SPIRITUAL ENERGY AND THE VESSEL FOR IT
[p. 469] SPIRITUAL ENERGY AND THE VESSEL FOR IT
John 4: 5 - 24; Judges 1: 12 - 15
JT It occurred to me that it would help to call attention to this feature of life, that it is marked by energy. There is a correspondence between John’s gospel and Judges in that we have at the outset of Judges this reference to springs, and it is as if this woman represents the underlying feature of the book.
In view of the breakdown the book contemplates that the springs of water would ensure the maintenance of what is of God; so that you have, at the end of the book of Judges, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the high priest, with whom a covenant was made; this son was identified with the testimony at the end (Judges 20: 27, 28). So I think John’s gospel ensures the true priesthood at the end, that which shall stand by the testimony. The maintenance of this at the end is ensured by the principle of the springs.
The book of judges, as many of us doubtless know, makes frequent references to life in its energetic feature. For instance, those that divide the spoil do so “in the places of drawing water”, Judges 5: 11. And in chapter 14 we have a swarm of bees in the carcase of the lion, suggestive in a peculiar way of the energy of life in its results, that is, in the honey. Then in chapter 15 we have Samson thirsty, and he prays: “and God clave the hollow rock which was in Lehi ... And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived”. It says then “he judged Israel ... twenty years”, as if the secret lay there, in the spring.
Things are not complete unless there be the accompaniment of the spring; that is to say, we have not only to apprehend Christ as presented in the gospels but there is also the Spirit, so that there should be correspondence with the light, correspondence in an energetic way, because it is a principle that a state of things such as we have to do with requires spiritual energy.
[p. 470] We see that Achsah sprang off the ass; she had the energy already; she sprang off the ass, not simply alighted, to meet her father. She realised that he had given her a south land, but she wanted springs of water. And I think that is the principle underlying the whole book, that if there is to be enjoyment of the land there must be the springs of water. In travelling about the world one sometimes comes across a land that may be fertile and has abundance of sun and air but there is no water and therefore no growth.
Isaac was one who knew the value of water, and he dug wells but the Philistines stopped them. Stopped wells are equivalent to no wells at all. It is no use knowing what our fathers had if we have not got the water. Then finally the servants come to him and say, “We have found water”, and he calls that place Beersheba, that is, the well of the oath. He is settled now, he has got supply in having the wells of water.
Energy is a great feature in Scripture; only in the young christians it is apt to be in the flesh; young people are apt to be energetic but in a mixed way, the flesh in some way harnessed up along with the Spirit.
In the offerings you have energy represented by the ram, but alongside the ram you find the oblation or meat offering. That is the check on the flesh. The energy is there in the ram, but there must be also that which the meat offering suggests.
Accordingly in John’s gospel the beginning of chapter 3 makes it clear that “ye must be born again”; flesh is flesh, whether it is in the christian or in the unconverted, it is the same thing and it must be disallowed so that all must be born again. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. There is the suggestion that the man — the whole being — is affected in that way. It is not simply ye must be born again: “except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”. The water, I suppose, indicates the entire removal of the flesh, so that what is of the Spirit may remain. After all, this chapter, John 4, is but the continuation of the third; the third gives [p. 471] you the origin of him in whom the Spirit is to operate. The water in the third is not for drinking, it is for washing — it typifies death.
Rem So there is nothing in the new vessel that is allied to the old one.
JT The Lord is typified in the meat offering (Leviticus 2) of fine flour, which is mingled with oil and then anointed with oil. The mingling means that there is no flesh there, and the anointing means that there is power for energy. So that in the anointing the sovereign operation of God is intending to bring us, as vessels, into accord with Christ.
You see it in Jacob, I think. It is said of Jacob that he took hold of his brother by the heel. You may say Jacob was a supplanter, but you do not get that brought out there. There you have in the babe, that had not as yet power to sin, an instinct. He took hold of his brother by the heel, meaning that he was going to supplant that brother. I think the early instinct resulting from new birth is the disallowance of the man after the flesh. Esau was born first, the elder, but Jacob shows an instinct that that man must be supplanted.
It does not say that he took hold of his brother in his strength (Hosea 12: 3), for he did not have much then, but he had the instinct. Later it says that in his strength he wrestled with God and prevailed.
Ques Would you say he maintained that which he had been born into?
JT That is what we see, I think, in Hosea. Hosea brings in Jacob as a rebuke to the children of Israel. They were not doing that; they were going in for man after the flesh, so the prophet reminds them that their father Jacob did not do that.
