ACCUMULATION

^[p. 422] ACCUMULATION

Genesis 6: 14 - 22; Genesis 7: 1 - 4; Exodus 13: 19; 1 Corinthians 10: 11

I wish to speak of accumulation, the cumulative principle which appears in the history of God’s testimony, and I selected these scriptures, fully believing not only that each contains the idea, but that they link the idea. They form links in the great cumulative chain that appears in the Scriptures in relation to God’s testimony. They involve persons of reliability, that is, Noah, Moses, and Paul. The last scripture is Paul’s statement, a statement that did not depend upon the state of the Corinthians. It was an historical matter. We perceive that the ends of the ages have come upon the assembly, and, inasmuch as we form part of that, the statement becomes of immense importance to us. The hope is that we shall accept it as an historical fact that God has ordered that the ages should accumulate or culminate in the present dispensation.

The apostle, needless to say, was observant in addressing the Corinthians; he makes much of what God did from His own side in taking them on. He unfolded to them the testimony of the Christ. He had to do with the work there in detail and knew what had transpired. He had spent considerable time there, eighteen months at least, and had seen results from his own preaching and the preaching of others such as Timotheus and Silvanus, and had good opportunity of knowing what might be said in regard of it. Indeed, he was very lavish in his comments on the work at Corinth. It was one of his greatest works, and he did not hesitate to bring in the whole principle of christianity. He says this nowhere else. The things that happened in type in the Pentateuch were for us,

^[p. 423] upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So that we can hang our thoughts on these three scriptures with full assurance, not only in regard to the statements themselves, but in regard to the persons involved, selected of God for cumulative as well as other purposes. The thought attaches to us so that we are not to consider ourselves isolated in any way. Each is to consider himself in this great period of God’s dealings in which He has linked us together so that we should act and react upon one another and unitedly work things out, working with God and working with one another. This is stressed in Paul’s communication to Corinth; indeed, he does not travel very far in his first letter before he touches the thought of unity. He had heard it was wanting in Corinth and he took great pains to stress the necessity for it, that things should be worked out together not only locally but in relation to the whole, for God’s work is one. God’s plan is one, God’s counsel is one, God’s Israel is one, God’s assembly is one. God Himself is One, that is to say, One in infinitude, unity, and affection, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”. The matter is one, and therefore the beginning of the work must bear on the end of the work and on the middle of the work. The cumulative idea begins with the beginning and will end when all is complete. God is working to completion.

These three personages are noble enough in the sense of personality on which to hang our thoughts, and, by the Spirit aiding us, to work out this thought of accumulation. Noah is taken on here in Genesis 6, and indeed in chapter 5, but particularly in chapters 6, 7, 8 and g. It is to show how things that preceded him are not just left where they were. They are not local happenings either in time or place; In their bearing they are universal happenings. The more we dwell on this the more we shall realise how important ^[p. 424] each one is, not simply because they are few but because the thing is so great. It requires so many, but even the thought of fewness is an incentive to stress the necessity for unity. There is a scarcity of men, a scarcity of persons belonging to the assembly who are available. The more, therefore, is the necessity of making ourselves available and useful in this great scheme. These are outstanding persons in the work. The Lord’s own remark bears on this, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”. The work goes on. I think this section of Genesis in relation to Noah shows the care God took to bring things down to us and to bring them down, not as isolated, but in a cumulative sense as belonging to the whole scheme. Hence we have the measurements of the ark and the material used, but it is the contents I have in mind. It was very carefully made and secured so that there should be no mishaps, no leakage or spoilage; the matter is going through. So we have a very large vessel, a vessel that is seaworthy and dependable, and full of living things. There was food to sustain life in the persons, in the cattle, and the birds. No children are mentioned; that is to say, it is a mature thing, what reflects the mind of God, a mature state of things in life. I just want to call attention to certain things in these verses. There were means of communication without the ark, that is to say, the communication of divine thoughts was in persons. This Bible, for instance, is inspired by the Spirit of God, but it is in the persons of believers that the word of God is in a living sense. These things are recorded for us; they are written by the Spirit of God. Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Spirit and they wrote too. It is all so infinitely accurate, but at the same time the earlier means of communication was in persons. There was a book too. The history of books, the idea in Scripture, is very interesting, and the first one alludes to Adam,

