SECRET SPIRITUAL HISTORY
[p. 334] SECRET SPIRITUAL HISTORY
2 Chronicles 22:10 - 12; 2 Chronicles 23:1-3; 2 Chronicles 23:11; Leviticus 23:15 - 21; Matthew 13:51,52
What I have in mind is to speak a little of secret history, that is, secret spiritual history. There is much history that is secret that is not spiritual, and it would be well if it were made public instead of being retained as secret, for confession is wholesome. The prophetic ministry of God searches us as to history that is secret, that should be divulged and confessed. As we read in 1 Corinthians 14, one falls down and the secrets of his heart are made manifest. He worships God like the woman of whom we have been speaking today. She discerns the prophetic word and values it, so that the secret evil coming to light and being owned and judged, room is made for the Spirit of God to take the place of these secret conditions that were unholy and corrupt, and then there is room for secret history of another kind, that is, the spiritual kind.
The truth requires secrecy in this respect, and it works out in formation, in ideals, hence we read of the hidden man of the heart. That is an ideal, an ideal that will be brought forth and enlarged upon later on, but first of all it has to be presented as a secret ideal. It grows in formation and definiteness of mind, but is still secret, potential wealth for the assembly, for heaven, hence sisters are enjoined not to ornament themselves by that tressing of the hair and putting on of apparel and other well-known methods of ornamentation of modern times. They are enjoined to have the [p. 336] hidden man of the heart, the hidden man worked out in a meek and quiet spirit. The meek and quiet spirit is the working out of the hidden man. It is the feminine spirit, but it is the development of the hidden man, the hidden man of the heart.
[p. 335] The apostle Paul shows how ornamentation would have a place at Corinth, worldly ornamentation, and he said, “I have espoused you unto one man” (2 Corinthians 11:2). He feared lest the enemy would deceive them by his subtlety, diverting them from simplicity as to the Christ. This works out in feminine simplicity of a meek and quiet spirit, so that it is manifest that sisters should have a hidden conception, the hidden man of the heart. It works out, but it may in some instances take time to be enlarged, and to become the property of the assembly for its enrichment and ornament.
I am opening up a subject from which we ought to get something of great value, if taken in by us, brothers and sisters, and that is why I have taken it up first.
“And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and exterminated all the royal seed of the house of Judah”. The royal personage, Ahaziah, was slain, but Jehoshabeath, the sister of the king, stole Joash from among the king’s sons so that he was not slain by Athaliah. This wicked woman had no “hidden man of the heart”, it was the hidden woman of the heart with her. She had no thought of eliminating herself in this matter. She wished to push herself forward into something, and that was to rule over the land. She was about to usurp this right. It did not belong to her, and you may be sure that unless we have the “hidden man of the heart”, that which God designs, we shall aspire to something like this, grasping after that which is not ours.
The second chapter of Philippians speaks of the mind that was in heaven. Sin did not originate in Eve, it originally came from Satan, who said, “Ye will be as God” (Genesis 3:5). That was what Satan effected, and what he intended, to displace the “hidden man of the heart”. The hidden man of the heart to her should have been Adam, and in giving place to him she would have been protected. If he was her head she would have said to Satan, ‘I should listen to my husband, not to you’. She disregarded the hidden man of the heart, hence the sorrows that came down upon her. She allowed the poison unchecked in her mind, contrary to what is alluded to in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. The serpent suggests they should grasp what was forbidden them and they should be as God. So it was here in the case of Athaliah. It was open robbery. If we grasp at rights to which we have no title we quickly fall into robbery. All that is morally good and right has to be cherished in the heart to save us from the open robbery that marked this wicked woman Athaliah. She destroyed the royal seed.
Now Jehoshabeath, the sister of the king, had a right conception. She had the “hidden man of the heart”. Joash was a boy, a babe, a small conception of the man, but still it was a king, the royal seed.
I only wanted to dwell on this passage, well known to most of us, to bring out how for at least six years this woman retained this hidden thought. She hid the child with his nurse for six years. It was a dangerous matter, with this wicked woman near by ruling the land, dominant in the land, so that Jehoshabeath was suffering, and if we have the hidden man of the heart we shall suffer. He is not liked by the society of this world, they have no place for Him. If you bring Him in they do not like it. They may not object to us, christians, as such, but we must leave Him out. They want the public man who makes much of himself here. We endanger our lives spiritually in a sense, if we bring this hidden man into society here. If we persist in it, we are not wanted.
[p. 337] So you can understand the idea here in this wonderful woman. For six years she hid this boy in the bedchamber with his nurse, who took good care of him. She was not like the nurse of Mephibosheth who let him fall to the ground. He is preserved intact under good nurture and care. Now this is particularly for those who are sisters. We want to watch this so that we may contribute to the kingdom of God in due time, and by the hiding of this hidden man, that we might contribute also to the assembly.
We are told that she hid and preserved him for six years, and now the time has come to bring out this great idea of the king’s son. Athaliah has been ruling the land by open robbery. Is this to go on? No! beloved friends, it is not to go on. If I cherish the hidden man, I am going to overthrow all that entirely, and the Lord will overthrow such a condition as is described here by this method. Instead of Jehoshabeath strengthening herself, she has done her part in hiding, and of course this applies to us. Hiding things is in Colossians, the public side in Ephesians.
When the time comes, it is her husband who strengthens himself. It is the male side, the official side, that takes all this over and it becomes useful. It comes into its place, it becomes enlarged, it is far greater than we thought it was, and the priest takes it on, the official side, he strengthens himself.
