WRITING INSTRUMENTS AND WRITING MATERIALS
A. P. Devenish
Daniel 5: 1, 5, 6, 22, 23, 25–28; Exodus 34: 1, 2, 4, 5; 2 Corinthians 3: 3–6; Psalm 45: 1, 2; Revelation 3: 12, 13
I would like to speak a word about writing instruments and writing materials. The first scripture of course is judicial; it is part of a man’s hand. The solemn pronouncement of Daniel, “thou, Belshazzar, his son, hast not humbled thy heart, although thou knewest all this”; he knew about the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar, he knew about all that had happened previously in the history, that is, he had the light of these things and yet, as Daniel says, “thou ... hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of the heavens”. He really profaned God’s house. It is a solemn pronouncement, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting”; the fingers of a man’s hand writing on the wall at the king’s palace. It is part of a hand that wrote.
So it is a solemn pronouncement in relation to the profession, the public profession of Christianity. We might apply it like that, “although thou knewest all this”, that is, light has shone in the western world. There has never been such an outshining of divine light, and yet despite that, man has lifted himself up against God. But then of course we might apply this a little closer to home; we need to value the light that God has given us and walk in it. If we walk in the light as God is in the light. John says, “we have fellowship with one another”, 1
John 1: 7. Judgment is God’s strange work.
Normally the hands of Christ would move our hearts, move our affections. Think of His hands in the Song of Songs. It says, “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door”, Song of Songs 5: 4. That was not a judicial act; that was to attract one who would be familiar with the Lord Jesus, would know His hand, “My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door”. How often He does that, not judicially, but affectionately to attract our hearts to Him, a man’s hand. We have seen His hand in many things that have happened in our midst for the Lord is seeking to draw our attention to Himself. Can we identify the Lord’s hand in our exercises, to draw us away from things here and to attract us to Himself? In Daniel, as I have said, it is judicial, a solemn thing, a solemn judicial pronouncement, part of a man’s hand. Men will be judged according to the light they have received, but now is the time when the Lord is seeking to catch our attention. It says earlier in the Song of Songs, a reference that I have often been attracted to,
“Behold, he standeth behind our wall, He looketh in through the windows, Glancing through the lattice”, Song of Songs 2: 9. He is seeking to catch our attention as He did on the shore in John 21. It says, “That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved says to Peter, It is the Lord”
(John 21: 7). Sometimes we might attribute what happens amongst us to other things, but we need to see that the Lord’s hand is in them, and someone needs to recognise that it is the Lord. He is seeking to help us to get free from things here, what may mark us naturally, our propensities and natural inclinations and to attract us to Himself, to attract our affections to Himself.
Here in Daniel it was a strange work, it was not characteristically what the Lord loves to do, what God loves to do. He loves to bless, but this is a solemn side of things, that where we sin in the presence of light, particularly ecclesiastically, there is this solemn judicial pronouncement, and we are to take heed to that. We have received so much light, perhaps more than most, Paul’s light. He says, “at mid-day ... I saw ... a light above the brightness of the sun”, Acts 26: 13. That is what characterised Paul’s ministry, and there is a great need, I believe, for each of us to walk in the light, that we may be true, to it in our lives. We need to heed Paul’s commandments; he says, “let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. The whole of the first
epistle to the Corinthians would be the Lord’s commandment. We have the privilege, dear brethren, of following Paul’s directions and walking in Paul’s light, the greatest light that has ever shone. He said, “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee”, Ephesians 5: 14. What a wonderful time we are in; it corresponds with what God said to Moses, “be ready for the morning”. Wonderful things have happened in our day and we want to be ready for the morning, that is, the breaking in on the darkness, of light from God.
In Exodus he says, “Hew for thyself two tables of stone like the first”, that is, we are to come to it that we are the Lord’s own production. We may have to look at it abstractly but it is the truth, the saints of God are the Lord’s own production, each of us is the product of the Lord’s own personal service. It is a wonderful thing to come to. We have been referring to John chapters 11 and 12 today already. Think of those three, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, the product of the Lord’s own production as they shine in John 12; “Lazarus was one of those at table with him”, a man raised from the dead sitting in quiet dignity, what a testimony he is, a product of the Lord’s own workmanship; and Mary anointing His feet with the ointment; and Martha serving—How beautiful a picture. They had been in the presence of the glory. The Lord says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it”, John 11: 4. How they shine in chapter 12! Let us think of one another in that way as being written upon. It says later, “And Jehovah said to Moses, Write thee these words; for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel”, Exodus 34: 27. In Exodus 31 it speaks about the finger of God. Think of being written on by the finger of God! Well, you look around amongst the saints and you say, That is the finger of God. The evidence of divine workmanship in one another is the writing of the finger of God, it is by the Mediator.
