PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (1)
[p. 327] PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (1)
We might consider certain features of the principle of recovery as seen in Genesis. There are four features of recovery in this book, and in each there is presented that which pleases God as the result.
It is a simple thing to say that the end in view in all God’s operations is to bring about something for His own pleasure. The end in Revelation 4: 11, gives God’s thought: “For thy will they were, and they have been created”. This section, which deals with creation, is on that principle.
In Genesis 5 we have the reinstatement of Adam as head, ending in Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who represents what is for God’s pleasure: “Before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”, Hebrews 11: 5. Perhaps the Lord would help us, in these days of recovery, that there should be full results, what is for the pleasure of God.
What pleased God is seen in the very beginning; it appears at the outset. God sees the creation that it is “good”; then, it is “very good”, the full result is reached. In the ways of God everything, whether good or bad, is worked out to finality. Jeremiah saw a basket of figs (Jeremiah 24: 2, 3), some very good figs, and some very bad; the present are the days when things are either very good or very bad.
Jeremiah was told to put on a girdle and not to dip it in water. Then the second time, the word came to him to go to the river Euphrates and hide it there in a hole of the rock. After many days he went back and digged, and took the girdle from the place where he had hidden it, and found the girdle marred (Jeremiah 13: 1 - 11). However much there is of outward [p. 328] nearness to God and privilege, unless it is dipped in water, we are good for nothing. Dipping in water is the application of death. Unless there is the application of the death of Christ, we are good for nothing; there is nothing for God.
There is to be discrimination at the time of the end. Mixtures are an abomination to God, even good things that are mixed. Everything is to be of its own kind. We have come in at the end when there is to be special discrimination: “Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still; and let him that is righteous practise righteousness still; and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still”, Revelation 22: 11. In the parable in Matthew 13: 47, the fishermen draw the net to shore and sit down; they take their time to sort out the fish, gathering the good into vessels, and casting the bad away; there has to be discrimination. God is bringing about what is very good; not quantity, but quality. Ephesians is the full result of God’s work.
“The just balance and scales are Jehovah’s; all the weights of the bag are his work”, Proverbs 16: 11. It requires delicate scales of fine measurements for His present work. His work in His people; we come to Troy measure. We do not know the weights He used in making the universe, or the kind of scales for so vast a work; but to us, now in this period of discrimination. He affords the means of determining the quality: “All the weights of the bag are his work”. There was not the same nicety of discrimination in weighing mountains and rocks; but weighing fine gold is delicate work. God has His own weights. What facilities God must have had in creation; but now what facilities He has in His work in His people; for He never gives up His purpose. God was acting and working, in the days of creation; then He appraises the result Himself. He saw that, “It was very good”.
[p. 329] We see the principle of recovery in this fifth chapter of Genesis. That which pleased God came out at the end of Enoch, the seventh from Adam; he was the full result of that period. In this chapter God goes back to the original thought, “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them; ... Adam... begot a son in his likeness, after his image” (verses 1 - 3). Here likeness is first, “A son in his likeness”. In chapter 1 it is, “In our image, after our likeness”; image comes first. Likeness is moral correspondence, image is representation, officially. There must be likeness before there can be image. Adam is emphasised in this chapter, not Eve. In type, the assembly is there, but all is found in Christ.
Seth, who is a figure of Christ, is the one in whom recovery is brought about. In Enoch we have recovery to the likeness of God, not image, but likeness. There is a tendency to accept something less than God’s thoughts, but God has nothing less before Him than Ephesians, Christ and the assembly, the full thought of God. He “gave him to be head over all things to the assembly”, Ephesians 1: 22. Recovery to be complete must correspond with that.
Adam failed in moral likeness, but recovery is in Adam: “Adam ... begot a son in his likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth”. Eve dominated in chapter 4. She led in giving the name to Cain; but when you come to Seth you have the moral principle. Enoch is the idea of likeness worked out. Seth accepts the judgment of God; he says, as it were, ‘I discern that this child of mine is going to die; he is a mortal man’. Then recovery lies in calling on the name of Jehovah (Genesis 4: 26). The Spirit of God now is able to take up the sons of Adam in the light of men calling upon the name of Jehovah. The Holy Spirit pursues that until the seventh, then the thing is worked out to a result. The [p. 330] great dominating feature is life. In the creation, in the third, fifth and sixth day, God reaches a scene of living things, a living order of things. There is first vegetation, then animal life, then man. Genesis 1 is really recovery; the darkness was local, “Darkness was on the face of the deep”. It was local relatively, the darkness was not universal. “And God said, Let there be light”. God said, as it were, ‘We must bring out a scene of life here’. The third day brings in what is for God’s eye, the green vegetation. The fifth and sixth days bring in animal creation, what answers to affections, “living souls”, Genesis 1: 20 - 23. In Revelation 4 where recovery is in view, the green, “an emerald”, is seen in the rainbow, the token of life. Then there are “living creatures” in the midst of the throne; they recognise the holiness of God: “And the four living creatures, each one of them having respectively six wings; round and within they are full of eyes; and they cease not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come”, Revelation 4: 8. This is a living state of things in holiness, “Within they are full of eyes” speaks of discernment, and when these living creatures “give glory and honour and thanksgiving to him that sits upon the throne”, then the elders say, “For thy will they were, and they have been created”. God’s full thought is reached, and the elders are the ones who announce it.
Cain’s offering could not have been a right offering without the burnt-offering. The meat-offering is provided in Leviticus; God accepts it in its place, but a living creature must be offered with it, a burnt-offering.
