“DWELL IN THE LAND, AND FEED ON FAITHFULNESS”
I want to speak, dear brethren, of the lines on which we may make good and enjoy the things which God has freely given to us, because when scripture speaks of the land, what it has in mind is the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. The land was espied for them, as we read in Ezekiel, and He brought His people out from the bondage of Egypt with a view to bringing them in and planting them in the land which He had marked out for them. Now all that finds its counterpart at the present time in our not only being delivered from the world, and from the principle of self-pleasing, as we were having it this morning, but in our being brought in the power of the Holy Spirit into the intelligent appreciation and enjoyment of all that God has in His mind for us; and on those lines, I think we may say that there is no limit. This chapter we have read, Genesis 26, shows how they went on. First digging wells that had become stopped up and then digging further wells and making fresh discoveries, not that the water was not already there for it was, but as they took up the exercise of digging, they discovered it. That is what the Spirit of God is concerned about at the present time, that we should, as learning to make room for Him, discover more and more of the wealth that God has provided for those who are the subjects of His purpose.
Now one would just say, by way of introduction, that if we go back to the state of the assembly one hundred and twenty-five years ago, all that God had given to the assembly through His servant Paul had virtually been lost. In the days of the Reformation the truth as to justification by faith was recovered and there was much in the way of personal piety and personal appreciation of Christ. But as to any entrance into the things which belong to the assembly, I think one may rightly say that there was none, it had all been lost. Then the Lord gave to Mr Darby and certain others with him (only he became a leader) a sense that the assembly had a living Head in heaven and that the Spirit was here, and that the body of Christ, which is the assembly, was united to Him by the Spirit. As they pondered this they realised that that made them entirely independent of man and, moving in faith in the light of that, they were delivered completely from the clerical principle which had for so many centuries established itself in the church, and which effectively displaced the free movements in ministry of the Holy Spirit. That was a wonderful deliverance, and from that time onwards, through much in the way of conflict, there has been a steady increase in the recovery to the truth, and that has been brought about for us, through vessels indeed, but by the Holy Spirit.
I refer to that, dear brethren, because I believe the presence with us of the Holy Spirit is one of the most outstanding examples of the faithfulness of God. The verse we have read in Psalm 37 says “dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”. A striking word!— “dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”! That is to say, we are called upon to find our life in the spiritual blessings which God has given to us, for that is the land, and we are to feed our souls on faithfulness. I have no doubt there are other features of faithfulness, especially the faithful service on high of the Lord Jesus. But one of the outstanding examples of divine faithfulness lies in the fact that the Holy Spirit, who came down at Pentecost, has remained with the assembly all through that long period of departure from the truth, and now, for the last a hundred and twenty-five years has, in an outstanding way, been asserting Himself and recovering the truth with a view to our being guided into all the truth. Now that is something we should commit ourselves to fully, “dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”. The presence with us of the Spirit is the outstanding pledge of the faithfulness of God, and the pledge, too, that, if only we will hold ourselves available to Him, we can be led into all the thoughts of God. Therefore I have read from this chapter in Genesis because it illustrates, in a remarkable way, the line of exercise on which the truth may be recovered, and we ourselves brought into the enjoyment of it.
In chapter 26 Isaac is not a type of Christ, as he is in chapters 22 and 24. He is a type of the heavenly man—when I say that I do not mean Christ as the heavenly One, I mean a type of the saints as called with a heavenly calling, consciously heavenly—in testimony here, and as such exposed to certain influences which are constantly opposed to him. All through this chapter the opposing influence is that of the Philistines. It is the same very largely in David’s day, that David’s inveterate enemy—he had to contend with other enemies also—was the Philistine. It is so also in Samson’s day, Samson typifying the recovery of the truth of the assembly in the last days in power, in the midst of much outward weakness, and in his day too the constant enemy was the Philistine. That is something to be taken note of, dear brethren, because not only is the Philistine seen full-blown in the principle of the clerical system to which I have referred, but each of us carries, in greater or less degree, the Philistine with himself, and we have to guard against that. The Philistine represents the effort to take up the things of God in the energy of the natural mind. As I said, it is full-blown in the clerical system where you may get persons who are not converted at all assuming to handle the things of God in the power they have through natural education. As such they are opposed entirely to what is spiritual. But we need not concern ourselves so much with that, I only mention it as showing what the full development of the Philistine principle is. What is much more important for us to guard against is the Philistine element in ourselves. It may be stronger in some than in others. If I have an active and acute mind, then one has to be all the more on one’s guard. But that is the principle of the Philistine, it is the effort of the natural mind to compass the things of God and to the extent that it operates it displaces the Spirit of God.
