SUSTAINING THE TESTIMONY
E.C.Burr
Elijah, in this part of the Scriptures, in some distinctive way represents the present testimony of God. He was a prophet at a time when things publicly in the nation of Israel were in great unsettlement and decline, arid the slope was downwards, we might say, in their history. These prophetic books in the Old Testament give us a prophetic insight into the history of things in our own day and in regard of the church publicly. In the midst of decline, in which there were periodic revivals, God from time to time has a man who represents His present testimony. Elijah was such in his day. Sometimes he was discouraged, and often he was tested, but he represents the testimony in his day. There is the testimony of God here still. Thank God there is! There is the testimony of God in the world, a testimony to the fact that God is, and a testimony to what God is. What God is has been implicit in what has been already said, that is, that He is a God who is merciful and gracious, tender and longsuffering. He does not desire the death of any; He commands all to repent; He desires that all might be saved.
Our beloved brother, now with Christ, in the ways of God became an object of that testimony, and then became part of that testimony. If now he is absent from the body and present with the Lord, the testimony is still here. Believers in the Lord Jesus who have the Spirit of God are called on to be here in the present testimony of God. Elijah, in this chapter, was tested. Things had become very small, very barren, with scarcely any food - difficult times, very much like the position of the church publicly at the present time. Not like its position inwardly, because God has never failed to visit His people in giving them food. But, at a moment like this, God intervenes in Elijah's history and tells him to go down to Zarephath where, He says, "I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee". In Zarephath God had a widow woman in whom He had complete confidence as to the present testimony. We are not told anything about her husband. It would be speculative to think anything about him . She had a son, but as to her husband we know nothing. We know much as to our beloved brother now with Christ. We know how he has grown up, and how he has been part of the testimony of God; having been apprehended by it he has become part of it. The energy and devotedness that characterised him as a brother in the Lord we well know. It may be permissible, too, to speak of the energy and devotedness which have characterised him in his profession, which is known to many too.
God does not commit Elijah, at this point, to anything that is pretentious or outwardly outstanding. What He says is that in Zarephath there is a widow woman who will maintain you. That is to say, I have one person there who I can trust to be devoted to the maintenance of the testimony of God as long as it is needed. If you go on through this paragraph you will find that Elijah was sustained in the house of this woman for a whole year (see v 15). Often in Scripture a period of a year represents a complete time, all that was needed. Right to the end of the time that it was needed Elijah was maintained in the widow's house. Externally there was little there. He met her when she went out to gather sticks, and when he talks to her she says she was going out to gather two sticks. Things were not on a very large level. There was no great pretentious circumstance or large company supporting her. It was not even like Paul in Acts 28 who could gather a bundle of sticks - two sticks, just what little there was. When Elijah speaks to her he says "a little water" (v 10), that is all - nothing that makes any public claim, nothing large. And "a morsel of bread" (v 11), just a little, but it was there and was enough. Then "a handful of meal" and "a little oil" (v 12). Externally you might have wondered how things would get through, but in the hands of and under the administration of this woman that God had confidence in, things were maintained and increased. Each day there was something fresh. You might have thought yesterday that things were exhausted by the evening, but tomorrow you find that the little water and the little bread and the little oil and the little meal are there again, and they are fresh for the maintenance of the testimony of God in the hands of someone in whom God is able to have confidence and whom He is able to specify. When Elijah comes there he does not dwell on the smallness of things. He does not say that things are pathetic in these days. He does not say, I wonder how we are going to get through. He says "Make me ... a little cake first" (v 13). That is to say, Let us dwell on things, within our own apprehension on the scale of what is complete. Let us, we might say, not have the breakdown before us in this widow's house. Let us have the completeness of what God has in the assembly at the present time. Let us dwell on full thoughts. Let us not dwell on history of failure and of sorrow. Enough there has been. Let us dwell on the little cake and on what we may be nourished with as we go on with the full thoughts of God, because the God of Israel says that the meal will not waste and the oil will not fail until the day that God sends rain on the earth (v 14); that is to say, the day when the whole earth is filled with the glory of God and with His blessing. Then in that day, beloved, believers on the Lord Jesus will be with Him, when the earth flourishes in the millennium, as is, perhaps, prophesied of in this verse. They will come out with Him to reign in such a scene as that; but until then things will not waste because they are in good hands, hands that God has identified in a particular place - identified, known of, and spoken of. And He says, I have that there by which the testimony, or that which represents the testimony, will be sustained until that kind of sustaining is no longer needed. It says that she went and did it, and she and he and her house ate a whole year. "The meal ... did not waste, neither did the oil in the cruse fail, according to the word of Jehovah which He had spoken through Elijah" (v 16).
