DIVINE GUIDANCE
In these scriptures we have presented to us persons who found themselves in difficult situations, and we might learn from the way in which each one gets the divine answer. We sometimes speak as if it is difficult to get the mind of the Lord, or to find where the Lord is, but I would like to say at the outset that the Lord Jesus is more desirous of imparting His mind than we are of receiving it.
The Lord does not put obstacles in the way of His people getting His mind. He is desirous of imparting to any genuine enquirer what His mind is regarding any particular matter. It would help us to see things from this standpoint that the Lord desires to have persons down here to whom He can make known divine secrets. The obstacles are with us. We are the obstacles. We need to search our motives, and to see what our real desires are; whether we are acting according to the desires that come to us through the work of God in us, or whether anything fleshly or natural enters into our enquiries.
I think as we proceed we shall see what is in mind. These four persons are confronted with certain situations and we can learn from them as to how to proceed, how we can get the answer. I am not so much concerned about the situations, in which they found themselves; I am more concerned about the features that are manifested in these persons.
We began with Jacob. We know the history of Jacob and his sons, Joseph and his brethren. In the context here his brethren have apparently got right. They had been very wrong. Joseph was sold into Egypt by the instrumentality of his brethren. His brethren were guilty, but here they have been to Egypt for the second time and Joseph has made himself known to them. There is a change with these brethren now, and they bring a good report to their father Jacob. The report is that “Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And his heart fainted, for he did not believe them”.
Jacob might have given good reasons why he did not believe them. They had brought back reports previously. They had deceived their father. Jacob gets the glad tidings that Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. Jacob could have brought forward reasons why he should not go to Egypt. He might have said, ‘My grandfather Abraham went to Egypt, and that was not a good move. He ought not to have gone there. Isaac was warned (Gen 26: 2) not to go to Egypt, and the report has come back by persons that I have reason to distrust because of their involvement in something previously’.
So it says, “They spoke to him all the words of Joseph, which he had spoken to them”. This was altogether different from what they had said previously when they manufactured their story, but here they speak to Jacob “all the words of Joseph, which he had spoken to them. And he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him”. There was the true report and there were the waggons. The waggons were the proof that they had had to do with Joseph on a new footing. The waggons came from Pharaoh; it was Pharaoh’s suggestion originally that there should be waggons sent for Jacob and the wives and little ones.
The waggons were the evidence that a change had taken place in these brethren. They were different. They had not come before with waggons. No doubt waggons relate to the Spirit, the carrying power of the Spirit, and these brethren manifested something that they had not manifested before. This was a test to Jacob—was he going to accept this report? It says, “He saw the waggons which Joseph had sent to carry him. And 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”.
Now what I want to point out is this, that after Jacob moves, he gets the confirmation. He gets the word from God after he moves. He moves as a result of the report and the sight of the waggons, but afterwards he gets the confirmation. Many of us would like the confirmation before we move, but that is not the divine way. It was not the way with Abraham. He was called to go out from his land, and from his kindred, and from his father’s house, and he received the confirmation after he went. Jacob “took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba; and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob! And he said Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down to Egypt”.
This is a most important matter; that is, we move when we ought to move. We move when there is the evidence that the move is a right one, and then we get the confirmation. God comes in, and how full is the confirmation Jacob gets—“I am God, the God of thy father—fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee to Egypt”. Think of God being with him in this movement. What confirmation this was, “I will go down with thee to Egypt, and I will also certainly bring thee up; and Joseph shall put his hand on thine eyes”. No doubt this was in view of Jacob being put to sleep at the end of his history here. What a history he had—147 years of it—but God assures him that at the end, Joseph would put his hand on his eyes. It is like being put to sleep through Jesus.
Jacob knew he was near the end of his life, although he spent 17 more years in Egypt, but the confirmation he gets looks right forward to the peaceful end he was to have. In fact he had a remarkable end, possibly the most remarkable of all the patriarchs, because he blessed his twelve sons and worshipped. What an end!—and Joseph put his hand on his eyes. This gives some idea, dear brethren, of the confirmation the Lord would give us as we move rightly, but we do not get the confirmation until we move.
