EDUCATION FOR EFFECTIVE TESTIMONY (3)
[p. 44] EDUCATION FOR EFFECTIVE TESTIMONY (3)
2 Kings 5:15 - 27; 2 Kings 6:1 - 23
JT On Saturday evening it came before us that the little maid of chapter 5 represents the normal result in all believers of the teaching of the previous chapters, particularly chapter 4, in which we have the use the believer makes of the Spirit graciously given to him according to Romans 8; so that he pays his debts; that is, discharges his moral obligations, and lives off the rest. He fulfils the righteous requirement of the law as walking after the Spirit, and the Spirit in him is life. So that the Shunammite woman, who is said to be a great woman, is the continuation, spiritually, of the wife of one of the sons of the prophets who is said to live. Living by the Spirit we become spiritually great or wealthy. Then the Shunammite, it says, discerned that Elisha was a holy man of God. As one recognises the Spirit thus, he discerns Christ, not only as come to meet his need, but as related to God — He is characterised by what is of God. And then she makes provision for him. The believer makes provision for the testimony — for Christ is the Vessel of the testimony — and also for those whom He uses. Then, being childless, she receives a child, and has to learn that she is to have him on the principle of resurrection, not according to nature. So the child dies, and is raised by Elisha. Thus the believer advances in his soul on to the truth developed in the epistle to the Colossians, where we apprehend Christ risen from the dead, and that we are risen with Him. Then, in the end of the chapter, there is a further thought, namely, that the man from Baal-shalisha brings barley loaves of the first fruits, meaning, as it came before us, the truth of Ephesians, that which comes from heaven;
[p. 45] so that the believer — reaching the full thought of God in Christ the first-fruits in heaven, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, knowing his calling — is enabled to be effective in his ministry or testimony in obscurity. He needs not to rely on his official place, or the place his ministry may give him, but is content to be obscure; nevertheless, he is effective. So the little maid witnesses in a feeling way in regard to Elisha to her mistress, and desires that her master should see or stand before, the prophet that was in Samaria. Thus we reached chapter 5, which is before us tonight, and a further thought that came out was that Naaman had to act on the word. All his own innovations or additions, such as the talents of silver, the shekels of gold, and the changes of raiment, and the letter to the king of Israel from the king of Syria, were extraneous, and had no bearing on the great problem of his healing. He had to act on the word that came to him from the little maid. That word directed him to Elisha, and not to the king of Israel, and so when he comes to Elisha, Elisha sends him a further word, and he has to act on that. Elisha does not show himself to him at first — he sends him a word. That is, our attention is called to the authority of the word of God. If a man is to come into blessing he has to abandon all thought of his own additions; they are of no value at all, but the contrary; he has to go entirely by the word of God.
WJY That scripture in 2 Timothy 3:17 would fit in there, “throughly furnished unto all good works”.
JT Just so. Every Scripture is inspired of God. Do you not think thus, that we, at the outset of our service, learn to rely on the word?
JAB So that the servant has a sense that the word is greater than his own service?
JT Quite. And then Naaman, acting on it, as he finally does through the persuasion of his servants,
[p. 46] gets the blessing. He plunges into Jordan seven times, and his flesh becomes as the flesh of a little child. That is, he is brought lower than the little maid. He is now, as you might say, in correspondence with the vessel through whom, primarily, the message or light came to him. So that he, being as a little child, is prepared now to receive further light or ordering, and is qualified for the fellowship of the people of God. In order to be qualified for the fellowship of the people of God one has to be brought into correspondence with them in some measure at least. It is obvious that the great military leader of Syria, viewed in that light, was in no sense in correspondence with the little captive maid in his household, so that there was no basis of fellowship; but now it is different. He is no longer to be viewed in that light, but in the light in which he came up out of Jordan. Viewed in the light in which he came up out of Jordan, he is, in a measure at least, in correspondence with the little maid. I think that there is an important point there for all persons who would be in the fellowship of God’s people. That is, there must be correspondence with Christ, and with the people of God. Otherwise there can be no link of fellowship.
WJY That is very far-reaching.
JT It brings it down within everybody’s range, because we are speaking of a “little child”.
ALM Does Matthew 11:25 bear upon it? “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes”.
