UNRIGHTEOUSNESS AND UNBELIEF AS HINDERING THE SAINTS

UNRIGHTEOUSNESS AND UNBELIEF AS HINDERING THE SAINTS

2 Corinthians 1:19-22; Colossians 3:1-4; Genesis 45:3-15; Genesis 45:21-28

There are two things, dear brethren, which often tend to hinder the saints from entering into the enjoyment of their proper portion, and one is the failure rightly to judge some practical unrighteousness, resulting in a lack of nearness to Christ and a certain uneasiness in the presence of the Lord, and the other is unbelief, or unreadiness to avail oneself of the service of the Spirit of God to make the things that are connected with Christ where He is a present reality to us. Now, I believe these two things are illustrated on the one hand, in the history of Joseph’s brethren in the latter part of the book of Genesis, and on the other hand, in the history of Jacob in that part of the book, and the New Testament Scriptures which will help in relation to these two matters are in 2 Corinthians in connection with Joseph’s brethren, and in Colossians in relation to Jacob.

We well know, of course, that Joseph is one of the outstanding types of Christ in the Old Testament. He is presented as the beloved son of his father, his father loved him above all his brethren, and made him a coat of many colours, and the very fact that his father so distinguished him, aroused jealousy in the hearts of ten of his brethren. We know what the sequel was, that they sold him into Egypt as a bond-slave for twenty pieces of silver, having previously proposed first of all to slay him, and having cast him into a pit, but as the scripture says, there was no water in the pit. That is to remind us that while he had to go into the pit in order to typify the Lord Jesus Christ as going into death, yet in fact, only the Lord Jesus personally could enter into death in all that it really involved and hence there was no water in the pit in which Joseph was placed. In due time Joseph was brought up out of prison and exalted to the highest place in the land of Egypt under Pharaoh and became the great administrator of food. There was no food, in the ordering of God, anywhere to be had, save in the land of Egypt under the administration of Joseph, and Joseph’s brethren, impelled by the need of food, came down to Egypt to buy corn, and Joseph immediately comes into view as labouring with remarkable skill and patience and feeling, with a view to bringing his brethren, whom he recognised though they did not recognise him, into right and happy relations with himself. One cannot go into all the detail of chapters 42 to 44, preceding chapter 45, but the history is well known. When Joseph saw his brethren, he spoke to them roughly and put all ten of them, for Benjamin did not come, in custody for three days, and then released them, but bound Simeon before their eyes and placed him in prison and sent the rest home with food and with their money returned in the mouths of their sacks.

Now let us bear in mind that in all this, Joseph is typical of the Lord Jesus in the way that He acts in discipline with regard to any one of us who is not at ease with Himself. There are many things that operate to hinder those who are truly saints, truly brethren of Christ, from being at ease in the presence of the Lord, and one of the things that is most effective in preventing us from being at ease in His presence is some past unrighteousness of walk or conduct that has not been properly judged. Thus it was in the case of Joseph’s brethren, and Joseph understood perfectly, as representing God, that there could be no disclosure of his own thoughts and feelings towards them, and no bringing them into restful conditions in the enjoyment of his presence, while certain moral questions remained unsolved, and the whole point in Joseph’s dealings with his brethren was to bring them to a right judgment of what had marked them in their attitude and conduct toward him. Let us remember, dear brethren, that in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, God has signified His disapproval of the first man and His approval, in an unqualified way, of Jesus. His action in giving up Christ and allowing Him to be put to death by wicked men, was the exposure, in the action of wicked men, of what the first man is capable of, his heart fully exposed in the presence of perfect goodness in Jesus, so that the first man is exposed as utterly and irreparably opposed to God, and opposed to Christ. In the death of Christ, God indicated that the first man must be brought to an end in death; only in grace, that was effected vicariously in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that all those who are prepared to obey the gospel, might be brought into life and blessing in Christ in the Man in whom God does delight.

Now, in the dreams that Joseph had, there was clear indication that God intended that Joseph should be supreme, and it was that that stirred up, in addition to the fact that Jacob his father showed him preference, the jealousy and hatred of his brethren, and likewise with us every working of our own flesh and our own wills, is really hostility to Christ. It is really that the flesh in us resents being set aside, resents what God has already given testimony to in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that the first man must go and that Christ only must be exalted, One who always delighted in the will of God, and afforded unfailing pleasure to the heart of God in every detail of His path here, and is now established in the presence of God for His abiding pleasure. Hence the jealousy of Joseph’s brethren is but a picture of the working of the natural heart in every one of us, save as we are brought into true subjection to Christ and the Holy Spirit, that refuses to have self set aside in order that Christ may have the place that God intends He shall have.