Now in the second book of Kings we have Hezekiah faced with a difficult situation. It was the threat of Sennacherib and the Assyrian armies. I am not so much concerned with what the situation was, I am more interested in how Hezekiah acted in this situation. He “received a letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah”. He wanted an answer to the present difficulty. He did not know how to move or what he ought to do but he read the letter and “went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah”.
Dear brethren, we have a resource in prayer which it may be we are not fully availing ourselves of. We have a resource in individual approach to God. We have the privilege of gathering for prayer too. I sometimes wonder whether we get the full benefit, and advantage, of our gatherings for prayer. It is a wonderful privilege we have; we have access to God in prayer. It says here that “Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah”; that is, that in his day there was an arrangement for one like Hezekiah to approach God in His house. He would not have had access to the holy of holies, but he must have had access somewhere, and he availed himself of it.
How different might have been the result if every letter received recently had been read, and taken into the presence of God and spread out there. Do we make full use of the resource we have in prayer in approach to God? We have access that is far nearer than the access Hezekiah had, but he made full use of the access available to him in his day. It says, “And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah and said, Jehovah, God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth—thou hast made the heavens and the earth”. The greatness of God filled the vision of Hezekiah. As in His presence, he is not speaking about God, he is speaking to God. He is consciously in the presence of a God so great.
Then he says, “Incline thine ear, Jehovah, and hear; open, Jehovah, thine eyes, and see”. Have you ever asked God to incline His ear and listen? The fact is we do not need to ask God to incline His ear to listen. His ear is always open to every genuine enquiry and every genuine prayer to Him. We do not need to pray to Him to incline His ear and to open His eyes to see. His eyes are open and He is more desirous of imparting than we are of receiving. The resource we have in prayer is wonderful.
John says in the last chapter of his first epistle—“This is the boldness which we have towards Him, that if we ask Him anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5: 14). We do not need to ask God to incline His ear, or to open His eyes and see. “And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him”—that is approach to God. No matter what situation arises, dear brethren, whether we are young or old, whether it is an individual matter, or a family matter, or a local matter, or a matter affecting all the saints universally, we can have access to God in prayer. What a resource we have! We need to be encouraged to make full use of it. God is always ready to listen to us as we pray thus.
Now Nehemiah is confronted with a difficult situation. It is a situation which arouses his righteous indignation. He says, “I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words”. He was right to be angry, but what did he do? Did he act in his anger? Did he act hastily? He says, “I consulted with myself”. If Nehemiah had lived in our day he might have got on the telephone to somebody, but he consulted with himself. He must have had something in himself to consult. What did Nehemiah consult in himself? No doubt he consulted the work of God in himself. No doubt he analysed his desires and motives. He consulted with himself; he would consult his committal to what God was doing in his day and what was becoming to that committal. There was something of maturity in himself which he could consult. It means that he would consider the matter alone, alone. He would be apart from any influence for the moment. He would allow no other influence to intrude. He consulted with himself.
You will remember in the first chapter of Matthew that, a certain situation having arisen, Joseph the husband of Mary was minded to do something about it. It says that “Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and unwilling to expose her publicly, purposed to have put her away secretly; but while he pondered on these things ...” Pondering on things is something like consulting with oneself. He pondered. I do not know how much we ponder. It may be that we can explore this matter of pondering, of consulting with oneself. “While he pondered on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to thee Mary, thy wife”. That is, he got the word as he pondered.
This is something which I think we could develop in. It would prevent us from coming under wrong influence. It would prevent us from acting hastily. While the anger was on Nehemiah he consulted with himself and then he acted. What comes in between his anger and his remonstrating with the nobles was his consulting with himself. Therefore, when he remonstrated with the nobles it would not be in the flash of anger, but would be in a considered, sober manner. There was a great result from this. This matter, which had suddenly sprung up and come to his ears, and was the subject of his righteous indignation, was settled. He was effective in how he went about this matter. “I consulted with myself; and I remonstrated with the nobles and the rulers ... And I set a great assembly against them”.
