HIDDEN THINGS
A. M. Davidson
Matthew 13: 33, 44, 51, 52; Luke 12: 1–3; 15: 8–10; 1 Corinthians 2: 6–16
I wish to speak of what is ‘hidden’. I have mainly in mind what is hidden in each one of us of a substantial spiritual character connected with what each of us cherishes, and where our treasure is, which must involve our hearts. To make way for this, for what is positive, we have to be delivered from what is hidden in a wrong way. Each of us is thus to have something substantial in our souls, resulting in our being substantial persons. It is not exactly a matter of what is seen, but of what is inward. It reminds me of the tip of an iceberg, most of the iceberg being hidden. That should be the case with each of us, there being no outward show, but nevertheless something substantial hidden there. It involves what each of us inwardly treasures that substantially affects us in our outward lives. One of the verses read in Matthew says that every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. The effect of this is to be increasingly seen. So we are each to get such a treasure, involving something that we basically cherish in our souls.
I wonder whether we are all like that, whether we have come thus to treasure something in our souls. This is to grow, the assembly being made up of such persons, as being the mystery in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The treasures of each of its members are available and come to light when we are together.
Earlier in the chapter the Lord, referring to the disciples, said, “to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given”, going on to say that
“whoever has, to him shall be given … but he who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him”, (Matthew 13: 11, 12). This means that if we use what we have it increases, and we are caused to be in abundance spiritually. If we do not use it we finally lose it; we lose what we outwardly appeared to have. Just to refer for a minute to what is hidden in a wrong sense, this might be likened to the working of leaven, the working of something wrong in us or among us that is there in a hidden way and stems from wrong feelings, wrong relationships, wrong thoughts and wrong speaking. We all have to learn to judge such things since the enemy uses them to damage the assembly in a way analogous to the working of leaven, resulting finally, if it continues, in the corruption of the whole position.
So in the first scripture read the Lord says that “The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had all been leavened”. Hidden things can thus come in, and if they are not checked it may affect the whole locality; anybody would be far from reality if he did not agree with that. Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 tells the Corinthians that they were to purge out the old leaven that they might become a new lump in accordance with what they were abstractly.
They were not to celebrate the passover, Christ sacrificed for us, with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The result is that through self-judgment we are each simply amongst the brethren as sincere and open persons. We need that openness, with nothing working underneath. How easy it is for there to be such workings, specially if there are wrong thoughts, wrong speaking, and wrong relationships between us; the enemy uses these things to damage the assembly and he is a terrible force to be reckoned with; we need to give him nothing at all that he can use as a weapon. Of course, what the woman did is actually what has happened in the history of the church down the dispensation.
The scripture in Luke 12 was read to refer to the same thing in a different way before we go on to more positive aspects of the matter of what is hidden. It says that we are to beware of the leaven of what is Pharisaic, which is hypocrisy, “there is nothing covered up which shall not be revealed, nor secret that shall not be known”. What is said in secret shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. We are very prone to these things, and they do not help in any locality; they are all against the working of the body and the one Spirit, to say nothing of the working of the mystery. I wanted to dwell on the latter for a while, it is, in fact, the main aspect of what I have in mind. The mystery is something of God going on amongst us that is not noticeable to the natural faculties, it being discerned by spirituality amongst the saints.
Something goes on amongst us that results in what is substantial being produced in each of us of the work of God; it multiplies as it goes on under Christ’s headship. The last scripture dwells on it a little more, referring to things that eye has not seen, and so on, that are hidden to the natural faculties.
Well now to go on to Matthew 13: 44, I think the germ of the thing began when the Lord was here, and stemmed from the Lord’s own experiences; speaking reverently, it was a real literal experience that the Lord had. The kingdom of the heavens was like a treasure hid in the field, referring to what was subject to the work of God in the souls of the circle of disciples who companied with Him, and which was capable of growth under suitable conditions. When the Lord was here He appeared as a Man like other men, but the trouble with all other men was that their interests were worldly, earthly and completely different from His heavenly interests.
