OPPOSITION MET BY SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS
[p. 485] OPPOSITION MET BY SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS
The book of Samuel contemplates the testimony of God as in the vessels taken up for it and in peculiarly close contact with opposition. It contemplates opposition at a distance, such as artillery warfare, but it also contemplates immediate contact with the enemy; and this latter is the great feature in this book.
The book begins with Hannah who was in peculiarly close contact with her adversary. Peninnah is definitely called her adversary, one with whom she lived every day. And she made her opposition felt; she had an advantage. The Lord sometimes allows peculiar advantage to the opposition, to the enemy, so that Peninnah bitterly assailed Hannah — Hannah being childless, and she the mother of children.
The book thus begins, and the principle is carried right through to the last chapter where you see the great enemy, Saul, overthrown. That is what I have in mind particularly, to connect it with spiritual conditions, to show how opposition is negatived in and by spiritual conditions. Christianity is intended to set out what is spiritual. Above all the dispensations of God, this dispensation is intended to portray what is spiritual, and emphasis is therefore laid on spirituality in the New Testament: “the spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one”, 1 Corinthians 2: 15. He has a peculiar advantage: he is in a unique position. So that the final negation of opposition to truth is seen in the spiritual. They do not need to resort to violence; the power of spirituality effects the overthrow of opposition without violence. So that Romans gives this feature: “If [p. 486] therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink; for, so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head”, Romans 12: 20. Nothing would bring a man down like that.
I want to show from this scripture the kind of instrumentality God employs leading up to spirituality for the defeat of opposition. The chapter is marked by the most virulent opposition. Saul, being in supreme control of things, spoke to his son Jonathan, and his servants, that they should kill David. There was no concealment of his mind. I want to show how God meets that in certain instrumentalities leading up to spirituality, the final weapon, in His hand, for the nullification of opposition. There is the idea in Scripture of things being swallowed up, and I hope to show that opposition is entirely overwhelmed by spirituality.
In the Acts we have the antitype of all this. In chapter 5, the enemy assailed the position of christianity in Ananias and Sapphira, two covetous persons, two lying persons; that was met effectually. Then we find the high priests, supported by the infidel Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection, laying their hands on the apostles and putting them in prison. The first instrumentality that God uses is angelic. The angel came and opened the doors of the prison that night, and led them forth saying, “Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”, Acts 5: 20. Sure enough in the morning they were at their work. After a night in the prison, possibly without a seat even, they come out and are early in the morning in the temple announcing and teaching all the words of Jesus. This is discovered by the officers and they send and take them again. Angelic ministry has done its part, the roar of Satan has been heard — but presently we are told they did not bring them with violence this time for they feared the people; that [p. 487] was God acting on the people. The officers were afraid of the people and so did not treat them with violence, but still they brought them to the court. The multitude cannot get in there to do their will. What will they do now? God’s instrumentalities are always at hand and we never need fear that a way will be made. They are before the council and it looks as if things are going badly with them. But there was one man there in the council different from the rest; it does not say that he was a man of God, but he was a teacher, his name Gamaliel. God had His angel to take them out of the prison, the people to restrain the officers from violence, and Gamaliel to counsel that they should be released. He says, “Let them alone ... if it be from God, ye will not be able to put them down, lest ye be found also fighters against God”. God can put a word into the heart of a wicked man, or even an ass. God can make the stones to praise him! And so you see in Acts 5, the testimony goes on triumphantly. The apostles are released, though beaten first; they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer, and went on and preached in the temple and the houses, that Jesus was the Christ. The enemy in his own domain was defeated. We have many other instances.
In the type here, the testimony in the very closest contact with the opposition goes through. How the very personnel of the opposition, all the organisation of the opposition, becomes the instrumentalities for the protection of the testimony so that it goes right through!
Jonathan is a lover of David, but a lover of David who remained till his death in the house of Saul. He is one who remains in the organisation of the enemy. Is anyone here like that? As remaining there as a lover of David, God used him. I am not commending Jonathan for a moment in regard to his association, but would show the agencies that God uses and that [p. 488] we can rely on. There are lovers of Christ in the organisations around us. There are two things that should be noted: that God operates in spite of adverse conditions, and because of favourable or suitable conditions. He operates in spite of hostility, and also because of favourable conditions.
Here He operates in spite of adverse conditions the first, a lover of Christ in adverse conditions. Again I ask, is there one here like that — Jonathan was in the house of Saul and he was a lover of David. He undertakes to speak to Saul about him — no hardship to speak of one he loved. If you love Christ, it is no hardship to speak of Him even to an enemy. Jonathan was a true lover of David; Michal was a selfish lover. Jonathan loved David for his own sake. It says, after David had slain Goliath, and after he ceased speaking to Saul, Jonathan loved David as his own soul. A fine expression! That love remained all his life. A true lover of David in every association, and in these associations he is not ashamed to speak well of David.
So he says to David, “My father seeks to kill thee”. One of the most painful things among the brethren is concealment. Jonathan was open. A true mark of spiritual formation is that one is open and transparent. He says to David, “My father seeks to kill thee”. He knew what was in his father’s mind. There is no concealment, young people, of the opposition to Christ in what is around us. It is blatant. They deny His divinity. There is murderous opposition.
So Jonathan under God’s hand became the means of David’s preservation. He spoke well of David to his father. Do you ever speak well of Christ in that way to His enemies? A beautiful speech Jonathan made: he commends him. God reckons on everything that may be conducive for the testimony to go through. Whether it be the enmity of Saul or Jonathan’s love, God uses both that the testimony should go through. God uses everyday experience. Can He use it? If He can, let Him use it. Jonathan prevails, and Saul says, “He shall not be slain”.
