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HOW THE SAINTS ARE TO BE IN THE WORLD IN THE ABSENCE OF CHRIST

There is no doubt, dear brethren, that the history of Elisha in its typical bearing, fits in with the present time, for Elisha represents the saints as left here in the absence of Christ who has gone into heaven, but set up in the power of the Spirit who has come down from the ascended Christ. Elisha was left here in the absence of Elijah, who had been taken into heaven, but was left here to fill the position in the power of Elijah’s mantle, suggestive of the Spirit of God; and I believe the passage in the second chapter is intended to instruct us how we are to be here in the absence of Christ.

You will notice that it says first of all, in verse 1, “That Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.” That is, the suggestion is that the Lord wants to be with us. Indeed He says at the end of Matthew, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age.” That is what the Lord has in mind, completion of the age, this wonderful age which is characterised by God making Himself known to men in grace, and the age is to be completed in a way worthy of God, and with a view to that, the Lord is prepared to be with us, and so Elijah went with Elisha. But there are certain conditions under which the Lord is with His people, and that we get in one of the chapters in the second book of Chronicles, where a prophet says to king Asa, “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him.” That is the great point, but if we go off, so to speak, on lines of our own, we cannot expect the Lord to be with us, but He is prepared to be with us if we are exercised to be with Him, and that is what follows in the chapter, that Elijah was testing Elisha as to whether Elisha was prepared to be with him. He kept on saying, “Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me,” first of all to Bethel, then to Jericho, then to Jordan. He was simply saying that to test him, to bring to light what was in Elisha, and each time Elisha answers, “As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.” Elisha was determined to be with Elijah wherever Elijah was; whatever feature of the truth was being emphasised at the moment, Elisha was concerned to be with Elijah.

Now, all that, dear brethren, is of great importance to us. The Lord is prepared to be with His people, even to the completion of the age, but if we would have that realised by us, we must be prepared, like Elisha, to say that at all cost we will go on with the Lord. Whatever feature of the truth He is calling attention to, and I have no doubt these different places that Elijah and Elisha visited are all different parts of the truth that Elijah was calling attention to, we have to be concerned to be with the Lord as to each. That involves constant movement, but only so can we expect to be able to complete our day here in testimony in a way that is pleasing to God. And so Elijah starts. Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. That was a good commencing place. Elisha was already there. We cannot have any part effectively in God’s testimony if we do not know what Gilgal represents, and if we are not there, so to speak, in our souls. Elisha was there. Gilgal, as is well known, represents the cutting off of the flesh; the place where the children of Israel were circumcised again as they came into the land, and the Lord said, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” It is a reproach to the saints, dear brethren, if we carry along with us any taint of this world. If any feature of the first man is in evidence it is a reproach to the saints. The saints are heavenly, and if we would be here in testimony to God, we have to be concerned that what has come to pass before God in the death of Christ, the circumcision of Christ, as it is called in Colossians, is made effective in us and maintained in us in power. Elijah went with Elisha from that point. Elisha was there in Gilgal.

