THOSE WHO ARE LEFT
D.E.Burr
Leviticus 10: 12-17; Ruth 1: 1-5; 2 Samuel 9: 1-4; 1 Kings 19: 12-18
The link between these passages, beloved brethren, is that they speak of persons who are left, and I would just like to draw some instruction and encouragement in relation to that because in a certain sense we are all here as persons who have been left. The tide of the testimonial history has gone on and carried away some: we can look back on a day when we were in fellowship with persons who were numbered in tens of thousands, I suppose, universally. But we are in a day now of weakness and breakdown and I think we could say that we are the ones who are left; we have been left when others have moved away, the breakdown in the testimony has carried them off. Of course it would apply too to certain of our brothers and sisters who have been left as widowers and widows and we can speak simply of them as those who are left, the spouse has been taken away in God's ordering and there are those who are left. Well, what are we going to do as we take account of that? Are we going to bemoan the state of history? Are we going to bemoan God's ordering that He has chosen to work in that way and that things are not as bright as they once were, that we have not the companions that we used to have, that we have not the local assemblies to visit that we used to have, that more responsibility falls on us because we are the ones who are left? Is that the way we look at it? Or is it rather to be that there is the responsibility to be taken up, work to be done, a stand to be taken, the service of God to continue? I think that we get help as we forget the things that are behind and press on as Paul did to the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus (see Phil 3: 14). What an outlook he had!
In Leviticus 10 there had been the strange fire which was referred to in the reading. I am thankful for brothers introducing thoughts into the reading when we are together. This strange fire was referred to and the result was that of Aaron's four sons, two became involved in this question of the strange fire and God had to come in in judgment - He removed them. In a sense that is what has happened in the testimony in our day. There has been a period in which strange fire has been offered, commandments not according to God and service not according to God, not according to the truth and teaching that has come to us. But then there were Eleazar and Ithamar the sons who were left, and I think the instruction of this passage is to indicate how the service of the offerings is to go on, that because two have died in their own sin things were not to collapse and be given up, least of all the service of God, what was for His pleasure. So "Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons that were left". You might say it is short of perfection, it is limited, but Moses is concerned that the offerings should continue and that the priestly food should be partaken of. So in this passage we have the oblation referred to "and ye shall eat it"; and the breast of the wave-offering, ye shall eat it, and the shoulder of the heave-offering, and they shall be thine.
These offerings in particular do not exactly stand related to man's need - we come on to the sinoffering in the next paragraph - but here we have the oblation, the wave-offering and the heave-offering, and I do not think any of those really stand related to man's needs, breakdown or failure, they stand related to what was for the pleasure of God and speak of the perfection of Christ as Man here. The oblation in particular would speak of Christ in His manhood in the glory of the perfection of who He was and how He went about in the expression of God, evenness, the fine flour coming into display, the Spirit of the Lord being upon Him because He had been anointed to preach glad tidings to the poor (see Luke 4: 18). That was the Lord Jesus here as Man under the eye of God; 'Divine perfection in a Man' as we sometimes sing (hymn 20). And that is to continue as food for the priest. It is not to be given up; we are not to say, Well, Nadab and Abihu have broken down and things have all gone to pieces. That is not the approach. What is expressive of Christ as Man for the Father's pleasure is to continue to be food and to be partaken of in view of the maintenance and upbuilding of a holy, spiritual constitution.
Then the wave-offering, I think, speaks in particular of the affections; it speaks about the breast of the wave-offering and I think that is suggestive of the affections of persons and the interest and concern to bring impressions of Christ and to wave them, that is to present them affectionately, before God for His satisfaction and to be reminded of the perfections of Christ; not, as I say, exactly in relation to man's need or failure but keeping in our minds the glory and beauty and affection of Christ and the presentation of it for the Father's pleasure. Then there is the shoulder, the shoulder of the heave-offering, and that I think is suggestive of a certain energy; it is lifted up. It is presented on the basis of the energy of love and committal to God because of the joy and the appreciation of Christ here as Man that would be appreciated by the Father as presented to Him; that is, that we come into line with the perfections and glories of Christ that we can energetically bring to God and be in line with His own thoughts.
Then too there is the peace-offering; how needful that that should continue! You might say, There has been conflict, there has been loss, disaster, things have broken down. But God is looking for the peaceoffering, He is looking for the maintenance of what Christ has secured through His death, having made peace by the blood of His cross (see Col 1: 20), removing the enmity. The line of division and disunity is entirely contrary to the thought of God in relation to His people and He is looking for the presentation of the peace-offering. That is one of the features of the kingdom - righteousness, peace and joy, - and these are things to be followed by those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Peace is intended to be arrived at. We say righteousness is our leader and that is true; in that scripture in 2 Timothy 2 peace is the last of the list, but it is not left to the last because it cannot be attained, or because it is one of those glorious impossibilities; we are intended to work through the list and to arrive at the end.
