CALAMITY RESULTING IN FRUITFULNESS
[p. 95] CALAMITY RESULTING IN FRUITFULNESS
I wish to speak of a well-known subject, that is, the believer’s household, and for this I have selected this scripture in 1 Chronicles, which is largely a book of believer’s households. It is rightly named Chronicles, and was undoubtedly written by one who was a householder. At any rate he was used by the Spirit to write about households; not as if he were to take up a directory in a city and pick out the names alphabetically, Scripture never moves on that principle; it takes account of the children of God, and any scriptural chroniclers have them in view. Hence many must be omitted in any such chronicle or census that may be made. God works on the principle of sovereign selection. We are regarded thus as the elect of God, which is not merely that we profess Christianity, but that we belong to the elect of God chosen before the foundation of the world; as if God looked down the ages and picked out the elect and named them, and then writes about them, speaks about their distinctiveness. Chronicles is a book of that kind, a book of families.
It is not written even on the principle of the firstborn; it is written on the principle of election. It is true, indeed, that the first man, Adam, heads the list, which would mean that although he was the first male sinner — not the first sinner, but the first male sinner — he is regarded by God as one of us, worthy of mention, worthy of heading the list. And so on the principle of election we have David coming in early. God has a right to select David, to write about him before He does about others who chronologically would come first, and He does so. But He also writes about Joseph, and I have read verses that speak about Joseph’s family, that is, that part of it which comes under the head of Ephraim. I [p. 96] want to make some remarks that I do not think will be wholly new, but I do think they will be practical. If we have not got families we belong to families; and if we do not belong to the divine family, God would desire to put us into it, because the matter is still open, the book is not yet closed.
So I have some remarks to make on the divine selection here of Ephraim, who had calamity in his house. The word “evil” here is “calamity”. It says of his son that “he called his name Beriah, for he was born when calamity was in his house”, 1 Chronicles 7: 23. This was the son Ephraim’s wife bore after the others were slain (verse 21). There are very few houses among us that have not experienced calamity, and these verses I hope will show that this matter in each of our houses, whether great or small, as taken to heart and taken up with God is going to result in enlargement. That is what is recorded for us in these verses down to the last son mentioned, namely, Joshua. They show that this house which had calamity in it took the matter up with God and found God and became enlarged, not in the sense of money or of man’s learning, but in the sense of families. Race suicide is not according to God; any endeavour toward race suicide is foreign to God. God’s thought is, “Be fruitful and multiply: swarm on the earth, and multiply on it”, Genesis 9: 7. That was said to the first man and wife. And so the increase here is in families.
God is thinking of persons, not of the area of the globe. It is a small planet, a small part of the system, one of the smallest I understand, so that God is not thinking of that. He is not thinking of land or of the seas or the mountains or the lakes, or even of the number of the stars, although they afford great variety which God takes notice of. “Star differs from star in glory”; that is a remarkable thing, God surely has some meaning in that. The stars refer to persons [p. 97] typically. But He is not thinking of the heavenly bodies, save as part of His creation; they will come to an end really, the heavens and the earth will disappear; that is, those that now are. There will be new heavens and a new earth presently. But these bodies are there evidently to symbolize persons, those persons whom God had in mind before the creation of the stars or the heavens. So that the things that are made are not made of the things that do appear. We cannot tell just what they are made of; scientists cannot succeed in finding out all these things. But we know that God framed the worlds by His word; it does not say in that connection by His power, but by His word, meaning that His mind was in it. He is not telling us everything; indeed we do not need to know everything, especially when we know that they are going to disappear. We are concerned about persons, those that are to remain, those that are eternal. They are to remain in the sense of families, for we read of “every family”; God is the Father of every family.