Joseph was dealing in wonderful skill with his brethren, and Genesis 45 indicates the end to which Joseph was working, “Come near to me, I pray you.” His heart was in it, and when they did come near to him, he kissed them, and he spoke to them and they to him. Moreover, he proposed to them that they and their wives and little ones were to come to him and he would maintain them, so that there was nothing in the heart of Joseph for them but perfect blessing in nearness to himself, but conditional on the right moral relations being maintained. So long as anything contrary to God was being cherished or excused, there could be no enjoyment of nearness to himself. Hence he adopted measures which seemed severe, but at the same time, if we read the history, we find that his heart was greatly moved, that he turned aside to weep more than once. This ought to affect us, if we realise how much pain and sorrow we cause to the heart of Christ if we are going on with any kind of unrighteousness. It brings in distance from Himself and the Lord feels it. It is not His desire, so here Joseph moves in remarkable skill, combining severity with remarkable grace, for he not only gave them the food that they needed, but returned their money in their sacks. We have to be established in grace, or the Lord will never effect anything with us. It is a great thing to be established in grace, and Joseph, in his dealings with his brethren, maintained that principle that everything that they received must be on the principle of pure grace, and therefore their money was returned to them in the mouth of their sacks.

But then he said that they would not see his face unless they brought their youngest brother with them. Now the youngest brother was Benjamin, and of the ten brothers who up till then had come down to Joseph, six were sons of Leah, two sons of Bilhah and two were sons of Zilpah. Joseph was a son of Rachel and Benjamin was a son of Rachel. All the twelve were sons of the same father, but they were sons of different mothers, and Joseph insisted that their younger brother Benjamin must come down with them next time they came, or they should not see his face. I believe that Benjamin, as being of the same mother as Joseph, represents a subjective answer to the truth; that is, Joseph is a type of Christ, and Benjamin as born of the same mother as Joseph, represents a subjective correspondence in the saints to Christ, and Joseph in insisting that they should not see his face again unless their younger brother was with them, was raising with them the exercise as to what was befitting in those who were sons of Jacob. Jacob the patriarch; what is befitting in those who are born of God, so to speak. That is, we are kindred to Christ, thank God, we are kindred to Christ. We remember well how the Lord Jesus, on the morning of His resurrection, said to Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” We are brethren of Christ, but what befits those who are brethren of Christ? In the conduct of the ten brothers there was that which was entirely unbefitting to the brethren of Joseph, and in saying that they should not see his face unless Benjamin was with him, I believe he was, in type, raising exercises with them as to what was befitting to those who were really the brethren of Christ.

Well, we know that in the sequel, Benjamin does come down with them, and the result is that they are brought into Joseph’s house and partake at his table and he speaks to them graciously and he sends them back again with further corn in their sacks and again with their money returned, including the money for the first supply of food, which they had brought back again. He is emphasising, insisting on, the principle of grace, feeding them, encouraging them, so to speak, as soon as they begin to move on right lines. As soon as we begin to move on right lines, we shall find God is supporting us. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. One often reminds oneself of that, dear brethren. There is always a way in which we may receive grace from God. Whatever it may be we are having to face in our own soul exercises, there is a way in which we can surely secure grace from God, and that is by humbling ourselves.

