MORAL ELEVATION
[p. 298] MORAL ELEVATION
Exodus 19:1 - 6; Judges 9:7 - 21; 2 Chronicles 13:4 - 12
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak about moral elevation, particularly in what is said amongst us in the way of ministry, but also, as applying generally; for while the saints of God, who as loving Him keep His commandments, have to do with wilderness Circumstances, yet all is to be marked by moral elevation. You will discern, therefore, why I have read these scriptures recording utterances from mountains. Many others could be added, especially from the gospel of Matthew, but I confine myself to these three passages as sufficient for the purpose in view.
In general, the speaking which marks christianity at the present time — as is said in the epistle to the Hebrews — is from heaven. The Speaker is the Son indeed, as we read: “God ... has spoken to us in the person of the Son”, but it is not only the Person, it is also the position; hence, the epistle reminds us that the speaking is from heaven, involving the unfolding of what is there — what is above, what is far above current low religious speaking and communications. In view of this character of speaking, Luke records that the Lord directed His disciples to remain in the city, that is, in Jerusalem, until they should be clothed with power from on high.
The Old Testament anticipates the thoughts of the New and amplifies them, so in Exodus we have the great general principle that speaking is to be marked by moral elevation. Israel were then three months out of Egypt; it was the third month and the Spirit of God calls attention to their movements, so as to get us into position — an important matter, especially for the young people, as delivered out of the world, to get into the position necessary for divine communications.
[p. 299] The Spirit tells us that they had left Rephidim and had come into the wilderness of Sinai. They had moved that way; they were penetrating the wilderness; they had given up — for the moment, at least — any thought of returning to the world. Professing believers oftentimes look back longingly on what has been left, and this took place with Israel indeed earlier in those three months, but they heard Aaron speak — typically Christ, reminding us of His care for us, and sympathy with us — and it is said that “they turned toward the wilderness”. It is a very great matter when young people, after the temptation to go back, are influenced by such a speaking as effects this, and instead of looking back into Egypt, they look towards the wilderness, and God rewards them by causing His glory to shine before them (Exodus 16:10). How can a young believer think of going back after one view of that glory?
Now, they have come to the wilderness of Sinai, which has its own great meaning in Scripture, and they encamped before the mountain. This is not accidental. After you have had a certain experience out of the world you are confronted at once with this great thought of moral elevation, and that the communications you are to attend to henceforth are not to be on the level of man, however renowned the speakers or the writers may be. They encamped before the mount; they have taken up a position wherein they may be communicated with by God, but on the principle of moral elevation, and what follows is that the mediator comes immediately into view. Believers thus come to see that there is One between them and God; Moses ascends the mount — the position is magnificent — and Jehovah at once speaks to them out of the mount.
We have to note the position, as well as the Person who speaks; He is about to unfold great things to them, as it was said of old, “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” (Genesis 22:14); and now they are in the very presence of it, already known to faith; they have taken [p. 300] up a position in front of it. The mediator is available and goes up, and Jehovah speaks out of the mount. He is about to unfold great things, but first of all, He is to assert His rights over them, the rights of love. Can anyone resist the claims of divine love? At Sinai the rights of God, the rights of His love, come into evidence. In chapter 20 God speaks about the thousands of those who love Him. He is to have an audience of lovers.
Such is the great position here tonight. One glories in it, not that one would think of oneself, but the position that the brethren have taken up. It is a question of loving God in our times, and as lovers of God, as we have opportunity, we readily take up a position in which He can address us and assert the rights of His love. He speaks of the thousands of those who love Him; not of those who should, but of those who do love Him. That is the background of the moment, that there are those who love God; whether few or many, we may speak of those who love God, and how He loves to communicate to them, especially as they take up a position — as we have done here tonight — in His presence.
Now in order to set out the great principle that is to run through Scripture henceforth, God says to Moses, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob”. He introduces the great principle of speaking from the point of moral elevation, and here with the most beautiful touches as to what is in His mind for His people. He says, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation”. These words indicate the character of the communications of [p. 301] divine love. In uttering them God inaugurates this great principle of speaking from the mount. Surely it is that we should be attracted, that we should be interested and wait for more, and still more; as we are told: “as they were listening to these things, he added and spake a parable”, Luke 19:11. It is a question of the attitude of attention that we take up, and of the divine readiness to communicate to us.