Now at the beginning of this chapter we read that there was a famine in the land and, no doubt, God allowed it in order to test Isaac and to educate him too for his good, for even though there might be famine conditions there is no reason why they should continue for those who will give place to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God ensures, as He is recognised and honoured, that we can be kept in freshness. So we read in John 7 that out of the belly of the one who believes in Christ “shall flow rivers of living water”, then it says, “but this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. Notice what it says, “shall flow rivers of living water”, suggesting abundance and great fulness, and no hinderance, showing what is possible in the Holy Spirit. Well now, there was this famine, and God said to Isaac, “Go not down to Egypt: dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land”. He was already in the land, God was prepared to tell him more about it, but the great point was to dwell there and not go down to Egypt. That fits in with the verse we read in the Psalms “dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”. Now the idea of dwelling in the land is that we find our life in the things of God, the things which He has prepared for those who love Him. We do not go down to the world and find our life in that, we do not try to settle even in the mercies of God, although thankful to God for them, and honouring Him in the way we use them, but we dwell in the land. The Holy Spirit is the great power for it, and the attraction to it is that Christ is in heaven, He is not here, and if a soul loves Christ and gets any sense of what the assembly is as united to Christ, he cannot find his life in the things where Christ is not. “Dwell in the land”, was the word to Isaac, “Sojourn in this land; and I will be with thee and bless thee”.
Then following on that, we find that for fear of the Philistines Isaac denies his wife and says that she is his sister. It was the influence over him of the Philistines, and that is a constant danger, that we may fear to maintain the true thought of the assembly as of Christ and united to Him and deriving wholly from Him, and therefore heavenly in character. There is nothing that is so opposed as heavenly truth. We may take on the side of the family of God, John’s line of things—not that I am in any sense whatever disparaging that, but there is something attractive about John’s line of things—love amongst ourselves and so on, which is more easily taken up in one sense and not so opposed. But when we come to a heavenly line of things, a life here that is heavenly in character, as deriving from Christ in glory, then, I say, that that is the kind of thing that is constantly opposed. So Isaac, finding himself in the presence of a Philistine element, went so far as to deny his wife, that is, he really denied the assembly, and said simply that she was his sister. But God came in for him, God intervened on his behalf—a touching example of faithfulness on which we are to feed—“feed on faithfulness”. It is as though, following on that, that Isaac is fully recovered. So that we read in verse 12, “And Isaac sowed in that land”. He is dwelling in the land and he sows there. Now there are two great exercises which enter into this chapter, one is the idea of sowing and the other is the idea of digging, and both of these are exercises which we must take up if we would prosper spiritually, as it says in the epistle to the Galatians, “For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”, chap 6: 8. So it is a question of where we sow. Isaac sowed in that land, that is to say, typically he was sowing to the Spirit, and I think sowing to the Spirit simply consists of what we give our minds to—it largely consists of that. Dependence on our part has to enter into it, that we are dependent on the Spirit for the support of our minds and help to our minds. I fully recognise that, but at the same time it raises the question as to the direction in which our minds are set, as to whether our desire is to sow in the land. It says, “Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold”. It is remarkable how God is set to encourage Isaac in this chapter. You find in this verse that he “received in the same year a hundredfold”, and then we get in verse 24, “And Jehovah appeared to him the same night”, after certain movements on the part of Isaac. Then again we get in verse 32, “And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water”. That is, all through this chapter, when once he is recovered from that point of denying his wife, God is set to encourage him and every time he makes a movement in the right direction God gives him recompense immediately.
