PROSPERITY IN LIMITATION

J. G. Chalmers

Genesis 39: 20–23; 2 Kings 5: 1–4; Revelation 1: 9–11

The persons read of were in restricted circumstances and thus represent the testimonial position publicly. There is no evidence that they found their circumstances irksome. It says of Joseph, when he was put in the tower-house, that “he was there”, and of the little maid that “she waited on Naaman’s wife”, and John says that he “was in the island called Patmos”.

These remarks indicate that each of these persons fully accepted their limited circumstances as the will of God, and the Lord blessed them and used them for they were truly vessels to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master.

Joseph is a most interesting young man and a very commendable example for all our younger brethren, and for all of us, as to his moral conduct. Earlier in the chapter he is confronted day by day with a wicked woman whose intent was to seduce him. But Joseph refused. He kept himself; he knew how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour. In Potiphar’s house he is, to speak simply, at his work, as it says in verse 11, “he went into the house to do his business”. At our work out there in the world we are faced with what this woman represents—the world as a moral system of which Satan is god. He has his emissaries everywhere; he is studying persons who are linked with the testimony of our Lord and his objective is to overcome and overwhelm them. It is great to see a young person refusing every suggestion to sin. Joseph refused. He thought as to how it affected God; “How should I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”.

That is the right way to think, the priestly way. Dear young brethren, do not trifle with sin, do not toy in your mind with any suggestion that comes from the wicked one. Be like Joseph and refuse and be prepared to suffer rather than sin. Typically, Joseph is a young man in the gain of Romans 8 where, by the Spirit, you have power to refuse every suggestion to sin, or compromise, or surrender the truth, and you take account of every matter as it affects God and the testimony of God.

Well, because of his faithfulness, his lord puts him into the tower-house, and the Spirit says, “and he was there”. That shows that he fully accepted his limited circumstances as the will of God. As a young man, full of the energy of youth, he would feel this. Indeed, it says, “his soul came into irons”, Psalm 105: 18. We who are older can sympathise with our younger brethren who may feel at times that they are restricted and hemmed in. As the possibilities of promotion, advancement, and making more money open up before you, perhaps you sometimes would like to be free of the limitations linked with the fellowship. But if you were to take that way it would only lead to spiritual disaster, to darkness and death morally. “Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death”, Proverbs 7: 27. There is every incentive and encouragement to accept fully the limitations linked with the testimonial position publicly, for the Lord will be with you. Jehovah was with Joseph. The time of suffering testimonially will soon be over for ever. Everything points to the fact that the Lord will soon be here and my concern is that every one present may be preserved livingly in the testimony of our Lord till He comes. In the tower-house were “the king’s prisoners”. What companionship for Joseph! The world cannot offer companions like that, they might suggest the elite of heaven, heaven’s nobility, “the king’s prisoners” men like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul and Silas, Peter and John, and others. Heaven’s royalty is suffering today, for the testimonial position publicly is a suffering one.

Then it says of Joseph, “whatever they had to do there he did”. Most of our localities are small and we may think that there is not much to do, but there is plenty to be done. Rooms have to be kept clean and tidy; heating attended to; the announcements and reading of the Scriptures; the care of the preaching; elderly and infirm brethren transported to and from the meetings; the sick visited, and so on. There is much to be done, so just commit yourselves fully to the Lord’s interests in the place where He has, set you; and what is to be done, you do it with a willing spirit, in the spirit of Christ, the One of whom we often sing, ‘He no service thought too lowly’. Such persons are needed in every locality. As we accept fully the circumstances of limitation, and commit ourselves without reserve to the Lord’s interests, prepared to do what needs to be done, then an air of spiritual prosperity will mark our gatherings. What Joseph did, Jehovah made it to prosper.

The little maid in 2 Kings 5 is another very interesting person. In captive conditions she waited on Naaman’s wife, or as it may read, she was before Naaman’s wife. There is a moral thought in that; she was outwardly little but inwardly great. We have been taught that, morally, she is the great woman of 2 Kings 4. In that chapter we travel typically from Romans to Ephesians. In Romans 8 we are great persons inwardly—sons of God, children of God, heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs; and in Ephesians 1 we are great persons—chosen in Christ, marked out beforehand for adoption, taken into favour in the Beloved. The more we understand and enjoy our inward greatness, the more we shall be prepared to accept outward littleness, like this maid. She would wait on Naaman’s wife in the spirit of a true Ephesian bondman (see Ephesians 6: 5–8), accepting fully her limited circumstances without complaint or vindictiveness. In her employment she is taken account of as “the maid that is of the land of Israel”. She was different, she had no worldly features, she was “of Israel”.