Now I come on to Judges, for the passages read in Judges and Chronicles are those I especially wish to dwell upon. What we may notice is that the speakers follow the example set in Exodus 19. Jotham takes up a remarkable position in a very dark day, and he is an excellent example for us as dark days come — they have come and will come. He goes to the top of mount Gerizim, knowing well no doubt what the mount stood for spiritually. It bespoke blessing to Israel, but for the moment they were putting the blessing away from them. Alas! it is the state of christendom. The history of christendom is portrayed in these three passages — the inauguration of it in glorious richness in Exodus 19, but now a dark, dark day had arrived, a day of murderous ingratitude; for that is the point. Christendom is marked by this — and it is a most touching matter — murderous ingratitude issuing forth in one who is imbued with ambition. It is ambition that lies at the root of these efforts against God and against Christ, and so the citizens of Shechem, being relatives of Abimelech on his mother’s side, become a party to the murderous course of this ambitious man. One is not merely speaking historically; it is a question of the bearing of a passage of this kind on the present moment, and the danger of ambition, and the lengths to which ambition will go — the human heart being still the human heart — the efforts to gain partisan support, and then the lengths to which ambition will go in order to gratify itself — the casting aside of all right feeling.
Abimelech’s supporters furnished him with seventy [p. 302] pieces of silver out of the house of their idol to carry out his nefarious scheme, employing vain persons to accomplish the designs of his wicked ambition, and he murdered seventy persons of his own brethren on one stone. You ask, why on one stone? To bring out the utter hardness of the heart of the murderer. “Harden not your hearts”, God says. This terrible incident brings out the unrelenting ambition of this murderer to attain his end, that he did not hesitate for a moment — brother after brother slain, seventy of them on one stone, without a qualm in his conscience. That is one dreadful anti-christian feature, appearing at this early date. The thought of brethren had come out in relation to Gideon, and this son of his is utterly devoid of the feelings of a brother. He is on the line of Cain. Brotherly love is to be cultivated and maintained, otherwise we are exposed to the influence of hatred. That is the position; this murderous ingratitude exists abroad, against Christ and against those who love Him, His own, for these were the sons of the saviour of Israel at that time, as Jotham points out. The testimony was rendered from the top of the mount, where he uttered the remarkable words recorded here. The pith of his remarks is in the suggestion, typically, as to how the evil should be met, that each one retaining his own place should not be drawn aside by party influence or tempting offers. Party influence is a most pernicious and subtle thing, and the effect is seen in those who get into the current of it. Preservation from it, as Jotham’s parable teaches, is in holding to the position in which God has set you. God has graciously saved you, graciously forgiven you, graciously given His Spirit to you, and He has set you up in the exercise of profitable service to the brethren — do not move from it; any influence to divert you from that in the least degree is of the devil.
Jotham pictures the olive refusing the offer of the trees that it should rule over them: how firmly it inquires “Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man?” As a type of a christian it was consciously functioning, and hence was not deflected. John the baptist was serving in a lowly yet effective way, and the devil would divert him. It is said that “the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem” to him; Jerusalem was the centre of religious distinction and authority, and the messengers intimated that it was ready to honour him. Will he be diverted? No, he abode in his place, and gave Christ His place. That is our salvation in the face of such tempting influences. Likewise the fig tree has its service, to minister wholesome sweetness amongst the saints — surely a service of great importance. No, says the fig tree — or, rather, the brother who sees that he has the Holy Spirit, and can minister sweetly to the Lord’s people — No, I will not leave this blessed service that God has given me for any tempting offer. And likewise the vine, who rises, I suppose, to the most exalted thought in the passage, ministering to “God and man”. It is a very great matter to minister to men in preaching and visiting; all very good; but think of ministering to God also, cheering God and man! God is leading us up to this. The vine is occupied in it, and refuses to be deflected from its good employment. The service must go on, and a deaf ear is turned to the offer to rule over the trees.
One knows what is in one’s heart naturally, and speaks feelingly, for ambition to rule is in every human heart; but the danger I am speaking of is the possibility of its active presence in the hearts of those of us who are professedly walking in the truth. As I said, the point of Jotham’s speech is, Do not leave the service that God has graciously given you to perform. However tempting the offers, our salvation lies in holding to the positive line on which God has set us. Besides this, we enjoy the sense of His approval, and His favour is better than life. Nehemiah refused a tempting [p. 304] offer to come down to the plain of Ono, which is just looseness or latitudinarianism, and just the opposite to that which I have been saying. It is a suggestion to leave your moral elevation, suitable to God’s testimony, and to come down to a human level. Nehemiah says, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3. The vine was doing a great work, and so is one who ministers to God and men; and one proves himself to be an overcomer who turns a deaf ear to suggestions or offers that would divert.
