GOING IN FOR THE BEST
J Harthill
Song of Songs 3: 1–5; Colossians 3: 1–4; Numbers 27: 1–7
I desire, beloved brethren, to speak of our affections as related to the heavenly line of the truth. We have been speaking of how the Lord Jesus should have the right of way in our hearts and how
He builds inwards. The right of redemption would lie behind that, and it is very choice to think of the right which the Lord has to our hearts. So I think it is a question of the affections in a time of recovery that we have here in chapter 3 of the Song of Songs. We have had a high level of things up to this point in the book, but there has been departure and decline, so that at the opening of this chapter there is this expression, “On my bed, in the nights, I sought him”, as if it was a prolonged exercise, “I sought him whom my soul loveth”. We are all lovers of Jesus I trust, lovers of that blessed Man. What a privilege to be a lover of Christ!— to belong to that coming city—what a privilege! Now there is exercise here, suggesting that there has been a settling down in our circumstances, still having a desire after Christ but settling down lethargically, unresponsive to His heart. But He is not to be found in those circumstances of settling down; “I found Him not”.
Then she says, “I will rise now”. I think that this is the first movement towards recovery. Beloved brethren, we have passed through much; we have known low conditions—I just wish to bring it home to every heart as to where we have been. We can think of certain points in our history, “I sought him whom my soul loveth—I sought him, but I found him not”. Then the awakening—and there has definitely been an awakening in the souls of the saints. She sought him in the streets and broadways of the city. That was no place for a sister to be at that time. “The watchmen that go about the city found me”. She was in circumstances where perhaps her position would be questionable. Why was she there in the streets and broadways? There have been times in our experience when perhaps our position was questionable. I say it as understanding a little of these things through experience,
beloved brethren. “The watchmen that go about the city found me”; the Lord brings certain influences to bear upon us and we begin to consider where we are. There is a desire after Christ, a seeking after Him, but the way in which we are pursuing things is perhaps not altogether intelligent; but how gracious the Lord is, and He brings these influences to bear upon us to affect us.
Then I think there is a clear indication that she is affected, “Scarcely had I passed from them. When I found him whom my soul loveth”—beautiful language! Think of the grace of it! It is the grace of the dispensation. Has everyone here found the Lord Jesus? He has brought us through deep exercise with a view to getting deeper with us and touching our affections so that we arrive at a point like this, “I found him whom my soul loveth—I held him, and would not let him go”. This has been impressing my heart. What now comes to light is an energy of love that she had never known before. What has been our experience? Has the Lord reached this energy of love in your heart and in mine?
The days in which we are are finishing days, last days, difficult times, when we are surrounded by darkening influences. We need the energy of love. Well, have the experiences we have been through brought us to this, beloved brethren, “I held him”? It is very affecting, the point reached here. Are our hearts affected in relation to the heavenly line of the truth? It goes on to say, “I … brought him into my mother’s house. And into the chamber of her that conceived me”. What does this mean? I think it means that we know Jerusalem above which is our mother, a wonderful system of teaching under which we have been, the assembly. You must connect Him with the assembly. If you
think of Christ you must think of the assembly. Paul says, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” (Ephesians 5: 32), you must connect Him with the assembly, with the fellowship, with the circle where He is supreme. Think of the simplicity of this—yet the beauty of it.
When you come to Colossians, Paul gives us the wonderful glories of the Person of Christ. He presents Christ first, then he brings in the assembly. “He is head of the body, the assembly … firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things”, Colossians 1: 13. The heavenly line of the truth is that you connect Him with the assembly. We have read, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above”. I think that the seeking indicates clearly that it is a question of the heart, “I sought him whom my soul loveth”. Our affections need to be seeking the things which are above, where He is.
I believe it connects with Colossians 2: 11, as to circumcision, the “putting off of the body of the flesh”; then it says, “buried with him in baptism”, and then it speaks of being raised with Him. I want to speak simply so that the youngest heart may be able to follow in some measure what I have to say. I think the truth is that we go out of sight. There is “the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ”; we go out of sight in baptism, and we reappear in resurrection, “raised with him through faith of the working of God”. It is a faith position, not yet resurrection in actuality, that is still to come, but it is a faith position taken in the power of the Spirit. We appear in that sense in life, for it goes on to speak of quickening, living in Christ’s life, living in relation to another order
of things altogether. Is that not beautiful, beloved brethren? It is the things above; it is not said to be the things in heaven. What scope there is as we begin to take it in. Let us seek the elevated things, the great heavenly line of the truth, things which are above, and have our hearts set in that relation, “Where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”. Are we holding Him and not letting Him go? Are our hearts set in relation to this line of things, this wonderful heavenly line of the truth? We are in smallness—some localities are very small— but oh, beloved brethren, the truth is there. We are proving it, being set in relation to the greatest thoughts of divine love, the affections being in it.
Then it goes on to speak of the mind—“Have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth”. This is a constant test. I think it means not at just some particular point, not occasionally, but constantly, our affections and our minds are to be set on the things above. There is so much to occupy our minds these days if we allow them to be influenced by it. The deterioration on every hand is so evident. Think of the moral deterioration and departure that is so evident. Think of the deterioration in government, the deterioration in industrial relations. All this is in contrast to setting our minds on things which are above. It takes us completely above. We have, of course, to move in this present scene. We have our part in responsibility, but in this line of things, by faith and the power of the Spirit, we can set our minds on this vast scope of the things that are above. I think it is essential to lovers of Christ, who are holding Him, that our minds and affections should be set along this line, so that we are living in relation to another order of things altogether, another Man and another world.
