THE NEED OF COMPLETION
[p. 157] THE NEED OF COMPLETION
1 Samuel 7:10,11; 1 Samuel 14:23 - 30; 1 Samuel 15:1-3; 1 Samuel 15:7-9
I venture to put these three scriptures together to speak, as I hope for profit, on the divine requirement that any given work is to be finished. These scriptures are read in order to bring out the necessity of completing any work divinely entrusted, or in fact any work that may come to one’s hand, for we are enjoined, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might”, Ecclesiastes 9:10.
Now the positive word that I have is from chapter 7, which I intend to reserve for the end of my remarks and only to allude to briefly now so that you may see what is in mind, namely, that God gave a great victory to His people which might to most seem sufficient; we are told that He thundered upon the Philistines and discomfited them, a great matter in itself which seemingly ought to be regarded as a finished matter, but it says, you will observe, “And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, as far as below Beth-car”. Jehovah is not said to have directed this; it is evidently the outcome of intelligence in the men of Israel that it was the divine thought that they should have part in this great matter. Not that Jehovah could not have finished the matter — He could, readily. He could have destroyed all the Philistines. But He left the way open for such a movement as is recorded of the men of Israel: they “went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, as far as below [or beyond] Beth-car”. They went the full length. I will come back to this presently.
I want to show from the second scripture, dear brethren, how the end in a given work or divine enterprise may be hindered, may not be reached by [p. 158] us, and how we may stand in the divine way of reaching His end. God always has an end in mind; whether it be in enlightening one’s soul, or whether it be in the introduction of the gospel, indeed, at the beginning, the formation of converts into an assembly or whatever it may be, God always has an end in mind. He intends to reach it and will reach it. But He brings His people into what He is doing. He deigns to regard us as “fellow-workmen”! Who does not normally as a christian aspire to be a fellow-workman with God! And you find that God sets the matter on and gives general results from His own side, but allows us to go forward, and in doing so has perfect delight in looking upon us in our little way in the field of service as His (no less than that) fellow-workmen!
Now this section in the second scripture I have read records a workman with God, a man who worked with God. Jonathan, we are told, “wrought with God”. He did not work with his father; in fact it says that before he entered on the great undertaking at the beginning of this chapter 14 “he did not tell his father”. 1 Samuel 14:1. The verses I have read show how wise this was. The chapter brings out that the end was not really reached, great as was the beginning and the victory in a general way. The full end was not reached. And why? Because of Saul interposing: he would have part in the victory, for the natural mind is ready to take part when things are successful in the service of God. It was a question with Saul of his enemies — not God’s. It was a question with him of being avenged on his enemies! Such a person intruding into a great divine matter can only hinder. In fact any part the natural mind has in divine operations, however apparently helpful at the outset, can only hinder in the end. Let us take note of that, dear brethren, because natural energy is not only useless, but it is in the way.
[p. 159] So Saul interposed with a curse. There was no need for it. In due course anyone interfering or taking a hand in the work of God on natural lines will expose himself, and will be found not only useless but in the way. Saul saw the work, that the victory was assured, why should he not have part in that? But was he a worker with God? On the contrary, dear brethren, he was a worker against God in this matter. And why? Because he assumed distinction; he assumed the ability; he assumed all that his outward position afforded him. And so he assumes the right to interfere with the food of the warriors of God, to deprive them of it! He interposed a curse, too; assuming the right, the religious right, of cursing anyone who disregarded his foolish edict! And the worker with God is happily unaware of this. Happy it is for us when we are working successfully with God if we are unaware of these fathers who would interpose their religious authority, if not to stop the work directly, at least to weaken the hands of those engaged in it.
