STRENGTHENING

Luke 22: 39-46; 1 Samuel 30: 3-6, 18-25; Ephesians 3: 14-19

J.McK. The brethren will notice in each of these passages the references to strengthening. It might be profitable for us to enquire as to how divine strengthening comes in in view of reaching (we speak carefully) divine objectives. We begin, of course, with perfection, in the manhood of the Lord Jesus Himself. Luke's gospel is outstanding in the touches given as to His humanity. At this point He is on the mount of Olives, and we have the unique touch that an angel appeared to Him from heaven strengthening Him. It would seem that, though He is always unique, there is something for our instruction in the way that the Lord Jesus was in circumstances in which He needed strengthening in view of reaching the divine objective. In David, we have a man who, chosen of God, often rises in his history to a type of Christ. I am thinking of him today as a type of a believer in whom the Spirit of Christ shines. At a time when the enemy seemed to have gained advantage he strengthens himself, and that results in a full experience amongst the saints of recovery of what is precious according to God. Ephesians 3 gives us the collective side of our experience, the way that the Father's Spirit comes in in view of our reaching the highest level in response to God Himself.

A.R.D. It is attractive to realise that the power of God is available as we seek to answer to His thoughts for us.

J.McK. And to see that the circumstances of the testimony are by no means outside divine control. We often tend to think about the present circumstances of the testimony of God as being the result simply of a sequence of events. There is nothing further from the truth. Throughout Scripture it seems to be part of the mystery of God's ways that He works out His greatest thoughts, undiverted, in circumstances of outward weakness. If in His ways He has reduced us to a point where that weakness is felt, as we receive it from Him we will prove the strength that He brings into the circumstances, so that we reach divine objectives. Not that we feel ourselves sufficient for them, not as enfeebled either, but as divinely strengthened. That is how God's end is reached in the saints.

A.R.D. Paul knew something of this when he said "when I am weak, then I am powerful", 2 Cor.12: 10.

J.McK. Yes. The Lord says to Paul there, "my power is perfected in weakness". The Lord Jesus was speaking to Paul then of something that He Himself had experienced. Luke 22 is the perfection of Christ Himself in a condition of manhood. He knew what it was to be in a situation that needed divine strengthening.

J.A.T. Do we really prove this strengthening as we submit to the ways of God and His present ordering, as the Lord submitted to the will of God in the garden? David was in the gain of that.

J.McK. I think that is right. It is testing for us. Many of us would like to see our circumstances different, to see many more in our localities to strengthen the testimony of God. That may come, in His mercy. But let us see that the circumstances are not simply the result of human failure but are of divine design, so that into them may come an experience of power that would not have been known otherwise. I think this steadies us.

R.D.P. Strength and power are peculiarly for the earth, are they not? I think Mr Stoney said that they were for the earth, enjoyment was for heaven.

J.McK. The very fact of strengthening means that there is something there to be strengthened. We should realise that it is not simply an intervention of divine power. God could do things that way but He chooses to strengthen what is already available for Him in His testimony. How precious this makes the saints to us! Think of it in Christ, God strengthening Him in view of His being undiverted at the moment of supreme test. The immense issues of the work of redemption were at stake.

D.J.W. Do we need to experience this from moment to moment? Samson said, Strengthen me this once! We cannot rely on past experience. Is that the idea of prayer - dependence for that strength to come in?

J.McK. That is right. God does not supply us, at the beginning of our Christian history, with all that is needed to carry us all the way through. He intends that we should draw day by day, hour by hour, on the strength that He gives. We need to be divinely strengthened to have anything to say to the things of God.

A.R.D. Is it dependence that should mark us if we are to expect the divine support?

J.McK. It is, and also subjection. The Lord is dependent here, but He is also subject. Those two things go together.

K.G. Daniel, in chapter 10, went through very real testing and exercise, and he spoke twice of finding no strength in himself. Then, after the voice had spoken with him, he said "I was strengthened" (v 19). He was dependent on the source of strength and he received it.

