GRACE APPROPRIATED, MARKING THE BELIEVER
GRACE APPROPRIATED, MARKING THE BELIEVER
JT I was thinking of the great place the Holy Spirit has in type in these early books, taking this chapter as illustrative of the subject in the idea of a well or a spring. We find the idea of a well or spring running through Genesis, Exodus and Numbers, and later, too; and I thought it would be helpful to look at it as typical not only of the Spirit, but of the system of grace in which the Spirit of God is dominant. It may be observed that the idea is connected with Hagar for the first time in Scripture, so that fact emphasises the thought of grace, in its being connected with such a person, in chapter 16 and in this. But although emphasised in her history, she fails of the true gain of it, and in that there is a warning. Then in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses we have faith availing itself of the divine provision; so that we should not lack of the grace of God, nor put the, flesh in the place of the Spirit in our service and testimony, and our general experience. I thought this passage would help us on that line, for Abraham takes up the thread in his communications with Abimelech, and shows how he valued the well.
Ques Would you mind opening up a little more your thought in relation to this being first introduced in connection with Hagar?
JT Well, it was typical of God’s overtures to the Jew. In Luke, the Lord makes a point of the disciples not leaving Jerusalem until they received the Spirit; it was the Spirit of grace. The Jews did despite to the Spirit of grace in result, but God took the greatest pains to present that testimony to them. Hagar was, like many young persons, in self will when the angel found her; it says he found her by a spring on the way to Shur. That is what comes out, as she is in self-will fleeing from her mistress, he found her there.
[p. 283] Ques Do you think there is anything for us in the distinction between the bottle of water which she took and which ran out, and the well which was discovered to her?
JT Evidently there is a very great difference between a bottle of water, which is very limited, and a well; we can scarcely limit the well in a spiritual sense.
Ques Is your thought that everything that God has available for His creatures here upon earth lies in the Spirit?
JT That is what I thought we might see, and that God emphasises His grace in connecting it with such a person as Hagar. It is not going to stop with her, but God emphasises His grace in beginning there.
Ques With a person in bondage, would you say, but having in view her liberation?
JT The test was obedience. She was fleeing from her mistress, that was what marked her; but it says an angel found her by the spring; he found her by it. Where did the spring come from? Who provided it? That is the next question. Spiritually, it cost much that there should be such a thing as that. But there it was, and the angel found her by it, but before there could be any profit from the spring there must be subjection; so that he challenges her as to her position and why she was there. He says: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence earnest thou? and whither wilt thou go?” (Genesis 16:8). That is the challenge. He was really raising the moral question with her, as the Lord did with the Samaritan woman. The well was there, but the moral question had to be raised and settled.
Rem It says that God opened her eyes to see it, (Genesis 21:19).
JT I think that the thing has to be shown. God has to call attention to it, but it was there, and there for such an one as she. But the moral question had to be solved, and he raises that with her — why was she there, and where she was going?
[p. 284] Ques Is your thought that, as with the woman in (John 4), the Lord raises the moral question here?
JT That is what specially corresponds. With the woman in (John 4) it was a question of her past history; the Lord says: “Go, call thy husband, and come here”; but with Hagar it is: “Whence comest thou? and whither art thou going?” But he recognises her as the handmaid of Sarai — she is known to him, but she has to tell — these questions have to be answered.
Rem Where there is a wrong moral principle actuating the soul, the resources of the Spirit are not available.
JT Quite, and that is what the angel would bring up — whence one has come, and whither one is going? These are very plain questions.
It would appear that she happened to be near the well, chapter 16, but it was very carefully arranged that the angel found her there. He could well have found her before, because she had been fleeing, but he waited till she arrived at that spot.
Rem Like the woman in John, she did not know the Lord was there, but God ordered that she should meet Him.
JT Quite, so that what comes out in chapter 16 is the name of the well, that is, we have reached spiritually an historic position in the name of the well. It is more the objective side in the system of grace; it is a question of the revelation of God which Isaac afterwards recognises. It did not come in in his history, it came in in Hagar’s history, but he valued it. He came from Beer-lahai-roi as Rebekah approached, showing that it is spiritually a point reached that stands, and the church (Rebekah) approaches in that relation.
