SUFFERINGS

SUFFERINGS

Exodus 17:4-7; Exodus 30:22-30; Acts 16:23-25

P. H. Hardwick I have today received a fresh impression of sufferings, based on the verses we have read in Hebrews 2: 10, and I would just record this brief impression amongst the brethren, as referring to these scriptures. First of all in Exodus 17, according to the type, the Spirit is given to us on the basis of the sufferings of Christ. We are well acquainted with the other rock in Numbers 20, a high rock, speaking of Christ in His exaltation and glory, and the necessity only of speaking to that rock that it may give its water, but it does us good to remember this earlier reference. We may often forget it, that is, the Spirit given to us on the basis of Christ being smitten. As to the figures which the scripture uses, this would involve what is inscrutable, because God Himself was there. He tells Moses what he is to do, taking with him some elders who were to see and to take experience by what was happening, and taking the rod; then God says, “I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb”. That is, whether it be in Christ, or whether it be in the Spirit, God Himself is there, fully identified with the coming in of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God fully there in Christ, God fully there in the Spirit. If we should ask ourselves, Does this mean then that God Himself has entered into the suffering such as the smiting signifies? Indeed it is so, and Scripture helps to hold the thought right in saying, “Now the rock was the Christ”. And this makes this particular incident a very touching one to us, that we should receive the Spirit on such a basis, that Christ has suffered and died, “Christ once humbled here”. The grace of it is magnified, too, when we think what called it forth there was murmuring and refusal, the refusal of divine authority in lordship as represented in Moses. But God does not strike the people. Somebody had to be smitten, somebody had to suffer if God was to go on with the people, and He meets it all in surpassing grace, not only in the actual smiting of the rock but in the giving of the Spirit. The words Massah, and Meribah merit our contemplation and our deep pondering, for we may come to the conclusion that God has many times met our own contention and our own quarrelling by means of reminding us of the One who suffered even unto death that we might have the Spirit.

And then I thought of the anointing oil in chapter 30, and the contents of it, as it says when God is approaching this great matter of the hallowing by the anointing, “Take best spices - of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon the half - two hundred and fifty, and of sweet myrtle two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin”. It was wonderful that Moses should receive an instruction of that kind. He had not yet come down the mountain, this was still all light for him, light from the direct presence of God which he was to pass on presently to the people, but it must have struck him as it would ourselves, knowing the general scope of Scripture, that the myrrh, the liquid myrrh being the first ingredient and being a not inconsiderable part of the composition of that holy ointment, would mean that suffering was in view, anointing in view of suffering is to be included in that holy composition. It is true that fragrance is there, myrtle and cinnamon and cassia, and the myrrh itself, there was always something of the sweet fragrance which the Spirit brings, and every time, we might say, the Spirit is presented as anointing, and every time we are conscious that anointed persons or a part of the anointed system is before us, occupying us, we shall be conscious of fragrance. It is to be noted too that these are spices. They are not minerals, they are not rocks ground to powder and mixed, they are spices; that is to say, they are a part of the growth which God Himself has ordered, they come straight from God. So, dear brethren, in what occupies us in our place in the wilderness and in the testimony, and in what our brother has just been speaking to us about, our part in chastening and all that comes with it, there is to be a compensating help and sweetness from the Spirit. That is, that the Spirit especially needed in times of suffering and times of pressure, is first, we might say, before our minds as in connection with suffering itself. The myrrh is mentioned first. We shall remember a woman who brought a box of myrrh and lavished it on the Lord, we shall remember the occasions in the Song of Songs where myrrh, and liquid myrrh, is mentioned, principally in settings which show that there is suffering and pressure. I think we are just to be encouraged at this present time that the Holy Spirit Himself as the anointing enters in for our help in all these times of testing for the saints. The whole of the tabernacle system was to be anointed, the persons, as in Aaron and his sons, and the whole system, so that whether taken down or re-erected, every part of the pathway, involving much suffering, in what Moses called this “waste howling wilderness”, every feature of testing was to be accompanied by some precious detail of the help and power of the Spirit. I believe that the Holy Spirit Himself would enter into this and would encourage us. Peter tells us, “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”. If any suffer in the name of Christ, not on account of it exactly, but if we are in that position to which the name of Christ attaches, the Spirit has a particular interest; not only in the whole assembly system, we might say, but in every person who is pressed “as a Christian” in regard of the truth in this time of travail and pilgrimage. So, dear brethren, without saying more, may I just leave this impression? It is very wonderful, at least to my soul, that, according to the figures used, Christ should enter into suffering that we might have the Spirit, and in what accompanies the composition of the anointing oil, speaking of the Spirit Himself, there is suffering also attached. This will help us in view of finishing our journey, and finishing it according to God.

An example of this, I believe, would be in Acts 16, when our dear brethren were suffering and their backs were beaten, yet they were soon praising, “in praying, were praising God”. There was a change. One is always looking for changes amongst the people of God, specially amongst the young people, and amongst those too who have gone out of the way, in fact, with all of us, that we may come more and more to God’s own way and God’s own thoughts, beautifully exemplified in these two, Paul and Silas, in praying. I dare say in praying they were accepting the suffering and full of desire in regard of the will of God. We cannot tell, but that it should be turned into praise shows that there was another power there, a power which did not arise from Paul and Silas naturally, but which arose, I believe, from the Spirit with them; the sufferings of Christ were exemplified there, although, of course, only in small measure, but the Spirit identified Himself with these suffering men. Some of our brethren are suffering in many ways, we need not detail them, but there is a resource, a rich outlet in this divine provision. Some of the things in the tabernacle economy had to be beaten. We are to think of it morally, gold had to be beaten, for instance, beaten out very thin, for the ephod of the high priest, gold beaten out and cut into very thin lacings. God could not use anything that was not beaten, He could not use an ingot of gold, however precious, it must be beaten. That refers to what is beaten out in the saints in their grasp of the truth, the truth of the Person of Christ, for instance. The oil had to be beaten. Moses’ instructions were to bring pure, beaten olive oil for the light; Leviticus 24: 5. The testimony may not shine much in some of our localities perhaps, because of the lack of this feature of beating in us. It refers to our bringing what has passed through deep exercise. And the incense - some of it was beaten and put before the testimony in the tabernacle. The more it was beaten the more the fragrance would come out. Perhaps these things may be applied, dear brethren, to Paul and Silas, and others, who in a way are suffering at the present time. There is more to be got out of them in such adversity than there is in the time of prosperity. Scripture speaks of the time of adversity (Ecclesiastes 7: 14), there is wealth and gain from that. Job speaks of the cold from the north, and gold from the north. There is some affinity, it would seem.

These things I would desire to leave with us, practical impressions for our minds in regard of Christ, and our prayers, and impressions in regard of the Spirit. We might perhaps value the Spirit more than we have done. He is the best Friend we have on earth, as we have been constantly reminded. As one servant of the Lord said, ‘How are you treating such a Guest?’ All these thoughts arise in our minds, so that if there comes any occasion for actual literal suffering it may be to our gain, and prayer turned into praise. May the Lord just help us in these impressions for His name’s sake.