BLESSING RESULTING FROM MAKING WAY
FOR WHAT IS SPIRITUAL
A. P. Devenish
Genesis 48: 8–19; Judges 1: 12–15; Luke 1: 57–63; John 1: 19–28
I seek the Lord’s help to speak about the blessing that comes to us from making way in our lives for what is spiritual; by refusing the undue influence of the natural. Refusing the natural line of things takes moral courage. Peter says, “in your faith have also virtue”, 2 Peter 1: 5. I suppose a description of virtue would be moral courage.
Joseph was a very great man, second only in Egypt to Pharoah. However, Jacob was the greater morally. “The inferior is blessed by the better”, Hebrews 7: 7. He is a man who is presented as having experience with God. It would seem that Joseph took advantage of Jacob’s frailty, that he was old and blind, to arrange the blessing of his sons according to his own thoughts. “And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand”, meaning that he arranged things deliberately and carefully so that his thoughts should be fulfilled. His thoughts were natural thoughts. But Jacob is acting according to the mind of God. Although he was unable to see, he has remarkable instincts; instincts that were first seen when at his birth, his hand took hold of Esau’s heel. But not only did he act instinctively but intelligently too. The passage says that he guided his hands intelligently. “But Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim’s head ... and his left hand on Manasseh’s head; guiding his hands intelligently for Manasseh was the firstborn”. Joseph resented this; “it was evil in his eyes”.
How often we resent any interference in the pursuit of our thoughts instead of happily submitting to God’s thoughts.
What a man Jacob is; what a father he is; what a knowledge he has of God, of His mind and will. He says, “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day, the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads”. He is morally superior to Joseph. The scripture says when Joseph resisted him saying, “ Not so, my father”, that “his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know”. He had the moral authority and courage to stand by the light that he had from God. Joseph bows to the will of God and the spiritual takes precedence over the natural.
It is wonderful to see this remarkable man, Jacob, with such a devious history, now shining in moral glory. Through him God’s will prevails. We need to put our moral weight into the scales in our localities to ensure that the spiritual blessing is secured for the saints; that what is natural does not prevail. It has been said that Paul put the whole weight of his personality into the scales against the doctrine that came from Jerusalem which would have overthrown the truth of the glad tidings (Galatians 2). No matter how conspicuous certain persons were, Paul, with courage and spiritual power, did not hesitate to take sides with the truth against them and thus defeated the enemy’s attempt to subvert the glad tidings. No doubt such a stand will involve suffering, it will involve cost but the blessing of God is in mind. How much greater the blessing of God, the richness of God’s thoughts for His own, the glory of them, than anything we may pursue here on natural lines.
In Genesis 48 we have a father and a son; in Judges a father and a daughter. The daughter is asking for springs of water. “She urged him to ask of her father the field”. What spiritual desires Achsah has. She is not pursuing natural desires, not what is bigger and better here.
This is a daughter with her father and her husband. These relationships can be used for our enlargement and refreshment spiritually. “She urged him”. How do you urge your husband, dear sister? In what direction do you urge your husband? She urged him to ask of her father the field. How precious is such a desire. Then “she sprang down from the ass. And Caleb said to her, What wouldest thou? And she said to him, Give me a blessing; for thou past given me a southern land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs”. We see what the result is of a sister who has spiritual desires, not the pursuit of natural desires. What an influence you can have on your husband. “She urged”, that is a fine word. She says, “give me a blessing”, not better circumstances here; not what we can boast in here; not what would minister to our natural pride, but a spiritual blessing. A southern land would speak of divine favour; the enjoyment in our souls of the sunshine of the favour of God. A beloved servant has said that eternal life is like walking on the sunny side of the street. The sunny side is the side where God’s love is shining on us. Perhaps you have experience walking in the shade; cold and dark in the shadow of things here. Just cross the road, dear brethren, into the sunny side. Achsah had a taste for what is spiritual. Oh, to ask God to give us a taste for spiritual things. “No one having drunk old wine straightway wishes for the new, for he says. The old is better”, Luke 5: 39. Perhaps in our reading and entertainment, we prefer the old which ministers to our natural propensities. May the Lord awaken our desires to enjoy Christ where He is; to make way through self-judgment for the Holy Spirit to change our desires.
Now, in Luke, I would like to speak of a mother and her son. It is remarkable how Elizabeth would not give in to the pressure of her kinsfolk in the naming of her child. She has the moral courage to stand by the word of God communicated by the angel. “Thou shalt call his name John”, Luke 1: 13. They say, “There is no one among thy kinsfolk who is called by this name”. They called it after the name of his father Zacharias. The kinsfolk do not often help us. They had heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her. That sounds very fine.
But they would have perpetuated the natural; “And it came to pass on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called it after the name of his father, Zacharias. And his mother answering said, No”. That was moral courage; it would not be easy to resist the influence of kinsfolk which was very strong. There is a great need to be able to say, No.
Many things come into our lives that we give way to; we try to be men-pleasers. We surrender right principles for peace. This she did not but clearly says “No; but he shall be called John”. Then the scripture goes on to say, “And they made signs to his father as to what he might wish it to be called.
And having asked for a writing-table, he wrote saying, John is his name”. The result was that “his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue, and he spake, blessing God”. The service of God is enriched. Elizabeth and Zacharias are committed to fulfilling the will and mind of God. They are on the Lord’s side. You remember the house of Levi stood by Moses in relation to the judgment of the people for setting up a golden calf for an idol. Moses said,
“He that is for Jehovah, let him come to me”. How severe was the judgment; “Put every man his sword upon his hip ... and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour”, Exodus 32: 26, 27.
Now I finish with a reference to John the baptist. John is able with moral courage to withstand the interest and influence of the priests and Levites from Jerusalem. No doubt he had been told by his father what his special mission in life was to be (see Luke 1: 76–80). But his mother, having so much to do with a child’s formation and character, would instil into him that God’s mind for him must take precedence over his natural desires. No doubt, of course, John was sovereignly raised up by God and he was what he was as being formed by divine tuition.
We have strong negatives in this passage in John, chapter 1, showing that he would not be intimidated or flattered by these distinguished persons from Jerusalem. They ask him, “Thou, who art thou? And he acknowledged and denied not, and acknowledged, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he says, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered. No”. This is the witness of John. “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the path of the Lord”. Is that not a fine word, dear brethren? What is your witness, what is mine? Are we making straight the Lord’s path in our localities?
We need to say, No! to the desire to be conspicuous. Paul says, referring again to Galatians, “But from those who were conspicuous as being somewhat—whatsoever they were, it makes no difference to me—God does not accept man’s person; for to me those who were conspicuous communicated nothing”, Galatians 2: 6. Nothing! Paul said elsewhere, “by God’s grace I am what I am”, 1 Corinthians 15: 10. They could not add anything to him.
John goes on to say, “In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know, he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose”. He puts himself at the feet of Christ; his whole desire being to honour Him. In the next section John says, “A man comes after me who takes a place before me” (John 1: 30), and then, “John bore witness, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptise with water, he said to me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”, John 1: 32, 33. This beautiful section of scripture from which I have read so much, brings out the moral make-up of John the Baptist—I might say, the moral glory that shone in him making full way in his witness for the One who would outshine him and all others, the blessed Son of God.
May we be encouraged, dear brethren, to thus make way for Christ; that the spiritual line of things may take precedence so that there is what is for the pleasure of God and for our blessing. May it be so in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Address at Denton
20 January 1996