HOW TO DRAW UPON DIVINE RESOURCES
[p. 381] HOW TO DRAW UPON DIVINE RESOURCES
John 21: 1 - 14; Luke 24: 41 - 43
The sea as God made it may be taken to mean divine resources. My thought is to show how the saints learned at the outset how to draw from these resources.
The Lord has His own way of bringing out what we may have. “Have ye here anything to eat?” Luke 24:41. It was a testing question; it was not simply, have ye anything to eat, but have ye here anything to eat? It brings out amongst other things a local feature. The assembly is wonderfully enriched, the Lord having gone on high has sent down the Holy Spirit and endowed her with all that is needed. Then the question arises, What have ye here? It is true all the ministers belong to the saints; the apostles, Paul, etc., “All are yours”. 1 Corinthians 3:22. “God has set certain in the assembly” 1 Corinthians 12:28; all gifts are general, there is no such thing as local gift. The conception of local gift leads to metropolitanism. Gift is for the assembly, but then there is a local feature as to what each locality has acquired through the gifts. If they are available for all, what have I acquired? What has the local company acquired? So the Lord says, What have you got here?
It is most refreshing to contemplate this company, although they needed adjustment, but He was adjusting them. They “gave him” — it was not that they gave account of what they had. We do not know what they had; on an earlier occasion the Lord had asked as to the food, and Andrew says, “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes but this, what is it for so many?” John 6:9. That only indicates the smallness of their faith in the One who was amongst them. He says, “Have you anything here to eat?” “And they gave him part of a broiled fish”. Luke 24:41,42. I dwell on this that we might see the extent of divine resources and how they are available.
In Deuteronomy 33 we get the blessing of Moses wherewith he blessed Israel. This chapter contemplates the saints as possessing the Spirit; their resources lie in the Spirit, they depend on Him. So in reviewing the tribes Moses says, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness”. Deuteronomy 33: 18,19. Where did they get these? They sucked of the abundance of the seas; their territories were on the sea coast. The sea may be looked at in different ways — viewed as of divine making, God created it. Men may take account of the trees in the world, or the cattle on a thousand hills, they may all be counted; men, too, may be counted, but who can count the fishes of the sea? There are the unknown depths full of these teeming millions, all belonging to God; in their infinite variety and number they are God’s. So Zebulun and Issachar sucked of the abundance of the seas. I believe it is a feature of the last days that God has called attention to His wonderful resources which are available to us. The sea belongs to God, and it is for us to suck of its abundance, to draw upon these resources of God set at our disposal.
But I want now to show how we come into them; let us look at Jonah. Jonah was a man of faith, he knew God, but when sent on a message of service he went elsewhere. He went down to the sea, but not “do business”; his back was on Jerusalem, his will was active. There were the piling waves of the Mediterranean as they well-nigh engulfed the ship he was on — a momentous time for him. God is watching over His disciplinary ways with great interest, He is going to have joy from that process.
[p. 383] He followed every stroke of the oar that pulled that ship along; it carried Jonah on his way of self-will. Jonah was governed by his will. There is no place for will in the house of God; the proudest and strongest will has to go when God takes it in hand. So Jonah has to go into the water, there is no escape. God loves us too well to allow that will of ours to proceed on its course. However hard the rowing, there was no shore; doubtless these men were skilled rowers and rowed hard to regain the land, but they could not, for God was against them, and the sea became more and more tempestuous.
I have often thought of the girdle that Jeremiah was told to take to the Euphrates to hide there; God says: “Put it not in water”. Jeremiah 13:1. Jeremiah took his journey all the way to the Euphrates, and again later he went as commanded for it; it had not been dipped in water and it was spoiled and good for nothing. God will have the water, we have to go into it, we have to come to the water.