We can thus understand the spiritual meaning of Jonathan refraining from telling his father of the great project he had on hand. He did not tell his father, we are told. It is happy to be ignorant of their assumed rights over us in the service of God. Jonathan was ignorant of this stupid edict, and oh! how many there are abroad today, dear brethren, based on self-importance, based on religious importance and authority. Whereas neither exists. Happy it is for us if we are ignorant of their self-imposed interference, their importance and consequent interference. Hence, if we are to be successful as workers with God, for Jonathan “wrought with God”, do not tell them. The less they know the better. Jonathan did not tell his father, but nevertheless his father came into the matter and enjoined that the warriors [p. 160] who were being used of God, workers with Jonathan, should not partake of the divinely provided food! It was divinely provided food. Think of depriving people of what has been divinely provided! It was the fruit of the land. The land that was to flow with milk and honey was flowing still with milk and honey: with honey certainly, for you will have observed in the chapter as I read it, in verses 25, 26, “And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey on the ground. And the people had come into the wood, and behold, the honey flowed; but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath”. Think of Saul, based on his self-importance, on his legality, too, think of that coming in between the warriors of God and the food that God provided, — and provided richly!
Well now, dear brethren, you see what I mean. Jonathan says of his father here, “My father has troubled the land”. There are many such. It is the land in a spiritual sense. He says, in effect, he has really robbed us of what was within our grasp, namely, the complete overthrow of the Philistines at this time.
You can see then, dear brethren, that if we are to be workers with God at this hour we must disregard all such fathers. If we are ignorant of their intervention it is happy, but if we come to know it we are not to fail to make it clear that it is an interference. In fact the whole hierarchical system (if you will allow me to say it here) is an interference with the work of God, to say nothing more than that. It is a positive interference. Time was when we could not meet like this. Why? Because of that interference!
Well then, dear brethren, as workers together with God, let us go on in happy ignorance of this interference. Not that we do not suffer, but go on with God, partaking of the honey, namely, the fruit of the land, for that is what it is. The land is constantly [p. 161] referred to as flowing with milk and honey. And it is yet — in a spiritual way. According to what we get here, there was honey upon the ground, and in verse 26 it says, “Behold, the honey flowed”. There it was, flowing of itself. No culture needed; no bee-hives required. The land flowed with it. And this stupid curse of Saul’s must deprive the workers with God of this divinely-given food, and hence deprive them of the complete victory that was within their reach!
Why I am saying all this is that we should be warned and be intelligent as to the situation today and know how to avail ourselves of the honey. There was not much needed. There was plenty of it, but even a little taken on the end of a staff is enough to enlighten the warrior’s eyes, so that he may pursue the enemy, or, in other words, complete the work. It is a great reproach under all circumstances to be engaged in any work of God that is left unfinished. “I have not found thy works complete”, says the Lord Jesus to Sardis, “before my God”. They may seem to be complete before others, but God is the Judge of all. The final test must be what He thinks. And hence the Lord speaks on God’s behalf to Sardis and says, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”. Revelation 3:2.
Now I go on to chapter 15 (much more might be said, of course, as to Jonathan’s pronouncement on his father) to show how this incompletion of work divinely assigned is more fully seen in Saul’s case. It is a question of self-judgment, really, in the antitype, a question of dealing with Amalekitish elements amongst the people of God. And here it may be that most of us are involved, whether it be each in his own self or in his family or in his business or in his service to the Lord. It is a question whether any of us would come out clear in the matter were we put to the test, as the Lord Jesus says, “before my God”. Revelation 3:2.
[p. 162] For that is how the matter is to come out. “Ye have come to ... God, judge of all”, Hebrews 12:23. We come to Him. Not to things and persons, but to God, the Judge of all, and everything must come under review before Him; if not now, in the future. Why not now? Why let things remain unsettled until that day when we shall appear before God? We must all appear, we are told, before the judgment-seat of God. But how happy it is to have everything settled up before that time! Not to have a long bill at the adjudication from God. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged”, 1 Corinthians 11:31. Otherwise we shall be judged with the world. Not that the believer is not saved; the true believer is, but “so as by fire”. 1 Corinthians 3:15. What a bill any such person has to face, putting things off day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until his life of responsibility is over! The volume is not lessened in the divine account; all is kept with the greatest accuracy in the books of God. The first book of this kind is said to be God’s book. Moses refers to God’s book; there can be no discrepancy there. So that, dear brethren, the continual putting off of things — it is sorry work!