They did not see any beauty in Him that they should desire Him, and they saw nothing in Him that would make Him useful as fitting in any way into man’s world, involving the system of things that made life meaningful as far as they were concerned. He could not fulfil any religious position, such as high priest; He could not command an army in the way that they understood, and He could not be a governor of a province; He could not even be a successful business man; He just could not fit into man’s world because He was a heavenly Man. His interests were not man’s interests, and they saw nothing in Him that would attract them and make Him useful to them. According to John 18 he said, “My kingdom is not of this world”, and Pilate was finally provoked to ask of Him, “Whence art thou?”
But He did gather a few followers around Him, these being those the Father had given Him out of the world. The Father, in fact, worked in them that they might be so drawn to Him, they being so impressed by Christ that they left all and followed Him. Of course, if the Father had not worked in them they could not have been so drawn to Him since there is nothing in common between what is divine and what is creature. He was able to commune with them in a common bond of sympathy and affection in relation to the trials of His suffering pathway and He told them at one time, “ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”, Luke 22: 28. There was thus a circle around the Lord where He could find understanding, sympathy and affection, though He was completely rejected by men in general. They were His companions in tribulation, as it were, and it must have been wonderful to the Lord’s heart to have that. The most wonderful thing that the Lord found in that circle related to the great mission that He had as coming into the world, relating to the economy that had come into being, and the position of each of the divine Persons in that economy, the bringing about of all the great counsels of God, and God’s current interests related to Israel and men in general at that time. He was able to confide something of these things to His companions in the spirit of friendship, though they did not understand much since the Spirit had not come at that point.
But there was an interest with them, a simplicity that accepted what He said, even though they did not understand much about it. How wonderful it must have been to the Lord to have those whom He could so confide in, even though they did not have much understanding in relation to the great mission that lay before Him. He was able to speak to them about the great thoughts of God and according to John 17 He said of them to the Father, “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things that thou hast given me are of thee; for the words which thou hast given me I have given them, and they have received them, and have known truly that I came out from thee, and have believed that thou sentest me”, (John 17: 6–8). Considering the little that they did in fact understand, they were evidently very receptive in a simple child-like spirit, and it must have been very precious to the heart of the Lord that He found this in those who were only creatures. He found in them, in this sense, a treasure, and what a treasure it must have been to Him! They were creature companions to whom He could confide the great thoughts of God with which He was freighted so as to bring them about. He who had originally created everything (John 1: 3) must have greatly been affected by it. He found the treasure in His experiences with His own, finding it in their souls.
It was some new thing and, according to Matthew 11: 25 and Luke 10: 21, He could rejoice with the Father in relation to what He had found in those whom the Father had given to Him, as appreciating the Father’s gift to Him. He also said to His own, according to Luke 10: 23, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the thing which ye behold, and did not see them; and to hear the things which ye hear, and did not hear them”. The Lord says, as to the treasure, “which a man having found has hid, and for the joy of it goes and sells all whatever he has, and buys that field”. Think of the Lord finding this wonderful thing in those who were the Father’s gift to Him, and the joy that it gave Him. In His exhilaration, as it were, speaking reverently, it would cause Him to think of the even greater matter of securing access to both Jew and Gentile, after the Spirit had come, that there should be the same thing working out in them in a collective sense down the dispensation. In His joy in the matter, moreover, He has disposed of all other interests that He might have those of the assembly who would be interested in all the divine thoughts and their fulfilment, and in what God is doing in the present dispensation, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge connected with the great original thoughts of God in counsel being knowable, and capable of being experienced, by those of the assembly.
Well, that is what works out in the assembly at the present time, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge connected with the great original thoughts of God in counsel. So it behoves us to be with the Lord as He is with us in headship, as we assemble together, so that there may be consequent formation taking place as we are brought substantially into the good of the wonderful inheritance that is ours as belonging to the assembly. We tend to think of these things as being mere doctrine, but they are the great thoughts of God and it is open to us to become formed in them and in the knowledge of our heavenly portion. The whole matter has been committed into the Lord’s hands, and is thus under His control, and we are all under His jurisdiction for blessing. He would love to bring us into the enjoyment of all these wonderful things; we are to occupy ourselves with them, and the Lord is Himself in great joy over us in the matter, this joy having begun when He was with His own down here. We are to be occupied with the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God (Ephesians 3: 9), and the working of it as we are together in the Spirit.