So I am now speaking of Joseph’s family, that is, Ephraim’s branch of it. As I said, there is calamity in his house. It is a calamitous time; the world is full of calamities and they are not existent without God; not one of them has happened without God. Not a sparrow falls without Him; that is very comforting. So the calamities, if they fall on a Christian’s household, do not happen accidentally at all, they happen by God, or at least by His knowledge. There are very grave ones, very sorrowful ones in houses, and that is why I have taken up Ephraim’s house. We are told that he had been specially selected by God; he was put before his brother. Joseph did not wish it, another than Joseph wished it, and God used another, namely his father, to make the preference and to elevate Ephraim above Manasseh. Jacob was the one who did it.
[p. 98] That brings up much as to this family of which Joseph was the immediate head. In this book of Chronicles the families are subdivided, usually with heads. As you go over these names that I have read, you cannot think of them as all the sons of one man; they are his posterity, and in that sense his sons. Joseph had a great family history, a persecuted history; from the time he was seventeen years of age he was persecuted by his brothers. I do not believe any brother or sister, any man or woman who faithfully serves Christ evades persecution from his relatives; and no one experienced it more than Joseph. It continued for a long time too. His story is most interesting and profitable, because he is a type of Christ, the true Joseph. But eventually he was raised to the supreme place in Egypt, next to Pharaoh, so that he had a most exalted history, as well as, for a short time, a most outwardly degraded one. Ultimately he was raised to the position of second in the kingdom, and in that position he got a wife who bore him two children. One of these was Ephraim. He was born in Egypt and brought up there, as also his brother Manasseh, for Joseph remained in Egypt. He died there, and his generations, possibly most of those that I read of here, were also in Egypt. But they were, at least typically, of the family of God in Egypt, preserved there so that not a hair of their heads perished; showing that although we are in the world, we are not of it, and we are preserved in it as Christians. And so immediately Ephraim is born we are told his name, and that it means ‘fruitfulness’. It really means ‘double fruitfulness’. Of course it was prophetic. It is not like the ordinary names of men; the names given to God’s people in Old Testament times were usually prophetic. It is simple to understand that a person who is foreknown of God before the foundation of the world is going to get some [p. 99] prophetic reference as he is born. God has a name for him, and the name discloses the circumstances of his birth; but then, it is also prophetic. So Ephraim means ‘double fruitfulness’. Well, that child must be watched and nurtured; God wills that that boy shall be elevated. And so in due time he was; he was put before Manasseh in spite of his father, showing how God over-rules fathers sometimes. We may claim rights in our children, but God says, I have rights in your children as well. So that we cannot regard them as we wish, we must regard them as God wishes. God put Ephraim before Manasseh, and all this must enter into the future history running down; it runs down to one of the greatest men in the Old Testament: that is Joshua. He is the last one mentioned here, Joshua the son of Nun. These are things of importance about Ephraim, and also about Joseph, although he was not without failure, which God did not allow to pass. He made a great failure in this matter of Ephraim, much greater than the surface would disclose. But though -he lived and died in Egypt, there is no evidence that he ever lost ground there, but rather the opposite; he gained there. He died in Egypt and was put into a coffin there; an ark it was really. He was a family man; he lived one hundred and ten years, and the grandchildren of Manasseh were born on his knees — a very remarkable thing. He must have been a man of great affections to have time to lend his knees for that purpose. You may say, A grandfather would be likely to have affection; but Joseph had children born on his knees; and it is said in the last chapter of Genesis that he saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. He saw them and valued them, not exactly because of their number but because of their quality. Now Ephraim was elevated by God in this family, but at the time of which we are speaking there was [p. 100] calamity in his house. As I said, there are a great many such today. Fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters have to be warned that we are in a world that was never so wicked before. The world has never before been so wicked as it is now, though things more wicked have been done in it, because here the Lord was crucified: “Where also their Lord was crucified”. That is mentioned in regard of a city. There are other things that might be mentioned, and children are brought into this world in its terribly wicked