J.McK. The scripture there says, "Then there touched me again one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me; and he said, Fear not, man greatly beloved; peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And as he was speaking with me I was strengthened, and I said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me". That would mean that even to receive a divine communication we need to be strengthened.

C.A.G. What is in view in this strengthening? It does not stop at the strengthening of an individual, does it? I was thinking of the last two verses of Ephesians 3, which are the climax. All these things relate to our being together, in the power of the Spirit, in the service of God in the assembly. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that "God has set the members... as it has pleased him" (v 18), we being baptised in the power of one Spirit into one body. We are acted upon in a way that makes us amenable to being blended together - in a sense of weakness but being strengthened in power.

J.McK. Yes, and the experiences of the saints individually all contribute to that. The wealth of experience in the body of the brethren has been developed in situations of testing, which make us find where divine supplies are. Therefore we are not strangers to that as we come together. Surely what we reach, as together in the assembly, is greater; it must be so.

C.A.G. It is greater because it is the result of the Spirit's operations over a long period.

N.T.M. Does a scripture like this show that every circumstance has its value? I was thinking of your earlier remarks as to God arranging things so that the need for being strengthened might be known by us. We need to get the gain of every circumstance that we may be in. It may just be sickness; it may be much more than that, it may be assembly sorrows. Would it be in mind that there is something to be reached in every circumstance?

J.McK. That is important. Sometimes we tend to think of discipline as entering into any reducing exercises amongst us. Whilst that might be so, and we would be rightly exercised about it, at the same time it may be that God has brought us into circumstances in order to prove Him in a way that we have not known Him before. You look around among the brethren and you see circumstances of extraordinary testing. Of those who labour amongst us in ministry, many are affected by weakness physically. That is not without significance. To vessels marked by human frailty divine supplies come. The strengthening touch of the hand of God is seen. This in itself is entirely beyond the reach of man. Man does not understand things that are done this way, therefore he despises what is small, what is weak or outwardly insignificant. Yet this is the way God has chosen to carry through His richest thoughts.

T.B. Does the thought in Hebrews 12 (v 7) enter into this? "Ye endure for chastening, God conducts himself towards you as towards sons; for who is the son that the father chastens not? " If we saw it in that light would it help us to endure the chastening?

J.McK. Certainly that would help us as to matters involving God's discipline and His ways with us. I was thinking more of the general circumstances of the testimony, which were really of divine design, so that in this mysterious way God is carrying through in quality something that answers to His own greatest thoughts. In Exodus 20 there are references to the greatness of God - the thunderings and the flames and smoke of Mount Sinai, and the sound of the trumpet exceeding loud - all to emphasise the greatness and glory of God Himself. Then immediately God says to Moses, Tell the people "An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me" (v 24). That is the way that Jesus has come in, in circumstances of outward simplicity and weakness, and yet it is the same God. He says, if I have drawn near to you this way, this is the way you are to draw near to me.

N.T.M. So that the God that we shall know and serve and, speaking reverently, the God we shall enjoy eternally, is the same God whom we are to learn and prove now in a way that, in a sense, would not be feasible eternally. Yet what we are to learn of Him now is to become of eternal value.

J.McK. Yes. So, how precious is the life of Jesus! It was a life untarnished by sin, unaffected by alien influence, unspoiled, and here coming under extreme testing. Satan had already been defeated by this glorious Man, One who had been led by the Spirit in the wilderness and who had returned as free in His heart, the devil overthrown completely. But here, in Luke 22, another testing circumstance arises; it says "And going forth he went according to his custom to the mount of Olives". This is unique to Luke, that He goes according to His custom; that is, He goes a tried, a proven way. This is the way the Lord Jesus had lived. John 6 tells us that He lived on account of the Father. Therefore at a time of testing He goes according to His custom.

