what I long for myself. I am sure we would each long to be able to do that.

A very important point about these three scriptures is that nothing was thrown away, nothing was discarded. The waters of Marah were still there, but they had been made different; they were made sweet because Christ in type had been brought in. Jericho was still there, its waters were there, and the land was there but they had been made different. The waters were no longer bad and the land was no longer barren. The circumstances had been changed because Christ had been brought in. In the last scripture, they did not tip the pot out and start again. No, Christ was brought in and what was there was made suitable, made palatable; life had come in to the food supply. How important is an appreciation of Christ in this way!

That was the exercise which I carried for this meeting, and I pray that we may get help from it, for the Lord’s name’s sake.

Address at Aberdeen
28 May 2016

R.W. McClean