FRESHNESS
[p. 21] FRESHNESS
Revelation 21: 1 - 14; Revelation 22:1,2
In reading these scriptures I wish to show how God would preserve freshness amongst us as His people. These scriptures afford the thought in bringing forward the heavenly city. It is seen at the beginning of the millennium from verse 9 to the end of chapter 21 and in chapter 22 and then one thousand years later, in chapter 21, verses 2 and 3, and still retaining its freshness. John says, “I saw the holy city new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of the heaven”. Revelation 21:2. It suggests to us that it was what he had been labouring for. His ministry was inaugurating, and preserving freshness. He says, “I saw”.
Now I want to show this thought in the word, so that we might see how, that what it was at the beginning should mark the end, and if there is one thing that marks the end, it is freshness, as we see in this scripture. God began with that. You remember how that before man was formed in Genesis 2, it is said “a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground”. Genesis 2:6. And then we have the record that God made man out of the dust of the earth; evidently watered earth, moist earth. Then in the same chapter we have what is more formal, man being formed and set up in the garden where things are to be maintained in freshness. It says a river went out of Eden to water the garden. We must remember that Genesis was written by Moses when the necessity for the truth contained in it was very apparent. We cannot be sure as to the exact date at which Moses wrote the book, but we can be sure of this, that he was a man who knew something about the meaning of water. He wrote about the age of the people, as you remember, in his well-known psalm (Psalm 90); he wrote about the allotted age [p. 22] of man. He knew how age tended to staleness, although he was in himself a bright exception, and is a model for us. He retained his freshness and his vigour although he had exceeded by far the allotted span of which he speaks.
Moses wrote Deuteronomy when he was one hundred and nineteen years old. There is not the slightest indication of any decay in that. He indeed at the very close blesses the people, and he blesses them in holy vigour as Moses the man of God, outlining the tribes, not according to the principles of decline, but according to the energy of the Spirit. Beginning with them he says, “Let Reuben live, and not die” Deuteronomy 33:6 — he had life before him. And so, according to Genesis 2, he is not occupying us with mere physical things, but with spiritual things, spiritual suggestions. We have a watered earth not yet from heaven, for the mist arose from the earth to water the ground. Then again, a river went out of Eden to water the garden so that there might be freshness. For God intended to come into the garden, and did come into it, and in coming into it would look for that freshness.
Later we have the principle of springs, which Moses also records for us and we have further, in Exodus, the smitten rock, which cannot fail to touch the heart of every Christian on earth. In the New Testament we are told that the Rock followed Israel; they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Christ. It was to provide that there should be no weary ones in the whole camp of Israel; they should be watered. In Exodus 17 God told Moses to go there to the Rock, and “I will stand before thee there upon the rock”. Exodus 17:6. God said, “Smite the rock and there shall come water out of it” Exodus 17:6. God was there as the Lawgiver when the Rock was smitten, and the water flowed. The Lord Jesus is presented in that in a typical way as dying that we might have water. Again, in Numbers 20, the rock [p. 23] was to yield refreshment for the people. God said to Moses, You go and speak to it, and take the rod; not your rod, but the rod, from before the Lord. There is only one rod now, the smiting is over; Jesus lives for evermore, and there is water for the asking. He says, “Take the rod”, Numbers 20:8, the symbol of priestly power. What marks that rod? What marks Christ today, and every spiritual person? That it budded and blossomed and yielded fruit; the evidence of freshness and power. That is the rod that Moses was told to hold in his hand when he spoke to the rock. In other words, it is what we have as believers received from God; He gives a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life, in virtue of which every one who goes to Christ may have water.
