THE ANOINTING IN CONNECTION WITH THE TESTIMONY
[p. 374] THE ANOINTING IN CONNECTION WITH THE TESTIMONY
We had before us yesterday Christ’s anointing seen from three different aspects, namely as Priest, as King and as Prophet. We see Christ represented in Aaron as Priest and in David as King. We see a prophet’s anointing in Elisha. Our thought was to draw attention to what God has before Him in connection with the anointing when He puts forward His testimony in the world. Those who are used in the testimony must be worthy before God. In this scripture which we have before us we read that God has anointed us. So we also see in 1 Corinthians 12: 12 that this thought is connected with Christ. That is, as we have on our hearts in connection with this subject, that we, who through grace are brought into the light of Christ and the assembly, should be lifted up in our souls out of the conditions by which we are surrounded in christendom. The purpose of the anointing is that God should be represented here on earth in a worthy way. Therefore it is necessary for us to understand that we have received the Holy Spirit, as a fact and also as a reality, so that we might stand out, adorned with the grace of the Spirit, and that the power of the Spirit should appear in every one of us both personally and as gathered.
In the verses we read there are three things, namely anointing, sealing and the earnest. The anointing is therefore so that we can continue here for God and represent Him. By setting His seal on us God has taken possession of us. The earnest means that we also have something for our own hearts; we can only answer to God’s purpose in anointing us and setting His seal upon us in the measure in which we live and avail ourselves of the earnest in our hearts. It does not say here what the earnest is but in Ephesians 1: 14 we see that it is of our inheritance.
The first epistle to the Corinthians points out the working [p. 375] of the flesh amongst them. The working of the flesh will always shut out the working of the Spirit, but as a result of the first epistle they were brought to repentance, so that now there is a condition in their hearts receptive to the truth of the anointing. In 2 Corinthians 1 we see what the apostle had undergone. In the following chapter he speaks of the restoration of the one who had sinned. He had himself been near to death so that he was in a position to write with deep sympathy. The Corinthians were in need of comfort, and the apostle himself had been exceedingly comforted of God so that he could encourage them. The second epistle is therefore full of stimulation and encouragement. He begins by speaking to them of God’s faithfulness, that all His promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus unto the glory of God by us. The apostle and those who were with him were in the blessed consciousness of these promises. Indeed he was himself faithful to the Corinthians in that his word to them was not yea and nay. The apostle’s action stood in conformity with God; he had not gone forward thoughtlessly (”light-mindedly”, cf. verse 17), so he could write “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God”, 2 Corinthians 1: 21.
How clearly can God’s action be seen in that! God in His faithfulness establishes us in Christ and so we receive the consciousness of the anointing. In connection with this I come to the thought of David when he had seen the place where God’s house should be built. He prepared iron in abundance for the nails. First we read that he set masons to hew wrought stones, then he prepared iron in abundance for the nails that would be used to strengthen the building and hold it together. In 1 Corinthians 15 we see what the nails allude to. That is the longest chapter in the epistle to the Corinthians and the object of it is to bind us together as it says in the last verse, “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 15: 58. We also read in Ecclesiastes 12: 11, “The words of the wise are as goads, and the collections of them as nails fastened in: they are given from one shepherd”.
[p. 376] The whole of professing christendom lacks what the nails allude to, and christendom will soon come down. It is not joined together in the power of resurrection and it is also quite clear that there is no anointing in it. We have through grace received part in the great work God has wrought to establish His own in the truth of Christ and the assembly. We see in this His faithfulness, as we read in Romans 16: 25 - 27, “Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my glad tidings and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, as to which silence has been kept in the times of the ages, but which has now been made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures, according to commandment of the eternal God, made known for obedience of faith to all the nations — the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen”. We also read in Hebrews 12: 28 about a kingdom not to be shaken.
We see therefore that David prepared iron in abundance for the nails. Iron alludes to strength and that is what is first spoken of in 2 Corinthians 1: 21, that we are established one with another, and after that the anointing is mentioned. It is God’s faithfulness which thus attaches us firmly to Christ. The tabernacle was first set up and afterwards anointed. All is founded in the power of resurrection. So we see in Isaac that God established His promises in resurrection, for Abraham received him, as it were, back from the dead. “Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath, that by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us”, Hebrews 6: 17,18. We find that Abraham had this strong encouragement. He went and dwelt at Beersheba. Beersheba means ‘the well of the oath’. By living there he would continually be reminded of God’s unchangeable faithfulness. When Jacob received word from Joseph to come to him, he had a certain doubt in his soul in connection with leaving the land of Canaan and going down to Egypt, and we find that he [p. 377] comes to Beersheba. God appeared to him there and said “I am God, the God of thy father”, Genesis 46: 3. Note that it is his father Isaac’s God, not here the God of Abraham, for Isaac is a type of Christ as risen from the dead in whom all God’s promises have their yea and amen. So we see in Acts 4: 33 that the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power.
Perhaps we will all here remember that when Elijah fled from Jezebel he left his servant in Beersheba, while he himself went out into the wilderness a day’s journey and sat under a broom-bush and requested for himself that he might die. But why should anyone ask to die that knows Christ as risen? If Elijah had remained in Beersheba and turned to God in the understanding of His unchangeable faithfulness, which is so clearly shown in the resurrection of Christ, he would have experienced God’s power on his side. We also find the same principle in our scripture in 2 Corinthians 1. When everything that is of man comes down, we find a refuge in God’s eternal faithfulness. But instead of standing fast, Elijah went out into the wilderness and asked God to take his life, but God showed him His faithfulness. He showed him He would even be faithful towards the prophet personally and gave him food which strengthened him for forty days and forty nights, and when he comes to Horeb the Lord’s word comes to him “What doest thou here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19: 9. Horeb was not a place where God’s faithfulness comes into view. It was indeed where God put forward His claim. What was Elijah doing there? He had not himself answered to the divine claim. If he had remained at Beersheba, God would not have spoken to him like that. Beersheba is not a place where God puts forward his claim upon us but where we get His help. Elijah should have been at Beersheba where he had left his servant.