It is a wonderful thing to contemplate that God is writing, He is making indelible impressions upon this one and that one; it is the finger of God, that is the instrument that is used. Here it is the Mediator. “And Jehovah said to Moses, Write thee these words; for after the tenor of these words”, a very interesting reference, not exactly the letter. As was referred to in the previous reading, it is the Spirit that quickens. In 2 Corinthians 3 the writing is by the Spirit of the living God. Once again that is the instrument of the writing, and the material written upon is the fleshy tables of the heart. Why does it says that, “written, not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of the heart”. That is, God is softening us through discipline and through the teaching of the new covenant, so that through the spirit and teaching of the new covenant there is what can be written upon, what is impressionable. It is a solemn thing when our hearts are hard and unimpressionable. It speaks about Pharaoh hardening his own heart, and then God hardened it, which is a very solemn matter. So there is a suggestion in this chapter of hard-heartedness. Is there any hardness with us? Have we hardened our hearts? Are they soft and impressionable to divine writing?
Here he speaks about the Corinthians “being manifested to be Christ’s epistle”. Think of the saints being a transcript of Christ—how wonderful that is, to see Christ in the saints, the result of divine writing, the result of the writing of the Spirit of the living God. You see life coming into evidence in the saints. We ought not to adhere merely to the letter. The Pharisees did in John 8, the letter of Moses’ law, they would have executed it. They would have had Christ merely to fulfil Moses’ law, but then He wrote a law of His own. He is the great Legislator and He wrote His own laws. I believe these things are to make our hearts soft and impressionable so that we are able to move in the tenor of things, that is a spiritual suggestion, not the letter but the tenor. Have our hearts been softened by the wonderful mercy and
grace of God that has been shown to each of us, by the love of Christ who has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, who has borne the judgment due to us and given us a place of favour and blessing? The spirit of the new covenant involves divine teaching, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, wonderful divine teaching involving God’s love towards us. We are formed in love, that wonderful love that is toward us; so we love even as He loved, we forgive even as Christ has forgiven, we move towards one another as God has moved towards us. We are not hard in our outlook or in our actions, in our feelings; we are soft and tender, affectionate, like God. I commend that to the brethren.
So here the instrument is the Spirit of the living God. In Exodus it is the finger of God. I think there is only one reference in the New Testament to the finger of God and that is in Luke 11,
“But if by the finger of God I cast out demons” (Luke 11: 20), a remarkable reference to the detail of things. It would be good to think about that, that God wants to remove every detail of fleshly activity and natural thinking from us. You say, Well we are covered by the blood, but the finger of God involves detail. God has to do with what is minute, the detail of things, so that every feature that characterises us naturally and according to the flesh is removed.
Well, perhaps we would not like to think about that too much. We might just pass for a good Christian, a good meeting-goer but what about the finger of God? He is not only acting negatively but He is acting positively. He is taking away the first and establishing the second.
What He is doing is writing Christ on the saints, every beautiful feature that shone in Jesus, His meekness, His grace, the perfect evenness of the Lord Jesus as the oblation suggests, His wisdom, His lowliness of mind. “Hew for thyself”, it is His production. It says, “one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”, 1 Corinthians 8: 6. That means we owe our spiritual existence, what we are spiritually, to Christ.
Think of the woman in John 4, what a production she was, what the Lord secured from her as His own production. It does not say that there was any other instrument, any other used, just Himself. The disciples were away, they missed that great opportunity of watching the Master at His work, they missed it. Would you have missed it? How beautifully the Lord affects that woman. He sat just as He was at the fountain, weary with the way He had come, and asked her for a drink. See the Master at His work with this poor woman, who had drunk deeply in the wells of this world, into the immoral and corrupt side of things, to see her become a worshipper, to see Christ we may say moulding her, selecting for Himself a vessel. She leaves her water-pot. She goes to the men of the city and she says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”, John 4: 29. Will you miss what He is doing here in Denton? Will I miss what God is doing in Edmonton? He is bringing us out of moral darkness into the light, vessels that are secured for the service of God. Will we be able to watch in our places the Master at His work? I trust we will not miss it. I think the Lord missed the disciples too when He went to the mount of Olives. It says they all went to their own homes. Would He not have shared with them what He enjoyed on the mount of Olives?
