THE WINEPRESS AND THE ROCK
Judges 6: 11, 12, 19-21; 7: 4-7, 25
There is no doubt, dear brethren, that the history of Gideon fits in with the epistles to the Corinthians; that is to say, it has in mind the local position in which we are committed to the testimony of God. And in that position we are tested in two ways: we are tested as to whether we can overcome the influences by which Satan seeks to oppose the truth, and we are tested also as to whether we are going to be overcome by the mercies of God to us, so that we settle down in them instead of receiving them from God with thanksgiving, but in no way abandoning the conflict. That is a real matter that has constantly to be faced. The children of Israel were under the oppression of the Midianites, but as the history proceeds we find there were Ishmaelites also with them and Amalekites, showing that it is not only one enemy that has to be overcome but that constant watchfulness is called for if we are to be maintained in victory and in ability to serve God. It is one of the greatest matters in mind in our position here at the present time that right conditions should be preserved whether individually or in our houses or in our links with one another, in which the service of God can go on, and go on in relation to His own thoughts regarding it.
Now Gideon is seen here threshing wheat in a winepress. We find frequently in Scripture that one who is threshing provides the point with which God is able to identify Himself, and Gideon was threshing wheat. Wheat represents the saints as of Christ’s own order, the heavenly order. As it says, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. Gideon threshing wheat means that he was maintaining the exercise to eliminate everything that was inconsistent with our heavenly order as of Christ so that there would be pleasure produced for God. A winepress produces wine under pressure; wine is for God and for men. “New wine”, Jotham says in his parable, “which cheers God and man”. So it is a great thing to recognise that the first charge that lies upon us is to maintain the service of God and maintain it consistently with what we are as of Christ’s own order. Gideon represents exercise as to this. He was threshing wheat and threshing wheat in a winepress, very limited conditions, but conditions none the less that yielded something for God. And generally speaking, conditions at the present time are conditions of pressure. Our dear brother and sister will doubtless find limitations in the circumstances in which God has placed them, but then there is to be a yield for God in it. The winepress yields wine as a result of pressure. There is to be something for God and something for the saints resulting from the exercise taken up and maintained so that by the grace of God we will preserve conditions in keeping with what we are as heavenly and according to Christ.
So as Gideon is doing this God takes account of him. What an encouragement that God takes account of secret exercises going on amongst us! He will take account tenderly and sympathetically of the exercises of our brother and sister in their married life. None can escape exercise. It becomes the means by which what is acceptable to God is produced amongst us. God will take account of every genuine exercise. Here the angel of Jehovah comes and sits under the terebinth that was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. The Spirit of God is emphasising the locality, and hence this is a matter that particularly affects us in London. Our dear brother and sister are to be in London, established there, and they will have part in the exercises in London, and contribute to what is for the pleasure of God in London. As they do so, they may rest assured that God will take note of their exercise and support them in it. So Gideon brings forward the idea of a gift and it is accepted. What is to issue from all our exercises is that there is something for God, for His pleasure.
There is also the rock. We start with a winepress, then we have a rock. Then in chapter 7, as to the princes of Midian, there is a rock and a winepress, as though these two features are impressed upon us, the idea of a winepress on the one hand and the idea of a rock on the other hand. Now the rock is what is reliable, what stands. I believe we may link it with the idea of the faithfulness of God, for Corinthians stresses that “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Cor 1: 9. Again he says in the second epistle, “Now God is faithful, that our word to you is not yea and nay”, chap 1: 18. Again in the tenth chapter of the first epistle, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able to bear”, v 13. This idea of the faithfulness of God is to be stamped upon our minds and hearts in the position we are in. Whatever is involved in the way of exercise and testing in maintaining right conditions so that the service of God can be maintained, there is one thing we can rely on—that God is faithful. Our dear brother and sister, as feeling the limitations they are in on account of his blindness, can rest assured that God takes account of all that, takes account of all the difficulties or limitations that may arise, and He would impress it on them and on us all that He is faithful. If we on our part will consider for God, He will consider for us.
So the rock comes into view and it says, “the angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth”. The broth was not the normal drink-offering, but it looks as if the broth is accepted as the equivalent of the drink-offering. So it is poured out on the rock and it is accepted. “The angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes”. There is great stress on what is unleavened. That is an important feature of the epistle to the Corinthians. “Our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; so that let us celebrate the feast”. That is to be characteristic and continuous, “Let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”, 1 Cor 5: 7, 8. These are conditions that God will support. Let our dear brother and sister and all of us understand that these are conditions which God will support.
The feast of unleavened bread is to be maintained by us characteristically and that involves the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. It is a remarkable thing that the normal offering to accompany a kid would be one tenth part of an ephah of flour but here he gives a whole ephah of flour in unleavened cakes, as though he is particularly impressed with the thought of what is unleavened. It is something which should impress us, unleavened flour. Sincerity and truth is to be a dominant matter with us all the time and necessarily so as having to do with God. Now all these matters will cause exercise and the presence of the Midianites is something to be overcome, also the Ishmaelites and the Amalekites. The Midianites represent the influence of what is natural and social, but not spiritual. Midian was a son of Abraham by Keturah and would therefore have a link with Israel but not according to God’s thoughts. So Midian has to be particularly watched and guarded against.
Now we find the conflict is about to come to an issue and God says to Gideon that the people are too many. That is, that in all conflict according to God we are to be made to feel our insufficiency for it and therefore our dependence on God. So the number is decreased from thirty-two thousand to ten thousand and then Jehovah says, “Still the people are many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there, and it shall be, that of whom I shall say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I shall say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go”. Well now, the water is the test and the water is just what they needed, what God in mercy provided for them. There was nothing wrong with the water; they were to quench their thirst and refresh themselves with it. It represents what God has provided for us, and we may regard the marriage link and what goes with it as one of the best things God has provided for us in His mercy, but it is not to weaken our attitude in relation to the conflict. Out of the ten thousand, nine thousand seven hundred went down on their knees, that is, they abandoned for the moment the attitude of a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
A soldier does not fight on his knees; going down on one’s knees is not the attitude of a soldier; and those for the time being abandoned the attitude of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. They allowed themselves to become immersed in the mercies God provided for them, but there were three hundred that did not. They lapped like a dog; they were quite content to be so and God took account of it. He says, By these three hundred I will save Israel. That was the test: “Bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there”. All of us who are married or have been married will understand that the marriage bond as entered into and continued in with God is perhaps the greatest mercy on natural lines that God provides for men, for our comfort and our blessing. Our brother and sister can thank God for it and enjoy it from His hand; only, let them see that it does not overcome them; let them accept it as a mercy that God has provided for their encouragement and help but let them go on as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. That is, nothing is to divert them from paying every attention to the claims of the testimony, and to the present voice of the Spirit which has in view the current phase of the testimony. All these things are to be their constant concern so that they may be found good soldiers of Jesus Christ. It was by this means that Gideon’s men were tested, and the three hundred approved came to light, and by them God wrought salvation.
I would just repeat that there are these two remarkable features, the winepress and the rock—the idea of what is for God out of pressure, but if we consider for Him, He will consider for us; whatever the pressure and testing He will prove His faithfulness. There is thus the winepress and the rock. It is a significant thing that when these two princes are taken, Oreb and Zeeb, one is slain at a winepress and the other at a rock, as though God would impress us that these two things, known by us, are essential to our being victorious in the position in which God has set us. May our brother and sister and us all be helped by this word, for the Lord’s sake.
LONDON
27th August 1963
From Ministry of the Word, 1964
at the marriage meeting for Stanley Cunliffe and Jenny Hardwick
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