Well, that is another example of the faithfulness on which we are to feed, “Dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”. There is nothing so touching as the sense that the Spirit of God, having been with the assembly all these years—nearly two thousand years—having witnessed the sad decline and borne with it over these many years, is now in faithfulness to God and in faithfulness to the saints recovering the truth wherever He finds those who are ready to lend an ear to what He has to say, and to provide the conditions in which He can speak freely. So we are to “feed on faithfulness”. So it says that “Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and Jehovah blessed him. And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great. And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great number of servants, and the Philistines envied him”. It is the heavenly man in testimony here, as becoming greater and greater spiritually as he sows to the Spirit, and becoming increasingly marked by spiritual wealth, spiritual possessions, not that he would be great in the eyes of men—the spiritual man who is becoming greater and greater is probably becoming smaller and smaller in the eyes of men, because he is taking on the features of Christ and that means that nothing that appeals to man as natural greatness will mark him—but the evidence of power in him, the evidence of spiritual wealth is there. It is a certain answer to the faithfulness of God that if we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap life eternal. So it says in the verse we quoted in prayer (1 Cor 2: 12), “But we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God”. How attractive it is, “freely given to us of God”! God coming out in the magnanimity of His own heart and giving to us things which only He could have conceived, and only He could have brought to pass. He says, I have not only given them to you, but I want you to know them and enjoy them, and that is exactly what we get in this passage that, as the result of Isaac sowing in that land, he became continually greater until he was very great. If I move on Philistine lines, if I try to compass the truth of God with the energy of my own mind, I shall not touch spiritual power. I may seem to have much knowledge, but I shall not be marked by spiritual substance and power, not, of course that the mind has not to be used, the mind has to be used, but as controlled by the Holy Spirit. So it says in 1 Corinthians 2, “but we have the mind of Christ”—a wonderful thing!—“we have the mind of Christ”, showing what possibilities there are in the Holy Spirit, that it can be said that “we have the mind of Christ”.
Now the Philistines’ opposition comes in at once. It says, “And all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them and filled them with earth”. There had been things enjoyed in Abraham’s day, wells, water springing up, referring to different features of the truth known livingly in that day, you might say, applying it figuratively. There have been features of the truth which have been known by those who have preceded us, in this century and the preceding century, but now, perhaps, the wells have been filled up by the Philistines, filled with earth, or dust. We sometimes say, not that I am saying it in any way lightly, dear brethren, ‘as dry as dust’, and that is exactly the result if we try to take up the things of God in the mere energy of the natural mind, that they become dry, no life in them. That was the effect of the Philistine influence that these that had been wells, marked by freshness and living water, had now become filled with earth or dust, and so the first thing to do was to re-dig those wells. I would say affectionately to my younger brethren, if you have heard of things which brethren knew and enjoyed in the past, if you have heard us speak about eternal life and about sonship and union, do you know anything about it in power? Those who went before us could speak about eternal life and sonship and union, as that which they knew and enjoyed. Do we know and enjoy these things? If not, let us start digging. The point is to dig, and the idea of digging is that you get rid of the hindrance, that is all. The fountain is here underneath. Where a well is there is a fountain of water underneath—it is there all the time—but we have to dig a channel so that the water can spring up and that means getting rid of the hindrances. Now that is what each of us has to do, dear brethren, if we would progress in the things of God. Get rid of the hindrances which hinder the Spirit His free operations amongst us—His operations in our hearts and souls, and then His operations, too, when we come together. In Numbers 21, not that at that point the children of Israel were in the land, but in that chapter we read that the company came to a place called Beer, the whole company was there; and then it says “then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it”. That was a collective movement, a happy recognition typically of the Holy Spirit as there available to be drawn upon: “Rise up, well! sing unto it”. “Well”, it says, “which princes digged … at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. That is, there is a responsibility on the princes especially—you might say the leaders in every meeting but, of course, it is a responsibility which applies to us all—there is a responsibility to see that every hindrance to the Spirit is removed so that spiritual ministry may spring up and be available fully. So the princes digged the wells at the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves, their staves speaking of the dependence that is properly becoming to us as in any way touching the things of God.
