HOW SPIRITUAL RESOURCES ARE OBTAINED
[p. 116] HOW SPIRITUAL RESOURCES ARE OBTAINED
2 Kings 4:1 - 7; 1 Samuel 21:3; 1 Samuel 21:6 - 9; Luke 24:41 - 43
These scriptures illustrate how, either individually or as a local company, spiritual resources are obtained. Whether individually or collectively, there is a tendency to fail to recognise what we actually possess, and we are too much inclined to look to others, to look much too far away for the help we need. Naturally, whether as individuals or as local companies, we always should wait on the Lord, but, while doing so we should not disregard what He has already given us, what we already possess. It is right to help one another; we are exhorted to bear one another’s burdens and the Spirit of God makes us capable of doing so, so we can count on one another.
The gifts that Christ has given from on high are never regarded in Scripture as being local, but are given to the assembly generally. They may be found perhaps in one special locality, but they are given to the assembly viewed in its entirety, at any given moment on earth. A gift found in Australia belongs just as much to the saints all over the world as to those who live in Australia; in the same way, a gift in France belongs to the whole church just as much as to those who are in France. This is important and saves us from making too much of those in our own locality. The brothers to whom the Lord has entrusted gift belong to the assembly, as Paul says, “All things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas ... all are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s”, 1 Corinthians 3:22,23.
Our position, dear brethren, is in relation to God, which saves us from local or national feeling, but this also shows us that we can seek help outside of our own locality, because the gifts belong to us. Nevertheless,
[p. 117] we need to value rightly what each may have received from the Lord; that is, what he possesses in himself.
In the first passage read, Elisha asks the woman, “Tell me, what hast thou in the house?” If I speak to the Lord about what I already possess, He will teach me how to make use of it. This widow was in great distress. “The creditor is come to take my two children to be bondmen”; she could not meet her responsibilities. Romans teaches that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit (Romans 8:4), yet this woman was unable to meet the just demands of the creditor. We all owe something; it says, “Owe no one anything, unless to love one another”, Romans 13:8. We ought to love one another and are thus always indebted to the saints. If I find that I cannot love the saints I should be concerned about it. This woman felt it and cried saying, “The creditor is come to take my two children to be bondmen”, and Elisha replied, “Tell me, what hast thou in the house?”
If a young believer feels he does not love the brethren, or that he is not serving them in love, and he comes to tell me about it, I would tell him to tell the Lord about it; that is what he should do. In a certain sense, Elisha here represents the Lord. What does he say? Does he offer the woman money to pay her debts? No; but why not? If such an one prayed, the Lord would say, ‘Have you not received the Spirit?’ Elisha said, “Tell me, what hast thou in the house?” Elisha can be considered here as a type of Christ; He has unsearchable riches. There is no limit to the resources at His disposal, yet He says, ‘You have got something too; I have given it to you; what are you doing with what I have already given to you?’ The woman replied, “Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil”. She said, “Not anything at all”, that was what filled her mind, but is a pot of oil not anything at all? It speaks typically of the Spirit of God; the fact that it [p. 118] was in a pot shows the small place it had in the mind and heart of this woman. According to the New Testament believers are to be filled with the Spirit, but she was not, she had only a pot, apparently a small receptacle; in other words, she did not place much value on the oil nor had she thought of making use of it. Why not give it to the creditor? It had some value, showing that it represented the Spirit of God; if we make room for Him we shall then be able to meet all our obligations. The fact is, dear brethren, we are too much inclined to think of the Spirit in a theoretical way, and perhaps do not allow Him much place. According to Romans 8, if I have the Spirit, I am no longer in flesh, but in Spirit, so it is important to make room for Him.
As we have already noticed in our readings, the Spirit of God is a divine Person who, in grace, is pleased to indwell believers: “Ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”, Ephesians 1:13. Again, Paul says, “He that establishes us with you in Christ ... is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”, 2 Corinthians 1:21,22. God has given the Spirit in our hearts, and He sheds God’s love there, introducing into our hearts something very precious, the love of God. As a result of His presence in my heart, I love God, and “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28); moreover, I love the brethren. These are the general features characteristic of the Spirit, and we all should take account of them, and make room for Him. This is just what the prophet said to her, verse 3: “Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few; and go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full”. Beloved brethren, we must understand spiritually what is seen here figuratively. When the prophet suggests borrowing vessels, he is suggesting that you and I must make room for the Spirit in ourselves; then “set aside what is full”.
[p. 119] You will recall the teaching of John 2, in connection with the vessels which had to be filled with water. There is the way it should be filled; a vessel may be half, or three-quarters, or completely filled. Christ was always full of the Holy Spirit, but with us there are varying measures. It is important to see that I am at any rate partly filled; the prophet says, “Set aside what is full”, what is put aside is full. The servants in John 2 filled the vessels to the brim, which should be the end in view, but a beginning must be made, and immediately the vessel is filled, it is put aside.
The passage continues, “And she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons: they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed”. You see, dear brethren, that she shut the door, suggesting that she discussed the matter with nobody; she went to carry out the order the Lord had given. How precious it us to feel that one has exactly carried out the Lord’s commandment. It is now a matter of continuing to fill; each vessel she filled impressed her with this thought of filling; let us think of it too, specially the younger ones. A marvellous result will be reached in my soul, I shall be spiritually rich; I have great hopes and I have in my possession the means of acquiring these riches. While this woman was filling the vessels one after the other, she would be thoroughly impressed with this thought, and the vessels, being filled one after the other, suggest that gradually I am reaching the end the Lord has in view for me. Her two sons are simply assistants; she had to carry out the service herself, they are not servants, but sons, suggesting in this way free persons that I can use, as liberty is in view here. I close the door on legal thoughts, sons being in harmony with what is being done. I am therefore perfectly free to carry out the work; the vessels are brought to me one after the other [p. 120] by the sons, and I fill them; continue filling them, as the thought of filling has so impressed my mind.
