DIVINE PLANTING
[p. 118] DIVINE PLANTING
Matthew 15:13; Psalm 1:3; Psalm 52:8; Psalm 92:12 - 14; Psalm 104:16
In my word at this time, dear brethren, I have in mind to enlarge on the idea of planting, divine planting. It is a very old idea, as old as man, and, according to the Scriptures, God is the first who planted. He planted a garden, we are told. The earth in itself had the power of fruit-bearing; it was to bring forth and cause grass, herbs and trees to spring up, suggestive of what we call natural latent fertility, but later it is said that God planted a garden eastward in Eden and He caused a river to flow out of the garden to water it. It was a spot that henceforth would be of special interest to Him, but the growth was not left to nature. It was to be watched over, Adam was placed in the garden to dress it and keep it. It was of divine planting, God planting a garden. Every gardener who had the opportunity would visit the garden for it was perfect, every tree in its place. God not only considers for fruit, but shelter and ornamentation in the garden; He made everything perfect and the garden would certainly have been worth visiting as divinely planted and rooted, to say no more. We know what happened in the garden, but I am speaking of it now as the first instance of planting. The interval between it and Matthew 15 was long, but the Planter is the same, only instead of the Lord God planting we have the Father planting. The Lord Jesus is the speaker. He is not enlarging on the planting, but alludes to the Father planting; others planted also, but the Lord alludes to the Father’s planting by way of contrast. There were other planters, as there are today. “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up”. The Lord made this remark in answer to His disciples, “Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended?” (Matthew 15:12) The Pharisees! These men were [p. 119] mentioned by His disciples. We have to mention such men in our prayers and ministry. In our prayers the Lord takes account of what His people mention. They made mention here of a class called the Pharisees. They were a sect. They were sectarian people, and no sect was planted of God. One of the first evils mentioned by the apostle Paul in regard to Corinth was the existence of sects in that city. He names them, He alludes to them in the eleventh chapter of the first epistle: “I hear there exist divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18). There are many of them today, far more than there were, or have ever been in the history of the world, and not one of them is planted of God. There are some of great antiquity, apparently so well founded and rooted that no wind can overturn them. But there is a wind coming that will overturn the stoutest of them. No doubt the Lord had in mind the prophecy concerning a great religious system with three hundred million members, or more, so extensive that it appears that it must go on for ever. One of the most celebrated sages of men has predicted that it would go on indefinitely, but the Scriptures have a different mind about it, and we who know the Scriptures have a different mind about it. We know that this great sect and all like it shall come to an end — like a great millstone it shall be cast into the sea never to appear again.
The gospel of Matthew has in mind, not the coming of the Lord for us, terminating things here, but His intervention to remove out of His kingdom everything that offends. He tells us in His own words, with His own lips, in this gospel of the days in which His angels will remove everything that offends, great and small. Then He says, “Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”, (Matthew 13:43). This is the viewpoint in Matthew, and we may as well make up our minds that it is the truth of the holy Scriptures. The wicked have to go; all that is not subject to Christ will have to go. He is to remove all [p. 120] that offends, and then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. Now in Daniel it says, “They that turn the many to righteousness” shall shine “as the stars, for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). Now what is in mind in reading the verse in Matthew is to bring out that the righteous are planted. In this gospel they are called the sons of the kingdom. We have in chapter 13 the sowing of the seed which is the word of the kingdom (verse 19), and the sowing of the seed which is the sons of the kingdom (verse 38), persons developed in the kingdom who will be subject, and these are the righteous. The Son of Man sows these and the enemy sows tares. The tares are called sons of the wicked one. These are persons, too, developed in wickedness. They shall grow up together till the harvest, when the Son of Man sends His angels to take out of His kingdom all that offends; “then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). In this world no void shall appear. The Son of God has come and come to stay; His coming here was to take possession in testimony. He has come and come to stay. The Revelation says, “He set his right foot on the sea, and the left upon the earth, and cried with a loud voice as a lion roars. And when he cried, the seven thunders uttered their own voices” (Revelation 10:2,3). He takes personal possession of the sea and land. Who can dispute His title here? Where are the armies and the navies that can cope with the lightning and thunder of God subservient to the Son of Man when He comes to take possession? So that it is a question of being righteous if we are to stay. You see all who are not God’s people taken away; of course there is the rapture, but that is only a detail relative to the appearing. We shall appear with Christ; then shall we appear with Him with the holy angels, holy myriads, all shall come forth in the dignity of power. The whole domain is under His [p. 121] hands, all that is of evil must go; it is only a matter of time and “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up”.
Now I want to enlarge on the righteous as viewed in this way. How important it is to be amongst them in our several localities as divinely planted, for this is where the development of the testimony lies. The righteous are planted. We have a very beautiful word in Romans about Christians. There is a correspondence in the baptism of Christians to Christ’s death, for they are planted by baptism, and the apostle says, “If we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection”, (Romans 6:5). But we shall be in the likeness of Him in heavenly glory too, for our bodies are to be transformed, not only raised, but glorified.
