GOD'S ORDERING AND THE RECONCILIATION OF THE BRETHREN
GOD’S ORDERING AND THE RECONCILIATION OF THE BRETHREN
Numbers 2: 1 - 9; Acts 2: 14 - 16; Genesis 33: 1 - 7
I am thinking of what God presents in approach to men, and the order in which He presents it. This necessarily involves His will in regard to that which He presents, and it is what is available as under His hand. As thus under His hand, it is pliable, capable of being distributed according to His will, capable of manipulation in that skilful and loving hand of His. This applies to every one of those whom He has secured through the gospel, so that no one has a choice; all is being worked out according to the sovereign and wise will of God.
For instance, a man having a legion of demons comes out of the city in nakedness. The Lord casts out the demons and the man is found sitting, clothed and sensible, at the feet of Jesus. That is what meets the eye of those who come out to see him. They request the Lord to depart from them, and the man wishes to go with Him. I might say it is what I would wish too. I would not only wish to be in His company always, but I have no desire to stay where He is refused, and where, moreover, I would be alone, surrounded by haters of Christ. But despite this, you are to stay. There is no meeting there, no believers as companions, but you are to stay. “Return to thine house and relate how great things God has done for thee” (Luke 8: 39). Someone says, Well, this man will perish! No support, no sympathy, a lone man in a place marked as one of ten cities, Decapolis. But no, “Return to thine house”. The Lord makes no mistakes. It is on this principle that the testimony is extended. The position of each is to be determined by the Lord; He will [p. 28] take care of the consequences. This man occupied an outpost in the field; to move away would be to disarrange the Lord’s ordering, to defeat it. Then there is the case of the eunuch. It says that he went on his way rejoicing; there is not a word about going back. So that, dear brethren, if the Lord has located us here or there, our wisdom is to accept His disposition, which is according to His perfect knowledge of us. To leave or to move elsewhere because of poverty is contrary to His purpose and casts aspersion on His wisdom.
The Lord makes disposition of His forces even in the garden. How touching this is! He moves to a certain point with the eleven, then further on with the three, and then He Himself goes a stone’s cast beyond. All is done in the ordering of perfect wisdom, despite all that He was about to endure. It is thus quite evident that our movements must depend on His.
In connection with the first scripture I read, I would call your attention to the disposition of what God has in His hand at the outset. Here it is typical of the public position at Pentecost. It is not a broken state of things. Christianity started not with broken things but in perfection, and our scripture in Numbers 2 teaches us what this is. It is governed by the numeral twelve. God has long been working with this number. It dates back to the days of Jacob in Genesis 29 and 30. God has had all this under His eye in the centuries that have elapsed since the tribes left Egypt, since they suffered under Pharaoh and came out victoriously. And now they are under God’s hand. Each individual is seen pitching by his father’s house. It is a family matter, and the whole is divided into four sections of three tribes each. It is not a broken front, but a united one as under His hand. There are Judah and his two toward the sun-rising, Reuben and his two southward, Ephraim [p. 29] and his two on the west, and Dan and his two in the north, all surrounding the dwelling-place of God. The Levites are in a more intimate position, as in the midst of the camps (Numbers 2: 17). Moses and Aaron and his sons are seen at the door of the tent of meeting, keeping the charge, and Jehovah is inside, so to say.
Now I wish to point out that the position occupied by the tribes outside corresponds to the position inside, that is, as they are seen on the breastplate of Aaron. They are there in four rows of three, on the breastplate of the high priest. How far christianity has departed from this! How beautiful to see God dwelling in the midst of an ordered camp whereas today we see every man doing that which is right in his own eyes! That is the outside position. And then to realise that on the inside each has a place in the heart of Christ which corresponds to his position as surrounding the tabernacle. How secure each one is, as having a place inside on the heart of the High Priest.
Suppose one of the camp of Judah were to arise at night and look out. What does he see? He sees a pillar of fire over the tabernacle. How restful he must be at such a sight! And then God looks out, and what does He see? Each tribe in his appointed place, and how restful He is! It is beautiful. God rests in that love. He rests in the evidence of His love in us as each abides in his place. Well, that is the position in the wilderness, and it determines our position now.
I have read from Acts 2 because I believe that passage governs active ministry. We see Peter here standing up with the eleven. One may say, Why cannot I go out and preach when I like and where I like? But Peter did not; he stood up with the eleven. There was more in those eleven for God than in all others in the universe. No angel in heaven could compare with those men. They had been with Jesus all the time that He “came in and went out [p. 30] among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us”. They had thus got all the benefit of the Lord’s discipline, all His corrections, all His rebukes. He had said to Peter and his brother, “I will make you fishers of men”. God made His angels spirits, but not for a special work. Here is one made for a special work. A master may make rough work, or he may make a refined vessel as He did Peter.