The woman says to her son, “Bring me yet a vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed”. Note specially that all the vessels were full; there must be none empty, they must be filled with the Spirit. Then in verse 7, we read that “she came and told the man of God and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest”. The sale of the oil is in view of my obtaining what I need, but its spiritual significance is that I must make use of the oil. In selling it I obtain a good price, so that it becomes a kind of currency. I can pay this one and that one, I can pay all my creditors. I must pay the brethren, I must love them and I can do it; the money is simply a figure of something of which I can conveniently make use. Then while doing that, while paying my debts, my living is assured. “Live thou and thy sons on the rest”, not just for a day, nor for a year, but simply “live”; it is unlimited. I shall never again be in such a strait; my sons were about to become slaves; my members will never again be in bondage to sin, but I am free to serve God. My members, which the sons typify here, are yielded as instruments of righteousness to God and all the time I can live; it is life to serve God; to serve the brethren. To serve God, and to serve one another in love, is the most blessed of services.
You can now see how each individual believer can be enriched spiritually as knowing how to profit by the Holy Spirit which has been given to him. We need teaching for this, and it is given to us concerning this great subject in the epistle to the Romans.
The second part of my subject is found in the book of Samuel, and I will speak briefly of it. This chapter deals with David’s rejection by Saul, which is a type of the period of Christ’s rejection; a period when critical situations arise. We see how the priests of God should be ready to meet need, so here it says that David came [p. 121] to Abimelech the priest, and in this case food was lacking. David here represents not only a rejected Christ, but also a priest, and from this time onward in his history we can see the priestly state developing in him. This state may be weak, as it is today, specially in young believers. In speaking of David in this way I am referring to chapter 23 where, although not of the priestly family, he enquired of Jehovah. So if he represents priestly features in a young believer it is obvious that such should have priestly food. So I would raise the question concerning brothers who take up priestly service; do they have priestly food? So we see that the saints are expected to have bread; I am responsible to have such a provision. In this city of Nob, David asks, “What is under thy hand? give me five loaves in my hand, or what may be found”. There is only holy bread, the priests’ food, there. I wonder if, in this locality, or in the localities represented here, we feed on Christ as Man. It is priestly food, what Christ is as Man before God. It is not manna here, which is indeed food for believers, but food for priests, as it says. The priest “gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the shew-loaves that were taken from before Jehovah, to put on hot bread in the day when they were taken away”.
David then said to Abimelech, “And is there not here under thy hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, for the king’s business was urgent. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of terebinths, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if thou wilt take that, take it; for there is no other save that here”. Here is another need, dear brethren; not only must we have food for the priests, but also weapons to defend the truth. Have we always that too in our respective localities? The truth must be defended by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The priest says, ‘We have [p. 122] a sword here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod’. The sword was there certainly, but wrapped up; nobody was using it. It was no ordinary sword, it was Goliath’s, typical of death. Satan makes use of death to keep the people of God in bondage, “those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”, Hebrews 2:15. But the power of Satan has been annulled, and we read, “that through death he might annul him who has the might of death”, Hebrews 2:14. The death of Christ involves that of the believer, and a believer applies it to himself: “Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth”, Colossians 3:5.
This famous sword was wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod, it was not in use. It is as though the truth is wrapped in creeds without being used; what is the use of having a thing without making use of it? David says, “There is none like that: give it me”. He could make use of it; it is the language of faith. If I understand that death has been annulled, taken out of the enemy’s hands, what a victory that is. I am no longer afraid of it. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, Romans 8:13.
I will close, dear brethren, with this thought from Luke’s gospel. The Lord Jesus when He was raised from the dead, came to His own as assembled. “He himself stood in their midst”. This meeting at Jerusalem is representative of any gathering of saints, so then we see the Lord comes to us. We have already spoken of this in our readings. “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, but when He comes He asks, “Have ye anything here to eat?” — a very searching question for each local gathering. We may think perhaps that it is more a matter of what He has for us, but He asks, “Have ye anything here to eat?” David asked the priest at Nob to give him bread, but the Lord does not specify any particular food, but asks, “Have ye anything here to eat?” If the Lord asks us this we must take care how we answer Him; there may [p. 123] be many things we are eating, which we should not be able before the Lord to admit was food. If we looked into the houses of the saints — no matter where — we should doubtless find many things being ‘eaten’, which we should not care to speak about to the Lord. Would you not feel ashamed to tell the Lord that you were feeding on magazines, newspapers or novels?
The disciples gave Him “part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb; and he took it and ate before them”. It seems that the disciples were quite sure that such food would please Him; they offered Him this piece of fish and some honey without hesitation, and He took it and ate before them. It is beautiful, dear brethren, how the Lord made this request and how they had something to give Him with such confidence. The Lord neither criticises nor complains, He simply ate it, removing all doubt, since He ate before them.
That is all I have to say. I trust you will understand the thought presented in these three passages; to know how spiritual resources can be acquired by an individual believer, or by a local gathering.