The next feature is that there was war again. We need never expect to be free from war, nor be afraid. Samuel represents the testimony militant. Abigail speaks of David fighting the battles of the Lord. We want our names in the book of life. We want our names also in the book of the wars of the Lord. David had a very great place in that book. He fought the battles of the Lord.
So here one of the battles takes place and one can understand how this war would be recorded in the book of the wars of the Lord. David had a great victory. He smote the Philistines, and they fled from him. They mean men of big position here, men of culture, men of standing in a worldly way. Here was a stripling, but he had overthrown the leader of the Philistines, and now he fought them so that they fled. This again brings in the wrath of the enemy. Let us not be oblivious of the opposition to the true testimony of the Lord, to the true vessels that He employs, to His love, to His counsel. The opposition is unceasing.
But now Saul is sitting in his house, and David is playing. See the proximity of the vessel of the testimony to the arch-enemy of it. Saul had a javelin in his hand, sitting in his house. He did not need it there. There was Christ typically before him. The evil spirit was operating in his heart. “And David played with his hand”. Saul had in mind to smite him to the wall. No doubt he wanted to fasten him with a spear to the wall so that his escape would be impossible. This is another thing we should take notice of — the agility of the testimony, of what is of God. David is nimble, and God uses that agility. He fled: he got out of the way. It is a great thing,
[p. 490] as representing God, to discern that there is hostility and to get out of the way. God used David’s nimbleness to get him out of the way, and he escapes. The Lord did not get out of the way, there was no escape in that sense for Him.
The next instrumentality is Michal. She was a lover of David, too, though it does not say so here. I do not think she represents a true christian, but a system as a woman often does. I have no doubt she represents a system favourable to Christ as opposed to Rome. There are systems favourable to the truth, who have genuine regard for the Lord Jesus. The Church of England, for instance, has a genuine regard for Him. Under that, God has fostered the truth; the truth of the gospel has been maintained. Michal is not to be despised at this particular juncture. She let him down by the window. She is in good company. Rahab let the spies down by the window, and the people at Damascus let Saul down that way. There is not a spiritual man who does not thank God for the Church of England. They have given us an open Bible, they have appointed it to be read in churches. But she has an image: she is an idolater. I only remark they are agencies God uses, but He does not let them off.
She places the image where David had been. Instead of Christ there is an image. Is that where you are? You may think you have Christ, but you have not. Like the mother of Jesus, they went a day’s journey and thought He was with them, but He was not. Instead of David, there was an image covered with goat’s hair. The real David was gone. If anybody here is in such a place, where there is nothing but an image of Christ, do not stay there. If you want Christ Himself, He has fled.
He flees to Samuel: a different man from Jonathan, and different, too, from Michal. He is the last great instrumentality God uses for the preservation of the [p. 491] testimony. This leads David to spiritual conditions not found in the house of Michal or Saul; David is found where Samuel is. That was intelligence. He knew where Samuel was. After Samuel anointed David, he went to Ramah. He retired then from the judgeship of Israel, though in truth he judged it all the days of his life. He retired to Ramah, and what is he doing? He is presiding over a school of prophets. Is not he a beautiful type of Christ? We are enjoined in Corinthians to desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. In that way we edify the assembly. If an unbeliever comes in, he falls down and worships God (1 Corinthians 14: 25). The spirit of prophecy brings God in, and so the incomer falls down and says that God is among you. God is acting in prophetic speaking to bring in His mind to bear on the conscience of the brethren.
That is what was going on at Naioth in Ramah. It has a remarkable position in this chapter. The prophets were prophesying there.
David got into the company of prophets. He and Samuel went to Naioth. We are not told what went on until Saul sent messengers. He sent three times. What is to be seen, what is visible? What do the messengers of Saul see? They were sent with murderous intent, but what do they see? They see a company of prophets prophesying, and Samuel over them. A system that cannot be overthrown: the spiritual system that God has set up in Christ, set up in the assembly cannot be overthrown. Saul’s emissaries could not overthrow it. “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses ... they shall proceed no further”, 2 Timothy 3: 8, 9. A system set up in Christ in heaven cannot be overthrown. It is prevailing. The messengers of Saul see this, and they are overcome. Another set of messengers come, and they begin to prophesy: the Spirit overcomes them. They are not like the messengers whom Ahaziah sent to take Elijah; they [p. 492] were destroyed, but the spirit of christianity is not for violence. Spirituality will prevail, and it will overthrow the enemy at the closest contact.
The third company is sent, and they prophesy. What a great feature, if an enemy comes in and comes under the influence of heaven.
Then Saul himself comes. The very leader of the opposition comes himself. Let him come. This system of things that God has set up in Christ is not afraid of anyone. He came first to a great well. I do not suppose he ever understood much about the great well. Then he comes to the prophets, and he begins to prophesy, even before he came near Samuel.
What I want you to notice is that he is exposed in spite of the fact that he prophesied. He does not escape any more than Michal. The light exposes, it is that which makes manifest. Even though he joined among the prophets, he is exposed. He strips himself naked. Typically he never had suitable clothes and at the end, under the most favourable conditions, he is exposed. Let us be careful that if we come under the power of prophecy that we are not exposed.
The important point is that God used this final instrumentality for the overthrow of this opposition. Samuel presides over the prophets and brings down the opposition. If we cultivate this, and maintain it, we shall never be overcome. In this setting, David is protected. Samuel had Saul and the messengers under the influence of prophecy.