So it is a question now in 1 Samuel 15 of dealing with Amalekitish elements. Here they are specified: “Both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass”. All living creatures, referring doubtless to active things, even an infant or a suckling, active Amalekitish elements. Let us see to it, dear brethren. It may be just the infant, the suckling — something active. It may be the man, full, it may be assumed, of the intellectualism, the sophistication of this world. The woman, too, in all her secretiveness. And, as it is said, the “ox and sheep, camel and ass”. Let us see to it whether there are any of these features with us; they are active things, living in that sense.
[p. 163] How hard-hearted it would seem to destroy a suckling, an infant! But this is the divine requirement, dear brethren. And Saul undertakes the commission. In fact, the end of the previous chapter gives us a full account of Saul from the human point of view, a very successful kind of monarch. Look at the list of things at the end of chapter 14, a very successful ruler. There are those who would excuse all else in the light of such military skill and ability, such rule. But the eye of God saw differently. And so it is with many of us; successful apparently, it may be, under the eye of our brethren, but the divine eye sees differently. There is something underneath all that, which the divine eye discerns and will bring to light, and that is chapter 15.
The Spirit depicts in remarkable words the exploits of this monarch: let anyone read those verses at the end of chapter 14 and he will see. He gives Saul full credit, but, as the Lord said to the young man, there was one thing lacking. Saul lacked many things, but this one thing would be enough before the bar of God. Samuel says, “The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel”. What an honour to be anointed at all by God, to have part in His service amongst His people. What an honour! But, oh, beloved brethren, how all this may be taken on and in a measure there may be success and yet something never judged, and the work of God, therefore, with which one has been entrusted not fulfilled! So that God has to say to us, “I have not found thy works complete”. Revelation 3:2.
Samuel says, “Now therefore hearken unto the voice of the words of the Lord”. That is the first verse. This is a new chapter. After we have Saul’s apparently successful reign depicted, this is another view of the man. He accepts the commission, and apparently he is very successful, too, in the undertaking. He gathers a large army, and he warns the [p. 164] Kenites (verse 6), crediting them with showing kindness to the children of Israel; and then we are told in verse 7, “Saul smote Amalek from Havilah as thou comest to Shur, which is opposite to Egypt”. Well, you say, that is a great matter. A man may be used, you know, in the service of God and get converts, give excellent addresses and minister in many ways apparently with great success, but there is something underneath undiscerned by him (or if discerned, it is neglected) which is allowed to stay in its activities. And presently God brings up something that exposes the whole man. Not that Saul had not been exposed before to some extent, but not fully.
And so, after giving Saul full credit for what he had done, “Saul smote Amalek from Havilah as thou comest to Shur, which is opposite to Egypt”, the Spirit of God goes on to say, in verses 8, 9, “And he took Agag the king of Amalek alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and oxen, and beasts of the second bearing, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not devote them to destruction; but everything that was mean and weak, that they destroyed utterly”. So you see, dear brethren, the matter is exposed, not perhaps to the unspiritual eye, but to the spiritual eye. Saul is exposed, and he loses the kingdom. His works were not found complete before his God. He has his explanation, his apology, to offer, but the fact remains that he is rebellious. That is at the bottom of it — his will is at work. If Amalek is spared, it is the natural mind, the natural will, that does it. The best of things, what is humanly good, is retained, and what is mean and weak is destroyed. There is no credit in that, beloved. It is the Amalekite in the best of him, in all that he is, that is to be destroyed. You say, That is the flesh in a peculiar way. Yes, it is, but it is the [p. 165] flesh. So that if we are at all honest with ourselves, we cannot but see that this has to be destroyed. As the apostle says, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law”, Romans 7:25. It can do nothing else. Why not destroy it then? It is simply Amalek. It can do nothing else but sin, that is to say act against God. For that is what sin is; it is lawlessness.
You can see, dear brethren, that I have somewhat made clear my thought. The idea here in Saul’s case of not completing what is divinely given to us as work, and on the other hand how delightful it is to see a brother or a sister take up what is left to be done. The apostle spoke to Titus of leaving him to look after what was unordered. It is striking, indeed, in the epistles how much of that there is. The Corinthians were left with much unordered: what will they do? Will they take the matter on? No, they did not take the matter on. The Lord will test us by leaving something, even if He does it nearly all. He leaves something. What will you do? You may say, It is not my business. But it is your business; it is God’s business. The Lord Jesus at the age of twelve said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49. It is God’s business. Let no one say, It is not my affair. It is your affair. It is God affair, and if your hand finds it to do, it is your affair.