Then there is the sin-offering and it says that Moses "was wroth with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron that were left"; that is, that things had not been done according to commandment. They had evidently not eaten the sin-offering in the holy place. So there is this side of the maintenance of the sinoffering that it should be partaken of. The wrath of course is abated here. When we get down to the end of the chapter where it is said as to Moses "it was good in his sight" there is an answer, there is an explanation, but nevertheless the fact is that there had been some weakness and breakdown and it brings in the side of wrath. Well, these things are to be maintained although it is a broken day; although things are not in their pristine glory, yet the full scope of the commandment of God in relation to what meets His need and meets our need is to be maintained and not allowed to lapse.
I refer to the book of Ruth, and what is in mind is to draw attention to Naomi. Naomi went off with her husband and there were these sons who took Moabitish wives and then it says there was a famine and Elimelech died, and Mahlon and Chilion died also, both of them. It seems to emphasise the fact that death had come in and the male element, the responsible element, had completely broken down, it had departed. No doubt Elimelech had given this lead out into the country of Moab, but it led to the death of himself and ultimately of his sons. So that it says "the woman was left of her two children and of her husband". As we know, Naomi in this book speaks of the assembly in its position of breakdown publicly, the position that is not exactly marked by attraction, it is not grand, not glorious publicly. We are in a day of small things. You cannot find the assembly in New York or in New Jersey, we are in a day of breakdown when the responsible element in that sense has died, but there is that which is left, Naomi is left. And really that is sufficient; God sees to it that in Naomi and one of the daughters-in-law there is sufficient to carry the testimony through. So if the testimony is in breakdown, if it is in weakness, if it lacks attraction publicly, if the children perhaps feel that they would rather be found at some kind of grand cathedral or church building rather than meeting in an undistinguished meeting room, that is part of the Naomi position, a position that has little to commend it in the public eye. But, as I say, it was sufficient here for God to work with, and it is sufficient in our day for God to work with; whatever the breakdown, whatever the smallness, God has what He has reserved, He has what is left and it speaks to Him of the whole, it speaks to Him of the totality of the assembly, and I think He would encourage us to look out for the attractive features in the assembly in its Naomi character. Ruth found it; Naomi urged her to go away but Ruth said "Do not intreat me to leave thee". Is that the kind of committal that we have in our day in our places, in our local assemblies? Are we saying, "Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God"? Ruth, you see, got past the breakdown, the failure, the weakness, the lack of pretension, and she got through to the reality and attractiveness Naomi represents and she clung on to that. Of course she was to find out that Naomi had a relation, a mighty man of wealth. Well, the assembly today, your local assembly, the company that you keep has a mighty Man of wealth, a Man who has everything under His hand sufficient to meet your needs here, sufficient to interest you in the assembly to provide life and joy and to be with you in the service of God, that mighty Man of wealth. And it is Naomi who would lead you there. I know that we have our personal links with the Lord, we have Him as Saviour, we come to confess our sins and find that He has removed that burden from our shoulders, the consequences of our sins, but do we know Him as Naomi's mighty Man of wealth, the relation? That is the relationship that is enjoyed as in the assembly, and the experience of union, the experience of His embrace, the service, as we refer to it, of the Minister of the sanctuary. You would not know much about the Minister of the sanctuary if you did not know much about Naomi; it is through that means that you come to be acquainted with the Minister of the sanctuary. While Naomi was left, and there is what is left today, I think that we do well to look for these features of attractiveness that are there, features that would lead us to Christ.
I refer to David. This is a supreme example of blessing. David says "Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness". Think of the true David looking around as it were on individuals lost as to a position in this world, having given up everything here, unable to find a place or fit in, unable to walk amongst the nobles of this world, and yet David would say, Is there any one left that I may show the kindness of God to him? Have you had that experience, beloved friend? Have you had the experience of God desiring to have His kindness and His love shown to you? Well, it is available to those who are prepared to take this Mephibosheth position. Mephibosheth was in it perforce, he was lame and he had not been cared for properly and yet he is elevated to eating bread continually at the king's table. The true David would be concerned today for tho.se who are left of the house of Saul. He is not leaving you, He is not leaving these persons in their straits; this place of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel in Lodebar was a desolate kind of spot, a spot where there was no provision, no life, no source of enjoyment, and Mephibosheth was there just content to keep, as we might say, body and soul together. But David is not content; Christ is not content, He is not content with persons just being on the fringe of things, He is not content with persons that do not, as we were having at Indianapolis, get into the real centre and enjoy the swimming in those waters that issue out of the house. David has a search made that this man might be brought up. Mephibosheth takes a lowly place but he is brought into this position. Mephibosheth, said David, shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. That is what the Lord would seek to do for any of us as we accept this position of unworthiness, incapacity and yet marked by responsiveness to David's love, that because of your straits, because you have been left, He would raise you up to eat continually at the King's table.