Ques Do you think Hagar got to that position because she did not make excuses? She confessed herself as an insubject person and so got a revelation.
JT Quite. Is it not wonderful grace that, though [p. 285] she is in that position, yet the revelation is made to her? She is in an insubordinate position, but God would magnify His grace. I think that is how it stands in Scripture, how grace has been magnified in God’s overtures to the Jew.
Ques Would you say as to everyone of us who have come into blessing that that is the way we have come?
JT I think so; it is a question of coming into the light of God, that God sees you; as it reads, “She called the name of Jehovah who spoke to her. Thou art the God who reveals himself, for she said. Also here have I seen after he has revealed himself. Therefore the well was named Beer-lahai-roi”, (Genesis 16:13,14). And then we are told where it is, its geographical position, so that we have reached a definite point here. If she ultimately does not get the good of it, others will, but the magnitude of grace shines in that it is with such an one as this, that the idea is first connected.
Ques Is that why the apostle in Galatians makes so much of the thought of grace?
JT Yes, I thought that. “He therefore who ministers to you the Spirit”, (Galatians 3:5), he says. That was the thing, it was the ministration of the Spirit. They were turning away from it. In this chapter Hagar is fleeing, but in chapter 21 she is an outcast, which makes it more emphatic that it is the magnitude of grace that God would bring before us. She first fled from the house of faith, and now she is an outcast from it with her son, and yet God is there by her.
Ques Did Hagar name the well?
JT No, I do not think so. I think it is just that the well was named. It was by someone else I judge, who valued it more than she. But she conveyed that, you see, in what she said: she got some gain. You might call it superficial, but she got some gain.
Rem She got the impression of having seen the living One who had revealed Himself to her there. {286} Quite. So that chapter 16 is more what we call objective. In chapter 21 she is an outcast from the house of faith, and yet God is there. It is said, “What aileth thee?” It is a voice from heaven now: “God heard the voice of the lad”, and then it says: “God hath heard the voice of the lad where, he is”, verse 17, but she is to take him into her hand and hold him there, that is, accept definitely, responsibility for him.
Ques Would Isaac be presented to us as one who got more of the benefit of the position?
JT I think Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses are all witnesses to faith’s appropriation of the system of grace. Each is found identified with the well. And so Abraham here is introduced at once in this connection. Hagar takes a flask and she fills it and gives drink to her son, but she goes into Egypt and takes a wife for him; that is to say, she negatives the whole thing, as many Christians do, they avail themselves of grace, but they go to the world and that is what God abhors. A flask filled once is a very limited use of a well. Rebekah supplied water to Abraham’s servant and his camels until all had enough.
Rem I wondered whether there was instinct with Hagar. She went into the wilderness, but she did not maintain the appreciation of the God that made Himself known to her in the wilderness?
JT No, I think she and her son — particularly her son would be typical of the Jew in the last days, for it says, “I will make him a great nation” and “God was with the lad”. But for the moment she took him a wife out of Egypt, and he dwells in the wilderness and becomes an archer. You would not expect much of him. Anyone who gets the good of the Spirit and goes into the world for a wife, will not be much in the testimony. The archer in Genesis attacks Joseph. I do not say that he did, but the archer in Genesis attacks Joseph. “The archers ... shot at him”, (Genesis 49:23). I think there is a great warning [p. 287] therefore in the appropriation of grace with no corresponding effect, but a going into the world.
Ques Does this show that the whole system of grace and all connected with it is in relation to the Spirit?
JT That is the idea. The spirit dominates it, so that in contrast to Hagar, in the New Testament you have the woman of Sychar. She had the idea of grace; she got the Lord’s thought in that she left her waterpot and went into the city, but she goes to the men and calls them out of it. “Come, see a man”. ‘Come’: that is the opposite effect. She did not go back into the world.
Rem Then, if we fail in spiritual development, it is because we are not availing ourselves of what God has provided?
JT That is the thing. The means of development and growth are there. In fact it says here, the lad grew and God was with him. But the mother came in; she took him a wife out of Egypt, and that is the end of the thing.
Ques Would that suggest natural relationships?