state at this present time. But despite this there is a warning to fathers and mothers not to diminish their families or defeat God’s purposes in regard of them. God could bring the children up in Egypt and preserve them there, and when the time came, save them out of it. Egypt, I apprehend, had become terrible in those days, and the Israelites had doubtless added to its wickedness. They had lived there a good many years, over four hundred, dating from Abraham. Did they not contribute something to the wickedness of Egypt? I am sure they did, and they are contributing to the wickedness of this world at the present time. I am not speaking against them. There is plenty being said against them; but they are not behind in sin, they are old in it, they are clever in it. But they are in purpose God’s people, and eventually they are going to be saved out of this world. So it was that in the main Jacob’s family was reared in Egypt, Joseph’s family particularly; they were born and brought up there. We read of some of them in verse 20: “And the sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son, and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elad. And the men of Gath born in the land slew them, because they came down to take their cattle”. That [p. 101] is to say, these young men, or possibly men with families, went down and stole some cattle. They went down. It is not clear where they went from, whether out of Egypt itself or from elsewhere, when they stole some cattle in the land. The expression “the land” would probably allude to Canaan; it is not that land, it is the land. The reference is not that they stole cattle from the Egyptians, but that they left Egypt, or left somewhere, and stole cattle. I am alluding to what young boys and girls, or older ones, even married people are capable of doing. There might be some right attached to it; these cattle belonged to the land, and possibly the land was Canaan; so that it was Israel’s potentially. But an ordinary court would not decide it that way. At any rate, the owners of the cattle slew them, that is what happened. There is no need to dwell too much on that, only to warn young people as to stealing.
Someone wrote to me today about a matter of sin, as to what should be done. Sometimes Scripture just says, Give it up. Oh, you say, but you must judge it! The brethren must come together so that the thing can be judged. But Ephesians says, “Let the stealer steal no more”. That is all. It is a very good word, because there is so much done in the form of stealing. “Let the stealer steal no more”. These men stole the cattle and they were slain for it. What I am saying is very practical, because we are apt to be stealers, takers-away of what does not belong to us, and especially to rob God. “Will a man rob God?” Malachi says. We may do that and God resents it. If we disregard the rights of God or take them away, God resents it. I am dwelling on that because it is so practical that we should be on our guard about stealing or doing things that are not fair, and bringing down calamities on our fathers’ houses. Perhaps we get clear of the thing ourselves as young people and say, The results will not come [p. 102] on me! But they may come on your father’s house and he will feel it. Ephraim felt it; he was only a man. It says, “And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him”. That shows there was good in Israel in those days. But now I pass on from the sons to the father. He is of Joseph, the grandson of Jacob, running back to Abraham. He is an outstanding man; he is elevated, put even above his brother Manasseh. His name means ‘fruitfulness’, as I said, and that fruitfulness is to go on; it is not to drop out with these sons that were slain. The family must be kept on, and hence the next verses tell us how it was kept on; the names of the sons are given and of their sister. This prophecy of ‘double fruitfulness’ must be verified. The word comes from God, and God is going to see to it that there are many of the sons of Israel. Scripture speaks of the myriads of Ephraim; that is a big thought. What I am saying is to enlarge us far beyond our own families; it is what the families are to be to God, the myriads of Ephraim. These are they that Moses was speaking about — not the boys that would steal cattle and were slain for it. “The myriads of Ephraim” is an allusion to the divine blessing, the blessing of Joseph. So that after these sons were slain we are told that Ephraim’s wife conceived and bore a son and he called his name Beriah, “because it went evil with his house”. That is to say, life comes in in Beriah in the time of calamity; the calamity is bearing fruit. God is being sought; the brethren are coming to him. How important it is, dear brethren, that when calamities happen, whatever form they take, the brethren should surround us; that we should open the doors to them and let them help us if they can. And they can. The brethren have great ability to help. But let it be known that the calamity is taken to God and that [p. 103] His rights are recognized in it. So the brethren surround him, “his brethren came to comfort him”.