“the book of Adam’s generations” I am not saying that there was not something in the sense of ‘book’ earlier, but I am speaking now of what particularly relates to what is earlier than Noah. It relates to the generations of Adam. That is to say, it was intended for help in that day, for antediluvian believers. How many there were we cannot say. The great record of them is in chapter 5 of this book. There is the cumulative principle from Adam to Enoch. He was the seventh from Adam, and in that sense the word ‘seven’ means more than that he was a person born and living so many years after Adam. The seventh relates to Adam; he was the seventh from him in a cumulative sense. What followed was Noah and the ark. It is a great cumulative thought: what was to be carried into another world, not leaving the previous one behind as dead and gone; not at all, for there was life in that ark. It ended in death, of course, as the Lord Jesus said, “Eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day on which Noe entered into the ark”. The flood came and drowned them all, but it did not drown Noah and his sons. They were to represent what was living, and what was living was carried down in a cumulative sense, nothing lost, no leakages, nothing to be salvaged, everything intact under God. He has His vessels for this purpose, but He does it.

Now I wish to speak about the light that was in it. “A fight shalt thou make to the ark” (verse 16). The word here is more than ‘fight’, it involves noonday light. That is an important matter to keep before us; the great things of God have come to light. They are not kept in museums; the light is shining on them and life surrounds them. They are all living things. Food is only to keep life going, to sustain it. There was nothing dead there, nor is there the slightest hint that anyone died there, not a beast. Things came down in this way, illuminated from above. Light was ^[p. 426] there and it was real fight; Noah and his family did not live in the dark. This is a most important principle, dear brethren, locally and generally-the need of light. “If we walk in the fight as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”. Someone says, I have fellowship with the Lord. You will not rightly have fellowship with the Lord if you have not fellowship with the brethren, “with one another”. And so it is that they had fellowship in the ark; there was nothing to hinder it. They are all moving under the direction and influence of Noah. Noah does what Jehovah directs him to do. The beasts all came to Noah. They all moved and were governed by the principle of the moment. We must always be governed by the principle for the moment. Divine principles are the same at all times. There is no great hardship therefore, and we can understand that there was plenty of occupation for the mind, food not only for the body but food for the mind. What a scene it was for all those days in which the ark floated! It does not say it was driven by any power, not driven by the wind; it was just a floating vessel, but it went through and rested on mount Ararat with everyone intact, as far as we know, no deaths at all. There are no children, nothing at all but mature persons. Let us be these things. That is what Corinthians teaches us, “Quit yourselves like men”. In every creature there was some thought of God in a living way and it came down in a cumulative sense.

The early part of Genesis opens up in this living way. The book closes with a coffin. You say, It is a very different matter, but is it a different matter? What about the man in that coffin? What about him historically, what about him personally? What about his father, his grandfather, and his great grandfather, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? They lived for God, every one of them. What about Joseph? He is living too. He is commanding by faith. He called ^[p. 427] to mind the going out of the children of Israel when he was dying. How important it is to have our minds under control! The Lord’s supper is intended to facilitate that. We ought to direct and control our minds at any time, about any particular thing. And so it was that, when Joseph was dying, he called to mind the going out of the children of Israel. He meant, I apprehend, that they were to go out in a living way. Joseph is going out of Egypt in a living way. His words clothed his bones with life. That is to say, our funerals would be very simple; they are not dead affairs. The burials of real christians are living. The words are living. We are burying our dead to be raised again, and we know that they are with Jesus. It is a living situation, not a dead situation. Nor is the end of Genesis a dead situation. We may say there are two funerals in the end of Genesis. Although Joseph is not said to be buried until he went to Canaan, his bones were kept in a living way; they were treasured. They are under command and they go out in a living sense. The application is that we are all going out together livingly. The apostle says triumphantly in 1 Thessalonians, “The Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them”; they first, we second, all going up together.

I only refer to these simple thoughts so that our minds might be brought into this cumulative current. What am I carrying with me? What am I adding to the brethren so that we can together go out with something? They were going out of Egypt with great property. It challenges our hearts as to how rich we are. They were going out with great property, and one of the greatest items of that property was the bones of Joseph. It indicates the faith that Joseph had. What has come down to us has come down in a ^[p. 428] cumulative way, has come to our very bookshelves, but it is in living persons also, persons who are contemporary. There were contemporaries of Joseph, as there were contemporaries of Jacob, of Isaac, of Abraham. In each day, in their turn, they came down in a living way and with great property. When we come to Egypt the question is how to get the property out. So in Exodus 13: 19 we have a grouping of circumstances. The people are going out militarily. They went out of Egypt with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. They did not go out the back door; the Israelites were always front door people. We do not have to go out by the back door, nor will we if we are with God. Jehovah says to Moses, “Stand before Pharaoh”; there is nothing to fear, face the enemy. Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all Egypt. They went out arrayed, five in a rank, which is a military term meaning that they were in military order in the presence of the enemy. They went out with great property. Will the Egyptians rob them? No, they will not. If you look at those verses you will see that Jehovah is the great military Leader, a Man of war. There is great military strategy; God makes allowance for the weakness of the people. It is a most exhilarating passage.