K.G. Is that why it goes on to say, after He was strengthened, that He prayed more intently? Is not that really affecting? I wondered if it linked with what you said at the beginning, the objective? It was that which was really upon His soul, which He would be so absorbed with, as praying more intently. I wondered if it linked with the exercise that was raised with us in London as to prayer (Col 2: 1) and the fervency of it.

J.McK. Yes, the need is to be sustained in it. You see, the circumstances are not changed; the Lord is strengthened in them. The change really comes in the power of sustainment in the vessel. It says that the angel "appeared to him". It does not put it as though it were a public intervention. It is an appearance to Him. There is a need with us of a secret sense that God is coming into the circumstances in which we are and strengthening us in them. The circumstances remain the same.

D.J.W. Have you any impression as to it being an angel? Is that still a current service?

J.McK. It would be in the sense that scripture speaks, that they are ministering spirits sent forth on account of those who will inherit salvation. I think there is a difference between the angelic service here and that in Matthew 4, when the lord returns from the wilderness, when angels came and ministered to him. That is after the victory is won and Satan is defeated. The Lord returns, free in His heart and spirit, and angels ministered to Him. But here, in Luke 22, He is in the very circumstances of testing. And that is where we are. The Lord is a model for us here. In Luke the Lord takes the disciples as far as He can; it says they followed Him. "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw"; that is, a man's measure. He is within range. It is not the mystery of His Person, though that always remains, but the reality of His manhood. The disciples stand aside, as it were, unequal in themselves forth is test, and yet contemplate - a Man who was perfect in it.

R.D.P. A stone's throw is a man's measure of strength, is it not? It is not a defined length, it depends on strength, and here there were none of them able for it. They would be literally near, I suppose, to one of the greatest moments that had ever been known on the earth. The lord was going through in His Spirit what was to be borne in His body, but they were not able for it, although within reach of some measure of understanding what it meant.

J.McK. The compass of the testimony of God at this point is in one Man, Christ. If it were possible to have diverted Him, then Satan would have gained a complete victory. Now we may see things reduced dear brethren, - indeed we do - to a very small compass, but is God's power diminished? Have His thoughts changed? Has His power to sustain His people altered? Though the disciples were unequal for this, as you say, the Lord is very gracious. It says "coming to the disciples, he found them sleeping from grief". It is another touch that is unique to Luke's gospel. It gives a motive for their sleep. It says it was from grief. It is for us, dear brethren, to realise that, although things appear to be weak, divine strength is available in view of divine standards being maintained. The Spirit of God would freshly assert the greatness of the humanity of Jesus amongst us. What these disciples actually saw was a Man who had been unspoiled by Satan's power and entirely unaffected by alien influence. John's first epistle begins, "That... which we have seen with our eyes... and our hands handled, concerning the word of life". I believe it is a standard of unalterable moral quality that needs to be adhered to by persons who are seeking to be committed to God's testimony today. The divine standards remain.

C.A.G. That is important, and specially today. We should realise that the present time is one of finality, and divine thoughts are about to come to completion in the assembly. All these things relate to that, do they not? We are not to be occupied with the weakness and with what is around. The thing is to be occupied with what God is doing in completion, is it not?

J.McK. I am sure. We are to see that God's thoughts were carried through to completion in one Man. God is not departing from that.

C.A.G. All depended on Christ here at this point - the assembly for Him, the assembly for God; everything was dependent on Christ.

N.T.M. In Ezra the commandment is that the foundations of the house are to be solidly laid "with three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber", chap 6: 4. That is a recovery view of it, is it not? The row of new timber might link with a fresh appreciation of the manhood of Christ. I do not think it is specified elsewhere.

J.McK. So that the suggestion of the humanity of Jesus, you mean, is brought in that sense, into the recovery. God will always retain before Him what speaks of the humanity of Christ, the condition which had to be laid down. The golden pot that had the manna (see Heb 9: 4) is retained before God.