But then as Joseph sent them back again the next time, he tells his servant to put his silver cup in the sack of the youngest, and then to pursue after them and charge them with stealing his cup, and the servant does that, and they let down their sacks to the ground and opened them out, and the servant searched carefully, beginning at the eldest right down to the youngest. It is a question now of the Holy Spirit, for the servant is a type of the Spirit of God pursuing His work with us. Everyone is to let down his sack, what we are carrying, and have it searched diligently, and the Spirit of God would subject every one of us to a searching process. What for? What does Joseph’s cup represent? It was that out of which he drank. It evidently suggests that which is intended to minister pleasure to the heart of Joseph, and I believe he was seeking to bring home to his brethren that in their past conduct what had really marked them was that they had robbed him of his pleasure. That is, applying it to ourselves, any conduct on our part unworthy of us as saints, is robbing Christ of His pleasure. Every one of them had to be subjected to that searching examination on the part of the servant, as to whether he was the one who was robbing Christ, so to speak, of the pleasure He was entitled to expect from His people, a very searching process, dear brethren. So the cup was found in the sack of Benjamin. Of course, we well know that Benjamin was not guilty. I have no doubt that all was in wisdom, because if any saints in a locality are going on with anything marking them that hinders liberty with God, something amongst them that has not been judged, those who are personally without blame, as well as those who are to blame, must all share the blame together, and indeed those personally free from blame are those most able to accept responsibility for it. And so the cup was found in the sack of Benjamin, one against whom there was no charge, but then he was identified with his brethren, and they are brought back again to Joseph’s presence, and in chapter 44, Judah, who acts as spokesman for them, does not attempt to say he is quite sure that the cup was not stolen. He says, “God has found out the iniquity of thy servants,” showing that the whole history is not to be regarded literally, but morally, and the idea in the whole history is that, as the result, first of Joseph’s skilful acting, combining severity with grace and insisting on their bringing the younger brother, and finally the searching process of the servant, the Spirit of God, the brethren are brought to acknowledge what was iniquitous about them. It had happened twenty-two years before and it had never been faced or bottomed, but now the Lord, I use Joseph as a type of the Lord, was bringing it to light, and as the result of all the searching, Judah says that God had found out their iniquity. He does not attempt to excuse it, or explain it away, he is there in full confession.

He is prepared now to lay down his life for the brethren, because when Joseph proposes that Benjamin should stay as a bondman, Judah comes forward and offers himself in Benjamin’s stead. He is now coming forward, on the one hand, having completely judged on behalf of himself and his brethren what had marked them that was so evil, and on the other hand, as marked by the spirit of Christ, prepared to lay down his life for his brethren.

I have just indicated all that in order to show what I believe is the moral line of teaching in this part of the history. Now we come to chapter 45, where it says that Joseph could not refrain himself any longer and he says, “I am Joseph,” and “Come near to me, I pray you.” And they came near. And he said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve life.” That is to say, that now that they have come to acknowledge the truth and to judge themselves in relation to it, Joseph is assuring them that nothing whatever is lost, but that everything now for their blessing is secured and established in himself. That is where I link on the passage with the verses in 2 Corinthians. The apostle Paul found that there were certain at Corinth who were charging him with vacillation, saying one thing at one time and another thing at another, what he describes as yea and nay; that is, his word could not be relied upon. He passes that over lightly, and says, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.” He does not admit the charge of vacillation, he explains why it was that he changed his plans and gave some who opposed him occasion to suggest that he was vacillating, but having done that he says, the One whom I have presented is not marked by vacillation, no yea and nay about Him. In Him is the yea; that is, the absolute confirmation of every promise of blessing which God has in His heart for us is there in Christ. Whatever promises of God there are, in Him, in the Son of God, is the yea and in Him the amen, for glory to God by us.

Now I understand that to mean this, that whatever promises of God in the way of blessing for men there have been, and there have been many promises, the fact that man has proved to be a failure, has sinned and come short of the glory of God, has become exposed to His judgment and liable to death, has not in any way thwarted God in carrying through His thoughts of blessing for men. He has found a resource in the person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God has come, and in the coming in of the Son of God, we not only have a glorious Man who is entirely apart from the sinful history of the first man, who has had no part in it, nor could He have part in it, for He is entirely holy and sinless, but He has brought in an entirely new order of manhood. Although come of a woman, come of David’s seed, truly a man, yet He brought in an entirely new order of manhood. That being so, and He being who He is, He was great enough in Himself, by means of His death, to take up and remove every liability that lay upon men. All that had come in through sin has been perfectly met in the precious death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the death and burial of Christ, man himself has been vicariously removed from before the eye of God. There is one Man in the presence of God in whom there is no failure, in whom God finds pleasure of a most complete kind, and He is One great enough in His Person to communicate His own life as Man to men. The last Adam, it says, is a quickening Spirit. How glorious that is! It is the way by which God effects all His promises of blessing in spite of the failure of the first man. He has brought in another Man, and everyone who turns to Him in faith, receives life in Him. That is a very blessed thing. It shows in a most indisputable way that God is absolutely for us. In Christ is the yea. In Him is not only the yea, but there is also in Him the amen. The yea is the positive setting forth of the thing in an indisputable way from God to us. The amen is the perfect answer to it in a Man. In Christ we see a perfect answer in Man to all that shines out from God through Him. In Christ there is a Man who affords infinite pleasure to the heart of God, and we are before God in Him. That is a wonderful thing to come to, and it goes on to say in Corinthians, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God.” God has done that by giving us the Spirit. He has firmly established us in Christ. That is what results from the giving of the Spirit. We are absolutely set up before God in an abiding way in Christ, the Son of God. That is a very establishing thing. And then it says, “who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”