Jonah is cast into the water, and now God comes in in His tenderness and consideration for him. God prepared a great fish out of His infinite resources. We may always reckon on God’s care, but there has to be the acceptance of the discipline, the judgment of God. We may have all the graces that refinement or education can give, but if the girdle be not dipped in water it is marred and good for nothing. All the refinement is good for nothing in the divine account. But Jonah was good for something when he came out of the water; the discipline of God had that in view. In the process he realised the resources of God, there was the fish. The Lord had prepared a great fish; everything is great that God employs for His children; what men account to be great is nothing. How silent Scripture is on what would interest man’s natural mind! God knew what the inquiry of the human mind would be, and is silent on what would satisfy [p. 384] mere curiosity. We hear no more of that fish; God had prepared what was great; it was not an ordinary fish, it was a prepared fish. I suppose there never was one like it before or since; it was prepared to swallow up Jonah.
You may think things small in your history, but do not so regard them, for the believer’s experiences are prepared; God disciplines sons so that they should be taken account of for His inheritance. Jonah prayed to God — God has His portion, His resources served Him in providing for Jonah — and now Jonah worships and ministers to God from the belly of the fish. Jonah learned a lesson, and lessons that are divinely learned remain with us, and these work in a wonderful way in our experience. We learn that salvation is of the Lord. God must have His portion in everything. I am impressed by the portion and joy God has in His service with us.
We see another case of the divine resources when Peter was asked, “Does your master pay tribute?” Matthew 17:24. To whom must Jesus pay tribute? To admit that He must pay tribute to any would be to admit that He is not divine. But Peter says, Yes. We see here what adjustment he needed. The Lord says, “Of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute? of their own sons, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the sons free”. Matthew 17: 25,26. But how are we to be freed? Many of the Lord’s people are under tribute, both to the religious world and to the social world. The Lord delivers us from all, He says, “Go down to the sea”, Matthew 17:27, that is His sphere of resources. Only one fish is to be caught; the Lord would never catch two if He only wanted one; there is no waste with God. He says, Take up the first fish and you will find a piece of money — the Lord knew, He put it there — “take that for thee and me”. Matthew 17: 27. You are set free; if you have the resources of God you do not need to be under [p. 385] any tribute. One fish was caught and there was one piece of money.
The more spiritual we are the more content we are to do without things here; we have them to administer according to God’s bounty. Peter had nothing to put in the bank, he has just one piece, which is what was needed. The son is free, there is no longer a claim on him, he has discharged his obligations by sucking from the abundance of the sea. We have the resources of God so as to set us free; God would have us free from every claim so as to enjoy sonship.
Coming now to the company in Luke 24, they had something, they gave Him a piece of broiled fish. The company are in the light of appropriation of the resources of God. We need to know what it is to draw upon the resources, to be independent of this world. All divine resources are in Christ. How refreshing to the Lord to come to any company and find that the saints in that company have come to rely on the resources of God, to give place to the Spirit; they have something to denote the resources of God.
The systems around us are dependent on human resources, memberships, societies, etc., to keep them going. Here the Lord comes and asks what they have, and He takes it at their hand and eats. The honeycomb refers to mutual feeling and affection. In the systems around us there is no such thing as mutual feelings; that would be quite incompatible with the clerical principle. But the Lord set the saints up with brotherly confidence, feeling, and affection and He says, What have you got? Suppose He went to the great religious organisations around us and said, What have you got? what would they have to offer the Lord?
Every one of His saints is valuable, He has come to enjoy what they had. They gave Him two things — first, what represents the resources of the Spirit;
[p. 386] and, secondly, brotherly confidence, the honeycomb, which is the work of more than one bee. I believe the Lord is teaching us what the honeycomb is; the Lord loves to see that among us. I do not love what I do not respect. As I respect the brethren I begin to see beauty in them. In seeing this I respect, I admire, and I love, and in that way a mutual state of things prevails and there is that which speaks to the Lord’s own heart. He had taught them how to be together, “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren”. Matthew 23:8. Now they bring forth evidence of what they had learnt.
I desire to press on you the importance of divine resources as known among the people of God, the sense of sufficiency in the Spirit.