Psalm 1 touches on this point; it shows what a godly man is like. Anyone making enquiry into the Psalms can look at him. It is said that “he is as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth”. This is a very remarkable verse, often noted by Christians. If you enquire about yourself, you can determine from this scripture something as to yourself, as to whether you belong to this class. There are those who are not certain and yet the truth in this corresponds to the godly man as he is normally. He is a tree planted by the rivers of water, and therefore anyone who is neglectful of opportunities of spiritual ministry is not characteristic of this class; he is not planted by the rivers of water. In Isaiah it is said of the children of believers that they grow up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. Children of that class become men of this class. It is said here that his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper; that is, he is ever fresh spiritually, he is never stale, never too engrossed with ordinary affairs to take on spiritual conversation. He is never too preoccupied [p. 122] with what defiles to take up his part in the assembly. His whole business in the assembly is that the service of God is foremost; all is subservient to this. All else is incidental. His business here is the service of God, and he is the confidant of God, and God has confidence in him, and whatsoever he does prospers. If I am of this class I can go out in the morning knowing that whatever my calling may be, God will prosper me today. We are reminded of David and Joshua; God was with David whithersoever he went; that is, God was with that man. He had confidence in that man, and so here whatsoever he does prospers. God delights to look down from heaven and see such a group of persons; these are infinitely more to Him than the garden of Eden with its beautiful trees literally. Here we have a living man under the eye of God in all his freshness spiritually, and whatever he does prospers. Who gives prosperity? God gives prosperity. There is no prosperity that He does not give. Nature depends on God; a grain of wheat goes into the ground, God gives it a body; the prosperity is from God. A man may prosper, as men say, as a green bay tree, but only for a moment. All true prosperity is from God.
Then there is the consciousness of this as in Psalm 52 “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God”. “I am like ...” — the consciousness of it, the sense of it! A green olive tree is a figure of a man; it alludes to the Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, here indwelling believers and incorporating them in the house of God. That is, one is then in the house and he says “I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever”, (Psalm 52:8). I am not keeping myself there; he does not take that ground. How can we continue in the place of testimony save as kept by the mercy of God? See the stability of the man planted in the house, consciously there, a green olive tree, trusting in the mercy of God for ever. Storms will come to uproot things; no wind, no storm can overturn or uproot what God has planted. It is [p. 123] set here in relation to stability. This is the consciousness of it, of being set up here, conscious of the greenness of the sap of the olive tree, of the oil.
Then in Psalm 92 “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree”. The word ‘flourish’ is to be noted now, flourish like a palm. I know very little of botany, but have observed palms; how they suggest the thought of flourishing! To younger brothers and sisters I would say they should begin with the first psalm, which is the moral side of the position. The second is the official side. These two psalms stand on the threshold of the whole book of Psalms; you will not understand the five books of the Psalms unless you understand the first. To older brothers and sisters, Psalm 92 alludes to us who are older: “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age”.
In verse 12 it says “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon”. The palm I understand spiritually as victory, the cedar as nobility, the cedar of Lebanon. Moral victory allied with nobility is what is for our souls to take in in this verse as of divine planting, flourishing as the palm and growing as a cedar of Lebanon. The cedar of Lebanon had its place in the temple, the wood denoting dignity. The idea of victory should attach to the righteous man as he advances in years, victory and dignity! The greatest victory is over himself, victory over all his natural propensities; the Holy Spirit enables him to obtain this victory. Deborah sat under her own palm tree; she did not give out her own great personal qualities, she did not need to advertise, people came to her for judgment, they recognised her moral greatness and victory, sitting under her own palm tree. And so they will come to us if we sit under our own palm trees, and so gain the victory over our own spirit. It is said of Deborah that she dwelt under her own palm tree between Ramah and Bethel. People will come to us as they came to her for judgment. How [p. 124] they came to Him! It is a great matter to avoid advertising; it is a sure evidence that we have not the victory over our own spirit: “He that ruleth his spirit” is better “than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32). One that rules his own spirit can overthrow Og the king of Bashan. He will be enquired of; people will ask him questions as they came to her for judgment. In that victory there is conscious dignity, not lying in one’s own ability, not lying in birth or ancestry. Nobility does not lie in anything of our own, but is in what I am in God, what I am in Christ, the man in Christ. And so, as I said, this scripture bears peculiarly on those who are older in the faith; those that are planted in the house of the Lord flourish in the courts of God, in the care meetings, in the public relations of the assembly, in eldership, deaconship. All this comes within the range of one who is planted in the house of the Lord and flourishes in the courts of God. We have the flourishing in the courts of God: he is an ornament in the testimony of God, and the older he gets the more it is so. He does not boast in old age, he flourishes in the public relations of the testimony of God and becomes a model for the younger brethren. There is nothing more important than a good example to the young. This flourishing in the court’s of God comes under the notice of the younger brethren. For example, if one reads 1 Chronicles 23 - 1 Chronicles 29 one is impressed with David flourishing in the courts of God: it speaks of his affection for the house of God; he sacrificed his best for it, the gold of Ophir indicating fine spiritual qualities, adornment for the house of God. And so an example is set in David; he passes off the scene gloriously and Solomon his son, young and tender, sits on the throne of Jehovah. The throne of Jehovah is occupied. There is a man great enough to sit on the throne of Jehovah. David would show how the king should rule. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds” (2 Samuel 23:3,4). And so Solomon is fit to sit down on the throne of Jehovah.
“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ... to shew that the Lord is upright”. It is a great matter for older brethren and sisters to keep bright and fresh in service. A spiritual man is a burden on no one; God will see to that. God has great regard for freshness in His own saints because they show the power of Christianity, and so in Psalm 104, “The trees of the Lord are full of sap”, that is, they are satisfied; they never complain; they are perfectly restful in what God has brought them into. There is nothing better in the whole universe than what they have got. They cannot be tempted by any worldly offer; they are satisfied. The pressure will grow more and more. “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:22). The temptations for the Jewish brethren will be terrible, even the elect will be in danger, the pressure is bound to get greater and greater. It is very important for the young and old to be satisfied. We have nothing but the best there is, the very best we could have. There is nothing better than what we have. Satisfaction is what is becoming. The secret of it is drinking into the Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit occupies us with Christ. No dissatisfaction is contemplated in the eternal state where things are filled to the fulness of God.