No one seemed to be interested, they went to their own homes. Would you be interested? or do you go about your own affairs, live your own life selfishly and miss what the Lord is doing? He went to the mount of Olives. He might have said, I wonder if John will come with Me, I wonder if Peter will come with Me; is anyone interested in going with Me to the mount of Olives? These are lessons for us, beloved brethren, not to miss what the Lord is doing.
Well, I have digressed somewhat but I just want to speak about Psalm 45. It is another pen being used, another instrument. It says, “My heart is welling forth with a good matter—I say what I have composed” (or what is my occupation) “touching the king. My tongue is
the pen of a ready writer “. Is that how we are, that we are so wrapped up with Jesus, we love Him so? How He is described in this psalm is beautiful but it is by one of His lovers, and Christ has been His occupation. I ask you if Christ is your occupation? Do you contemplate Him? In John 1 it says, “we have contemplated his glory” (John 1: 14). Do you sit down quietly sometimes and just contemplate Him? “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”, then, “for of his fulness we all have received”; well, how would we receive of His fulness, “and grace upon grace”? It is by occupation, by contemplation of the Lord of glory. Think of what the psalmist says here,
“Thou art fairer than the sons of men”. Have you come to that? Well you say, I know that is in the Scriptures, I know that it is in the ministry, I know others have said it. But have you come to it in your own experience that He is fairer than the sons of men? There is no one like Him, no one to be compared with Jesus. We go on in the psalm, “grace is poured into thy lips—therefore God hath blessed thee for ever”. It is the pen of a lover of Christ, “I say what I have composed touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer”. This is another instrument of writing, and I would that, in increasing measure for myself, that what I say may be the result of contemplation and occupation with Christ. Think of these wonderful words,
“And in thy splendour ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things ... Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom—Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions” (Psalm 45: 4, 6, 7). It is not only to be because of what others have said, or because of what you have read, but because you know it yourself. Like those men in John 4
who said, “It is no longer on account of thy saying that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves” (John 4: 42).
Then in the last scripture we have the wonderful writing of God to the overcomer. There are other writings spoken of in these scriptures. It speaks about him that overcomes in the church in Pergamos, “I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it”, Revelation 2: 17. There are other writings in Revelation, there is the mark of the beast. I do not know if that is a suggestion of an impress, what the beast would put upon men that are his, a dreadful thing! Think of the blessedness of this reference, “He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God”. Think of the Lord Jesus doing that to each of us, writing upon us the name of His God, “and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”. His new name might refer to the recovery of the truth. It is not a different name exactly but it might refer to His name being imprinted on persons in these days which have been characterised by the recovery of the truth. His new name is new in the sense of being fresh and living. That is an impress that is to be laid upon us. Alas the public profession has become traditional and lifeless. I would suggest that “my new name” is a fresh living impress of Christ upon the saints in the present day of recovery.
These are wonderful things. Think of the Lord saying this, “He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God”. Is that not an appeal to us? Each of these things is wonderful to think about, “and he shall go no more at all out”. What a day that will be! “And I will write upon him the name of my God”. You think of John 20 when the Lord gave that message to Mary, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. Think of the Lord leaving an impression of His God upon His people, and “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem”. How wonderful the truth of the assembly is.
He would write an impression on the saints of the greatness of the new Jerusalem, the holy city which will come down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
I commend these suggestions to the brethren and trust a few impressions remain. I trust I have been able to convey something of divine writing and how we are to be a transcript of Christ and we are not to miss what the Lord is doing. In John 20 the disciples went to their own home (John 20: 10); they did that again. Did they not learn what had happened before?
Then we get the most wonderful story of a soul who so loved Christ that she could not leave the place of His burial. She said, “they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”, John 20: 13. Then he appears to her. He says, “Mary” and she says, “Rabboni’’. The disciples missed that. There is so much we might miss, beloved brethren, if we do not keep near the Lord to see what He is doing, what He is effecting in persons for the glory of God. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Denton
31 August 2002