It says in Psalm 104:16, “the trees of the Lord are full of sap” — that refers to believers. What is the sap? What is it, but what we have from Christ, in virtue of which there is fruit-bearing even in old age. They go to God in the energy of that sap, a sap which ever bears its fruit — first the bud, then the blossom, and then the fruit; all in a night, but all in perfect order. I referred to Moses because he wrote the book of Genesis, and we have in all his writings the thought of retaining freshness. But I want to go to Joshua and the book of Judges. Joshua records for us that Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, asked for springs of water. There is nothing said about rocks or wells, but springs. We find the book of Joshua so full of suggestions as to the establishing of the truths of Christianity in the power of resurrection and ascension. Joshua takes us into the land, and there should be springs. Achsah expressed the spirit of the assembly in the way of desire that things should continue as they were at the beginning, so one thing she wanted was springs of water. I can understand those who knew the Lord Jesus when He was here, desiring the continuance of that freshness. Take [p. 24] John; how he loved the Lord. You remember how he says in his last chapter, “It is the Lord”. John 21:7. How he would consider the necessity (out of love for Christ), of the continuance of that. Nothing less would satisfy him; he would tell you of His beauty, and what He said, and how He said it. John’s gospel is a talk by one whom He loved. John says humbly of himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. John 21:20. Jesus loved in John what was of Himself, the reproduction of Christ in that way, and John loved Him and would desire to continue in the freshness of Christ personally, and so he brings in water. He records what the other evangelists do not record, the wondrous conversation between Christ and the woman of Samaria. It is the narrative of one who would have continued here the freshness and vigour of Christ.
Now Achsah in the book of Judges represents that spirit typically, she says to Caleb, I want springs of water. She sprang off the ass; there was energetic movement on her part which Caleb appreciated — she sprang off. She has a sort of prophetic instinct that decline was setting in, and so it was. The angel of the Lord leaves Gilgal and goes to Bochim; that indicates decline, and soon it came with rapid pace, but here Achsah is indicating, as it were, the spirit of the assembly, expressing a wish to have the springs. In that same book we have another thought in Samson — the same principle, that of freshness. When the Philistines shouted against him he broke the cords with which his brethren had bound him. Alas think of that, brethren may bind one who retains the energy of the Spirit. But “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him”. Judges 15:14. What is the use of binding a brother who is moved by the Spirit of the Lord, “the power that worketh in us”? Ephesians 3:20. And so, being released from his bonds, Samson found a fresh jawbone; it was by him. Certainly it should be said of each one of us that we are not far from death.
[p. 25] Samson found the fresh, or moist, bone, and he takes it and smites one thousand men at once. And we have recorded in the book of the wars of the Lord, “With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, have I slain a thousand men” Judges 15:16 — it was in freshness. I specially recommend to you the features found in Judges, because we are in days of decline, and God would have us come back to what was at the beginning. Judges affords a link with the books of Joshua and Moses in freshness and vigour.
Now we may dwell on what each one of us must know in our souls if we are truly believers. God says of Israel, “When Israel was a child ..”. Hosea 11:1. Now we have all been that if we are truly Christians. Some of us may not be more than that, others may have gone into manhood, but in each case the knowledge of childhood must be precious, and God remembers that time. Who that is a father does not recall the early evidences of life and response to affection in his children? So with God, He refers to the time when the movement of life first appeared, and, if the grey hairs have come since, God remembers the period when there were no grey hairs. He says, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him”. Hosea 11:1. There is a sorrowful indication in this that any of us who are elders may take note of. Does He love us now? Are we as lovable now? John was lovable. It is an indication that each elder one may take to himself. Am I just as lovable now as I used to be? How delightful are the first evidences of life and affection. God refers to the time when Israel was a child, “then I loved him”. Hosea 11:1. Why did He love him then? Because he was lovable, he had partaken of the passover, put the blood outside, and moved out of Egypt at God’s direction. He was lovable, he was obedient. And it says, “I remember for thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; when thou wentest after me” Jeremiah 2:2 — not simply now by commandment,
[p. 26] but by attraction. You soon come to follow the Lord by attraction; He has become attractive to you. So Jeremiah records, “When thou wentest after me in the wilderness”. Jeremiah 2:2. Israel was “the first-fruits of his increase”. Jeremiah 2:3. That refers to every one of us, and I ask myself, Am I lovely now as I was then? “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” Song of Songs 5:9. He is “white and ruddy”. Song of Songs 5:10. There is evidence of life. It is said of David when he came into the house, that he was ruddy and of a beautiful countenance, and the Spirit says, ‘That is the one’. You see how God takes delight in the energy of life in Christians. Elihu remarks when speaking to Job, that when a man judges himself God is gracious to him, and “his flesh shall be fresher than in childhood, he shall return to the days of his youth”, Job 33: 25. So God refers to our beginnings.