Enoch got the full divine thought after he begat Methuselah; then it is said that he walked with God three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. This is very practical. The christian must walk on both legs. Enoch set before his family the full divine [p. 331] thought in this respect; he walked with God three hundred years. The Lord Jesus was cut off in the midst of His days. Enoch was taken, before he filled the years, “he was not”, he was invisible. That is, he was not a Senator, or some notable man. God took him, although he was nothing in the sight of the world: “he was not”. We must have before us, every day and every minute, that God is going to take us. God reached in Enoch what He looked for when He came down into the garden in the cool of the day and called to Adam. In the seventh from Adam, He found what He was seeking, He sets out an ideal, then a course is pursued in which it is reached. He does not give it up. Recovery is to the quality of what God began with.
One is concerned as to how the saints of God are going to get through. The young people are coming into a system in this world developing rapidly in great prosperity. How shall we escape the awful influence of prosperity? Enoch was very good in contrast to what was very bad. Enoch was delivered from the system around him and knew the Lord’s mind; he prophesied of the Lord’s coming with “His holy myriads, to execute judgment”, Jude 14, 15. The present influences of prosperity are terrific. You say, ‘I have a family and a business and I must make my way’, but the question is, how much of a model are you? Enoch was a model; though no one followed his lead, yet he was a model. You not only have light, but you must be the thing. The younger ones should imitate the older ones. Enoch begat sons and daughters, that is the practical side.
The idea of likeness is ever present. John’s ministry coming at the end brings in the idea of likeness, “in the likeness of God”. It is a question of overcoming. John’s ministry brings in what God is here, so that there should be representation, like the Lord, made like Him. He breathed into them that they [p. 332] might represent Him. He had laboured to make them like Himself.
Enoch was formed by the light that was there. We are not told how it was carried through, but light was there. “By faith Enoch was translated”; faith laid hold on what was there; he knew God in the measure that God had come out. Enoch held and cherished every divine thought. We are not told how they were preserved; but the light was there and Enoch treasured it, every bit of it, and he walked with God.
The overcomer in Philadelphia includes the whole range of the truth. God had His own way of bringing the light into Enoch’s soul. He walked and developed constitutionally, and was formed and brought into agreement with God’s mind. It is a most precious thing to have conveyed to you that you please God, that there is correspondence with God. Likeness first, then image; image is representation; service is on that line, representing the Lord; but there must be likeness, without likeness it is incongruity. It takes time to bring about likeness to God in us. Do not put service before likeness, damage has been done there. What underlies service is the understanding that you belong to the family of the first-born ones registered in heaven. One is in the consciousness of being a son; you are greater than your service. In Romans it is “Son of God”; He is greater than His service.
Enoch walked with God, not God with Enoch. God is particular about His company. Genesis 4 is a chapter of disaster, where woman predominates; Genesis 5 is recovery to God’s thought, not a word about the woman. “He begot ...” all through; these are the begotten ones, the first-born are mentioned by name. This is the paternal side, the father; it is God’s line.
Enoch sees God’s judgment coming in. Recovery [p. 333] in chapter 5 is in contrast with chapter 4, where Eve was prominent. Begetting originates with God. In Philadelphia it is “The temple of my God ... the name of my God ... the city of my God”. Chapter 4 is one of disaster; Christ typically, dies there. His counterpart is Seth. He goes into death. Seth means, ‘appointed’, instead of Abel. Headship comes in in chapter 5, in Adam. Things will never be right if the woman dominates. Adam was in the image of God; this is presented in the masculine. Man is the image of God; the seed is of the woman. Of course there must be the woman for the working out of God’s ways; He called “their name Adam”. The woman finds her place at the feet of Jesus, as we see in the gospels. This leads to the assembly.
When the wrong principle is introduced, no matter how long a period intervenes, God never forgets it. In Timothy, where government in the house of God comes out, the woman retains her divinely given place. The assembly was made for Christ. In the Revelation the woman shows what she really is by leaving her place, with most terrible results: Jezebel is eaten by dogs; her hands and feet only are left. Judgment comes in at the end; divine principles must be adhered to now. The Lord made a great deal of women in the gospels, but they recognised His place; they are found at His feet. In the coming day, “Seven women shall take hold of one man” (Isaiah 4: 1); they recognise their place and man’s place.
In Genesis 5 the life-line culminates in Enoch. He lived by faith; he took account of the testimony that existed. Enoch had no company here, but he had “myriads” before him (Jude 14). Enoch never changed his company, three hundred years walking with God. Genesis 5 is the life-line. We look for translation. The life-line is in the seventh. All is in view of life, the life of Jesus. Enoch must have come under reproach; he was different from the men [p. 334] of his day. If you are different, if you are heavenly, you come under reproach.
The testimony in death is important in its place, but it brings life into evidence. In Genesis 5 death only brings life out, death enhances life, the power of life comes out, “We who live are always delivered unto death ... that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”, 2 Corinthians 4: 11. Enoch was a lonely man; Hebrews 12 brings out the cloud of witnesses among whom he shines.
Enoch’s father lived nine hundred and sixty-two years; but he died. Enoch evidently accepted that all were dying. The very presence of death helps us now. In the light of resurrection and translation we develop what is for God; we own that death is on us all; we live in the light of translation. You confess that you are not of God if you want to build up things here. Psalm 90 is mortal man. “So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”. God would impress upon you that death is on you; we “number our days”.
Faith connects you with an unending period, with what is eternal. God comforted Enoch with His own company. The dangers that beset young christians are appalling. God has opened up another world, and in the acceptance of it we escape the present evil one. What delight to God to have a man walking with Him! What opportunities Enoch would have of learning the thoughts of God!