Afterwards we find that the Lord speaks to him in His faithfulness when He says “Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when thou comest, anoint Hazael king over Syria; and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat [p. 378] of Abel-Meholah shalt thou anoint prophet in they stead. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay”, 1 Kings 19: 15 - 17. From this we see that God was able to deal with His enemies in the power of the anointing. The principles of Beersheba are brought to light in connection with these three anointings, for God cannot be limited. He can anoint three. These three anointings are a perfect witness to God’s faithfulness and power. The two first indicate that the sword will be used in the power of the anointing against all that is evil, but the third is the grace which can bring forward the good. It is therefore wonderful to consider Elisha as the one that comes first, and he is a minister of grace. The ministry of grace comes first, then that of judgment. It is just that principle which is seen in 2 Corinthians. Instead of reproof the apostle comes out in grace. But he also says that he was ready to avenge all disobedience when the Corinthians’ obedience had been fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10: 6).
The object of Elijah’s ministry was therefore that there should be restoration through grace, but yet we see that Jezebel does not escape. I believe we see the way God works in these three anointings (1 Kings 19: 16, 17).
We find ourselves in a time when resurrection has taken place, and it is indeed a great privilege to have part in the Spirit’s service in this time of grace. The Lord says to the assembly in Philadelphia, “thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”, Revelation 3: 8.
In the earnest God gives us the enjoyment of our own portion, and it is for every one of us to experience the reality in our hearts of what the Spirit is as the earnest. Then we can stand in the testimony in the power of the anointing and of the sealing. To take up everything in connection with the testimony in a dignified way should be the exercise of us all before God. In Galatians 6: 1 we see that if a man be taken in some fault he can be helped to get right by those that are spiritual. To be spiritual is the same as being full of the Holy Spirit and therefore independent of the flesh,
[p. 379] as we see in Romans 8. In the understanding of this a believer can sow to the Spirit in his practical life and reap eternal life from the Spirit (Galatians 6: 8).
We had before us yesterday that Elisha put a great value on the oil, and we should, in the same way, value the Spirit who is given as the earnest in our hearts. Elisha could say to the widow, “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest”, 2 Kings 4: 7. How independent the believer is of everything here as one who has the Holy Spirit! He can pay his debt and live on the rest. God has anointed us and set His seal on us whereby He has taken us into His own possession. Therefore we should now be here for Him as it says, “Glorify now then God in your body”, 1 Corinthians 6: 20. As those that are anointed we are also completely independent of the teaching of men. John says “the unction which ye have received from him abides in you, and ye have not need that any one should teach you; but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him”, 1 John 2: 27. Christendom is marked by the teaching of men, but the believer should be marked by what is spiritual, for in this way alone can we please God.
We will see from the scripture that we have read that these things are presented from God’s side, and so it is the anointing, the sealing, and the earnest. God shows us first His side although the earnest comes first in the experience of our souls. That is what we are liberated by, so that God can take us into His possession as those that are free. God wants us to take up these things in a real way, and thus few experience what He is in His faithfulness towards us.
The reality of all this is seen in the apostles, and I have thought of what Paul’s cloak means. He says to Timothy, “The cloak which I left behind me in Troas at Carpus’s, bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments”, 2 Timothy 4: 13. Elijah’s mantle indicates what he personally was marked by in his ministry in an outward way. Elijah cast his mantle on Elisha (1 Kings 19: 19), and it was that that fell from Elijah when he went [p. 380] up into heaven. It says that Elisha took hold of his own garments and rent them in two pieces, and then took up the mantle of Elijah which had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. He smote the waters with it and said “Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?” 2 Kings 2: 14. It shows that Elisha fully recognized how God had been with Elijah. God had helped Elijah in the testimony he had borne, and Elisha, in that he took Elijah’s mantle, had an understanding that it was necessary to take it up in connection with his ministry.
It was at Troas that Paul made his last great discourse (Acts 20). It is the last oral ministry direct to the assembly. We all remember that on the first day of the week they were assembled to break bread and Paul prolonged his discourse till midnight. Then we read that Eutychus was overpowered by sleep and fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But he was brought to life by Paul embracing him. Then Paul broke the bread and after he had long spoken until daybreak, he went away. Think of Paul’s cloak in connection with this. Think of the way he continued in the ministry God had entrusted to him. So he says to Timothy, “The cloak which I left behind me in Troas at Carpus’s, bring when thou comest”, 2 Timothy 4: 13. Just as Elisha took up Elijah’s mantle, I believe we can see that Timothy took up Paul’s cloak. He had just said to Timothy, “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my release is come. I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”, 2 Timothy 4: 6, 7. This is the position which we have now. We will be kept in humility by looking on such a cloak. I believe that the books indicate that which Paul wrote that shows his teaching, and the cloak his life. He had learned, so to say, greatly to appreciate Elijah’s spirit, and he understood that his own ability in the ministry lay in that spirit. He had seen the spirit which came out in the great and wonderful testimony of Stephen and the striking likeness between Stephen and Christ.