ADJUSTMENT BY DIVINE LIGHT
[p. 169] ADJUSTMENT BY DIVINE LIGHT
1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 16:6,7; 1 Samuel 16:11-13; 2 Samuel 12:13 - 23; John 21:15-19
The word that covers my subject is very familiar, it is the word ‘adjustment’. There seems to be no need for it in the physical creation, in that designated as the worlds, which were framed by the word of God, the term ‘worlds’ covering what we call the universe, not only our universe or solar system, but all the worlds; they seem to move on without need of external adjustment; whereas in the moral system which is correlative, adjustment is constantly needed, and in using the word one has in mind perhaps a little more than it literally conveys, and that where it takes place, as needed, there is not only correction, but ability to go on according to one’s best days, to go on according to the greatest light that one has received. I say the light received because though the true light now shines, we cannot assume to have received all of it. There is not only light in the sense in which John presents it, the true light which is Christ, He is the true Light, but there is that beautiful expansion of the thought in light from heaven. Of course Christ was light from heaven, for He came down from heaven, but the apostle Paul speaks of a light shining down from heaven; we cannot say all have received it, but it shines; it “shone ... round about me”, Acts 22:6 the apostle Paul says. It is, however, what we receive that is effective. Light comes in through the eye, and it is said “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light”, Matthew 6:22 no part dark, that is the light is allowed to shine unhinderedly through the appointed channel. One great principle in the work of God in us is that we allow Him His way, whether it be in an assembly, or in a person. We are to make way [p. 170] for God, and if it be that light is shining, then let it shine in, not only round about us. It is according to this light, as it may have shone into any of us and been received, that, if adjustment takes place, we function according to that light, according to the light we enjoyed in our best days. Adjustment is thus what is positive, not simply correction, so that there is a resumption of functions that are proper to any one of us.
I have selected these three great servants of God, Samuel, David and Peter, as illustrative of what I have in mind, persons amenable to adjustment in the sense in which I have spoken of it. The fact that such men needed this is a solemn warning to all of us, even the most spiritual, for these are outstanding spiritual men and servants of God. What is in mind is not to call attention to their failures, but to their adjustments and their amenableness to adjustment, so that in result God lost nothing; He gained in each case. It is a sorrowful contemplation if one has to own that God has lost something in oneself. Now Samuel, as you will observe, kept on mourning for Saul; he had to do with Saul from the outset of his official service and he anointed him. Where a servant has a convert and that convert becomes distinguished, the servant is apt to remember and peculiar links are apt to spring up going beyond what is spiritual. It appears that Samuel was affected in this way so that he is out of accord for the moment with the mind of Jehovah. Jehovah had rejected Saul, we are told in the clause immediately preceding this chapter, and Samuel had not; he had done so officially, that is, he had done so as Jehovah’s servant, as we might say in ministry. In the previous chapter he speaks by the word of Jehovah to Saul, he overlooks nothing, no language could be plainer, no message more faithful than the word he spoke to the defaulting king; Saul had rejected the Lord and the Lord had [p. 171] rejected him from ruling over His people. The mind of God was perfectly plain, not only to Saul or anyone who heard Samuel speak, but above all, plain in Samuel’s mind.
But then, dear brethren, what we say on the platform — for in chapter 15 he speaks by the word of the Lord, it is ministry as it were — what we say thus may be in every way right, but as soon as the service is ended our mind may be different, and that is what we have to guard against, and it is that in which Samuel failed here. Mourning is laudable under certain circumstances, certainly as in the case of Josiah, when Jeremiah mourned, and all the singing men and singing women mourned and made lamentation for him; he was worthy; but to mourn for Saul is another matter, for he is the man who failed God. He had a wonderful beginning in his official service, but he failed God. His failure is to be mourned, of course, but to mourn for him in the sense of friendship, because I once had strong personal links with him, is another matter; it has no place in the divine lamentations and that is where Samuel missed it. He mourned, we are told, for Saul when Jehovah had rejected Saul. This is a serious matter, as also in any similar circumstances, because other great services are to be rendered by Samuel, if not by Saul. Immediately another charge is given to him, and now we see the bearing of his mourning for Saul; we see that he has damaged his own soul. Let us never forget this, dear brethren, it is not simply the act, that which is external, but the damage we do to our own souls. This section is full of light, negatively and positively, it is one of the most remarkable sections in Scripture. It is a record of Saul’s reign, and earlier the light came in of another man elected, so that the ruling man, the acting man, the distinguished man for the moment is already displaced, displaced in the mind of God.