The first place they come to is Bethel, the house of God. The Lord would direct our attention to the house of God, which, Paul says in the epistle to Timothy, is “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” The first epistle to Timothy is written especially that we might understand the importance of the house of God. The house of God is where God dwells, His dwelling place on earth. We ourselves, all of us, who have received the Spirit of God, are constituted the house of God. Let every believer understand that, that we are the house of God in virtue of God dwelling among us by the Spirit. We are not simply the house of God when we are assembled. We are always the house of God in virtue of the fact that God is dwelling in and among us by the Spirit, and hence it is something always to be borne in mind, that there is that which befits the house of God. Anyone who has a house expects to be able to have things in his own house suited to his own tastes. And God expects that His house should be such that those who have to do with it will get right impressions of God from what they see in His house. If you take notice of the features to be seen in a person’s house, you get a fairly good idea of what the person is like to whom the house belongs. Believers are to bear in mind that there is a certain conduct and order and demeanour that befit those who are constituted God’s house. And so, for instance, Paul in writing to Timothy, says, “I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for kings and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” That is one thing that is to mark the house of God, dear brethren, not simply at the prayer meeting, but also in our homes. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks continually. We are to remember kings and all in authority, a most important thing in days when lawlessness is so much on the increase and when government generally is so weak. I am not speaking in any political sense, or as having any biased view of matters. Government as such is constituted of God, but in the hands of men tends to be palpably weak. It is of the utmost importance that the saints of God should continue unceasingly, at home and in the meetings, praying for all men, for kings and all in authority, that government, which is of God, and has in mind the enforcement of what is right and the repression of what is evil and the punishment of evil doers, should be maintained, and the saints go through leading quiet and tranquil lives in all piety and gravity. And then it goes on the say that men ought to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath or reasoning. What men are to be characterised by in praying everywhere, is lifting up holy hands; that is, that in the recognition that we are having to do with God holy hands are necessary, involving what we put our hands to. It is intended to raise wholesome exercises as to what we do, so that there may be no hindrance to our filling out the position proper to us as men in God’s house. And then it speaks of women and what is to mark them, their demeanour, their deportment, their dress, all these things are not to take character from the world around, but to be governed by the fact that God is dwelling amongst His people by the Spirit and what is suitable to God is to regulate us in all these matters, for the house of God is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. It is a question of our position in the testimony, and so Elijah calls attention, first of all, to this great idea of the house of God, the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.

The apostle, in his epistle to Timothy, goes on to emphasise the importance of piety, which should characterise every brother and sister. It means bringing God into our ordinary circumstances of daily life, and moving in relation to God. “Great is the mystery of piety, God was manifest in the flesh.” Think of the wonder of that, beloved brethren, that God Himself should have come down into circumstances of human life in the Person of Jesus, and as having come down into these circumstances, filled them out in a way that glorified God. Jesus was always marked by dependence on God, was always marked by confidence in God, was always marked by the spirit of thanksgiving. How that glorified God. There was never a suggestion in the Lord Jesus of any discontent. In Psalm 16, the Spirit of Christ says, “the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage.” Think of how that glorified God, and what a testimony to God it is as the saints move on quietly, dependently, finding their resource in God and satisfied in the circumstances God has ordered for them, no complaining, discontent, or lawlessness in a world marked increasingly by these things. What a testimony there is to God as the saints who compose His house are governed practically by piety. That saves us too, from wanting to become rich. You see the truth of God touches all these matters. The epistle to Timothy teaches us that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare. See how practical Christianity is, and it is practical because it is concerned with the knowledge of God. And if we bring God into our own life here, which is piety, then we shall find, not only that God Himself will be glorified, but we shall be preserved in contentment and happiness whatever the circumstances of life. And so it says, “Piety with contentment is great gain. For we have brought nothing into the world: it is manifest that neither can we carry anything out. But having sustenance and covering we will be content with these.” Much more could be said about it. We need the first epistle to Timothy to give us the full thought as to the house of God. I have only touched on one or two details in it, but I believe that is the idea represented in this movement of Elijah to Bethel and his testing Elisha as to whether he was ready to be with him there, a most important thing, that if we want to stand in the testimony, we must first face this matter of the house of God, with all its implications.