I pass on to Chronicles to show how a state of things that seems at first to be of God, may come about amongst the saints, but may ultimately prove to be rooted in evil, and may develop into opposition to God. Jeroboam’s rebellion had seemed to be, and was, indeed, governmentally promoted by God. God creates evil, we are told (Isaiah 45:7); that is to say, things or persons in themselves evil may for wise purposes be allowed to attain positions of prominence or influence.
God’s judgments are unsearchable and His ways untraceable, and He is not obliged to give account of His matters; it is for us to look on and discern what is essentially of Him and for Him; and on the other hand, what He allows in His governmental ways, and which in itself is evil. The latter is seen in Jeroboam, and it is met by testimony rendered in moral elevation.
Some eighteen years had passed by, and Jeroboam had developed his true character. Let us be sure of this, that time will bring everything to light. I say time, but I mean God in time. God is the Author of time, and He is the first to have employed it. In the order of things with which we have to do, He created the first day, and so with every day of the working week. So it is in any time; time enters into any matter that arises amongst us, and faith will say, God is in this and will work in it for a result which will be to His own glory. Indeed, God said in regard of what is now under consideration: “this thing is from me”. Faith has to find out the divine end in such matters. What does this mean? Why should the son of Nebat be on the throne of Israel? It is surely an exercising matter for the saints of God.
At first Jeroboam seemed right, whilst Rehoboam failed sadly; but time brought out where Jeroboam was. Let us be assured of that; God in time makes everything clear. Jeroboam being a politician, and every party man among the people of God has this character, has to manipulate and calculate, and he said, If liberty is granted to my people to go to Jerusalem, they will turn away to their master, and will slay me. It came to light that he was thinking only of himself. The man who was seemingly raised up of God is now disclosed in his true character. So he took counsel and set up two calves of gold, one in Bethel and one in Daniel He formally established idolatry in Israel. Idols in Bethel and Dan would be conveniently available to the people who are told that these were their gods, who brought them up out of Egypt. He ordained a feast for the eighth month, the Spirit of God adding that Jeroboam devised it out of his own heart; it was his own scheme to divert the people from going to the house of God in Jerusalem (see 1 Kings 12:26 - 33).
That, dear brethren, is the sad background to this remarkable speech of Abijah’s. He stands up on mount Zemaraim in the presence of Jeroboam, who had a tremendous army — eight hundred thousand armed men of Israel against four hundred thousand which Abijah had. The position therefore was one of outward weakness on the part of Abijah and of strength on the part of Jeroboam, and this leads this priestly king — and let us remember that true priesthood is the great essential in all the service and all the administrations of God — in the presence of such opposition, to stand on the mount and make this spiritual address to Jeroboam and his great army. I wish you to follow [p. 306] what he says, so that we may see the bearing of it, why it is written down by the Spirit of God, and why I have read it this evening.
He addresses Jeroboam and all Israel: “Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?” He starts on the firm ground of an everlasting covenant of God — a covenant of salt. We are challenged in this as to whether we understand what is divinely fixed, what God has committed Himself to; and that whatever may happen, even His governmental actions which seem to be against it, as time proceeds, it will become evident that God is “the same yesterday, and today, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8), and that His gifts and calling are without repentance; that we may stand on the firm ground of the unalterable purpose and promise of God. It is a “covenant of salt”, he says. Think of this man, in the presence of this overwhelming multitude, bringing forward this great spiritual thought that there is “a covenant of salt”, and that all man’s might and all his doings cannot overthrow it. Then he proceeds and says, “Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord”. In other words, passing over what seemed to be the hand of God, at bottom this man was actuated by ambition, and he was a sinner of such a kind as to pass on his sin, for we are told of one after another of his successors that they were guilty of the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Now he is exposed.
Abijah further says, “And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David”. Note the sure ground Abijah again takes; it is the kingdom of Jehovah itself. See how he rises to the full thought of God in the kingdom. The kingdom is the Lord’s. Some may think that being in a certain position they may carry out certain plans or prevent certain thoughts being carried through, but let us be [p. 307] reminded of this, that the kingdom is the Lord’s. Although He has made us a kingdom, yet the kingdom is the Lord’s. It is an everlasting kingdom, and it is “in the hand of the sons of David”. That is a spiritual thought, and one might say much about it. There is the Son of David, and there are the sons of David, and Abijah asserts here that the kingdom is not simply David’s kingdom but Jehovah’s kingdom, yet in the hands of the sons of David. These are the ennobled ones, these are the pedigree ones, these that stand out in dignity and have right and ability to exercise the kingdom of Jehovah.