Then there is this other son, the family is replenished. There is a sister too, and a number more are mentioned, because it is to be double fruitfulness. We are to look out for that, for double fruitfulness that is to come to us as we bow to the will of God in calamities. The world is full of them and the brethren are not escaping, but we have to look for what is to come out of them. Do they mean that our families are to die in forgetfulness? No, they are to grow, to bear fruit upwards through the exercise that we go through with God, and the comfort of the brethren. God is the God of all comfort, especially in families, because God is the Head of every family. The family idea is His own and He is determined to have it continue, so that eternity will be marked by families. The prophetic families must come to light. Some of them are slain, but God will raise up fruit as a result of that. In fact the Lord Jesus was slain; not rightly — He was murdered — but His death has borne much fruit, as it says, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12: 24. That is the principle, much fruit. So it says in verse 24, “And his daughter was Sheerah; and she built Bethhoron the nether, and the upper, and Uzzen-sheerah”. That is to say she was a builder, which is a very important matter for sisters. It comes out in the book of Ruth how certain sisters built up the house of Israel. David came out of it. It is God’s way that calamitous things, humbling things, become the means in His hand, as the brethren surround us and He is appealed to and owned, of fruitfulness not only in quantity but in quality. Here we have a sister who built two towns, the upper and the lower, which is a good suggestion; because if we build too far up we are apt to be building in our pride, but [p. 104] the lower would be foundational. If you go in for the heavenly, be sure you build foundationally or you will have a fall. So that let us go on quietly and peaceably and humbly. If you are going to build at all — I refer to the sisters — build foundationally, and let the top story come in in its time.
Then we have this list of sons from verse 25: “And his son was Rephah, and Resheph, and Telah his son, and Tahan his son, Laadan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, Nun his son, Joshua his son”. Where names are repeated in families it would mean there are two sets of families, or several sets, so that the name is resumed. We have, for instance, Shuthelah in verse 20, and then we have it again in verse 21. That does not mean there were two Shuthelahs in the same actual family; they were descendants. It is to show they were great men in their families; they were leaders or heads, a most important thing, especially in the assembly, to have those who can be trusted for judgment. Finally we come to Joshua, the son of Nun. It is not an accident that he is here, he is an outstanding man. He is here because he descends from a man with a calamity in his house, who got to God about it and whose brethren came to comfort him. So let us disclose these matters to one another, as it says, “Confess therefore your offences to one another, and pray for one another”, James 5: 16. Let us open our hearts to one another and not hide things too much from the brethren. There are things to be hid, things that would do harm if we advertised them; but there are things to advertise, to be made known so that the brethren can pray for us. At the same time God kept a secret for thousands of years. He did not say anything about the mystery for thousands of years, He kept it in His heart. God conceals things; kings or wise men open them up. That is the way. That is, kings, such as apostles and great men of God, are [p. 105] able to do things; they are used of God to disclose things when the time comes, the fulness of time. God divides time and gives to each great thing its own time. So we have Joshua just mentioned here; he is the son of Ephraim away down the line. He is first mentioned in Exodus 17, so that evidently he was born in Egypt, and he became a great general in the army of God. He conquered Canaan. His name is just mentioned here in its place in the family, but it opens up wonderful history, not only on earth but in heaven, the fact that this son of Ephraim was the great military man in Israel. He conquered Canaan. He is a type of Christ as the Conqueror who conquers heaven as well as earth. The great Conqueror will come out presently riding on a white horse and the armies of heaven will come out with Him on white horses. But here we have just Joshua the son of Nun, that is all. Elsewhere we have great things about him, looking on to the Lord Jesus, as I have said. I am only speaking of him now that we might see what may accrue even though the worst things happen in our families. One speaks about these things feelingly, that if we are with God about them they will come out so as to glorify Him, and God will enlarge His family through the calamities. That is the thing, there is glory in the families; God is glorified in His families. Every family in heaven and on earth is named of Him. May God bless this word to us!