Beloved brethren, we are heavenly, and we should maintain the heavenly character day by day in the sphere of testimony. This maid would not have her hair cut. It is shameful for a sister to have her hair cut. Indeed, in the light of Scripture, it is shameful for any woman to have her hair cut (see 1 Corinthians 11: 6). She would not wear trousers, for a woman in man’s apparel is an abomination to Jehovah (see Deuteronomy 22: 5). She would wear the token. That may seem a mere detail, but it is a very important matter. It is scriptural (see 1

Corinthians 11: 10). It is on account of the angels, and indicates that the woman recognises her place in creation in subjection to the man. This maid’s comely deportment would lend moral power to her word as she pointed to one who would cure Naaman of his leprosy, and her testimony was effective in that the leper was cured. This incident would encourage each of us fully to accept the restricted circumstances of the testimony publicly, to be faithful in them, and as true Ephesian bondmen, with our souls bathed in the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, to be available to the Lord for the help and blessing of others.

In Revelation 1 it is an aged brother, John, who has matured in the testimony. He had a long consistent history of faithfulness to Christ. He had a spiritual personality, “I John”. It is fine to have such men amongst us. Let us respect and value them. John knows where he is and why he is there, in the island called Patmos, not ‘on’ but “in” it. ‘On’ is a superficial thought, but “in” shows that he is fully in the separate position which Patmos denotes. He was isolated but he was fully ‘in things’ as we speak. He was “in the tribulation”, “in Jesus”, “in ... Patmos”, and “in the Spirit”. He was in the enjoyment of Christianity in power. What a comfort to some of our dear brethren who are in isolation today! There is no compromise or surrender of separation with John. He is isolated for the word of God—the word of God had affected John morally—and for the testimony of Jesus. John did not have the truth in terms only; it was set out in him personally; he was a man morally like Jesus. Because of this he finds himself in limited circumstances, but he does not complain. He looks round on the saints in the whole universal position who are suffering in the testimony and says so feelingly, “I John, your brother”. He cherished his links with the brethren.

It seems that it could read, “I John, your brother ... in Jesus”. That is an affecting thought. We regard every believer as “in Christ”; we walk with those who are “in the Lord”; but this reference to “in Jesus” would bear upon the delicate, refined, and sensitive side of our links together in the testimony. The enemy is trying to break in upon that today and cause bad feeling between brethren and between local assemblies, so that we need to be exercised to maintain those tender and sensitive feelings as “in Jesus”. John is fellow-partaker in the tribulation. He would have heard Jesus say, “In the world ye have tribulation”, John 16: 33.

Now he is aged and he is not shirking the tribulation but is fully in the sufferings connected with the testimony. He is “in the ... kingdom”—he is wholly submissive and subject to the will of God. He is “in the ... patience”. The footnote to James 5: 7 reads, ‘The man who is ‘patient’, though under great trials, bears up, and does not lose heart or courage’. That is John. His testings are great, but he is not going to give up; he is going to go through in power. He was in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in power, for all these matters are intimately connected.

Then he says, “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. His circumstances were very restricted, his sufferings very real, but there was a way out in the Spirit. John experienced that. The way out of what is circumstantial and limitation is in the Spirit, into a realm which is heavenly and eternal. O, dear brethren, as we accept fully the limitations and suffering linked with the testimonial position, then our liberty to move into the spiritual realm will be simple and easy.

‘And see! the Spirit’s power

Has ope’d the heav’nly door,

Has brought us to that favoured hour

When toil shall all be o’er’. (Hymn 74)

This seems to have been a normal experience with John. When the Lord’s day came round he just moved easily out of his circumstances into the heavenly realm by the Spirit. What a scope of things was unfolded to him!—he got a vista of the whole responsible history of the assembly; of the completion of the ways of God on the earth; of the assembly in its millennial and eternal settings. Surely this is to encourage us to accept fully the limitations of the testimony publicly, and as we do so we experience what it is to become in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and touch the blessedness of the eternal scene. May the Lord be pleased to bless the word.

Address at Peterhead
26 April 1980