JT Yes, I think so. And so the Lord, in Matthew 18, leading up to the assembly, calls a little child to him, and sets him in the midst as if he were to be a model, so that unless one is converted and becomes as this little child, he will in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
GHMcK Does it correspond with 1 Corinthians 1 [p. 47] where it speaks of God using the weak things of this world to confound the mighty?
JT Yes. This little child is material which can be used. You can start afresh. All the sophistication of this world is discarded, it is worse than useless. You can begin from the bottom with a little child; it is impressionable. So that the most learned or the most dignified in the community, if he is to come into fellowship, must leave all that outside — he comes in on the basis of a little child.
WJY So that on that line we never lose the little child characteristics. No matter how we grow, or how much we learn, we would always remain, in our spirits, in that character.
JT We read, “As new-born babes” (1 Peter 2:2). There you have Peter taking up the same thought. It is, of course, a reproach to be a babe from another point of view, if it be a question of spiritual stature, but what we are speaking of now is a babe in contrast to what a man may be through the world’s culture and education.
GAvS Would you say that Naaman had to turn his back even upon himself as the man by whom God had vouchsafed deliverance to Syria?
JT All that had to go. What God may do with him in His government, does not enter into the assembly.
ALM Would you go so far as to say that he did go into the waters of Jordan in the spirit of his mind?
JT Well, that is the principle, exactly.
WJY I have sometimes thought that we may turn our backs on personal greatness for the purpose of entering the kingdom, but then we take it up again.
JT We bring it in surreptitiously.
HW What is going to meet that?
JT The great thing is transparency. I think a little child suggests simplicity, transparency, he hides nothing. There are those that you have to do with,
[p. 48] against whom there could be no specific charge, and yet the body is not luminous; there is a part dark. “If ... thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matthew 6:22). The saints have no difficulty about you, if you are luminous; but if there is a part dark, there is reserve; and if that exists, you have to wait because the little child stage is not there.
AHC Peter had to be exposed by the Lord when He said, “Lovest thou me?” (John 21:16) to show the reserve that he had.
JT Quite.
GAvS I suppose the openness and unreserve of a little child, as seen in the saints, beginning their Christian course, is really what gives favour in the eyes of God. They begin as those who have had every possibility of reserve removed from their souls, so that they can afford to be perfectly open, because there is nothing to hide.
JT Quite. And the little child is easily loved. I suppose that in the whole of God’s creation there is no being on earth so universally attractive as a little child. So the saints can begin with one coming in, in freshness and liberty, and we grow up together in those circumstances.
GAvS How the interest of that little maid would have been intensified in receiving Naaman back! She had an interest in him in the first instance, but I suppose that interest must have taken form and become intensified when she found him coming back as a little child.
JT I think that they would have an enjoyable time spiritually as he returned. But then, you see, he is not thinking of her for the moment, he is thinking of the mule’s burden of earth. He is thinking of God, which surely is the first thing.
GHMcK Would you say how he arrives at that, because Elisha had not spoken to him of God, nor had the little [p. 49] maid?
JT He must have had some knowledge of God; we have here only a type, of course, but it is a type of the believer at the present time, he is a subject of the gospel. He has heard the gospel; the great thought in the gospel is to present God — God in Christ.
JSB The Lord took little children in His arms and put His hands upon them, and blessed them; if there is that character of transparency, blessing will follow.
JT Yes. And as laying His hands upon them He meant to put His own impress there. He identifies Himself with them.
But “this earth”, as it reads here, has fellowship in view. He says, “Then let there, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of [this] earth”.
JW Would it be Naaman’s instinct concerning God that made him desire the earth?
JT I think the gospel, rightly presented, conveys every element that is to be developed in the Christian later. It presents God. It is God in Christ. So that, as the death of Christ is apprehended, which is involved in Jordan, the believer thinks of the earth. It corresponds with the divine requirements, as God said, “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me” (Exodus 20:24). Naaman, in desiring this earth, two mules’ burden of it, which would be a goodly quantity, would have that whereby he could bear witness in his relations with God to his estimate of himself, and not only so, but to his estimate of Christ as having become Man.
When we come to approaching God, which enters into this passage, we are reminded of what we were, but also of what man is in Christ; for there could be no altar, there could be nothing whereby we could approach God, apart from the fact that the Lord became a man, and took His place as a man on our side.
PDS You would say that the altar of earth really brought before us the Lord as having come as [p. 50] a man down here, and constituting in that way an order of approach to God, which could only find in Him a channel and an object.