JT I think so, that one is capable of being so affected. Why should he not select his wife? Of course, we have the idea of a parent taking part in the procuring of a wife in Abraham and in Isaac. Isaac advised Jacob as to his wife, but Jacob went to get her. But there is nothing said about that here; it was the mother, that is, the Egyptian element was unjudged there in her, and he had never found his own footing. He had never been weaned, as it were; that is quite obvious. A man who allows his mother to get his wife has never been weaned. The mother would control the position, and that is not of God.
Ques Would this go to show that the primary movement of the system of grace, according to this chapter, is the revelation of God; and what you referred to in (John 4), the bringing in of the Father so that worshippers are [p. 288] secured?
JT Exactly; so that in the case of the woman of Samaria, through her the Lord finds a place and abode there two days. That is the result of her testimony. It is something called out of the world that is the result of her testimony. Popular evangelisation never does that. I have no doubt that Hagar could tell a good deal to an Egyptian about Abraham, and the wonderful relations he had with God, but she could not say to the Egyptian, ‘Come’. She was not judging Egypt at all; she had taken an Egyptian for her son.
Rem So that the testimony of grace goes out in the power of the Spirit, as seen in the end of Luke. They were to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high.
JT That is the important thing. They were to tarry in Jerusalem, and repentance and remission of sins were to be preached to all nations, beginning there. They were to begin there as clothed with heavenly power, that was the kind of thing. It was the magnitude of grace beginning there, and beginning in such a way — in the power of the Spirit. But this action of Hagar, I believe, has a very powerful voice, for many take up grace and benefit by it up to a point, but here the time goes on and the lad grows and God is even with him, but then the things stops for Egypt is brought in, and that is the end of the matter for that person. But it is not the end of the matter for God, because Abraham is immediately brought in in regard of a well; and then Isaac and then Jacob, and finally Joseph is a fruitful bow by a well. That is how the thing stands in Genesis. There is, I think, a very powerful voice in Hagar’s action here.
Rem Abraham has exactly the opposite exercises in regard to a wife for Isaac, and Sarai had died before that.
JT He made the servant swear in regard of family relations — that the wife must be of the same family, and then Isaac charged Jacob on the same point.
Ques You were speaking of such great men as [p. 289] Abraham and Isaac — one a man of faith and the other a man of resurrection — choosing wives for their sons. There is much in that, is there not?
JT There is a great deal in it. As we have remarked, Hagar had no thought of a spiritual link between her son and his wife. But one great idea in marriage is that the thought of the sister must come first. “Have we not a right to take round a sister as wife” (1 Corinthians 9:5). That is, the family link is there first, the spiritual link, and that is what Abraham and Isaac had in their minds; but Hagar did not have anything like that.
Rem The issue of Hagar’s act was that there was a generation that dwelt “opposite to Egypt, as one goes towards Assyria”, (Genesis 25:18).
JT Yes, and really he was “a wild ass of a man”, (Genesis 16:12).
Rem That is where the posterity of that man was found, but the posterity that came from the other marriages inhabited the mount of the Lord.
Ques Is our danger leaving these thoughts to unconverted people and not getting the exercise of them in our own lives? We are a little apt to think of Ishmael as being entirely on the lines of a man after the flesh.
JT I suppose he would represent the flesh in any of us.
Rem Galatians says: “He that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh”, (Galatians 6:8).
JT Quite. It was a company of Ishmaelites apparently in conjunction with the Midianites, who purchased Joseph as a slave. There was evidently no spiritual compassion whatever with them. We read of “the anguish of his soul”, his tender feelings, of which any compassionate person would take notice, but the slave monger took no account of that. That is the sort of thing that you get from an alliance like this — persons appropriating grace and allying themselves with the world.
[p. 290] Rem It brings in the commercial spirit, which is destructive of the unity of the brethren.
JT Exactly; and I have no doubt that with the archer the link is there. “The archers ... shot at him”, and this is what Ishmael became.
Rem And he mocked also in Genesis 21.
JT You would have thought, if he represented what is of God, that all this grace shown him — for he was a lad of fourteen years old — would have affected him. His relationship to Abraham ought to have deterred him from any hardness towards the seed of Abraham; but you very often find that worldly Christians become the bitterest enemies of those who are in the testimony.