Well, it is a challenging thing for our hearts, beloved brethren, but how precious it is, and I suppose it would be right to say that we come into these experiences in the service of God. We take this ground by faith and in the power of the Spirit as buried with Christ and raised and quickened, ‘With Thee we died, in Thee we rise on high’, we sometimes sing. As the Lord comes in we take that ground of being with Him in life, and go on to the enjoyment of our highest assembly privileges. We all understand something of these precious things, that is one side, but I believe it is to be a constant matter that our affections are set on the things above where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, and that we set our minds on the things which are above and not on the things on the earth. It says, “for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God”.
When I read this passage it reminded me of a time, shortly after I came into fellowship, when an older brother said to me, ‘I was offered a ticket by a man I knew well for a concert on a certain night. I replied, Oh no, I am not interested in the concert. The man said to me, You people are just as good as dead; you do not go in for any of these things at all’. The brother said that it struck him quite forcibly—we are dead, and our life is hid with the Christ in God. People do not know where we are finding our life, and how precious it is to find it in relation to another order of things.
We need to consider the reality of the things which we enjoy, “Ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. That is a scripture I love to think about. It brings the
transfiguration, as presented in Luke 9, to mind. Moses and Elias appeared with Him in glory. Think of the way in which those two men shone in the testimony. Moses the great minister, and Elijah who stood for the rights of God in a dark day. What men they were, and here they are appearing with Him in glory. Does it not stir our souls that we are going to be manifested with Him in glory? So what kind of persons should we be now? It ought to be a very affecting thing to us that we are going to be manifested with Him in glory, and I repeat, what kind of persons are we now? Are we going to be worthy? We can say from our hearts that these two men were worthy. Moses—the meekest man in all the earth, pointing on, as he does, to the Lord Jesus, the meek and lowly Man, but the feature was there in Moses—“very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”, Numbers 12: 3. Think also of what shone out in Elijah as he sought to maintain the rights of God. Both these men appeared with Him in glory. Oh does it not affect our souls? When He who is our life shall be manifested, “then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”. What an outlook for the older brothers and sisters especially, and what an outlook for the younger ones, too, the prospect of being manifested in glory with Jesus.
Now I wish to speak about the daughters of Zelophehad and what they sought. The children of Israel were nearing the time for going into the land, the culmination of the wilderness pathway, and these daughters of Zelophehad appear before Moses and Aaron, the princes, and the whole assembly. The position of these five daughters might suggest a certain weakness, and do we not feel the smallness of things? Sometimes this may affect us (I speak for myself), but let us not in any sense be discouraged. These five daughters of Zelophehad
represent true and intelligent assembly persons I would say. They are ready to speak of their father, he “died in the wilderness, and he was not in the band of them that banded themselves together against Jehovah in the band of Korah; but he died in his own sin … Why should the name of our father be taken away from his family?”. The desire of these sisters follows after the springing well in chapter 21, suggesting a true result of the service of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the saints, a subjective result. They are going over and they are going to inherit.
Now God loves that. I say that because it is said clearly that the people “despised the pleasant land”, Psalm 106: 24. This is something that has been affecting me greatly. You know, beloved brethren, we want to think of our own position, as to where we are now, and perhaps it is easier than we think to despise the pleasant land and the great thoughts of God. Are we going the whole way? Colossians and Ephesians present the fulness of divine thoughts, the fulness of things relating to the assembly, thoughts of divine grace and love in all their beauty and fulness are brought out. Are we going the whole way? Do we appreciate what God has for us, the very best? Think of how the land is spoken of in Deuteronomy, as a land flowing with milk and honey. Think of its wealth. Are we on this line, or are we despising the pleasant land? It says, “See, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief” (Hebrews 3: 12), the affections affected adversely, despising the pleasant land.
Thank God we are still privileged, beloved brethren, for in the mercy of God we have been brought through. Think of the grace of our position that, although in weakness, all this lies
before us. The greatest thoughts of divine love lie before us. Are we going to appreciate them in our hearts? What an appreciation of heart there was in these sisters—“Give unto us a possession among the brethren of our father”. Dear young person, have you that desire, to inherit amongst the brethren?—for that is where you enjoy the great thoughts of divine love, in that circle where Jesus is loved, in which He is supreme. If you are holding Christ, you hold Him in relation to the assembly, and you hold Him in relation to the great thoughts of divine love. In Ephesians 1: 22 it says that God “gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”. Now that is a wonderful thing, what the assembly is as the body, representative of Christ. We know that in a coming day the assembly will be over the earth in relation to the universe (note how John speaks of the city and “her shining”). That is the idea of “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, but there is also the thought, I believe, of “the assembly which is his body”. If I might refer to Ephesians 3: 21, we have there the most wonderful things, “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. The assembly is essential to the filling out of the service of God eternally.
Well, these are the things before us, beloved brethren; are we going to go the whole way? Moses presented their cause to Jehovah, and Jehovah said, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right”. How pleasing to the blessed God when the hearts of the saints are set upon the inheritance! Do we say, ‘Give us the inheritance’? How good to look round on the brethren, however few, and to think of what is before us at this point in the testimony. Are we going the whole way? Are we set for the inheritance? God loves it to be so with His people.
Oh may our hearts delight the blessed God as they are filled with increased desire to go that way, to possess the inheritance. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Doncaster
13 September 1975