JT That is so. There could be no altar at all, otherwise. In Exodus 20 the altar of earth is imperative. The altar of stone is not said to be imperative, it is “if” — “If thou make me an altar of stone”.
WJY Do you think, in taking this earth from where Elisha was, that it would be a link between himself and Elisha?
JT I think that helps. I have no doubt that the New Translation conveys the sense, it is “This earth”. That is, the earth on which he stood.
JAB Would it not preserve him from any greatness in himself in the future?
JT Yes.
JH Would it not also be a link between him and the little maid?
JT I think it would link up Elisha, the little maid, and Naaman. They would be bound up in this altar of earth.
GAvS How did Naaman know about that altar of earth? He would not know the Scripture, would he?
JT That only shows that the light present is the result of the gospel; we have here only a type, we have to connect it with the New Testament, that the gospel conveys light to my soul. It is the light of God, and raises questions as to what is suitable to God.
GAvS It awakens a spiritual instinct.
JT Quite.
JDU God comes out without any reserve whatever in all the fulness of His grace, and produces the desire to respond.
JT I think it is very beautiful to see here the evidence of right instincts in a soul that is newly brought to God. He considers for God, and what is suitable. Where these instincts exist, fellowship [p. 51] becomes an extremely simple matter. But where they do not exist, then we are compelled to wait.
JAB How wisely Elisha seemed to foster the impressions that Naaman got; you see in Elisha everything that would make for development. Is that not what you have been pressing in these meetings, that there should be a condition amongst us that represents Christ?
JT Yes.
AHC Gehazi, as a servant of Elisha, was out of touch with these three who had so much in common. What would that speak to us of today?
JT He goes right against the feature of the truth that had been emphasised, and that always brings in, or leads to, the will of the flesh. Satan working through the will of the flesh will always oppose what is specially emphasised, and Elisha had emphasised in his replies to Naaman that he would take nothing from him. That meant something. Now Gehazi ignores it, and goes straight against it, and in doing so, he lies; but the most serious part of it is that he misrepresents Elisha. Our fellowship is intended to represent God, to represent Christ, so that one can easily see how the precious thought was marred, that Naaman had received into his soul of Elisha. He would be glad to give what was asked, but then the obvious impression left on him would be that Elisha had changed his mind — that he was changeable.
PDS Would you say Gehazi did not know what it was to stand before Jehovah?
JT Just so.
AJL Would that be the enemy seeking to destroy the fellowship?
JT Exactly. It marred the whole circumstance in the mind of Naaman. The whole position was beclouded, showing how any one of us, through allowing lust, or desire, or pride, may mar the whole [p. 52] position, because it is a question of partnership, and what one does, involves all.
GAvS The fellowship depends upon the recognition of Jesus Christ — the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
JT Yes, that is it.
WJY The fellowship involves the knowledge of God.
JT Yes. It is in the light, as God is in the light.
RGD Did Ananias and Sapphira mar the fellowship?
JT They did, indeed.
JNB I suppose we have another example in Peter’s mistake at Antioch. It was very damaging to others.
JT Yes.
AHC Would you say that in the fellowship we are so enriched that we are able to ignore any other offers that come in?
JT At this stage in the history of a believer you do not wish him to expect that he has to pay for anything — that things are on the principle of reward. At this stage everything is from God. It is gift on the principle of faith; it is the reign of grace.
JH Why do you say, “at this stage”?
JT Because we are dealing here with the young believer. He has not even begun to worship yet. You are not going to take from him at this stage.
JAB Gehazi seemed to demand a recognition of persons.
JT You see what he brings in, “from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets”! He is on the line of the flesh, the first-born, Ephraim. He had already been rejected. God had chosen Judah and mount Zion. Gehazi is thinking of mount Ephraim. It is always so; the flesh always run on those lines.
WJY Every spiritual instinct rebels against [p. 53] the thought of connecting gain with the grace of God.
JT Simon Magus thought he could purchase the Spirit with money! It is most important that a young believer should understand that divine things are on the principle of pure grace.
HW Would Gehazi represent an official line developing among the saints?
JT I am sure he does — those who regard gain as the end of godliness.
GHMcK Would you say that it was a very wrong impression to give Naaman that Elisha had changed his mind?