Ques Is there anything in the fact that Hagar, after she had had this revelation, goes back to Abraham the man of faith?
JT Though, as a matter of fact, she does go back, it does not definitely say so.
Remark I was wondering whether the faith and the spirit go together.
JT It does not seem as if the Holy Spirit brings out anything to indicate faith in this woman at all; yet it is with her that all this is connected.
Rem Speaking of Ishmael becoming an archer, it says in his early days that “God was with the lad”, (Genesis 21:20).
JT That is from the divine side, it is what God is towards, us; what He was towards the Jew. See what He was presenting in the early part of Acts — but in result what came out is that they were perverse; the apostle speaks of that — their hand was against every man, (Genesis 16:12).
Rem They were more bitter than the purely worldly element.
JT They were, indeed. Well now, I think we may see in Abraham’s interview with Abimelech here, how beautifully grace had affected his heart; looking at him as [p. 291] a typical believer, for that is what he is. God was blessing him to such an extent that the Philistine took notice of him and came to him with Phichol, the captain of his army, and Abraham gives him sheep and oxen. That is, Abraham is the greater of the two; he is like. God, he is representative of God. God has made him great and he is great, so that he is the giver. He selects seven ewe lambs and sets them by themselves; they are special.
There is the general effect of the blessing of God on the believer through the system of grace, but there is the special effect. You may not find it with all, but it was certainly there with Abraham; and these seven ewe lambs are set by themselves, and the king enquires as to what they mean. Well, they meant something very different from what was in his mind. He was thinking of power and of his army, because the captain, the military representative, was there, not the secretary of war, but the captain, the general — doubtless a man of prowess. That was the Philistine idea — something to show, bigness, external power. It is what the Corinthians were working at; they would be equal with Paul; they would not be behind, as it were. But the apostle brings in this very point; he says his ministry among them was “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom”, (1 Corinthians 2:4,5).
Ques Do you think all this is an indication of Abraham’s appreciation of what lay in the Spirit?
JT That is what I thought. The seven ewe lambs are by themselves; they stand out separately, and that is what Paul emphasises throughout 1 Corinthians. It is that kind of thing. It is not what the local leaders had — their learning, their means, their natural ability and all that. He says, I have definitely avoided anything of that kind among you — “my word and my preaching ... in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”. I [p. 292] think that is the seven ewe lambs; it is the perfection of the subjective result.
Ques Would he refer to that when he speaks of beseeching them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ? (2 Corinthians 10:1).
JT I think that is very good; it is just the idea.
Rem Yes. He speaks of his warfare in that chapter, that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal. Is not that in contrast to the thought of the Philistine?
JT Exactly. His weapons were carnal. I have no doubt he would have told Abraham the strength of his army, as men do now — or if they do not say so, they make a show, and if you go to their houses you find it is all there — what they are living on. That is what was going on at Corinth.
Rem A man that is living on the well is not overwhelmed by a show of earthly power.
JT No. I have often thought and spoken of Moses- position. Genesis gives the thing — the system of grace as in the mind of God. Exodus is the administration of that. It says Moses sits by the well, as if he had learnt when he reached Midian that that was the power, not the power that he employed to kill the Egyptian. It was a question of the power of God springing up, and he sat by it; and all through his ministry you have that principle. It is the administration of that — wells of water, and the well springing up under “the direction of the law giver”.
Ques What is the significance of Abraham saying, “I have dug this well” (Genesis 21:30)?
JT Well, Abimelech says. What about those seven ewe lamb? He never had such a conception before. The natural man has no such idea; he cannot understand the Spirit of God. Abraham says. These are to be a testimony to you that I have digged this well. That is to say, this well is the secret of what they represent;
[p. 293] you cannot have that spirit without the springing well. It is the fruit of the Spirit. That is what the apostle emphasises in Galatians — nine different fruits of the Spirit, beginning with “love, joy, peace”, and so on, Galatians 5:22.
Rem You cannot have what is external without having what is internal.
JT Exactly; that is the idea of a well — what is internal. Abraham would make it clear that that was the secret of his power over against the Philistines- army. Why did he come to Abraham? Not because the latter had 318 trained servants; we do not know whether he had them now. Why had he come? It was the power of God in the man; Abimelech had observed this.