[p. 172] This history of displacement is another matter that runs along with what I am saying, it is a matter of soul history, a history of displacement. We are told earlier that Samuel says to Saul, “Jehovah has sought him a man after his own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him ruler over his people; for thou hast not kept what Jehovah commanded thee”, 1 Samuel 13:14. That was earlier light; this matter of displacement had already taken place in regard of Saul; in the mind of God, Saul was no more, as you might say. It was all over; be it a few days, or a few months, or a few years, that had nothing to do with it, it was all over in the mind of God. Now this history of displacement in our souls, dear brethren, is one of the most important points to take account of; I began my spiritual history with it, with displacement, and Samuel had light earlier, so that he had plenty of time for reflection, for being formed according to the light of the mind of God, the light of displacement involved that the active man was already dismissed and another appointed to rule, the other unnamed, but still another person. Let us get that into our minds, the active man is displaced in the mind of God. Then Samuel gets the word of God expressly for Saul, and he delivers it, as I said, most faithfully in chapter 15. Yet now he is mourning, and we are told that God has rejected Saul.
There is a new order of things coming in in the mind of heaven, and it ought to have been in the mind of Samuel, but he is out of accord for the moment; he has allowed the natural unduly; the links were strong but they were not altogether spiritual. You will observe in the previous chapter that even Saul induces Samuel to follow him; he turned again after him, after such a faithful message from God, which meant that he was no longer to be followed, he was to be regarded as a rejected man. But Samuel found tears enough to shed for him; he [p. 173] mourned for him. They were not heaven’s tears, they were not tears like those of Jesus, and now Jehovah rebukes him, He says to him, “how long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him?”
Then he gets another commission — I want to speak of that just for a moment, dear brethren, as I have already alluded to it. But we see here how our souls become damaged more than we are aware of through natural links: they may be formed primarily in the spiritual sense — but continuing too far and as the spiritual wanes, the links remain and our souls are damaged. These damages have to be repaired and the reparation of them implies adjustment not only in negative thought but that we pursue our best line, our best services, that we re-acquire our best tastes, our best sight, our best feelings. Now Samuel undertakes the commission, and he goes to Bethlehem. Now Jehovah says, It is the one I appoint. Remember, Samuel had the light of another in his soul according to chapter 13; another was there in the mind of God, already appointed. He was not a Samuel unborn, it was a David already there; already appointed to be ruler. Why is Samuel not looking for this man that is so pleasing to God? Has he forgotten what pleases God? Samuel knew well what pleased Jehovah; no one in his day pleased him more than he himself; he knew what was pleasing to Jehovah in an earlier day, in a ruler or in any servant; he himself was the best expression of the thing, but why this defect? Why is he looking for a different kind of man from himself, a man whom God so often approved? God had great pleasure in Samuel; He put him forward. He would not allow a word of his to fall to the ground; He liked him so well; He did indeed. The evidence is that he was looking for a man like Saul; that was what was in his mind. If I have been conscious of God’s pleasure [p. 174] in me why should I look for a different kind of man? Understand, dear brethren, I am not talking of myself, I am speaking of the principle. Why should I go far afield? I have the thing right by me. Why should Samuel have in his mind a different idea from himself? But he had, you see, and what is the secret of it? He was damaged by natural affection for a fallen servant; he would rather have Saul continue on even as he was. God says, ‘I have rejected him, why are you mourning for him?’. Still God does not reject Samuel; He had too much pleasure in Samuel for that; He knew it was but a passing matter, and he was adjustable, he would be adjustable immediately; Jehovah knew that. He knows us all well, dear brethren, our capabilities, and He will have His way with us; He will bring us back to our best days, our best services, our best feelings, and He will do it quickly.