It would encourage us, it would encourage our beloved sister and her children to be such that the Lord has confidence in, those on whom He can rely for the protection and support of the testimony as long as that testimony is needed. It is a word to us all, beloved. An occasion like this is an occasion for all who are here. When the Lord speaks it is an occasion for ail the saints, for all men. Maybe some, as habituated to divine things, would be more familiar with the implications of what is said than others who, perhaps, have not heard of them, perhaps have been neglectful of them, perhaps have turned away from them. But if God speaks, it is for all.
Beloved, in this day God is counting those in whom He can have confidence. He says "Go to Zarephath, which is by Zidon ... I have commanded". Think of that! There is no escape from it . There is no alternative, no choice. God says "I have commanded widow woman there to maintain thee". May we all, as entering into the spirit of widowhood on a day like this, respond to such a command as that.
BRISTOL
14 May 1976
AT A MARRIAGE (i)
GLORY
C.R.Byng
The reference in this section to "In that day" would be to the world to come. This part of lsaiah abounds with references to "in that day". The Spirit of God would give us a deepening impression of the glory that is connected with a marriage in the Lord. There is to be glory in display in the world to come, but what is to be in display then is entered into now in things that are 'in the Lord'. So something of the glory that is to be in display in the world to come enters into a marriage in the Lord at the present time. It is connected here with the Lord Jesus as a "sprout of Jehovah", one of those remarkable references to the Lord Jesus with which Isaiah abounds. "A sprout of Jehovah", or as it is put elsewhere, "the Branch" (Zech 3: 8), peculiarly connects with the thought of righteousness and glory, the glory of a Man who grew up here entirely for the pleasure of God. What life is conveyed by the very name the Spirit of God uses: "a sprout of Jehovah"! That is what is going to mark the world to come, life secured in fulness for God under the control of Christ. And that is what is to mark a marriage in the Lord, life secured in glory for God.
So as the Spirit of God proceeds in this particular section as to the glory of the millennial time, it is with a view to "beauty and glory, and the fruit of the earth for excellency and for ornament for those that are escaped of Israel". What an increasing yield there is for God at the present time as we get enlarging impressions of the greatness of Jesus as a "sprout of Jehovah"!
Then as the Spirit goes on He refers to what Jehovah is going to create, which is a remarkable reference, that Jehovah shall create in relation to dwellingplaces. The household that is being established today is established on mount Zion, it is a "dwelling-place of mount Zion", that is where it belongs. A sense of mercy ran through the hymn we sang. How wonderful the care of the Lord Jesus in all the details of our pathway, but it is all related to mount Zion, a sense of mercy that keeps us dependent and yet restful. That would enter into the dwelling-place that is established today; may it remain as firmly founded on mount Zion. Convocations, too, are related to mount Zion. It is what "Jehovah will create over every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and over its convocations"; that is, something of the glory that marks the comings together of the saints in the light of the assembly is to be found related to every dwelling-place of the saints as they are firmly on mount Zion. We need to be preserved in a sense of the sovereignty of mercy. I think the beloved brethren in Philadelphia were preserved as dwelling in relation to mount Zion. That would be why the Lord Jesus refers to the "key of David" (Rev 3: 7), because David is peculiarly connected with the establishment of the kingdom. How easy it is to drift into complacency! May we be preserved from it as having a sense of what God is creating over every dwelling-place and over the convocations of mount Zion.