JT I am sure it was; it was a complete misrepresentation. There is no change in the dispensation. We want to keep clear, as our brother said, that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Now when we come to chapter 6, we have another side of the truth, and that is the question of expansion. The desire for expansion is right, but is very likely to be taken up by us on the line of the flesh, or fleshly energy. “Behold now” (the sons of the prophets say) “the place where we dwell before thee is too straight for us”.
Ques It is all a question of what prompts the desire?
JT I think expansion is a right thought, but if it takes the form of big meetings, or increased numbers, then we are on dangerous lines.
WJY That is, if we are working for these things?
JT Yes, you are delighted if they come on the lines indicated in this chapter. That is, if they come on the principle of life out of death. The great truth that comes out is in the iron being made to swim. That is to say, the demonstration of the Son of God. He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). Expansion must be on those lines in that connection.
JAB The thought of expansion seems to be given expression to first by the sons of the prophets in company. Do you think the one who desired that E]isha should go with them, suggests a man really taking it up in exercise?
JT I think so. The sons of the prophets here are more in accord with the truth than we have yet seen them, but there was still adjustment needed.
AHC You said the other evening, in regard to the sons of the prophets, that they borrowed things, and that there was that characteristic today.
JT I think that borrowing is a very common practice, spiritually, at the present time. We take up what others have said and use it without, as it were, going through Jordan with it. You see, Elisha gives us a lead in this book, he goes all the way with Elijah — all the way over Jordan. The sons of the prophets did not go that way, and this is the exposure of it. You may preach a good sermon, and the Lord may bless it even — for they were cutting down trees — they were actually doing it — but presently something will happen, and it will come to light that you have been working with a borrowed tool, and that is a humiliating thing.
GAvS To adopt even the spiritual idea without a spiritual soil for its development must stunt the soul without in any way enlarging or causing expansion of spiritual perceptions.
JT Yes. It is not that ministry is in any way to be despised, because it is given of God. I think that John’s gospel gives us the idea of ministry now. It is of great importance for all who seek to serve, to study John’s gospel from the levitical standpoint, and then study Mark from the same standpoint. Now John gives you the idea of ministry at the outset. John the baptist looks on Jesus as He walked, and he says, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). John stood — he was impressed with the walk of Christ, and he expressed his impression, and it says two of his disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. That is to say, they came into the line of Elisha. They followed Jesus; that is the lead that Elisha gives in this book, he clings to Elijah. Now those two go right through in the following of Jesus, and, necessarily, have to come to Jordan. So that ministry, therefore, is of immense value, but it simply directs you to Christ. It is a suggestion of Christ, but in order to come into it, and get something yourself, you have to follow Jesus.
GAvS And you would say that the people of God are expected individually to pursue the same journey in the history of their souls, and to come to that point of Jordan, before they get in any way the appropriation of things in their own souls; then they would be able to unfold things in a more living way?
JT That is so. You may take up some line of thought, but you have gone through the thing, and it is effective in you; unless you do that (and it is well for young brothers to take note of this) sooner or later it will come to light that you are using borrowed tools, and it will be exposed.
EH Do you suggest that the borrowed tools are connected with Laodicea?
JT Very much. I think that all her riches, in which she boasts, are really borrowed.
WJY You would not limit the thought of borrowing to that of a brother who had borrowed a thought from another one. I suppose if he got the thought from the Scriptures, but did not get it into his heart, it would still be borrowed.
ALM What did you mean when you were speaking of our using what we have received through ministry without taking it through Jordan?
JT One has to learn the way things come.
God’s way is that everything comes to us through Jordan. Everything comes out of death.
JDU I suppose if the heart is really attached to the Lord, as Elisha’s was to Elijah, every bit of ministry we get we would gladly take to Him and review it in His presence, and let it have its full weight with us.
JT “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4). They are tested by death. Everything that does not swim is borrowed, so to speak. The word here is ‘iron’, meaning it is something that sinks. So that the power of resurrection is apparent in its swimming.
Ques The inherent power of life was in the stick cast into the waters?
JT Quite.
RGD Does it bring in the abolition of death, and that life and immortality have been brought to light through the gospel?
JT I think it does. 2 Timothy enlarges upon life.
JAB There was a very gracious help afforded to this one. There must have been real desire with him.