Well, Eliab appears, a fine-looking man, he is the man, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him”. Before Him, you notice; he is putting that man before Jehovah in his mind. Eliab is the ideal in his mind, and Jehovah is looking inside him, and He sees in Samuel’s heart that he has missed the mark for the moment; he has the wrong man in his mind. Jehovah came to Samuel in the temple, you remember, and told him about Eli and Eli’s sons; He displaced them in Samuel’s heart but Samuel is allowing a man of that kind: a Saul comes back into his mind as his ideal. Jehovah says, ‘That will not do, Samuel, I have not chosen him, you ought to know’, So I ought, in my earlier days I would know. So Samuel has lost ground, and now I want to show you, dear brethren, without enlarging on him unduly, how quickly he recovers himself. He says to Jesse, “Are these all the young men?”. No, Jesse says, there is another. Had Samuel looked around these young men? Had he questioned in his own mind [p. 175] which of them was the selected of Jehovah? Had he asked Jehovah about it? It does not appear so. Jehovah says, ‘It is the one I appoint’, so that I am to be on the qui vive if I have been mourning for a Saul instead of God’s man; let God help me or I am helpless. Samuel did not let God help him at first; he named Eliab by himself, and he missed the mark. So the others pass by. No, he says; he has learned so much now, he is adjusted already; he is now listening for Jehovah, and there is no selected one there at all. You see the plight we get into, dear brethren, by pursuing this line, there is no selected one at all in the house, a house without the anointed of God, without the selected one! Is he in Samuel’s heart? Well, he is coming into his heart, but apparently in nobody else’s heart at the moment. Samuel ought to have brought into the house, on his first visitation, the ideal of God, and spread it abroad among the whole company — only Christ. Paul says, “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”, Galatians 2:20. Were it so with Samuel the ideal would be spread abroad, permeating the whole company; they did not miss David at all. It was a Christless company for the moment, solemn thing to say with a spiritual man like that there, but then he is adjustable, and so he says, “Send and fetch him”. He wants the real Christ, he is ready for Him, he is perfectly amenable. Jehovah knows it. Send for him; let us wait till he comes in; there will be no sitting down till he comes in. No one but Christ will do now that Samuel is adjusted. He is adjusted not only negatively, not only has he judged himself for naming the anointed without Jehovah, but he is adjusted positively; he wants Christ, the real Man, and so David comes in. There he is, there is no question about it, but Jehovah says, I am not going to trust Samuel yet. He says, Samuel, rise, anoint him, he is the one.
[p. 176] That is all I have to say about him save to add that Samuel went to Ramah. It is all over now, Christ is in His place; we can never have anything right until Christ is in His place. Samuel can be right now, he says, I will be right at Ramah, that is where I used to judge Israel. That is where he did judge Israel, and he will do it better than ever before now that Christ is in His place.
Now I go on to David, that is as a great sinner. It is very humbling indeed, dear brethren, to look around and observe how much of this kind of thing there is happening in a greater or lesser degree, but the Spirit of God would never tell us about this sin of David were it not that it was a man like David, a man that took it up so wonderfully, so gracefully, and who was restored and adjusted so perfectly. It is as if God would say, I love the very thought of the way that man has recovered himself. David has to suffer, as Peter has to suffer, for our sakes; it is all for our sakes, that these things are recounted. Has God nothing in this? Yes, He has a great deal in Samuel’s adjustment, and more in David’s adjustment. It was a great sin, but Nathan comes to him and he pictures the sin; it is God in grace making it as easy as possible for the sinner to repent; He always does that, makes it as easy as possible for the mind and for the conscience of the sinner to repent. It is grace that such a servant should be sent to him with such a parable. All this originated in heaven; it was heaven’s way of meeting this great sinner, but he was met perfectly and he answered to it perfectly. Has God no pleasure in all this? He had pleasure in Nathan’s service; He had pleasure in David’s word, “I have sinned”, as he says here, “I have sinned against Jehovah”. How ready he was, but we can understand it, it was David. We should never have the account had it been a man like Saul; God would have no pleasure in parading before unborn [p. 177] millions such a degrading sin as this. No, beloved, He would never do it were it not in a man like David, just to bring out what David is; it is to bring out what I and all christians are by the work of God; that is the idea. God allows things to bring out what He effects. He has pleasure in all that; be the sin ever so abominable, ever so degrading, God has pleasure in His own work. That is the point, it comes out immediately, and shines brilliantly at once, “I have sinned against Jehovah”, he says. No equivocation whatever, no conditions at all, no excuses, it is simply a confession that he had sinned against Jehovah, as he says, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight”. We should never have had Psalm 51 if this had not happened, and we could never have had that psalm if it had not happened in David. These sins have happened in many, but in a David they have happened according to divine ordering, it must yield to the book of Psalms, the sweet psalmist of Israel has to say to the result, it belongs to the service of God. The psalm ends, “Build thou the walls of Jerusalem”. Psalm 51:18. That is to say the man is brought back; he is not only corrected, and judged himself, but, as the passage shows, he goes back to his best days; he worships God. There is no higher thought, beloved than that: he worshipped God. The great end that God has in mind today in all that is happening is that we might worship God, He is seeking worshippers, and He has such a worshipper now in David as He could not have had before.
