SPIRITUAL INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE
[p. 129] SPIRITUAL INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE
1 Samuel 6:6 - 16; 1 Samuel 6:19 - 21; 1 Samuel 7:1,2; 2 Samuel 6:12 - 15; 2 Samuel 6:17
I want to show how spiritual instinct develops in believers into spiritual intelligence, yet never ceasing to exist as itself, for however we may advance in intelligence, unless we retain and cultivate spiritual instinct we shall be untrustworthy and fail in crises, for instinct is truer than intelligence. This thought is emphasised in John the baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, who, recognising Him in a spiritual way, was to introduce Him to Israel. It is said of him that he was full of the Holy Spirit from the womb, a fact that is intelligible only from the standpoint of instinct, for we could not speak of spiritual intelligence in an infant. Even before his birth it was apparent (Luke 1:41), calling attention to the necessity of spiritual instinct if we are to have to do with Christ.
Having saved us and given us the Spirit, whatever we do must be in relation to Christ personally, for He has constituted us priests and levites by the reception of the Spirit. The fact that John was filled with the Spirit from his infancy is to call attention to what is required from God’s side in those who are to serve as priests. He tells us that he did not know the Lord after the flesh; his knowledge of Him was spiritual. He says, “I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Spirit. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God”. John 1:33,34. He was fitted to have to do with Christ. He was to baptise Him.
Mary was to have to do with Christ in the most intimate way, and she was prepared for this. And so also was Simeon. It is said of Simeon that the [p. 130] Holy Spirit was upon him; not only had he the Spirit, but he was marked by Him. It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ; and he came by the Spirit into the temple. Then when the child Jesus was brought in, he took Him into his arms; he was prepared for it, he was qualified for it spiritually by divine education. Thus if we are called to have to say to Him and to serve Him we must cultivate not only spiritual intelligence, but spiritual instincts.
These instincts stand out also in Jacob, to whom the light of the house of God came, and we cannot rightly be in the house of God without them, for it is permeated with pure, holy, spiritual instincts. Jacob supplanted Esau, the man after the flesh, at his birth, and this also characterised him later. He was a supplanter. Then in David we see the full development as he expresses his exercises and refers to the mighty God of Jacob. It is a question of the house: the subject began with Jacob and ends with David. Solomon is but the filling out of David.
Now in 1 Samuel 6 the ark is in captivity, and had been for seven months. The Holy Spirit gives us dates with regard to the ark, for it is the prime object of God in all its history. While it is in captivity we have divine intervention as to it directly, for God can take care of His own interests when priests, Levites and people fail Him. From His side nothing can be lost. He will even use Philistine diviners.
God operates so as to bring the captors of the ark up against an impossible wall. Those five lords with all their power, with all their resources, are brought straight up against an impossible situation, and are forced to take counsel — and God was over the counsel. He thus makes men to serve Him in His work who are not priests and Levites; He bends them to His will. These diviners make a remarkable speech, calling attention to God’s deliverance of His people out of Egypt, for God can compel men to let go their hold on what belongs to Him. “Woe to the world because of offences”. Matthew 18:7. God will have to do with it on account of its damaging influence on His people. Pharaoh and the Egyptians let Israel go — not of their own will, but as compelled by God, and the Philistine diviners bring this to bear on the Philistine lords.
Then they direct them to make a new cart and provide two milch kine upon which the yoke had never come. Think of God putting this into the hearts of these men! It referred to Christ, and the spirit of Christ, for He never came under the yoke. They were face to face with the fact that although the ark was in their hands they had come under its yoke. The tables were completely turned. Can the world hold Christ? As He was about to be taken and crucified by it He says, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, John 12:31. It is as if He were in control; and so is the relation of the ark here to the Philistines. Their god fell before it. What were they going to do with it now? We see thus how the power of God works, and we learn to trust Him.