N.T.M. I wondered if recent events, and the way that some have failed, throws into greater relief the distinction of Christ. Perhaps this row of new timber has come on to our view in a peculiar way since 1970. It seems that the Lord has brought every other man down in our view - whether of gift, or ability, or that kind of thing. Really we are just left with Christ, and it is something on which we can build again and on which things can be set up in a firm and solid way in our own souls.

J.McK. Christ is the great foundation stone for God. Those disciples actually saw the Lord Jesus in these testing circumstances, and they saw Him strengthened in those circumstances. John says "we have seen with our eyes... and report to you". We are the recipients of that report. Perhaps Isaiah 53 is an extension of the report. The tender sapling: what timber was growing, growing up for God in circumstances which yielded nothing to it - "a root out of dry ground". He had flourished in those conditions and yet He comes to the end of His pathway and, as Psalm 102 says, prophetic of Christ, "He weakened my strength in the way" (v 23). What does that mean but what we are speaking of? The Lord was brought into circumstances where He felt weakness. It is instruction for us. He felt weakness; God did it and then strengthened Him in it.

N.T.M. The Lord is the model for us here. We cannot think of an angel strengthening God. We can think of an angel strengthening a man. Speaking reverently, what was strengthening to the Lord Jesus can be strengthening to us.

J.McK. That is right. It gives us some impression of the divine valuation of the saints. It is not simply an intervention of power externally but the strengthening of what is there. That is what is carrying through things for God today.

J.A.T. Would this inspire confidence with us, too, as to the present priesthood of Jesus, the One who was tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart (see Heb 4: 15)?

J.McK. Yes, you mean that His word comes with a touch of sympathy? According to Hebrews the word of God and the priesthood of Christ always go together; that is, the divine will is asserted. Thank God for the assertion amongst us of what is the divine will. That is what Christ was committed to, the will of Another. If that is asserted there is the touch of strengthening of His priesthood, of One who has been in the circumstances. As was said, the Lord says to Paul "my power is perfected in weakness".

J.A.T. We all need confidence in God, but confidence also in Jesus, in that He understands the circumstances that we are passing through at any moment because He has passed through them. We need to understand this, and it would strengthen us. The young - well, all of us - would be strengthened in speaking simply to the Lord Jesus who has been here. The reference "God... saith to the snow, Fall on the earth". (Job 37: 6) affects us as being God's testimony to Jesus in His purity on the earth.

J.McK. Very good. There is a touch of His sympathy here in that it says the disciples were sleeping from grief. The Spirit of God knew that they were feeling the circumstances. God knows how the saints are feeling circumstances. In ourselves we are unequal for them but He intends to teach us that He can carry us through. As divinely strengthened we shall reach the objectives. We will not need to apologise for the truth or modify divine standards. God would make us equal for what His thoughts are.

J.A.T. That is helpful, because there was a time when the truth was being reduced to suit our moral state. But the Holy Spirit is here to make us able.

J.McK. In Luke 22 the truth is expressed in Jesus, in a Man. It has been said that the light is what God was in Christ; that is, to "know thee, the only true God", John 17: 3. The light of the revelation was shining through Christ. Then "Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" is the truth; that is, what man is in Christ. That becomes the test. In Luke 22 it is brought into circumstances where persons like ourselves saw Him in a situation of testing. The truth, then, is the standard, and it is expressed in a Man.

T.B. Was the Lord here wanting the disciples to see what He had in mind for them that they might take on the same features?

J.McK. Yes, and what He has in mind for us. He takes the disciples as far as He can. The pressure side is not stressed here. This is not Gethsemane. This is the mount of Olives, a question of a spiritual experience related to a heavenly realm of things. The Lord says, I want you to join in this. It is as if He is giving them the secret of how they were going to be sustained after He had gone. His link with the Father sustained Him. Our link with Christ will sustain us.

A.R.D. Is it subjection to the will of God, as shown here, that is the secret of His power in weakness? As you were saying, it is not only dependence but submission: "not my will" be done.