One feature seen in the apostles is that they knew what to do without being told. Peter stands up with the eleven, and lifts up his voice, and speaks to the Jews. The twelve here set forth the great principle governing ministry. It is a question of God’s ordering. Peter had many converts that day, but they did not confine their questions to Peter. Christianity was never meant to be a one-man affair. It recognises one Man in heaven, even Christ our Head, but never one man down here. What we recognise is every God-given gift.
What I have specially before me is in Genesis, as in keeping with what the Lord has stressed during this conference, that is, the reconciliation of brethren. It is a great feature of latter-day ministry; indeed gospel addresses, as well as the ministry of the Lord’s servants in general, are addressed to those already in relation with God, and He does not seem to bless much outside of that. So that ministry today must have in view the recovery of brethren. I hope to show from this passage how that ministry may be carried on successfully.
Genesis 32 and 33 are taken up with an offended brother. How many there are! Estranged for one reason or another. Here in Genesis the breach is twenty years old. And now Jacob is coming back from Padan after twenty years of estrangement from his brother. At Padan he probably thought of his wives and his flocks and so on, but not of his [p. 31] estranged brother. And now he has to meet Esau. We too will have to meet our estranged brother, if not now, then later. We shall all meet up there.
So Jacob sends a message to Esau. He says, “Thus shall ye speak to my lord, to Esau: Thy servant Jacob speaks thus — With Laban have I sojourned and tarried until now; and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, and bondmen, and bondwomen; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favour in thine eyes”. Listen to how he speaks to an offended brother! Is that going to gain Esau? ‘I have got wealth now; I am a man of importance; I am different now, Esau!’ Will that gain him? No! It will create jealousy and envy. It is like telling your estranged brother, ‘I am getting on in the truth now; I have many converts; we never had better meetings, and so on’. That will not help. The messengers return to Jacob, and what do they say? Has Jacob found favour in his lord’s eyes as he wished? The answer is, “He also is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him”. Jacob understood perfectly; this is not love, it is war; they may be soldiers. “Then Jacob was greatly afraid, and was distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and the cattle and the camels, into two troops”. What a sorry state between two brothers! But now he has recourse to God. He tells God he is afraid of his brother. “And he lodged there that night”. The next day he sets apart droves of cattle. What are they for? They are gifts for his brother. That thought came to him in the night. I suppose the Lord Jesus said many times, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. And then he sends the droves on, one after the other, and he remains there another night. “And the gift went over before him; and he himself lodged that night in the camp”. But that night he says, as it were, Maybe the gifts will not appease Esau! So he arose [p. 32] and disposed of his family, his two wives, his maid-servants, and his sons, and led them over the ford of the Jabbok, and over the river. “And Jacob remained alone”. What a moment! But it is not long, for God has His eye on him. Then God says, as it were, I see your concern, Jacob; it is not Esau, is a question between your soul and Me. Dear brethren, it is this every time. This must be settled, “and a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn”. With Esau he thought he could settle things at a distance, but that will never do. Estranged brethren are not reconciled at a distance. Jacob had thought of the face of Esau, but he gets a good look into the face of God. And God says, as it were, I see, Jacob, you are really seeking to be reconciled to your brother. Now I will let you overcome Me; if you can overcome Me, you can overcome Esau. So Jacob acquires power with God. “And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast wrestled with God, and with men, and hast prevailed”.
He sees God face to face. The face of God is the face of Jesus now, and it is not beyond us. Then God says, as it were, You cannot meet Esau on natural lines; you must be crippled. So He touches the joint of Jacob’s thigh and dislocates it. Then Jacob passes over Peniel as the sun rises, limping on his hip. And he lifts up his eyes and looks, and behold, Esau is coming with four hundred men. What a sight meets Esau’s eyes! What a change in Jacob. These changes are necessary, dear brethren. Paul tells the Corinthians that “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3: 18).
[p. 33] There is no change in Esau until he sees the change in Jacob.
Then Jacob begins to set out his family. “And he distributed the children to Leah, and to Rachel, and to the two maidservants: and he put the maidservants and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindmost”. He is full of the family thought. How much better one can love in a household setting than in an office at a desk, for instance. It is a question of environment. And now Jacob begins to discriminate, because room must be made for Christ. So that as the family draw near to Esau, the order of verse 2 is reversed from Rachel and Joseph to Joseph and Rachel (verse 7), meaning that Christ is coming into evidence as seen in Joseph. He takes precedence over his mother now, and that settles the matter.
See Jacob limping along. He has passed on before them all. Esau would be saying, What has happened? You are not as you used to be; you are changed. Yes! Crippling has had its effect. Esau is still the brother, though we cannot carry that too far because of subsequent history.
Now the family bows. Christ has a place there; room has been made for Him, and He takes precedence Himself.
I feel the great mission of the moment is to seek out our brethren, not on their terms but on the Lord’s. He is about to secure us all for Himself, by archangel’s voice and trump of God. But before that time He wishes to recover all of us now, to holy, happy fellowship in the Spirit. May the Lord bless the word!