You may ask, How may this freshness be maintained? I anticipated that question in the reference to the springs, but I would turn to the Psalms by way of help. Let us look at the first psalm. It says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”. Psalm 1:1 - 3. There is a word for young and old. The way of freshness has to be the way of righteousness, it has to be the way of rigid separation — “he walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly”. Psalm 1:1. He is apart from all that marks the world, and “his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night”. Psalm 1:2. According to Deuteronomy 18, the priest’s portion was the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the maw, indicating the importance of mastication and assimilation.
[p. 27] Unless we read and assimilate the word of God we shall not be sustained in freshness. The psalm indicates one of the features whereby we can continue in separation from the world. And then diligence in acquiring the Scriptures, it is one who delights in the law of the Lord. Some of us read the Scriptures as a mere duty; such will not retain freshness, but one who delights in them will do so. Some discredit the Old Testament but look at this, it abounds with wondrous things if we will only seek them.
The Lord in Luke was expounding the Scriptures. Beginning at Moses and the prophets, and in His own infinitely exquisite and perfect way, He was expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. I can understand these two saying, ‘Where shall we go to have them expounded like this?’ We must get along without expounders, though we are thankful for them. But when these two returned to Jerusalem they found the Lord Himself there, and He opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. So He says, “Thus it is written” Luke 24:46 — it is for you to look up what is written. He had said that before to the devil by way of defence. He regarded the Scriptures as His armoury, He selected the weapons that He needed at the moment, and utterly discomforted His opponent “Get thee behind me, Satan”. Matthew 16:23. But now He is instructing, “Thus it is written” Luke 24:46 — it is for us to look up what is written, or we shall be unintelligent and wanting in the freshness of which I have spoken; so that we might know the apostle’s desire “that God, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him”. Ephesians 1:17. And so with that we may go through the Scriptures and behold wondrous things in which our souls are nourished and built up, so that we are fresh and vigorous.
There is just one other point in the Psalms. In Psalm 92:12, it says, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree”. You have the word ‘righteous’ here, it is a word we do well to take note of. Unrighteousness is becoming so prevalent; everywhere bulwarks are giving way. The question is, Am I righteous? It behoves us to be righteous in our business affairs and in all other things of man. Without that we are vulnerable — if we have not the breast-plate of righteousness; but if we are covered there, we are free to go in for the means of sustenance and growth. But it goes on to say, “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing”. Psalm 92:13,14. So now we come, not only to reading the word of God, but what we are in relation to the saints, where our roots are. Some of our roots are in our businesses and in our families, whereas he that flourishes in the courts of God has his roots in the house of God.
Let us enquire as to whether our roots are there, whether we prefer our natural relationships to our spiritual relationships. I have to learn to give the house of God the first place. In other words, I love the Lord Jesus and the saints, and my affections are ordered in relation to them. The evidence of life in the public way is the result of my roots; the flourishing depends on the roots, not on the gift you have. Gift in itself will soon lose its power and efficiency unless it is used in love. The apostle says, speaking of gift, “Yet show I unto you a way of surpassing excellence”. 1 Corinthians 12:31. That is where your roots are, you grow up there, and the Lord will give you in his sovereignty what you need, and so you flourish, and there is power in it, and vigour in it. And it further says, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing”. Psalm 92:14. That is the lovely appearance you afford to the eye; the saints speak about it, the love that marks you in your relations [p. 29] to the saints; not above them, but as Paul says, “less than the least of all saints”. Ephesians 3:8.
I have read all that in relation to the two scriptures, not to speak of the holy city, but to borrow that one thought, the freshness and vigour that John saw at the beginning of the millennium appearing at the end of the millennium. John’s ministry brings in the thought of freshness and the Holy Spirit abiding with us for ever.