To go back to Joseph, he now called upon them not to be grieved, nor angry, “for God did send me before you to preserve life,” and again in verse 7, “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth.” That is, once we have come to complete self-judgment, then in the light of the death of Christ, we are entitled to have done with the past and no longer to refer to it. If God has closed up the history of the man that has sinned, so long as you are in accord with it in your conscience and heart, there is no occasion to refer to it any longer, and you can rejoice in the One who has established every thought of blessing that is in His heart. Joseph was anxious that they should be no longer grieved with themselves. He even says that it was not their action that brought him there, it was God who did it. All that we have done necessitated the death of Christ, but once we are in accord with that death in our mind and heart, we are entitled to say God has done it; sending Christ before us that, having accomplished redemption, He might take His place in the presence of God as the last Adam, in whom we live and in whom He has set us up before Him for His pleasure.

Paul says in Corinthians, not only that “he that establishes us with you in Christ is God,” but also that He “has anointed us.” That is, there is now power; the anointing is power, and it is also character. It means that in the Spirit we have power to walk in a way that is worthy of the saints of God, worthy of those that belong to Christ. The anointing gives character too. It would impress the character and grace of Christ upon those who are His. It is not only a question of light, but also a question of power in the Spirit that answers to the light, so that we are not only conscious that we are established by God in Christ for His pleasure, but we have power in the anointing to walk here worthily of that position. It says further, that He “has sealed us.” That is most touching. It means that God has put His own mark upon us. The Spirit is that, the indication of divine ownership, that we belong to God; it is a very blessed thing to carry in our souls the sense of it. The Spirit is witness to us. The anointing works out in something that can be seen publicly, but the sealing is a private matter, that everyone carries the sense of in his soul, that he belongs to God. God has put the mark of His approval and ownership upon each one. And finally, He has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. The earnest is the power by which divine things can be entered upon now, so that their enjoyment is already known.

One must now refer briefly to Colossians in connection with Jacob in this part of Genesis. It is not a question of some past unrighteousness that has not been judged, but a question with Jacob of unbelief in regard of Joseph’s being living and being in a glorified position. Joseph as in the position that he was filling in Egypt, so great among the Gentiles, in that way answers to Christ as presented in Colossians. At the end of Colossians 1, we read, “Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly; of which I became minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given me towards you to complete the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints; to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” What Paul gloried in was, that the mystery, the truth concerning the assembly, the body of Christ, gave Christ a great place among the Gentiles. In practically all God’s ways previously, save in isolated instances, blessing was connected with His earthly people, Israel, but now God has brought in that which had been hidden as a mystery from the ages. God has now revealed His choicest thought, that out of all nations, and especially from among the Gentiles, He has gathered out, by the gospel, a body of persons who form the assembly, the body of Christ. Paul gloried in that, that Christ was among the Gentiles, and that is typified by Joseph in this part of his history. He has been separated from his brethren, according to Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33, pointing to Christ separated from Israel by death and resurrection, and He is great among the Gentiles. Jacob was not in the light of that. Joseph was in glory, having a wonderful position which God had given him, but Jacob was entirely unaware of it, and even when his sons told him that Joseph was still alive, he did not believe.

It is this which often hinders true believers, that they are not in their souls in the light of the glorious position that Christ has at the right hand of God and of the assembly as given to Him, His body. It is not a question of things on the earth being our concern. We have to go through the world as pilgrims and strangers, fulfilling righteousness, having our part in the testimony, proving His mercy and faithfulness to us while we are in the world, but our real interests are bound up with Christ and the assembly, and Christ is at the right hand of God. Jacob was entirely unaware of all this, and Joseph told his brethren to tell his father of all his glory in the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh himself commanded them to take waggons. The waggons refer to the power there is in the Spirit to carry us in our thoughts and affections to Christ in glory and sustain us in relation to heavenly things, that is the assembly.