The woman in John 4 suggests one who has been born again, and now she comes into the presence of Christ. Yet she is weak; it is spirit, but it is weak, and until the believer sees redemption he is weak, he has no power.
Ques Is the vessel typical in this way of the maintaining of what is for God here?
JT That is what chapter 3 brings out.
[p. 472] We have in chapter 2 six waterpots of stone. These are a suggestion of what is procurable. They are empty and vessels are not to be empty, so He says, “Fill the waterpots with water”, and they filled them to the brim. Chapter 2 is a millennial scene undoubtedly. Chapter 3 is the beginning of the formation of the vessel so that there should be vessels suitable for the energy of the Spirit of God.
Ques Is the vessel in view of eternity? We are said to be vessels of mercy for God.
JT Oh, I think so. If it were not so we should not be vessels for glory, should we?
We have in chapter 20 the Lord breathing into them, for the vessels are there. Adam was formed and then breathed into. Their being breathed into here involved morally a representation of God. There should be shining out of God in man; materially he could not be a representation of God. He (Adam) was created in the image of God. And I think John is on these lines; he would form the vessel and then fill it. The climax, I think, in chapter 20 is the breathing. We receive in that way His own Spirit — His own breath. “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”, He says. He sends out as He was sent out. Now you are not going to have image without likeness! In John He breathes out likeness. The vessel is formed and then filled.
Chapter 1 of the Acts gives you the formation of the vessels; they are there, and then the Holy Spirit comes into them. It is the external aspect. The Lord has been working so that they are there. Every one of these vessels was formed for the Spirit to sit on it.
Ques Is that why, in Genesis, image comes before likeness — “God created man in His own image” — “in the likeness of God made He them” (Genesis 1: 27; Genesis 5: 1)?
JT After the fall the order was transposed; Adam “begat a son in his likeness, after his image”.
Before you can have representation you must have likeness. Enoch was said to be the seventh from Adam, that is the full development of the line taken up in Seth.
Adam is restored, you might say, in Genesis 5: “Adam ... begat a son ... and called his name Seth”. Then Seth begat Enosh. Enosh means “mortal”. Acceptance of the fact that man is mortal means that he is going to live. Enosh is a dying man, but Enoch is a living man; his name means “sprout”.
Rem I suppose that is why he could speak of the coming of the Lord.
JT I suppose Enoch’s prophecy represents the product of his walking with God. What God saw was life; he was the seventh from Adam — it was complete spiritual development. God has great delight in life. Before his (Enoch’s) translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. He was there to breathe, as it were, for God. That is what God has in view. He walked with God for three hundred years, and he was under God’s eye, so he must have been pleasing to God. What did Enoch get? He got the idea of holiness. He says, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”. One can understand the immense force of that in Enoch’s time before the ark was a testimony, that God was coming with his holy myriads. But God delights in life, and we get holiness. You cannot walk with God without getting a sense of holiness.
Ques Do you suggest that the vessel is the outcome of the holiness of God?
JT Christ was “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Romans 1: 4. You see in John’s gospel that the vessel is holy. You see that the Lord was the Holy One of God; “We have believed and known”, Peter says, “that thou art the Holy One of God”.
In every book of Scripture there is a constructive line right through. If you begin with the woman in chapter 4 she has to do with a corrupt world. You have her continued in chapter 6 where you have the Lord confessed as the Holy One of God.
Rem So John brings out that His praise filled the temple.
JT In connection with Isaiah 6 “Holy, holy, holy”, etc., so that the development of life is in holiness. And so Enoch prophesied, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”.
[p. 474] Rem In the beginning of John it says, “The Spirit”, but at the end it says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.
JT Yes, and in Romans the first mention of the Spirit is “the Holy Spirit”, where the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2 of John is a millennial scene: the water of purification is turned into joy.
Rem You were saying that the vessels are to be filled. The widow said, “Bring me yet a vessel”, and because there was not another vessel the oil ceased.
JT Yes, she had to get vessels, but they were to be filled.
Ques Is that the way the holy myriads are secured — by the Spirit?
JT I think so. It is very beautiful to trace out how in one way and another life culminates in Jacob. Isaac is Christ risen and operating so that there should be wells, the water springing up; but Jacob is energy that is in the believer in his varied exercises, first, somewhat mixed, as is to be expected. The believer’s early exercises and energies are almost sure to be mixed, and the disentanglement of flesh and spirit is a most important process.
