HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH LEADING TO THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD AND HIS SERVICE (2)

^[p. 4] HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH LEADING TO THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD AND HIS SERVICE (2)

Genesis 26: 1 - 4; Genesis 27: 6 - 14; Genesis 28: 1 - 5

JT We might look at the history of Isaac. It is an important question how those of the household of faith are to move in famine conditions. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each had to do with famine conditions. Isaac is expressly charged not to go down to Egypt (Genesis 26: 2).

Ques Did Abraham suffer from going down?

JT It incurs evil consequences. Jehovah forestalls the evil in the case of Isaac. A direct word is given. Faith should teach us how to move in all conditions, but a direct word aids and encourages us. Isaac is told to “sojourn in this land”, but he had also been told to “dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of”. “This land” represents a present known land, a present known position in the testimony, but what is to be told keeps us in dependence. The sojourning is connected with “this land;” the dwelling with what is to come. It is like Ephesians 3: 18. Paul had been at Ephesus three years, but the letter is something additional, and then there is something beyond that, “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. There is always more land to be possessed.

Ques What is going down to Egypt?

JT It is turning to the world for support, the world in Egyptian character, that is in a moral sense, not geographical or governmental. Government is handed over to the gentiles, but the heavens still rule. As the Lord told Pilate: “Thou hadst ^[p. 5] no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above” (John 19: 11). And again, “The powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13: 1).

Ques What about “Love not the world, nor the things in the world” (1 John 2: 15)?

JT That refers to the world in a moral way. It also says that “God so loved the world”. The word for “world” there, kosmos, means ‘ordered’ or ‘ornament’. That is, as ordered in the divine mind, God loved it. It is not ‘He loves it’, but “He loved it”. It was made by Him.

Taking out citizenship papers, or joining labour unions, is like going down to Egypt. I am asserting my rights if I take out citizenship papers.

Ques Suppose the taking out of papers is made obligatory by the government?

JT If the government wants to make you take an oath to bear arms, that you cannot do. But I would have no difficulty if the government came to me and said, ‘You are living here, you earn your livelihood here, we are going to make you a citizen’. I thank God for that, but I cannot take an oath. Paul had certain advantages in being free born, but it is worthy of note that the saints never helped him in Jerusalem although he went to serve them. It was his nephew who helped him. Paul appealed to his citizenship, but it is low ground. Isaac did not become a Philistine, but remained a heavenly man in the land. Abimelech brings Ahuzzath his friend and Phichol the captain of his host to Isaac (Genesis 26: 26). That is, he would overawe Isaac. One represents the military, the other the social, side, but Isaac overcomes them both, and that in peace. He makes no concession. He overcomes evil with good, and it says (verse 32), “And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water”. Isaac had been seen (^[p. 6] verse 23) going up to Beer-sheba, not going down to Egypt.

I do not look on the president or a king as in the wicked one. It is important to understand that we should obey what he directs which does not interfere with right principles. If it goes beyond right principles we must call a halt. The president is ordered of God; so are kings, and what should we do without them?

There is much suffering amongst us because we are not intelligent. We are inclined to be righteous overmuch, and this we are told not to be. We should see all things clearly, not all persons, but all things.

Ques What is your opinion about government aid being received by those in fellowship?

JT Many say it is equivalent to going to the world, but I do not think so. We have public hospitals, public schools, roads, and so on; who provides these? We pay taxes, too. It is not private aid, it is government aid.

Ques Should we first take advantage of government aid? We should be humbled if we do not take care of our own.

JT The conscience has to be taken into account in receiving government aid, but one is very thankful for a friendly government. Then again, it might not be principle, but pride, which refuses aid from the government.

Ques What about Isaac going to Abimelech?

JT At this stage the Philistines had not reached their final position of enmity. Abraham and Isaac are both on terms with them. But it was a dangerous position and failure later came about. But Isaac was in the land; he was not in Egypt. God would not have appeared to him in Egypt. He was fortified from going there by a direct word from God, just as current ministry should fortify us lest we fail as Abraham did. The Philistine attitude is tentative here. God would not force things. Isaac is greater ^[p. 7] than they are, and God will hold things in abeyance with them until the time of David. As we have noted before, the day Isaac overcomes the two elements represented in the captain of the host and the friend, that same day they found water. Then we have the city idea in chapter 26: 33. It was not so with Abraham. It says in Genesis 21: 31, “Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba”, but in chapter 26, “therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day”. Isaac has reached spiritually a point of order and government by making room for the Spirit, and that in peace. There is order in the household of Abram, but here it is government in a city. In Genesis 28: 10, Beer-sheba is the starting point of Jacob. It is a point reached in the household of faith which stands.

We might now look at the subject of weaning. Hannah is said to have weaned Samuel, but here the mother’s name is left out. It says: “And the child grew, and was weaned” (Genesis 21: 8). Weaning is a fixed principle; it goes with growth and refers to believers in a christian household. Mary had not weaned the Lord spiritually, for when He was in the temple at the age of twelve, she says: “Child, why hast thou dealt thus with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee distressed” (Luke 2: 48). The fixed principle was not there. The idea in weaning is that my child is cast upon God and I impress that upon him. A wife may maintain the principle when the husband fails. Abraham failed. “The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son” (Genesis 21: 11) — that is, the casting out of Ishmael. It enhances the importance of having “a sister as wife” (1 Corinthians 9: 5). In connection with this casting out it is remarkable that the Holy Spirit quotes her very words in Galatians 4: 30. If the principle of weaning is not followed, we carry our children into the meeting, and in times of difficulty they follow blindly the lead we give, whether we are ^[p. 8] right or wrong. It must follow. Abraham here is governed by natural feelings.

Rem Barnabas could not have weaned John Mark.

JT In Genesis 27: 6 - 17 Rebecca was governed by divine communications. What Jehovah had said to her in chapter 25: 23 underlies her actions in these verses. She loves Jacob. She has her mind on the right man. She can even say, “On me be thy curse, my son!” Rebecca represents discrimination; she loves the spiritually lovable man. He was not an athlete; not a man of the field. She loves him before it says God loved him.