Then Elijah moves on. He says again to Elisha, “Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.” And Elisha says, “As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.” He is prepared to go to Jericho and to see Jericho from Elijah’s point of view. That is an important matter, dear brethren, to see all these features of the truth from the Lord’s point of view. That is what Elijah had in mind, that Elisha was to be with him in these places, so he goes to Jericho. Now Jericho, I believe, represents the world as a great system built up by Satan, which seeks to oppose the saints and prevent them from entering into God’s thoughts fully. At the day of Pentecost, it was, for the moment, overthrown in those to whom the testimony came with power, and not only at the day of Pentecost, but in the subsequent ministry of the apostles as they moved from place to place, and the testimony gained a place in the hearts of the saints in power, the world was largely overthrown in the souls of God’s people, not publicly, but in the souls of God’s people. In one place they said, “These ... have turned the world upside down,” Acts 17: 6. That was their impression of the effect of the ministry of the apostles, that they turned the world upside down. But then, alas, when we come to this day, although Jericho had been overthrown under Joshua, it had been rebuilt in Ahab’s day and that is our great danger; lest, although it was overthrown in the souls of God’s people in the early days of Christianity, it should assert itself in renewed power and seek to capture the people of God and prevent them from entering into God’s mind for them. Hence the importance of seeing the world as the Lord sees it, and the Spirit of God has come for the express purpose of showing us the true character of the world. I do not say that He has come for that purpose only, far from it, but among other things, that is what His presence here demonstrates. The Lord says, “having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe on me.” It is very simple, and that holds good, that whatever form the world may take, however attractive the ideas in the minds of men for the betterment of things down here may seem to be, the Spirit of God remains true to Christ, and He says, ‘Do not forget, they do not believe on Christ.’ That exposes its true character. Whatever it may be, that is its true character, and the Spirit of God would maintain that character before our eyes. “Of sin, because they believe not on me.” “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more.” What is the force of that? The Lord Jesus was the righteous One. He is called that in Scripture, “The just one.” The saints of God are righteous or just, characteristically, as taking character from Christ, but He is the righteous One, the just One,

and He has deliberately left this world because there was no room for Him in it. On man’s side, cast out as worthless; on His side, He has left it and gone to the Father; left it as a judged thing, and therefore, we are to have that estimate of it, that, whatever its outward appearance, it is a system in which the righteous One has found no place.

“And of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” That, I believe, answers to our going with Elijah to Jericho, that we hold in our souls the same judgment of the world as the Lord has. I quite agree that at the end of this very chapter there is a certain grace shown to Jericho. The men of the city come to Elisha and tell him that the situation of the city was pleasant but the water was nought and the ground barren, and Elisha tells them to bring him a new cruse and put salt in it. “And he went forth to the source of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith Jehovah: I have healed these waters: there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness.” I believe that refers to what provisionally took place in this world through the establishment of Christianity, the new cruse being the assembly, a new vessel, and salt being the principle of life, that is, preservation. It introduced an entirely new influence for God in the world. God is operating provisionally in grace with the world, and in a sense that continues, but the truth is being rapidly given up. Eventually the world will prove apostate, so when Elisha went to Bethel, little boys, the rising generation, came out and said to the man of God, “Go up, thou bald-head.” Think what God would think of that, that little boys should dare to speak to a man of God like that, and that is an illustration of what the rising generation will prove to be, utterly apostate in regard of the testimony of the Spirit of God down here, and that will seal the world’s doom; hence we need to be aware what the true character of things is.

And then it says that Elijah said, “Tarry, I pray thee, here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan,” and Elisha says again, “As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.” And so they went to Jordan, and what took place there? Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters and they were divided hither and thither; and they two went over on dry ground.” It is a question, dear brethren, of our apprehending the glory of the Person of Christ, that He could go into death and rise triumphantly out of it, breaking its power, so as to bring to light conditions of life beyond death according to God’s purpose for us. How glorious is the Son of God! Every other man has had to succumb to death, save in the cases of Enoch and Elijah where God intervened, to show that He had a right to set aside death in favour of man if He pleased, because He knew He would do it in the Lord Jesus. See the Son of God moving in the power of His own Person into death! Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together. The mantle speaks of the measure of the man, and the glory of the Person of the Son of God was seen as He moved into death and rose triumphantly from the dead. He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” It was not possible that He should be holden of death, and His resurrection from among the dead has meant the opening up, through death, of conditions of life beyond death, which have been in God’s purpose from the outset for us. Are we going to attempt to continue to find our life and interests in things here, when the Lord Jesus has come forth from God, been into death and risen again in order to open up conditions of life beyond death according to God’s purpose? That is what we are to take account of. “And it came to pass when they had gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee.” Now the position is becoming clear. Elisha is to be here in the absence of Elijah. You can understand his feelings. What a man Elijah had been, how powerful in testimony for God; how he had stood against 850 prophets on mount Carmel and maintained all that was due to God in the face of the current of apostasy that was then operating.