The Spirit works by the believer’s exercises. Jacob in his strength wrestled with God; and more than that, Hosea tells us that he wept (Hosea 12: 4). Moses does not tell us that, but the prophet does. I think the weeping is a condition showing how keenly he felt matters; if we have to do with God we cannot be light or trivial. The nearer you get to God the more sober you are; you cannot be otherwise with God. The prophet brings out these facts because they stand out in such contrast to what the people were going on with. This is the way to the house of God subjectively, and there he is until he stands in relation to God as a prince in Bethel. So that it was worth while taking this course. In Bethel you get the memorial. And the prophet says, “He found him in Bethel”, and he says further, “Jacob fled into the country of Syria”. Not into the town but into the country. “And for a wife he kept sheep”. He did not get her for nothing. The principle is energy. One of the first things you have, on Jacob entering into Syria, was the [p. 475] removal of the stone that lay on the well’s mouth. So you see the believer at the outset comes into contact with springs of water.
Rem So that in coming to the house you find there is a sphere where in a priestly way you find an outlet.
JT Yes. Jacob is found in Bethel, and he is found there as a prince. When we are in the house, it is with a sense of dignity; we are princes, God having made us so.
In Bethel, when God finds him there, God comes and stands by him. On the occasion of his first meeting with God at Bethel, God is at the top of the ladder, because holiness was not with Jacob. But the second time Jacob has buried the idols. He has learnt now that life is conditioned by holiness. He has had terrible experiences at Shechem and he has now learnt holiness. So God comes down to him and he sets up a pillar and pours out a drink offering.
Ques Did you have a thought that a drink offering is communication with others as well as with God?
JT I think the drink offering is the sense in his soul of the delight he had that God came down to speak to him. God is pleased, and how could He be thus with us save in the sense that we are acceptable. He has delight in us. It is the portion God has in us in holy intimacy. Now you have here the thought of the Father; the Lord is pleased to speak to the woman about the Father. “God is a Spirit”, He says. He was bringing light into her soul, so that in due time she would be able to understand worship.
Rem The Lord did not speak to Nicodemus about worship.
Ques Was the vessel filled in chapter 4?
JT I think in principle it is. She left her waterpot. She sees the Lord’s idea, that she herself is to be the waterpot! John records that she left her waterpot. She might have taken it with her, but the Spirit of God mentions that she left it. That meant that she herself was to be the waterpot now. She carried the water in principle to Samaria.
Rem That was, she realised what the Lord was to her.
JT The fact of the matter is, He had gone down to the secret of her soul. You see, we do not turn and allow the [p. 476] light of God in. The word of God is like a searchlight; it discovers to us all the dark crevices and secret chambers, with the intent that everything shall be opened to us by the Spirit. “He told me all that ever I did”. That means she would discard all that, to make room for the water. I apprehend that is what the vessels mean in 2 Kings; the vessel would have increasing capacity, by disallowing the flesh.
Rem The result of our touch with the Lord is that it empties us of ourselves.
JT It does indeed. You will understand how this woman says: ‘Well, if I am to be a spring, I want to get scope’. How she would turn over his word and say: ‘Well, I must not have anything that is incompatible with this’. The spring is in me a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The spiritual energy is seen in her going to the men of the city. She has left her waterpot and is governed by the light.
Rem Thus the activity and energy of the Spirit is in more than one direction; John gave it in its full sense, Godward and manward.
JT I think in this chapter it is given in its full bearing Godward, leading up to worship. In chapter 7 its bearing is manward, I think: “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. That is manward, obviously. “But this he said concerning the Spirit ... for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. It is consequent on the glorification of Christ — flowing out manward in chapter 7; but it seems in this chapter you get the full bearing of it Godward, springing up.
Ques What is the thought of the springing up?
JT I think it is the energy of the Spirit in the christian, the Spirit is controlling the flesh. The bearing of the Spirit is upward in the christian. Those of us who have the presence of the Spirit I think have verified that. He is to lead you out of the world. He has delivered you but He goes with you. Your affections are diverted into new channels, into pure, holy channels. Instead of flowing outwards, they flow upwards.
[p. 477] Rem There is a return for God. Our souls return to God and overflow.
JT “My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say what I have composed touching the king”, Psalm 45: 1. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also, so I will speak of the things of God intelligently. Speaking suggests intelligent lines. If you speak of the things, you have them intelligently.
God secures us in all the inner organs. They are spoken of in the types. The priest’s work was to open them up, to dissect them. They are for God. How great it is that God secures us so that all these inner organs, our inner being, moves upwards!
It says “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth”. There you have the regulation of the inner man, a holy spring within. Foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient, so that nothing corrupt proceeds out of your mouth. God would have the man wholly for Himself.