I want to make a few further remarks as to how the adjustment came about here. We have the number of days, what a searching time, David lying on the earth, eating nothing, the child sick, sick by the divine stroke; what a scene for heaven, day after day, the child sick, and sickening, sickening, he dies — seven days — the adjustment requires that:
[p. 178] it must be perfect spiritually. Adjustment cannot be other than perfect spiritually: spiritual adjustment means not only correction, not only self-judgment, but that I am to go on positively according to my best days. That is what is in mind, yea, with David better days than ever before. So he lies on the earth and his servants are watching him. We may thank God for such watchers, as we need adjustment. They do not understand him, for the more spiritual I am the less I am understood; the spiritual discerns all things, but he is never discerned fully. They do not understand him; many a man has to suffer in this way, he is too spiritual even in his failures to be understood. Such is the life of a spiritual man, the experience of a spiritual man that is beyond understanding. His servants do not understand him: he lay on the earth while the child was alive, he arose and anointed himself and went and worshipped when the child died; who can understand a man like that? The secret is, beloved, he is a spiritual man and that is what God knew about him; God is bringing out wonderful things in his servant. He knew what was there, and it is all coming out now. Then David hears them whispering, he understands them; many of us do not think a spiritual man understands us; he does, a spiritual man understands your whispering, and there will be no want of that in these circumstances. Why not speak out? They were whispering; they did not understand David, but he understood them, and he understood that the child was dead. It was as much as to say in their whispering, he is not spiritual; they did not understand him, he will be worse than he was before; that is not spirituality. A spiritual man discerns the judgment of God, and when that is executed he knows that God will go on, that God is not going to stop in this matter. He goes on, and the spiritual man says I will go on too, the matter is settled. What a great [p. 179] triumph that is, the matter is settled in David’s mind, and he arose and washed himself and changed his garments and entered in and worshipped God. He is a leader in the service of God and he is now entering on his best days, pursuing his old line, the best days he had; he is entering on them, serving God. Well, they say, explain it. Well, it is just this, that the judgment of God has exhausted itself, it is all over, and I am going to begin over again; I began with God; He would have me to go on as before. God has judged the thing and I have judged it, and I am another man now, I mean I am what I used to be. He changed his clothes and washed himself and worshipped God. It is the old David, as I may say, speaking simply, the kind of David that was known spiritually before; he has now come up again, the child is dead, that is all finished. But a Solomon is in view; the horizon is lit up in the next verse with a Solomon. What glorious prospects David has now! A worshipper, he is adjusted, and, dear brethren, that is what is in mind today; God is looking for worshippers, men too, that will carry on the service; and of course I need not tell you the later history of David, how he inaugurated the service of God.