J.McK. Yes, and there is no modification of that will. The vessel is made equal to it. In Psalm 40 the Lord says "Behold I come... to do thy good pleasure". The will of God had been expressed already before Jesus came. There was no modification in order to make the objective easier to reach, and it is to a known will that the Lord Jesus is subject. So He takes the cup from His Father. When men came to take Him they were but the instruments of the divine will and the Lord submitted to that. But He took the cup from the hand of His Father. This is the Man we love, dear brethren. This is the Man who has been this way for us, and He has exemplified the way that the testimony of God is to be maintained throughout the dispensation.

N.T.M. The gospels, specially John, are strong meat for us to feed upon, the very best and greatest thought for our contemplation.

J.McK. As has been said, we are tested as to how long we can be sustained in speaking just about Him - the Lord Jesus. We are very quick to see how a situation may affect us.

K.G. Do you think, if we are not sustained on this line of affection, devoted to Christ, we may, as in the Samuel scripture, become embittered by the circumstances that God may order? But is there not recourse in recovery, in the strengthening?

J.McK. At that point in David's history he had come a long way from chapter 16. David represents a believer in whom the spirit of Christ had shone. He was greatly tested by the reproaches of his brethren. He had been tested by the infidelity of Jonathan, one who loved him and who was committed to him: As to his affection for David, Jonathan was exemplary. It says he stripped himself. He was prepared to make sacrifice in relation to David, a man in whom the spirit of Christ was. Yet there came a point when Jonathan went back into the city. How testing that was to David! There is something in this that answers to our own experience. Persons who have been committed, who have been prepared to make sacrifice in relation to God's testimony, come to a point where they turn aside. At that moment David shone. It says, they "wept one with another, until David exceeded", 1 Sam 20: 41. If persons turn aside, dear brethren, let it not be said that it is because of any lack of the spirit of Christ amongst us. David shone in representing the spirit of Christ to Jonathan and yet Jonathan turned aside. David does not rebuke him; he accepts the situation of rejection. Then David had to meet Saul. Saul was an opposer. What shines in David is the spirit of Christ in the way he met the opposition. He says "Jehovah forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against Jehovah's anointed!", 1 Sam 26: 11. Let us be careful how we speak of those who are recognised to be Christians, persons who belong to Christ. David was very guarded in his attitude towards Saul. So he was preserved all the way through to this point; yet in Ziklag it appears to be complete disaster, everything appears to be gone. How testing!

K.G. It says "his God". There is what he had in experience, do you think?

J.McK. It says that David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God. Again, it is the strengthening of something that is already available to God in the testimony. It is only one man, but he knows God, and he strengthens himself in God. The recovery had not happened yet, the conflict with the Amalekites had not been waged, but David is strengthened. Is that so in all our localities, dear brethren? David is strengthened.

N.T.M. Would you say how we do that?

J.McK. The Lord's custom, spoken of in Luke 22, gives us the key. David had consistently reverted to the presence of God - a proved, a tried way - so he does it again. David had proved God before he was anointed - against the lion and the bear, involving secret history with God. God had come in for him. And now, in this time of testimonial crisis, David proves the same God that he knew then. I do not want to enlarge on the disaster here. There has been enough of it, dear brethren, but I would emphasise the ability in one man to strengthen himself in God. Do you not covet that?

N.T.M. I do indeed. I would like to know more what it is for someone to strengthen me. But does strengthening oneself show a certain inherent power in the believer, that he knows a source that he can draw on?

J.McK. It is really Christ in the saints. If Jesus was strengthened in Luke 22, what kind of man is God going to strengthen now? One has said that the level of our blessing is in Christ; therefore the level of our testimony must be that Christ is in us. There is no weakening of that standard. What is expressed in David is the spirit of Christ. There is a certain personality in David when the difficult situation arises; he turns to God and is strengthened.

R.D.P. It was a critical situation. David not only received strength but the whole position was saved. After a catalogue of disaster it says "but". We can thank God for the 'buts' that have come into the recovery. Things could have gone to pieces: there were persons so embittered that they would have stoned David here, but - and from that point things begin to move again, from one man who had recourse outside himself, where everything around was disaster.