You can understand Elisha wondering however he was to be here without Elijah. He would be thinking to himself, ‘Elijah was a great man and how can I be here without him?’ And so he says, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” It was the confession of his own felt inequality for the position. It is intended to teach us that if we are to be here in any little measure in the testimony of God, as the Lord Jesus was here so blessedly and perfectly, never surrendering anything due to God, but moving through this world in outward obscurity and smallness and content with that position, we need the power of the Spirit of God in full measure. It says in John 3 that God gives not the Spirit by measure. Thank God for that! That is, He does not now give the Spirit by measure. Past dispensations were marked by the Spirit in measure, but now the Spirit has fully come to indwell believers and to make it possible that the dispensation can be carried through in a way worthy of God. And so Elijah says, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so.” We were speaking this afternoon of the disciples seeing the Lord Jesus as He was carried up into heaven, and the impressions that they would get as they saw the manner in which He was taken up into heaven, the sense that heaven delighted in Him and the way He had carried on the testimony here. It must be carried on in the same way in which it had been filled out so blessedly in the Person of the Lord Jesus Himself. The eyes of their hearts would be fixed upon Christ. You can understand how Elisha would say to himself, ‘I will not take my eyes off Elijah.’ You can see how it would impress upon Elisha the need of dependence, the need of keeping near to Elijah, and that, dear brethren, is surely a matter of the greatest importance to us. There is a great need of our keeping near to the Lord and keeping our eye on the Lord and being available to the Spirit and to God if we are to be here in any way pleasing to God. “As they went on, and talked, ... behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire; and they parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens.” Now Elisha saw it and says a remarkable thing, “My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” You might have said, he would say the chariot of Elijah and the horsemen thereof, but he says the chariot of Israel, as if he immediately grasped the idea that what was set out in Elijah as a man carried up into heaven, was God’s thoughts for His people. He exactly set forth what God had in mind for His people, that they should have a place in heaven, and that there was power to set them there. It is a great thing to understand that our place is in heaven, that it is where He is, setting forth the place that belongs to the saints, and if we are left down here in testimony it is to come into the scene as from heaven; as the Lord, after sending the message to His disciples, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God,” and then showing them His hands and His side causing their hearts to be glad, said to them again, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” The idea is that the testimony is to be carried on here in heavenly grace,

and the pattern of it is to be learned in the One who has been taken into heaven.

Now, following on that it says Elisha “took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him.” He first rends his own clothes in two pieces as if he would say, ‘I entirely discard anything that has previously marked me.’ Natural features are not to be employed in the testimony of God. It is a question now of the power of the Spirit of God. He took up the mantle of Elijah; that was to be the only thing of any use. Elijah had given him that impression when he first called him, when he first sought him out; commanded to do so by God Himself, he found Elisha ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen and Elijah went up to him and cast his mantle upon him. He gave him that impression at the outset, an impression that if he was to be here in the testimony, it must be in the power that had marked Elijah, and must be according to the measure of Elijah too, for the mantle would represent the measure of the man. You may say that it is a high standard, but then the Spirit of God has come down from heaven for that very purpose. Paul represents the same idea, when in view of his departure, he says to Timothy to take the cloak that Paul had left at Troas and bring it with him. The cloak would represent Paul’s measure, and Timothy was to get that and bring it with him. Paul was about to be removed and Timothy was to carry on and understand that nothing less than what had been set out in Paul was to continue in Timothy. And so it says of Elisha, “And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.” He is going back now into the sphere of testimony from the position he had been in beyond death with Elijah, but he goes back into the sphere of testimony, to fill it out in the power of Elijah. The sons of the prophets saw that the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha.