Elijah is perhaps somewhat of an unusual situation. He gets to the point where he is sorry for himself. He thinks that he has done great things; he says "I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant". He is engaged with what other people have done, their failures, their breakdown. He says, I have been very jealous and I am left, I alone. I think it has been said that Elijah really lays down his commission at this point. And God accepts it, God accepts the laying down of his commission because He says, Anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat prophet in thy stead. We do not want to get to this point, we do not want to get to the point of thinking that we are the only one that God has, get engaged with our own selfrighteousness, get engaged with the work that we have done, look around on the brethren and say, They are doing nothing, I am the only one, I am standing here and they are seeking my life to take it away. God has to say to him that if that is your attitude I have someone else who can take the job on. There is Elisha and he will be prophet in thy stead. But it comes to light too that God is able to say, I have left Myself seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth that hath not kissed him. Let us never, beloved brethren, get to the point of thinking that we are the only ones, that we are the church or that we are all that God has. Maybe these seven thousand were not very faithful, maybe Elijah should have known them, they should have come forward and identified themselves so that Elijah would have known, but they were persons anyway that God had taken account of, they were like those in 2 Timothy 2; "The Lord knows those that are his" (v 19). "I have left myself seven thousand in Israel". Elijah did not know about them and we of course do not know about the totality of the fulness of the work of God in the places in which we are or indeed in the world. Let us never forget that God somewhere has these seven thousand that we know nothing about. He has His own men, His own reserves; He has His own response, but we are to be kept in the humble sense that God has far more than we know about. But do not let us, nevertheless, be amongst the seven thousand that Elijah did not know about. We do not want to be like that, we do not want to be hidden away, lost in a corner, the piece of silver lost in that house, covered up in the dust so that great searching had to be made to find it. We do not want to be left in the sense that there is no life in us, no testimony, no response Godward. God can bring out in His own time His own work; Israel is going to be born in a day, let us not forget what God is able for. The Lord's descent from heaven will reveal the fulness of what He has, but for us let us not be amongst those that Elijah did not know; let us be active and in the pursuit of the service of God and what pleases Him and, as it were, be on the Naomi line rather than on the Elijah line at this point. Elijah was a good man, he did a lot of valuable things, but I am just drawing attention to this one moment in his history, and any of us might have one final moment of breakdown and failure after a life time of successful service if we are not careful, if we a re marked by self-confidence and self-opinionation. But we are to go on in humility and confidence in God.
Well, I just draw the attention of the brethren to these persons and encourage them to go on actively and energetically in the situations in which they find themselves, because it is all in God's ordering and it is in view of His pleasure and service being maintained
PLAINFIELD
3 December 1983
THE CHILDREN'S CONFIDENCE
Looking back on an early visit to the deepest coalmine in the Forest of Dean, I can see a remarkable picture of the simplicity of the way of salvation. A visitor down at the 'workings' who wanted to get from the darkness into daylight would simply need to step into the 'cage' which would surface in a few seconds of time. Of course, if he did not have confidence in the help that was so readily to hand for him, he would remain in the gloom for ever. But he would have to do just nothing to help to raise himself into the light. Indeed if he were to meddle in any way with the cage it might be disastrous for him.
The jailor at Philippi, though of course not down a mine, yet in his own prison anxiously sought to do something in order to get from the terror of darkness into the light of day, calling out "Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?". All that was required of him was to "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house". Just as there is only one way out of the blackness of the coalmine, so there is only one way of salvation for the sinner.
To take the illustration further, when at the 'top', the visitor would doubtless wonder at the simplicity, quickness and safety of his rise into daylight. Although he had to do nothing to help himself someone had completed for his benefit the necessary work by much thought, labour, care and expense. How loudly this tells us of the perfect atoning work of the Lord Jesus who died that we might live and have the light of life in exchange for darkness and the "judgment of the great day"!
The mine owner had to dig a shaft deep, deep into the earth. Jesus not only died but was buried, and this is part of the glad tidings. He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He did not carry the sins of believers down to those depths because He had already shed His blood and atoned for them. But as enquiring more about the perfect work of Jesus you will learn the meaning of His going, as it were, a very long way out of sight and for an extended time. It was a sign of His bearing what was due in judgment upon the nature of the persons who had sinned and thus become an offence to a holy God. Is this good news to you?
J.C.Evershed