Now I go on to Peter. He is the outstanding man of the New Testament to support what I have been saying. You will observe that this is a prolonged matter, although Peter was adjustable from the outset, as the Lord looked on him. Luke tells us that the Lord looked on Peter as the cock crew, and Peter went out and wept bitterly; he did not go out to worship like David, but still the process is similar; he wept bitterly, he was as it were going through the thing with God. How long he wept I cannot say; he wept bitterly and he went out, it was all real. But three days afterwards the Lord Jesus appeared to him, what a meeting that was! He appeared unto Simon. It does not say He rebuked him because the [p. 180] second time it was grace, it was indeed in principle the inauguration of this wonderful day in which we are, the day of grace; it was the Lord saying, ‘This is the order of this wonderful day, this acceptable year of the Lord’, and indeed the brethren were talking about it. It says, “The Lord ... has appeared to Simon” Luke 24:34; they were talking about it in the assembly as gathered together, but then the process was somewhat longer, but if it need be long let the result be perfect, dear brethren. That is what comes out in Peter, the result is perfect. He had professed to love the Lord Jesus, but the Lord told him he would do all this; he professed to love Christ more than all, “I will lay down my life for thee”, but the Lord says, “Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice”, John 13:37,38 and it was so, but there were two things: he said he loved the Lord more than any, and he said he would lay down his life for Him. He could not say anything greater, if it were really true, than that he loved the Lord Jesus, for that is what he implied; the Lord’s remark to him intimates that he thought his love exceeded all others, and these two things must go together in the adjustment; the Lord took him at his word. I verily believe, dear brethren, that if any resolution is taken, however feebly, before the Lord, He will bring you to it; He may allow a breakdown, but He will bring you to it, and that is the adjustment. He would say, That is the very best thing you ever said, and I will hold you to it, circumstances will bring you to it. Such is our Lord and Master, He works on this line, He works according to His own mind but He loves to work from ours too; as our minds accord with His He puts it on our minds and credits us with it and says, I will bring you to it. So that I verily believe it is a good thing to make resolutions; certain are said to have addicted themselves to the ministry; in fact if you make a vow it says, see that you pay it, as if [p. 181] God is pleased with a vow. I am not making you legal, but God loves people to make resolutions in His presence, and He says, I will see to you and bring you to it, and will be with you till you come to it. David had to go through much sorrow, and who could depict what an experience Peter had in those awful days? He went out and wept bitterly, the three days in which the Lord lay in the tomb, and yet wonderful to say the Lord came into the midst. He did not say a word to him personally as far as we know. In John 20 there was not a single complaint; there was nothing to complain of for that is the abstract thought, if you understand me, though Peter’s real complete recovery was still future. May not one suppose that there might have been a gesture to Peter even then in the company, suggesting that things were not altogether right yet. The Lord was standing, He was ready to serve Peter. Even great as John 20:19 is, Peter’s incomplete recovery was there, incomplete adjustment was there. Did the Lord not know it? He was there to serve, He is standing. “If I wash thee not” John 13:8, the Lord had said to him, and he needed it again. The Lord says, I am ready; He is ready now for anyone here, always ready.
Peter and six other brothers went off on a fishing expedition, without Jesus, as if nothing had happened. This is the third time the Lord appeared to His disciples; the first is in chapter 20:19, the second later in that chapter, and the third is in chapter 21. The third manifestation; it is not simply an appearing, it is a manifestation, a word that John selects peculiarly, so after they had dined the Lord raises the question of love; that is really what He means. He knew what was there, and the third time He says, “Lovest thou me?”. Peter is grieved now, but the matter is urgent, the Lord is finishing the work; there is nothing more interesting than a finished [p. 182] work. So Peter says to the Lord, “Lord, thou knowest all things”, and He did, of course, divinely; but Peter says, You know that I have affection for Thee. One has often called attention to the change of words here, it is very instructive for all of us. The last word ‘knowest’, that Peter uses, is an objective ‘know’. Peter is now saying to the Lord, ‘You have finished the matter, You can see that in me externally there is some evidence that I love You’, and it was so, the Lord had brought that about, whether it was in a gesture of Peter’s or a look, or whatever it was, he could say truthfully to the Lord, ‘You can see in me that I love You’; the Lord knew that. I would like to be able to say, ‘Lord, You can see in me that I love You’. The Lord liked that, He liked the change of word that Peter made; that he should select another word for ‘know’, referring to what is positive, to what the Lord could see in him visibly; he says, ‘You can see by that how I love You’. The Lord says that will do, that is enough, the matter is finished. I am to demonstrate not that I have loved the Lord, but that I now love Him, and others can see it too; the matter is finished, so the Lord now says to Peter, there is one difficulty, it is a question of your youth, youthful energy. I have sympathy with young people, because youthfulness in itself is an exposure to the devil, and the more we understand it the more we shall set our faces against it; the more I see the danger the more safe I am if I set my face against it: The Lord says, “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee wither thou wouldest not”. That is the finish. Peter is entirely resigned to the will of God, and he is laying down his life for Jesus, as he previously wished to do.
[p. 183] That is all, dear brethren: you can see that in each of these three cases the matter is finished, and that is what the Lord is aiming at, so that we may go on according to our best days in the service of God, Godward and manward.