SEARCHED AND SUPPORTED
[p. 437] SEARCHED AND SUPPORTED
The Lord is presented here as in the midst of the assemblies, taking account of everything. Nothing escapes His notice; He searches out and withers up everything that is not of God; but then He becomes the source of strength. John fell at His feet as dead, but He laid His right hand upon him, and said, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one” (verse 17). It is good to be searched by the Lord, for then He is known as strength. He brings to nothing all that is of man in the flesh, that He may be everything for faith.
Christ is everything in christianity, but in the actual history of the assembly many things have come in which are not Christ. There would be no defect to point out if the wrong man had not come in, and death comes upon that man. When Christ appears as the sun shining in its power all that is of the flesh withers up. “The sun has risen with its burning heat, and has withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the comeliness of its look has perished” (James 1: 11). So in a coming day when the Sun of righteousness arises, the Lord alone shall be exalted. That is just the lesson for us. We have to do with One in whose presence all that is of the flesh is withered up. Then we cease from man, and the Lord is to us light and grace and strength; He maintains us according to God’s will in the kingdom and priesthood.
The Lord searches out and exposes everything that is inconsistent with our place as a kingdom or as a priesthood (verse 6), but it is that He may work in us what is according to God, and be strength for us in the position where grace has set us. It is all grace in the truest sense, for the things exposed will not do for God, and the exposure comes in that we may judge them and be in accord with God. The Lord is well able to maintain us for God; when He puts His right [p. 438] hand upon us we are empowered to be here for God’s service.
There is a suggestion of distance in all this (verses 12 - 16). The Lord stands in priestly dignity in the midst of the assemblies to take account of everything. He is girt about the breasts with a golden girdle; His affections are not flowing out freely, they are restrained, for He is estimating everything according to divine glory and holiness. Many events that transpire amongst saints are simply the Lord putting His finger upon things which He cannot countenance. Many things pass with us that do not pass with Him. Under His searching gaze we may have to fall at His feet as dead, but then His right hand is put upon us, and we know Him, the living One, as the source of strength. “Fear not”, is His word, “I am the first and the last”. He has been the First with us if we are Christians at all, and He means to be the Last. He will set everything aside but Himself. He has to bring us to our bearings, but it is that He may give us the blessed sense of nearness, and empower us for the service of God. We are only capable of serving God as empowered by this blessed Person. In His presence we learn what we are, but we also learn what He is, and what it is to be maintained in His power. It is thus we become overcomers.
The thought of “right hand” (verse 17) is power. It is like the Lord saying to Paul, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9). Paul had to be brought to nothingness in himself, and then Christ became the source of grace and strength for him. To hold to this is to be maintained in “first love”. The Ephesians had got away from this; they were zealous and faithful, but they had got away from the Tree of life. They were going on with good things externally, but they had forsaken the living Spring. This was the first step to Laodicea, to being rich and increased with goods, having need of nothing, and the Lord outside! None would like to be in that state, but are we not often on the road that leads to it?
[p. 439] Before the failure of the assemblies is dwelt upon, the corrective is supplied. The experience of John (verse 17) gives the divine corrective of all defection, and it is an experience which should be maintained with us. In learning our own nothingness and the all-sufficiency of Christ we come into a circle outside all the failure of man. This is what the assembly was called to, and the assembly’s portion is held out to us still. Ephesus might have enjoyed the tree of life, but the overcomer gets it. The true portion of the assembly according to divine love is open to the overcomer.
The word of God and the priesthood of Christ are suggested in this chapter. John was so searched that he fell at the Lord’s feet as dead, but on the other hand he got divine support. Peter felt his weakness (Matthew 14: 30, 31), but then he proved the Lord’s support. So also wrestling Jacob got nothing, but when he was subdued he became Israel, and as a prince with God he prevailed. The subdued man has divine power.
To have to do with the Lord is very encouraging, though it may be humbling and exercising. It brings about true circumcision, so that we worship by the Spirit of God, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3: 3). We cannot be near God without these exercises. We are not right in the kingdom or in the priesthood if we do not in some measure (feeble it may be with the best) learn these lessons.
There is nothing to fear in the searchings of God. They lead to holding the Head, to the apprehension and appreciation of the One in whom everything is held for God, and who is the source of everything for us. The more we know the love and pleasure of God, the more we shall welcome His searchings.
The great thing is to keep Christ’s word, and not deny His name. His word is the revelation of the Father, and His name is the name of One in whom all the Father’s thoughts are established. Keeping His word and not denying His name [p. 440] depend on our apprehension of Him as “the holy, the true” (Revelation 3: 7). The Father’s name is a holy name. If all that God is has come out, there must be holiness. Holiness and truth go together. “Holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12: 14).
The Lord takes account of things according to the full height of God’s thoughts. The tendency with us is to drop down to the level of what is current, and to measure things by a human standard, forgetting that God never gives up nor departs from His own thoughts. The calling is maintained at its full height in Christ Himself, and He would maintain us at the height of the calling.