Rem It says that God was with the lad and he became an archer. That is in contrast to Abraham; he did not become an archer.
JT God did not make Ishmael an archer, it was what he became, as you say. But Abraham was relying on this kind of power, as it says in Romans: “If therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him drink; for, so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head”, (Romans 12:20). It is that kind of thing.
Ques Is it the feature that came out so distinctly in Moses? He is spoken of as the meekest man in all the earth.
JT Yes, it was fully expressed in him.
Ques Would you say a word on what follows after Abraham says that they are for a witness? It says that he called the place Beer sheba, because there they sware, both of them. Then he made a covenant and, in the third place, he planted a grove. Would the three features be the outcome of this subjective thought in regard of the Spirit?
JT Well, the first great point is the well — he dug the well; then there is the covenant; he could well afford to enter into a covenant with this man because it was not [p. 294] yet the time of ejecting the inhabitants of the land was a question of living peaceably with all men, with one’s neighbours. Abimelech’s thoughts were for himself, his son, and his grandson; that is, he was making provision a long way ahead. Abraham could well afford to enter into covenant with him. Seven ewe lambs would never hurt anybody. That was the spirit of Abraham. You do not want to hurt anybody; it is the period of grace, not a time of executing judgment, but of blessing. So that one can very well enter into covenant on these lines, living in peace with all.
Rem In the last verse it says: “Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days”, verse 34.
JT It is wisdom to live peaceably with all men, inasmuch as in us lies. Then he plants a grove and calls the name of the place Beer-sheba, verse 31; it is not yet the city. The idea is faithfulness — the place of the oath. He calls the place Beer-sheba, and then he calls on the name of the eternal God; that is to say, he can go far ahead of Abimelech; Abimelech was thinking of himself — of his three generations; but with Abraham it is a question of the eternal God, and from that point of view you can make a covenant for good, for a much longer time. He will be with you; He will enable you to carry it out. It is the power of the Spirit of God in us.
Rem It would be good to have a greater sense of that, to be delivered from all fear of men. I was wondering whether Abraham would be a good example of one who is walking in the principles of the kingdom — accepted of God and approved of men?
JT That is it; that is the antitype of all this. We were referring to the place here in chapter 21. In chapter 26 God appears to Isaac and the Philistine comes up again. He recognises Isaac. God had blessed Isaac; he had sowed the land and got richer and richer, and the Philistines hated him and sent him away. Then there was conflict about the wells, and God appears [p. 295] to him as he moves to Beer-sheba. Then the Philistine brought a third person with him, “his friend”. It is a social thing, as if the heavenly man — Isaac — needed more to influence him than the military power. But it did not. Isaac stood his ground; he sent them away with the same kind of a covenant, but he sent them away, verse 31. It says: “Isaac sent them away ... and it came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him. We have found water”, verses 31, 32. Now he is supported by this well and he calls it a city. You have reached a point now where there is definite order and government; you have overcome the Philistine morally, and have reached a point now where there is definite order and government; you have overcome the Philistine morally, and have reached a place where your influence becomes more extended — the city.
Rem So that there is a system of things now, in which Philistine principles are refused and the principles of the Spirit prevail.
JT That is right. The city marks the progress made; it stands over against the social element — we have got a city.
Ques Have we, in that way, a sort of allusion to the assembly?
JT I think so; we have to deal with the antitype. It is a question of the state of your soul. The world comes to a young Christian with its power, and especially on its social side. Well, if faith is in activity he will say: ‘See what I have got among the brethren. I have more than you can give me!’ That is how it works.
Rem Abraham had grown a great deal since he said: “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” (Genesis 17:18).
Rem And he and Isaac were very jealous as to the preservation of the well.
Ques Would there be a difference in the type, that they digged the well, Abraham and Isaac?
JT [p. 296] I think there is. What comes out in connection with Hagar is, I think, the system of grace from the divine side. We have to ponder what it cost God to provide it; but that is not in evidence, it is a question of grace. But when you come to faith using the well, then the digging is necessary. I suppose it is the disallowance of the flesh; that is how you get the good of the Spirit; and you go on digging till you have a well of your own.
Rem You have a man full of the Spirit. Digging did not put the water there, but it made the water that was there available.