The men of Israel in chapter 7 had no commission as far as we see, but they “went out ... and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, as far as below Beth-car”. You say, This was God’s matter; why did He not thunder on the enemies, as we get in verse 10, and finish the matter? But then the thunder has no heart and affections; you have. He wants to test you as to whether you are obedient in every thing. Not simply in a general way, but in everything. It is one thing, you see, that exposes you. These men of Israel are to be noted. We are to [p. 166] understand the beautiful expression in them here. We have been speaking of what came out in Saul, that legal man, that murderous man, too, as the facts show, whom God would not let off although he nearly destroyed the Amalekites. He did not do it altogether, and God would not let him off. “Obedience is better than sacrifice”, 1 Samuel 15:22. Samuel says to him. Do not talk to Me about sacrifice, God says, as it were, if that one thing is not done. It is a test to your will.
So under Samuel, in chapter 7 we see men developing. It is a beautiful type of what flows from the influence of Christ. We get such an expression as “The men whom thou gavest me”, John 17:6. Earlier He spoke of them to His Father as “babes”, and now He says, “The men whom thou gavest me”. They became men under the influence of Christ and these men of Israel became men under the influence of Samuel. We are told that “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life” 1 Samuel 7:15. In spite of Saul, he judged Israel. He judged Israel in circuit, too, and particularly in his own house. As if to say, ‘You come to my house and see how things are. What my house is, is according to how I judge. I will think of you and judge you accordingly’. How the disciples proved this with Jesus! “Rabbi”, they say, “where abidest thou?”; “Come and see”, John 1:38,39. He says. They would see where He abode and would see what the abode was, how He was at home.
And so here in 1 Samuel 7:2 we get, “And all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah”. And presently Samuel speaks the prophetic word and they gathered together to Mizpah, and poured water out on the ground before Jehovah. They did not say, It cannot be gathered up again. Not now. They understand what it is in the presence of Samuel. All that is of God will be gathered up again. “And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah” 1 Samuel 7:6. That is, all the secrets are dealt with. He judged [p. 167] them there where they were gathered in Mizpah. Have things gone into before God! Let us keep short accounts if we are to become men. Young people, keep short accounts with God, confess things to God; to the brethren, too, if need be, but to God. Have everything out with God.
And then the people have increasing confidence in Samuel; “Cease not to cry to Jehovah our God for us”, they say to him. They are becoming men. The kingdom of God is marked by this, that is, the spirit of prayer. They were right; they had rightly gauged the great servant amongst them. “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you”, 1 Samuel 12:23 he says in chapter 12. He kept on praying for them.
Then 1 Samuel 7:9 offered a sucking-lamb, a type of Jesus, the dependent Man. Samuel offered it as a whole burnt offering to God. God must act in relation to that, and He does. But then He looks for men to battle as well as He. What an honour to fight with God! He had thundered on the Philistines, and now the matter is somewhat incomplete. God had chosen it so to bring out what was there. God delights to do this, to bring out what is of Himself in His people. He brought about conditions to bring out what was in Saul to judge, and here it is to bring out what is of Himself in His people. “And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, as far as below Beth-car”. They finished the matter. It was a complete victory over the Philistines. And so, you will observe, “Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, and said, Hitherto Jehovah has helped us”. But they did something, the men of Israel. God brought circumstances into existence that drew out what was there, the beautiful result of the influence of Samuel. As I might say as applied to ourselves, the beautiful result [p. 168] in manhood of the influence of Christ. And so the matter is finished, and the stone is set up and given a name, “Eben-ezer”, “Hitherto Jehovah has helped us”. And we read “the hand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel”. That is what I would impress on each of us here, that we should not be half-hearted, but go on to completeness, as it was here. “All the days of Samuel” are mentioned: that is, he is a man who finishes.
May God bless the word.