J.McK. Then, as strengthened, David comes under divine direction. He might have said, There is a certain sense of strengthening; I will go ahead now and do what is right. But he seeks divine direction and calls for the ephod. It is important that the strength that may come in is used under divine control. There is a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. With knowledge you know what is right, wisdom applies that knowledge in a way which God can support. David might have said, I know that God is against the Amalekites, Jehovah will have war with Amalek, He has been against them since Exodus 17, I will just go out and pursue them. Instead he calls for the ephod. He seeks guidance in view of the strength that had come in from God being rightly used, not only for his blessing but for the good of all Israel.

A.R.D. David is marked by recourse to God, even after the sin with Bathsheba. In Psalm 51 he gets to God in abject weakness and humility and repentance, and he finds strength. At the end of the Psalm he speaks of offering up bullocks to God.

J.McK. We have been helped to see that David is a man in whom failure is seen but who always finds in God the power for recovery. Thank God for persons in whom the power of recovery has been seen in these days. It is not that we have not failed but we know the God who has the power to recover us. As recovered, it may be that we shall be instrumental in the recovery of others. In this section David goes through to a complete victory. We cannot say what God will yet do. Let us not be unbelieving as to what God may yet bring about in the testimony. Let us be, rather, in the mind of God, to see what His thoughts are about the saints.

C.A.G. God's thoughts are going through in totality. We need to keep that before us whatever happens.

J.McK. And to see that any strengthening and recovery that comes in is for the benefit of all the saints. This statute (v 24) is an outstanding one: as his share is that goes down to the battle, so shall his share be that abides by the baggage: they shall share alike". Shall the recovery, in which you and I have part, become sectional? The spirit of Christ in David refuses that. If God has helped, if He has strengthened, it is for the benefit of all His people, wherever they are. You say, They were not equal to coming along with us? Perhaps they fell out of the testimony a long while ago. David says, Their share is going to be alike. If God has blessed us, His blessing is in relation to all Israel.

C.H.H. You referred to David's regard for Jonathan. It is remarkable that in 2 Samuel 1 David links them together: "Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their lives" (v 23). We would have made a distinction.

J.McK. Yes, we would have done. It seems that David took account of the qualities that had shone. There must have been certain quality in Saul for God to anoint him. You say that he was the man of the people's choice; but God anointed him. David says, I will respect that.

C.H.H. It is a lesson to me as to my attitude towards brethren I used to walk with. I might think differently of some than I do of others. David does not.

J.McK. David laments over them., that even in their death they were not divided. Apparently David thought that by then they would have realised that their links together were not according to God.

In Ephesians 3 we see the particular bearing of divine strengthening in view of our experience in the service of God. The Spirit of God is acquiring a greater place in the experience of the saints. He has a large part in what proceeds after the Supper on the Lord's day. We know Him first as the Spirit of the Lord, in relation to the service of God: "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty", 2 Cor 3: 17. The next verse brings in His power of transformation, so that we become like Christ. Then we know Him as the Spirit of adoption, bringing our experience up to the level of belonging to the divine family, - a touch of divine generation. Then, as the service proceeds, we know Him as the Spirit of the Father. I think that is a very fine touch. It comes in towards the end of the service, the Father's Spirit strengthening us in the inner man, "that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able" - fully able - "to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height". It is an area to which the flesh is unequal. The Spirit of God causes the saints to be equal to anything in which Christ Himself leads.

 

BRISTOL

23 November 1976

 

Key to initials

TB - T.Broughton, Richmond: ARD - A.R.Davies, Bristol: CAG - C.A.Gray, Helston:

KG - K.Green, Cardiff: CHH - C.H.Heale, Worcester: JMcK - J.McKay, Sunbury:

NTM - N.T.Meek, Malvern: RDP - R.D.Plant, Birmingham: JAT - J.A.Turner, Chippenham: DJW - D.J.Willetts, Birmingham.