Then he proceeds to say to them, “Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord?” He arraigns Jeroboam and his party. They had cast out the priests of the Lord, and they had set up their own priests of all classes of men, not of the sons of Levi. So it is today. The so-called priests in christendom are exactly of this order, whilst God, keeping us in a humble attitude, would help us to call attention to the true priesthood, and not only that the true priesthood exists (1 Peter 2:5), but that it is functioning. That is the point I want you to note. We may say much, and comment on what there is, and perhaps truthfully, but the test is whether things are functioning among ourselves. So Abijah goes on to say, “as for us, the Lord is our God”. “Our God” is a phrase that runs through Scripture. Who is He? “To us there is one God, the Father”, we say (1 Corinthians 8:6). We have come into the light of the revelation of God in Christ — His Father and our Father. It involves real christianity and God is helping His people in it. The true service of God is carried on by those who know Him in this way — they worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is the Father of Christ and He is the God of Christ, and He is our Father and our God, and we assert it. It stands in contrast to the idolatrous state of things that is abroad. Jehovah is our God, Abijah says, “and we have not forsaken him”. The time had [p. 308] come for this. Had Rehoboam attempted such a speech it would have been wholly unbecoming to him, but now in the mount of Zemaraim, eighteen years afterwards, things having changed, God having acquired His place again, here is one who says, “we have not forsaken him”. Let us challenge our hearts as to it. What Abijah says is in type and principle the assertion of christianity — nothing less than that — at the present time. The enemy would seek to terrify us as to our part in it, but it is christianity or it is nothing. May we be able to say truthfully, “we have not forsaken him”!
The king goes on to say, “and the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business”. Let any one come and see! One point in the gospel of John is just that: “Come and see”, John 1:39. I am only bringing out the principle asserted here as to what is actually functioning, and it tells the true tale of what God has effected. In Revelation 11, the word was to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshippers. You see they are there; there is the temple, there is the altar, and there are the worshippers. God is aiming at bringing about in principle what He set up at the beginning — real christianity, nothing less than that. Whether it be in few or many, it is to be this, and it is to be no partisan matter. David said earlier, “Carry back the ark of God into the city”, 2 Samuel 15:25. Although for the moment ousted from his capital, he would not form a party; the ark in Jerusalem was the centre of the divine thoughts, and it would remain this. Hence as David’s faith reckoned, God brought him back as king to Jerusalem. As recognising the ark in its true significance, we shall refuse partisanship; we can never really reach any divine end on partisan lines.
These are the principles which Abijah asserts here. He says, “the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are the sons of Aaron”. What that means today is,
[p. 309] that there are true spiritual men who minister by the Spirit of God and have no confidence in the flesh. Then, the “Levites wait upon their business”. Let every levite here understand that he has a business. Is he attending to it? Is he waiting upon it? Or are his own material matters — family matters and the like — first with him? The levite waits upon his business; he attends to it. Woe be to us if we do not, as levites, attend to our work! “Cursed be he”, says the Spirit through Jeremiah, “that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently”, Jeremiah 48:10.
Abijah continues, “And they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him”. The lines are clearly drawn; Abijah says, You have forsaken Him, we have not. There are those today — and they are, alas! the vast number — who have in heart and by practice forsaken God; and there are those, comparatively few, who love Him; and who, like those with Abijah, adhere in practice to the principles and order governing God’s service, and God is with them. Indeed, Abijah says, “behold, God himself is with us for our captain”. That throws to the winds all mere party leadership.
Abijah further says, “and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you”. God’s rights and testimony, the testimony which Satan is so viciously attacking in these last days, is still sounding out among His people. We are to keep sounding out the truth; to get fresh things from the Lord and minister them in the power of the Spirit; thus there will be the overthrow of the enemy’s strongholds. Jeroboam ignored the word of God and prepared to attack the one through whom it came. He “caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the [p. 310] ambushment was behind them. And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind: and they cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets”.
I call special attention to this, particularly in relation to the meetings of the kind we are now engaged in. These meetings, large or small, are intended of God as occasions when, by His Spirit, He sets out the truth and proclaims His testimony. He would have us continue them, also all meetings of a less general character; but let all the services be in the power of the divine anointing, all carried on by the true priests of God. Judah here, in the midst of the ambush, cried to God; every true warrior of God prays. Abijah prayed, and the priests sounded with the trumpets; victory was certain. How stimulating for faith is the scene, as the enemy attacks in power! Jeroboam was overwhelmed. Half a million of his warriors are slain; he now has less than Abijah. I am stressing particularly the manner of the victory. It is through prayer and by the saints functioning as God has set them, especially the priesthood sounding out the testimony.
Now I think you will see that in following this line we need have no fear. As each is holding the position divinely assigned to him, and functioning in it, especially the priesthood sounding these trumpets, God gives the victory. May God grant the continuance of all this until the end.