So it says, “Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and that the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them”. That is to say, the names were right. If we come through exercise into the enjoyment of eternal life, we do not call it something else, we call it eternal life. And if we come into the enjoyment of sonship, we call it sonship; and if we come into the enjoyment of union, we call it union. That is to say, it is the truth that was known by our forefathers, and had been lost, so to speak, except in terms, now recovered in power; and that is what should mark us in these days. What we need urgently at the present time is not so much increased light, although I have no doubt that the Lord will give us further light if He leaves us here a little longer, but what we need is power. Power to move into the truth which we have had the light of, so that we are in it in real liberty and enjoyment. So he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. But now it says, “And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley”. Now they are beginning to dig on their own account. It is now no longer re-digging wells which had been possessed before and had become stopped up, but now they are going on digging, that is to say, they have learnt the value of digging and they are going on. It is a question now of whether we are going to move continually on this principle of seeing that anything which hinders the free operation of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts individually, or in the company as we are together, is removed so that there is liberty for the Spirit. It is because some have moved on these lines, dear brethren, that further features of the truth have been recovered. Every feature of the truth that has been recovered on these lines, on the line of exercise to make room for the operations of the Holy Spirit, and so we are to continue on those lines. But then, what we come to now is another feature of opposition, not now the filling of the wells with earth but the claiming of the wells as their own. The Philistines come forward and say, “The water is ours”. That is another feature of opposition. It is very much the same thing in principle as the filling of the wells with earth, but at the same time it is presented in another way. That is to say, as soon as some fresh feature of the truth is brought to light in the power of the Spirit, then the Philistine comes in and tries to take hold of the truth in mental power and says ‘it is ours’, and by doing so he robs it of its freshness and brings in an element of dissention, because if things are not held in the Spirit there is sure to be an element of dissension because mental activity in the things of God brings man into prominence and his own ability, whereas the holding of things in the Spirit reduces us. Indeed, it says in verse 17, “Isaac departed thence, and pitched his camp in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there”. He dwelt there in the valley of Gerar, or, as the note says, ‘a valley in which a torrent runs’. It is the double thought of the lowliness that a valley suggests, coupled with the refreshment and power of the Holy Spirit, and that is exactly what marks a truly spiritual man or woman, that they imbibe the Spirit of Christ, they are marked by the meekness and lowliness of Christ, they are completely delivered from any thought of self-sufficiency, and from any element of self-satisfaction. They go on in lowliness but they go on as proving something of the wealth there is in the Spirit. Isaac dwelt there, he dwelt in the valley, and it was a valley in which was a torrent.
So we find that there is this conflict, conflict through the Philistine element trying to claim as belonging to itself this fresh well that Isaac’s servants dug, but he does not contend. One of the wells is called ‘Quarrel’, another is called ‘Opposition’, but the quarrel and the opposition were on the side of the Philistines. Isaac does not contend, he moves on and digs another well. As we were having yesterday, “a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend”. The things of God are not arrived at in that way, not contending as men speaks of contention, of course, there has to be contention for the faith, but the contention for the faith consists in being in it and standing in it and refusing to lower the standard. But as to one’s own spirit, the bondman of the Lord must not contend, but be gentle towards all. The contentions which the faith calls for consist in standing in the truth and refusing to lower the standard. So, as I have said, Isaac’s servants dig another well and they find that the Philistines strive for that also. Then it says that “he removed thence and dug another well; and they did not strive for that”. That is the great value of going on with the Spirit, because as we go on with the Spirit we shall begin to arrive at things in the Spirit that the natural mind cannot take on at all. It is in the Spirit that you get beyond the reach of the natural mind. Truly spiritual ministry is, you might say, elusive; it has that character, it is elusive to the natural mind, and the more spiritual the ministry becomes the more elusive it becomes. Therefore there is the need for us to be always on this line of digging fresh wells. It says, “and they did not strive for that. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, and said, For now Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land”, that is, there is a time of peace brought in, leaving room for fruitfulness. “And he went up thence to Beer-sheba”. You see, he is constantly moving, not moving in a restless way or in an aimless way, but the spiritual ones are always in movement. They may, so to speak, lodge for a moment. There is the idea of lodging, as Ruth said to Naomi at the outset of her history, “whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge”, showing that she understood that movement would be involved, but that lodging would also be involved. That is to say, remaining for a short time to consolidate what has been gained and then moving on. “Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge; they people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”. What Ruth says indicates remarkable intelligence as to the course which she was embarking on.