The scripture in Luke 15 refers to the Spirit typified in the woman having ten drachmas and losing one of them. This works out that any one of us might not be available as we are together, but the Spirit knows and He is bent on using every one. It refers to how He would sweep the house and carefully seek that all of us might be available, that this great matter of the mystery might be known by us, and be worked out among us practically. The Spirit would bring us practically into full participation in what He Himself is at down here throughout the present dispensation. The scripture says that the woman calls together the friends and neighbours—all of us—saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost”. The Spirit is interested in all of the drachmas amongst us because if there are any missing, or hidden, it hinders Him by affecting the spiritual monetary system, as it were. Every one is needed and is valuable in the matter of what is being worked out in the great spiritual realm that is experienced in the Spirit as the saints are together. So the Spirit brings light into the matter, a lamp, and the sweeping and the searching go on; it is all in view of the Spirit searching all things, even the depths of God. We provoke each other spiritually in the matter as each and all take part when we are together.
I suppose that angels come into the matter too, for they are all very interested. It says that there is joy before the angels of God for one repenting sinner. So if we are not as we should be the angels take account of that and then they love to see us get right. According to Ephesians 3 they take account of the working out in the assembly of the all-various wisdom of God according to the purpose of the ages, and they would, no doubt, have much joy in that.
Underlying it all, of course, is the appreciation of each other in love; this results, according to Ephesians 4: 16, in a self-building up in love, through the working of every joint of supply, as the truth is held by us in love; “the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to
the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. You get a position that builds itself up as each has a treasure, and it is all available under the Lord’s hand. It is all, moreover, multiplied under His hand through the working of headship, especially through the gifts that He has given.
The last scripture read brings in the hidden wisdom. Paul says, “we speak wisdom among the perfect”, and “we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery”. Think of this mysterious wisdom that has been hidden in God from before the world’s foundation, but has been brought to light in the present dispensation. Paul could say, according to 1 Corinthians 4: 1, that he and those with him were “stewards of the mysteries of God”, to bring them out in accordance with how the Lord would want them brought out. We can all say, in a sense, that we are likewise stewards of these mysteries; it works out in stewardship amongst us as those of the assembly are all severally initiated into the great mysteries of God Himself, as the Spirit searches the depths of God in relation to that which was predetermined before the ages for our glory. It is not ordinary wisdom such as we use in our own affairs, but it is spiritual wisdom related to the affairs of God. It refers to something which was hidden from the time of the original divine counsels, and the Lord would like us to be with Him in the matter as being interested in all the different aspects of what is coming out, and is being worked out, as we are assembled. How the Lord would be interested in, and appreciate, us as we are with Him in the matter of what is closest to His heart related to the Father’s thoughts in counsel, as we are with Him mutually, His interests ours and ours His. They are things that are not apparent to the natural faculties, things that eye has not seen and ear not heard, and which do not come into man’s heart, that God has prepared for them that love Him. They are hidden in God, but the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. It leads to a position in the service of God in His very presence where the approach is equal to the revelation. Think of the depths of the revelation and of man in Christ as being made equal for it, as we are taken up to be “in Christ”.
So it goes on to say that these things are only understood in the Spirit, and they are only spoken by spiritual means, and moreover they are only discerned by persons who are spiritual, who therefore discern all things. We ought to become spiritual and not just remain natural persons who are content to remain in their natural circumstances; spiritual persons have spiritual discernment of these wonderful things, the mysteries of God. As we are initiated into a sense of them consciously they become part of a treasure that each of us should have and inwardly cherish. We should all be on the line of the increase of this treasure that is to be hidden in each of us. It would be valued above all natural and temporal things for it is related to what is eternal in the heavens. It is not connected merely with time, but goes back before time was originally brought in by God to work out His thoughts; just as the Lord cherished and treasured what He found in those who were with Him, so we are to cherish and treasure in a receptive way what comes out in one and another. We are to accept in simplicity what the Lord would have to say to us as we are together; the Lord said that of such child-like persons was the kingdom of God. We accept these things in a simple way, though we do not know much about them, but it says that to him that has shall be given, referring to how we would make as much use as possible of what we have of these things, they, in the sum of them, being all covered by the term “the great things of God” that we have in Acts 2. How the Lord would love us to come into them, to be with Him in what is transpiring under His hand. Each of us is to come and to treasure in our hearts the great range of what is involved as having part in what proceeds amongst the saints.
Address in Melbourne, Australia
15 May 1982