Now, I read the incident in chapter 6 in order to show that we may well afford to commit ourselves to God’s testimony and to show the advantage we have in the presence of the Spirit of God here, the Spirit of truth, who, as it says, will guide into all the truth. It says that the king of Syria warred against Israel. Israel represents the people of God. I would just say, in regard of Elijah and Elisha, that their ministry was in Israel; that is, to the ten tribes, not the two tribes, so that they represent the ministry of God really in Christendom, for the ten tribes had departed from God’s centre and had become largely idolatrous. They were still God’s people, He had not entirely cast them off, but they had departed from God’s centre and become idolatrous, and that is exactly the position of professing Christianity. Christendom embraces those who are true, but many of God’s people are captive to that which characterises Christendom and going on with what is merely formal and in character idolatrous, and yet God in mercy maintains a testimony. We ourselves, though through grace morally apart from it, are publicly part of it, and we cannot separate ourselves from it. The ministry of the Spirit amongst us not only has in view the maintenance and development of the truth to those who are available, but it is also a testimony to Christendom, and the presence of the Spirit of God among those who are available to Him, becomes a great barrier against the full development of evil. So it says that the king of Syria warred against Israel. Syria was a powerful enemy seeking to overthrow the truth, for the truth was held, if it was held anywhere, among God’s people, and the king of Syria became conscious that his plans and movements were known in Israel, a remarkable thing. He became disturbed at the idea that someone was a traitor and all his military plans were known in Israel. How was that? A man of God was there in Israel; he represents the saints, in so far as they have that character, as of God, as in the gain of the presence of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God discerns all things. Every movement against the truth is discerned by the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit is the truth. The Spirit in the saints discerns any movements in the world contrary to the truth, and discerns their character, and so one of the king’s servants says, “None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.” And he sends horses and chariots and a great host and they compass the city about.

And now it is a question of a young man having his eyes opened. The man of God is entirely undisturbed, but the young man needed to see how thoroughly worthwhile it is to be absolutely committed to the testimony, to the present truth, going on with it, being with the Lord at Bethel, with the Lord at Jericho, with the Lord at Jordan, and whatever feature of the truth He is emphasising at the moment, and how thoroughly worthwhile it is to be with the Lord in it and going on to the end. What is this host against a man of God? He asks Jehovah to open the eyes of his servant, the young man, and Jehovah opened his eyes and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. The man of God is the point, the testimony is the point, and the horses and chariots of fire, the mountain is full of them around about Elisha. If we are going on with the testimony, with the man of God, so to speak, we shall come into the gain of this wonderful protection that is there in virtue of the presence of the Spirit of God. You may say it refers to angelic protection, perhaps it does. I would not rule out the thought of angelic protection, for all the angels of God are sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. It is there as much as it is needed. The Lord said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” They were all there available, but it was a question of the will of God. There is no question about angelic protection if it is needed, but what is really in mind is the presence of the Spirit of God. In 1 John 4, speaking of the spirit of antichrist in the world that is opposed to the truth, it says, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” That is it. The whole host of Syria might be round the man of God, but he had a power with him greater than all the hosts of Syria. The horses and chariots of fire represent divine resources; chariots of fire, God is Himself a consuming fire. Anything brought forward in opposition to the truth will finally be consumed by the fire that God Himself is. And in virtue of the presence of the Spirit of truth, all that is contrary to the truth will be exposed, and the truth will go through to the end, and the great thing for us is to see that we ourselves are with the Lord in it.

I trust that these Scriptures will be for our encouragement, as understanding that God has in mind that we should be committed to His testimony, the testimony of divine grace, righteous grace, and yet in holiness suited to God, to be carried through in the world till the Lord comes, and it is the saints who are needed that it may be carried through livingly by them. So we must be concerned to be with the Lord in whatever feature of the truth He is stressing at the moment, to have His own judgment of things, and as we are so, to go through with the Spirit of truth till the end.

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