He might say, ‘My wife is a good nurse, but she cannot give an address, but I can. I can tell it forth as it should be told, I can fight for it, but she cannot. She has done her part, in nourishing and cherishing it for six years, but now it is my time to take it on’. So Jehoiada takes it on, and in doing this he takes others into covenant with him. We have all these named, “the captains of the hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son [p. 338] of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri ... And they went about in Judah and gathered together the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief fathers of Israel; and they came to Jerusalem. And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as Jehovah has said of the sons of David”.
What a fine day this is, when what this sister is hiding, the hidden man of the heart, is about to be displayed openly, and literally he is going to be set out and established among the people of God. You see how a sister or any one of us can bring forth something in this way, the hidden man of the heart, and when it comes into the hands of those who make the most of it, it stands. The military men, and the Levites, and all Israel, are brought into it, and they come to Jerusalem, the great centre of things for God, where the light of God shines, the great universal centre, and this conception becomes a great public matter. It becomes established in the form of a king of the royal seed, “The king’s son shall reign”.
You can see the bearing of all this, dear brethren, and I commend it to you, that anyone here can bring something forward as he retains and cherishes the hidden man of the heart, so that it comes into hands that establish it and make the most of it in the assembly of God, and in the testimony.
Now we get what is ornamental here, as you will observe. In the 11th verse, “They brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, Long live the king!”. He is crowned now with all due rites and ceremonies, and he is anointed, and set up, and they say, “Long live the king!”. Let me repeat this to bring before you how the thing works out with us here, that we may, as cherishing the hidden man of [p. 339] the heart, shut out all else and bring forward something some day and put it in hands that are equal to establishing it as a fixture in the things of God through eternity. How attractive that is to our hearts!
Now I want to proceed to the next point in Leviticus. It is a question here of what is in the house of the believer. First dispensationally at Pentecost, a period in which the Spirit of God came in, we have this “new oblation”. It comes in after the waving of the sheaf of first-fruits before Jehovah. This sheaf was a meat-offering, and refers to what came out of the grave of Christ. What could touch our hearts more than the thought of the Father raising the Son by His own glory! The waving of the sheaf is the saints taking on Christ risen, and presenting Him before God. That is the first thought. These few verses speak of the new meat-offering. This time it is not the sheaf, nor fine flour, but loaves of bread, two of them, baken with leaven, an unusual thing for a meat-offering, but it is God encouraging us as to our houses, making full allowance for the inevitable fact that the leaven of sin is there, but the power is there to nullify sin in our houses. Romans teaches us how to nullify sin in ourselves and in our houses.
The apostle Paul brings out the great thought of the believer’s house. I have often thought that the stimulus that led to it was what he found in the house of Lydia at Philippi. She was a lone woman, whether an unmarried woman or a widow we do not know, but she had a house. She came in contact with Paul at Philippi by the river-side, and the Lord opened her heart. How God loves to do that, to open our hearts to attend to the things spoken by Paul, not only to be listening, but attending to them, and letting them have force, particularly in our households.
She was baptised, and her house, and she said to the apostle, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to [p. 340] the Lord, come into my house and abide there” (Acts 16:15). I believe the apostle so enjoyed the hospitality he found in that house that the next person he speaks to in the gospel, he tells him that if he believes on the Lord Jesus he will be saved, and his house. I believe that what underlay that remark had its origin in what the apostle found in the house of Lydia when he abode there, and the next convert has his house blessed too. His house is to be an appendage of the assembly, to contribute to the assembly, as well as to himself, and so he says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house” (Acts 16:31).
This is an important matter with regard to these two loaves. It is always a question as to what is in your house, what is brought out of your house, and what is directly and livingly contributable to the service of God, namely, these two wave-loaves, loaves made of wheat or cereal of some kind, but baken with leaven, and yet presented to God as a new meat-offering. God is pleased to call it that.
That all reflects on what one’s house is, what kind of flour is there, and what kind of baking. It is what I bring out that tells the tale of what is inside. Sin is there but it is judged, it is not allowed there, it is not active. The head is in charge, the husband is in charge, the wife is there, and even the children are in measure concerned, that sin shall be inert by the power of God. That is the idea and it begins the dispensation. It begins on this day, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ with what is brought out of the houses of the Israelites. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come”, or as it may be read, “was now accomplishing”, running its course, this mighty power came down from heaven, and filled all the house where the saints were sitting, and the Spirit sat on each of them, in the character of cloven tongues of fire. Each one was affected by the presence [p. 341] of the Holy Spirit, and hence as one of the house, this power is to be operative in my house, everyone disallowing what is contrary to God. Hence the believer is to bring forth these two wave-loaves, baken with leaven, but the leaven has ceased to act, for the fire has done its work.
That is the second point I would stress, if our households are to be contributory to the assembly. So long as I am concerned only about myself, and not what I am contributing to the assembly, I shall lose all this side of the truth, and my loss is very great. Some ignore the household side of the truth, but their loss is incalculable. By eliminating this truth, the truth governing the household, and what issues from it, God is robbed. “Will a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8). I certainly would if I did not bring my household up for God, and how can I, save as I recognise this great principle of the believer’s house, and the power especially to bring up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that they issue forth into the assembly? There is a contribution to the assembly in the power of the Spirit. Sin is not operative there, because the head of the house sees to it that there is nothing in the house that cannot be brought forward into the assembly. This is the second point. The third is the householder.
The Lord, after this important chapter of parables, with regard to the kingdom of the heavens and the assembly, says to His disciples, “Have ye understood all these things? They say to him, Yea, Lord” (Matthew 13:51). The Lord is always asking such questions, as He ministers to us, and instructs us, bringing Himself before us in ministry. He would say, “Have you understood all these things?”. You are responsible to understand. If you say you do not understand, you are confessing something you should not have to confess. The Lord will give you understanding if you seek Him in relation to it.