JT They have advanced. They are living before the prophet now, and the prophet goes with them. Notice, he does not suggest it; because God will allow you to take your own initiative. He knows what you mean — you mean well, doubtless — but there is something that has to be exposed, and therefore, He says nothing, but goes on to expose you, because that is a service. It is the best service that can be rendered to me that I should be exposed. If we are to be effective, we have got to understand life out of death.
RGD Would you say a word about the stick cast into Jordan?
JT I think it is just a reference to the Lord Jesus. We are dealing with types, but they are wonderfully suggestive. We are dealing with the [p. 57] death of Christ now in its bearing on levitical work. It is not a question of salvation — that is chapter 5 — but a question of levitical service. If you have been saved by the power of the life of Christ, your levitical service must be in that same power, or not at all. You cannot stand up and preach, and say that it is all done, and propose something on that principle, and yet carry on in service under another principle. And yet that is being done. Men are relying on their own ability and the culture of this world for efficiency in the service of God. This chapter is to rebuke all that. It is to show us that the power for service must come out of death. It is on the principle of life out of death. That is the appreciation of the Son of God declared to be such by resurrection from among the dead.
AHC Would you say that, typically, Elisha had come from a heavenly position, conscious of that position, and it is in the power of that that he is able to carry on his service?
JT It is the power of life out of death.
JDU This exposure we naturally shrink from, but where the Spirit of God is operative with us, I suppose we are really glad to have anything that is not in keeping with God’s thoughts exposed.
JT Quite. In some of us the need of it may be more apparent, but I doubt whether any of us is free from it. The Lord is concerned in a special way about those who serve. We see what pains He took with Peter, so that he might be an efficient servant.
RGD What would you say is the teaching of the Spirit in the remaining part of the chapter?
JT What comes out is, that there is power to discern the workings of this world; that which is opposed to the truth. We are progressing here, you see. If you arrive at the power of God in the Son of God raised from the dead, there is spiritual discernment. So that the world is exposed to us. As Paul says, “We are not ignorant of his thoughts” (2 Corinthians 2:11) — a [p. 58] remarkable thing that he could say he was not ignorant of the thoughts of Satan. What an immense advantage that was, and what an advantage it is in service (because we are constantly opposed by Satan) to have insight into his very thoughts!
JDU Then comes the consciousness that we have One that is greater with us.
JT Yes, that is what comes out. There are two “alas’s” in this chapter, the first in regard to the borrowed instrument, and the second in regard to the Syrian host, but they only suggest our unbelief, and now it comes out that “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). So that the young man has his eyes opened, and he sees the chariots of God all round about him, for “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him” (Psalm 34:7), and therefore, our service is carried on in peace, in conscious victory and security.
WJY Does the first instance suggest what we discern in ourselves, and the latter one, what we learn as to what is outside ourselves? First, the spirit of the world, and then the power of the enemy?
JT Yes, and then you have the conditions for the great features of the dispensation to shine out. For that is a great thing with God, that the dispensation should not be misrepresented. He works with us so that we should be in accord with the working of the dispensation, so that instead of all these Syrians being smitten with the sword, they receive bread and water. This is the triumph of grace — the triumph of good over evil. “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel”.
JAB This smiting them with blindness was an act of mercy, was it not?
JT It was, indeed. One is conscious in oneself how easily one misrepresents the dispensation, whereas God is jealously guarding it that it might shine out as it did in the beginning. It is a day that God [p. 59] has made. There is very much that provokes us to misrepresent things if we are not on our guard.
Ques Would you say the king of Israel is on the same line as Gehazi in chapter 5?
JT Just so, and I think these bands of the Syrians invading Israel may have some counterpart in all partisan movements. These partisan movements amongst the people of God are opposed to the truth. Partisanship is met and dissolved by the spirit of grace.
WJY In the beginning of chapter 5 grace shines out for one man, and now grace goes out to a large company.
JT It is an immense thing if we have grace enough to dissolve a band — overpowering it with good. Here it is overpowering evil with good, so that there is a dissolution of the band. What changed men they were, as they went back to their master!
JDU You do not meet these troubles by regulations and prohibitions, but by the manifestations of grace?
JT That is so.
JAB God seems to meet the position when Gehazi fails. Elisha has a young man as a servant. Does it suggest the thought of continuity and education in these things, so that what is of God is maintained here in power?
JT Quite. You stress the thought of the young man. This section of the word, I think, has that young man in view.