But then what power is connected with "a cloud by day and a smoke, and the brightness of a flame of fire by night". This is not exactly the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire of the wilderness (see Num 14: 14); these things are in mount Zion, but they stand related to the wilderness pathway, so we prove that the guidance and direction of the blessed Spirit of God enters into our dwelling-places and our local assemblies, and our assemblings, too, in a wider way. Every gathering together is related to a locality and that locality is always mount Zion. What power there is in a dwelling-place of mount Zion as there is this cloud of smoke and a fire. Divine guidance is available in relation to every matter. How many matters arise that need guidance and direction. Those who are dwelling in mount Zion are constantly found as being preserved in that. And thus glory enters into every dwelling-place. There is glory, of course, connected with a woman in relation to a man. Scripture particularly connects the feature of glory with the long hair of a woman (see 1 Cor 11: 15); let us remember that. Scripture says it is given to her. But then this is to enter into the working out of things in a locality, for all this is connected with glory, it is "all the glory"; that is, the whole setting of power and guidance and direction connected with the Spirit and the Lord Jesus is related to dwelling-places and convocations, because the covering is over all the glory. We might sometimes read it as though over all these things the glory shall be a covering, but Mr Darby makes it abundantly clear that it is a covering in relation to "all the glory"; that is, all the glory that enters into these features of the cloud and the smoke and the fire. There is a covering in relation to it, a protective thought, a secluded thought. The Spirit of God, I think, only uses this word in two other places in Scripture, one in connection with a bridegroom and the other in connection with a bride, so it peculiarly bears on a marriage in the Lord. In Psalm 19: 5 it is rendered 'chamber' - "a bridegroom going forth from his chamber". It seems to carry a sense of the protective seclusion of love. The word in Joel (rendered 'closet') is that the bride is to go forth from her closet (see chap 2: 16). Again it is that kind of thought. And that is what is to provide a covering in relation to the preservation of these things in the glory that is proper to God. The love of Christ for the assembly and the love of the assembly for Christ are preservative. It is intended, I believe beloved, to enter into all our matters in a secluded, powerful, covering way. All that takes place in our dwellingplaces and in our convocations is to be in the experience of the love of Christ for the assembly and the love of the assembly for Christ. This enters, too, into the dwelling house, for headship as worked out in the homes of the beloved brethren is patterned after Christ and the assembly.
Then there are reserves for all the difficulties and problems that may come in. We are not dealing with problems today, we are dealing with glory. It may be there will be no problems to be dealt with, because the Lord may have come before the day is out and there will never be any problems. Think of a marriage in the Lord that will never have any problems. It may mark this marriage if the Lord comes today. But if the Lord should choose to leave us here for a while, our beloved young brother and sister may have problems. They start off with a steady assurance in their hearts that they have a firm place in the affections of the beloved brethren. Let them be re-established in that today. We are here as those that love them. As could be said of Timothy of old (see Acts 16: 2), each of them has a good testimony. We would not say they have a reputation, we trust they have not, but they have a good testimony. A reputation can be built up on history and no longer be current, but a good testimony is what is current and, like Timothy, they have a good testimony, not only in this city but elsewhere - "in Lystra and Iconium". There may be problems, but divine power provides for that. If problems arise, there is "a tabernacle for shade ... and for a shelter and for a covert". There may be heat or storm or rain, things which in the world work on the flesh and bring in tension and quarrelling. Not so in a dwelling-place that is on mount Zion. These problems may come into our lives; as they are faced by our brother and sister together as those who are heirs together "of the grace of life" (1 Pet 3: 7), every problem leads to more prayer, it does not lead to difficulties; and the result is some fresh sense of the glory of a tabernacle for a shelter and a covert. How wonderful is the love and care of divine Persons! May our beloved brother and sister prove it, not only today, but each hour that the Lord may leave us here together, for His Name's sake.