It says of Joseph that to each of his brethren he gave changes of raiment. That is a very important thing, dear brethren, that we are to have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new. We need change of raiment as saints. He gave a special portion to Benjamin. He sent food for his father, and sent away his brethren and told them not to fall out by the way, a very practical matter we always have to see to. “And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt; and his heart fainted, for he did not believe them; and they spoke to him all the words of Joseph, which he had spoken to them, and he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their father revived.” It is a question of our just awaking to the fact that the Spirit of God has come down from Christ in glory for the express purpose of connecting us in our faith and affections with Himself where He is and opening up to us that where He is, He is the centre of a great system of glory which has its existence in the purpose of God, which has now begun in Christ and the assembly. Other things are to be brought into display in due time; many families in heaven and earth are to be brought into view, all headed up in Christ, but for the moment the great thing is the assembly, the body of Christ, a vessel being formed now capable of entering sympathetically and intelligently into every interest of Christ and having part with Him in it. If He is engaged with maintaining the service of God, an answer to the heart of God as He is revealed, we will be thoroughly with the Lord in it, going along with Him in every exercise, following up every bit of light and help He gives in relation to it, because it is a question of our having part with Him in every interest of His, just as a true wife expects to have an interest in every interest of her husband.

If it is a question of maintaining the testimony here on earth for the moment, in a way that is worthy of God, the assembly is the vessel of that too. Hades’ gates shall not prevail against it. We want to learn from the Lord to handle matters of administration in a way that is worthy of the blessed God, a way that is morally above the level of this world. So it says in Colossians, “If ye then be risen with Christ.” The if is not a question of doubt, but a question rather of setting forward the first part of the sentence, so to speak, as a certain position taken up, and the rest is what necessarily follows from it. He says, if this is the position that you are risen with Christ, then seek those things that are above. Colossians is very much a question of with Christ, dead with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him, quickened together with Him. It is a question of with Christ,

our affections being in the matter. Thus Christ was buried and we are buried with Him. We do not want a place in this world where Christ is not. If Christ has been raised from the dead, as He has, we are entitled to take account of ourselves as risen with Him and quickened together with Him. God works in our affections with that in view. Four times this expression the Christ comes in in these four verses. That is, it is Christ personally viewed as the One who is the centre of all God’s thoughts, the One to whom the assembly belongs, who is shortly to be seen as the Head of the whole universe. It is the Christ. “If therefore, ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.” That, so to speak, is the boundary of our inheritance. The children of Israel had certain well defined boundaries, but for us it is not things on the earth, for our inheritance lies beyond death where the Christ is. “For ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God.” That is where our life is hid. Christ is hidden in God. He is hidden from the eyes of men for the moment. He will shortly appear, but for the moment is hidden in God. God has raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, but men cannot see Him. They have no idea that He is there, nor of the things connected with Him there. He is hidden in God until the moment comes in the ways of God, and He knows the moment when the Christ shall appear, and when the Christ shall appear, or be manifested, then we also shall appear with Him in glory. In the meantime, let us be content to be hidden in regard of things here, but to be very much alive in regard to our affections and interests in relation to the assembly, which is the body of Christ. Things which are above does not mean things literally in heaven, but things morally above, the things to be found in the assembly, because the assembly is of Christ and belongs to Him, and the things connected with the assembly are completely above the level of this poor world.

May the Lord graciously stimulate us in this direction. On the one hand, if there are any here at all in the case that Joseph’s brethren were in, something remaining unjudged which brings in distance between themselves and the Lord, disqualifying them from having part in any effective way in the service of God, the Lord’s word is, “Come near to me, I pray you.” The Lord has intense feelings in regard of us and would operate in our souls to set us free from everything that disqualifies us, that we might be maintained in nearness to Him. “There will I maintain thee.” And on the other hand, if we are at all like Jacob, unbelieving in regard to the position that Christ fills in relation to the assembly, and the service and power of the Holy Spirit to make these things real to us, then I say, Let us awake. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” That is what happened in Jacob’s case, “the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough: Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die.” May the Lord graciously bless the word.