So it says that Isaac went up thence to Beer-sheba, that is, he is in movement. That is one of the things we are to guard against, dear brethren, the danger of stagnation, and that is one of the things we shall be preserved from as we recognise the Holy Spirit. It is easy to speak about recognising the Spirit, but still, that is the essential thing. The only things that will save us from stagnation or from going back is to be in the constant recognition of the Holy Spirit. He is in movement, He will guide into all the truth. The Spirit will not cease to be in movement until He has brought the saints into all the truth. So Isaac goes to Beer-sheba and Jehovah appeared to him and confirmed him, encouraging him and ensuring him of blessing, and it says, “he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah. And he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well”. That is, he has arrived at a fresh position and it is going to be held in freshness, so they dig another well. Now he is confronted with a further test, and that is that Abimelech and Ahuzzath his friend and Phichol the captain of his host, come to him from Gerar. That is, there are two great men, a king and a captain of a host, and with them is a friendly man. That is to say, there is the effort to get Isaac to descend to the level of friendliness on social lines. There is the presentation of man in his bigness instead of the littleness and lowliness that were characteristic of Isaac. There are two big men, a king and a military leader, and they were approaching Isaac and they are friendly with him, they bring with them the element of friendliness. It is the effort to entangle Isaac now, they are changing their tactics, they are no longer opposing, they are no longer claiming the wells, they are approaching now on friendly lines, but at the same time they are utterly out of keeping with true spirituality in that they are presenting to Isaac the idea of bigness in man, a king and a military leader coupled with this idea of what is friendly. So they are trying to get him to depart from what is heavenly in character. Heavenliness in character shows itself in lowliness in manhood, and so we read in the epistle to the Philippians, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”—the heavenly Man and the mind that was in the heavenly Man!—“let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. These men are approaching Isaac with a view to getting him to abandon that feature of true heavenliness and to take on the idea of what is big under the influence of being friendly.
Now Isaac remains true to the position, he treats them in grace, he makes them a feast, but he sends them away. Notice that is what the Spirit of God says, “and Isaac sent them away”, not simply that they leave but he sends them away. He has the power to do that. He will move in grace but he will send them away, he will not have anything of that influence being allowed to assert itself over him—he is, through grace, going to maintain the true character of what is heavenly. Now having done that it says, “Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day”—see how God is rewarding the exercises and faithfulness of His servant!—“it came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water”. That is, it is another well—it was there all the time but they had just discovered it—and they found water, freshness, and that is what is going on, dear brethren, all the time if we are moving on these spiritual lines. One of the latest features of water that has been found on these lines, dear brethren, is the fuller recognition of the Holy Spirit and the liberty we have to address the Spirit. Why should there be any difficulty about it? Why should there be any opposition? Some people say, What authority is there for it in scripture! Well, there is authority for it in scripture, but let me leave that for a moment. Is there anything to forbid it in scripture? Is there anything in scripture to forbid it? There is none. Well, now let me ask another question, What authority, what direction have we in scripture for what we do every Lord’s day morning after we have broken the bread? We have direction in scripture to break the bread, we know what to do when we come together to break bread, but after that, what we do every Lord’s day morning, and what we are supported in, and what we know the Lord takes pleasure in, and the Father takes pleasure in: what direction is there in scripture as to it? How have we arrived at it? We have arrived at it, dear brethren, on the principle of spiritual ministry which we have followed up, and we have found the Spirit has supported us in it, and that is the principle on which the truth should be arrived at. These people come to Isaac and they say, “We have found water”. It was a fresh feature of the truth, it was not a novelty, the water had been there all along, but the exercise of continual digging had brought this fresh feature of the truth to light, and they could rejoice in it. So these are the lines, dear brethren, on which we are being led. It is a question of the Holy Spirit and the liberty He affords and the support He gives and the thing is vindicated in the Spirit, justified in the Spirit, as you might say, it is a question of what the Spirit supports. You remember in the book of Ezekiel how the prophet was led into the river, and at one point it was just up to his ankles and then it was up to his knees and to his loins, and then it was waters that he could swim in. It was a question of arriving more and more at the fulness of the truth in his own actual experience. That is what we are to arrive at, that as we take up this exercise of sowing in the land and of digging we shall find that we arrive at the truth more and more in its fulness in our actual experience. Isaac’s history sets that forth. It is a question of a heavenly man here in testimony and arriving at the enjoyment of the land which God has given us on the lines of sowing to the Spirit and making room for the Spirit.
Well, may the Lord help us all to go forward on these lines, dear brethren, until we are brought into all the truth and are found answering fully to the heart of the blessed God, for His Name’s sake.
22nd September 1951
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