If you read down the remaining verses of the section you can see how the whole matter was settled. Those who were oppressing took it upon themselves to cease the oppression. The idea of “your brethren” comes in. There is no party activity. Consulting with oneself would preserve us from any party activity; it would always be a danger among us to form a party of some kind. He consulted with himself, then he remonstrated with the nobles, brought in the assembly, and the whole matter was settled. What it results in is “all the congregation said Amen! And they praised Jehovah”, Neh 5: 13. It resulted in praise to God. Anything that comes in among us of oppression or taking personal advantage of others—all that kind of thing—must hinder the service of God. But this matter was sorted out by the way in which Nehemiah acted, and the result was praise to Jehovah.
I think the passage in the Acts brings out sensitive relations with the Holy Spirit. Paul and his company had reached a certain point and the next move was indefinite. They did not know what the next move was to be, so it says, “Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia … they attempted to go to Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”.
It means that there was an area here of sensitive relations with the Spirit. Why did Luke say that the Holy Spirit forbad them, and “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”? What is the difference between forbidding and not allowing? There is a sensitive area here of relations with the Holy Spirit. Well, this would be open to any one of us. The Spirit of God is very sensitive. It must be so—He is the Holy Spirit. He cannot commit Himself to anything. It says of the dove sent out of the ark by Noah that she found no resting place for the sole of her foot. Think of the sensitiveness of the sole of the foot of that dove. Think of the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit. Just think, too, of how coarse and insensitive we have been; but I have no doubt the Lord would have us sensitive as to the presence of the Spirit, sensitive as to what the Spirit is indicating. We certainly lost that sensitiveness, and we have had our part in a current of things which was not of God.
It is a time now to have sensitive relations with the Spirit. I am not saying that I know much about it, but I can see the need for it, and I can see the possibilities of being in this area where there is sensitiveness to the operations of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit forbad them; the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. I am not attempting to explain why Luke says this, but Luke writes it this way and he himself must have arrived at sensitive relations with the Spirit.
Well, as we were saying in the reading, the Holy Spirit is the One of the Holy Trinity who has come to be with us. The Holy Spirit is the sent One in the present arrangement of the economy. When the Lord Jesus was here, He was the sent One, and the Holy Spirit identified Himself with the Lord Jesus as the sent One. In the present arrangement, the Holy Spirit is the sent One, sent of the Father and sent of the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has come to be immediately with us and in us. I sometimes wonder whether we are as conscious as we ought to be of the immediateness of the Spirit’s presence, the immediateness of His presence here at this very moment. It is a wonderfully advantageous area to be in, where the holy Spirit is present, and where there is what suits His sensitiveness and where He is free to operate.
Well, that was so here. They did not go to certain places, because they were sensitive as to the Spirit’s indications. Then we find that they concluded. It was a spiritual conclusion they came to because of the sensitiveness of their relations with the Spirit. They did not get immediate confirmation, as Jacob did; they had to wait for that. No doubt they would be tested as to whether their conclusion was right. The spirit of Python was operating against it. You will always find opposition—subtle opposition—in this area of the sensitiveness of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. We, dear brethren, here this morning, are a confirmation of the rightness of the conclusion which Paul and those with him came to at this juncture, because it was the means of the gospel coming to Europe. We are the confirmation, right down the centuries since, that this move which was taken in this area of sensitiveness as to the Spirit’s movements was a right one.
Well, may the Lord encourage us. May we not complain too much about the difficulty of finding the right way, or knowing what the Lord’s mind is, or knowing where the Lord is. These persons we have spoken about give us some indication of what is open to us. May the Lord help us in this.
ST ALBANS
24th November 1973
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