I wish every brother and sister would look into what is associated with the carrying out of the bones of this great servant Joseph. Moses ordered that, in the very midst of a great battle, when the Egyptians were after them, they did not forget this treasure, the bones of Joseph. “And ^[p. 429] Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had made the children of Israel swear an oath, saying, God will be sure to visit you; then ye shall carry my bones with you hence”. That is cumulative. So the word holds me, stands by me, this cumulative idea that the saints are coming with us. We are seeing to it in our affections that they are coming with us. That is the word here.

“Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had made the children of Israel swear an oath, saying, God will be sure to visit you; then ye shall carry my bones with you hence”. Can I forget them, can I leave them behind? This may mean me; the Lord may take any of us through death, but that does not mean we are not taking our brethren with us. We are to keep our minds when we are dying. Joseph had a clear mind when he died. Keep the saints in mind, keep the rank of the saints to five: they went out that way. We want to go out with them, in order, and in rank. Persons can keep rank who understand the times, moving on right principles, moving under orders, keeping military array. If you are out of step, do not say that all the others are out of step with you, but that you are out of step with them. They were under orders and were to be in step, in rank with the brethren. We are going out with the dead saints, every one of them; they will not be left. In every grave they will hear the Lord’s voice. “The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain ...”. Christ is the firstfruits of those who are asleep. But I am stressing the idea that we go out with them. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, and the children of Israel took the bones of Joseph with them. They were carrying the bones forward in a cumulative way and all culminated in the land of Canaan.

The Lord is said to change our bodies of humiliation. We are in a humble condition physically, but the Lord is coming to change these bodies into the image of His body of glory, what it is now. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him”. Our bodies will have the character and power of the body of the Lord Jesus. What an array of the glory and power of Christ when all the saints, not simply those who are living, but all from Adam down, the dead in Christ, all go up together! This cumulative thought suggests that ^[p. 430] nothing is missing; there is no leakage, no damage, all going forth in infinite perfectness by the work of God. Moses is concerned to bring with him the bones of Joseph and Israel is concerned to bring them, too. It is association. We are concerned to carry our brethren with us. If we are not concerned about the living ones at the present moment, we certainly cannot carry the dead ones. It is a stretch of faith to embrace them in our affections. We are not going without them; the saints do not go to heaven one by one. We may die one by one, but when the time of really going to heaven comes, we are all going together. We are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

I had in mind in the passage in Corinthians, the third great pillar for my thoughts, that the apostle is speaking with perfect knowledge of the state in Corinth and the saints generally. It says, “Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come”. The allusion is to the dispensations in which God has been working out His thoughts, and so they are all of one piece. They come down to us and they are to be woven into our affections, all the ages-the antediluvian world, Adam’s world, the Mosaic world, the Levitical world, the Davidic world, the prophetic world, all the ages of the world. All these periods of time in which God has worked, forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ. How God has been working out all His thoughts!

Now we come to a period in which the Holy Spirit is indwelling the saints; there was never such a period as this. It involves power that we can hold things together in a living way locally and generally. The more faithful I am locally, the more I shall become universal. I want to hear what God is doing. Every evidence we have of the keeping power of God gives us encouragement. All the saints are going ^[p. 431] with us. If they are on battlefields tonight, they are coming with us. It is all one piece, and love in the grace period is so great that we can count on being able to hold things collectively, to hold the thoughts of God in our minds and our affections. The idea is concrete, not simply abstract or theoretic, but it is a concrete idea that the saints are keeping step, going out in fives, with no great pretension, but, still, in God’s hand. God’s hand is a high hand. It reaches up to heaven and down to the earth. It reaches down into the graves and takes the saints up into heaven.

God is a Man of war; it is what He does. We attribute everything to God, but we are to hold these thoughts together and say we are not going without one another. Think of those in the grave that we love! God is going to take them out of the grave and we are going with them; we are going out together. May the Lord help us in these thoughts!