These men say the kine must not have been under the yoke, virtually admitting that the ark was not under their yoke. They were under its yoke, and they were in terror of it. The kine are to be taken from the very objects of their natural affection, as suggesting the pathway of Christ, unaffected by nature, and cutting right across it for the will of God. Natural affection is nowhere stronger than in the mother, yet these kine leave their calves, and without human guidance go straight on the highway, lowing as they go. It is divinely given instinct, disregarding the claims of nature. The calves are shut up at home. Where is the mother’s heart that would not be [p. 132] touched and held by the claims of her young? But the kine go forward on the highway to Beth-shemesh, for the ark is going to its own border.
Divine instinct ever moves in that direction. There is at the present time that which is peculiarly the Lord’s place, and divine instinct goes that way. This is ever true, and if people go another way it is for want of right instincts. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer is to produce those instincts. As born again one is marked by them, but their full development lies in the Spirit. They discern what is of God and move according to His will. The kine here went along the “one high way” to take the ark to “its own border”.
What was before them was a glorious death, for they were a type of Christ Himself, and of the spirit of Christ. The way of that spirit in us is the way of death. It is not the way of glory according to man; the end of their journey is death. Paul says, “God has set us the apostles for the last, as appointed to death”, 1 Corinthians 4:9. Here the instincts of these creatures led them that way. Even the cart is used, for it is not here a question of divine intelligence, but God has respect for spiritual instincts even though unaccompanied by intelligence. The cart is used for the fire and the two milch kine for the sacrifice. It is a question of spiritual history, and so immediately the sacrifice is over you have the Levites. The Levites here represent spiritual intelligence — a normal development under these circumstances. They took down the ark.
Now I want to show in proceeding that the instinct that may begin spiritually may degenerate into natural curiosity. We have to take care that natural curiosity is not allowed. They looked into the ark. God will never suffer what is natural and profane. He deals with it here in a large way, for the slaughter is great. We may have a certain respect for the ark,
[p. 133] but in indulging the natural mind we are profane; we are not caring for it with priestly hands.
Now David stands out in the Old Testament as the most spiritual man; he tells us that the Spirit of the Lord spoke by him, and the Psalms show the depth and extent of his spirituality. He represents the full result of the exercises which began with Jacob. He says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”, Psalm 132:4,5. He would worship at His footstool. So in the closing moments of his life, as presented in 1 Chronicles, you have him standing upon his feet; it is the spiritual David. We are entitled to regard saints from the standpoint of the work of God in them, and to ignore all else.
The only way to get a true view of the work of God is to see it abstractly. So 1 Chronicles gives us the spiritual David, standing up upon his feet. He is handing the responsibilities of the kingdom and the house over to Solomon, and many times he says, “My God”, just as the apostle Paul in similar circumstances, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 4:19. What a spiritual statement was that, and so David says, “Because I have set my affection to the house of my God”, 1 Chronicles 29:3.
Then he speaks of the Head. He is so imbued with spiritual thoughts and with what is due to God in connection with the house that he comes to apprehend the Head. We learn it in Christ, we find that there is One in whom all divine wisdom is vested. We are rendered entirely independent of human wisdom as we apprehend the Head. We see the resources that are there, and that we are to have part in them. The house has to be built, for there is to be a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. It is a question of wisdom, and so David [p. 134] speaks to Jehovah as Head, showing the culmination typically of spiritual progress, beginning with spiritual instinct.
It says he heard that God had blessed the house of Obed-edom (2 Samuel 6:12). That is not said of the house of Abinadab, although the ark was there a much longer time. Abinadab is an advance on what we have in 1 Samuel 6, for his house is “on the hill”, suggesting that he is morally elevated, and the ark remains there for twenty years. Nothing is said about blessing, but David heard of the ark, and he finds it there.
I do not go over the sad history of the new cart. The Philistine cart was used for the fire of the sacrifice. God deals with people according to their intelligence. The Philistine cart was drawn by the two milch kine, not by ordinary beasts of burden, and they were offered in sacrifice. Here David makes a new cart, and ordinary oxen draw it, and they stumble, or break loose. We may be sure that what is common in the world will surely go amiss when used in the service of God. It may seem right, but David had to learn his lesson.
Later we see with what carefulness he moved, recognising that in having to do with the ark there must be no confidence in the flesh; the power lies in the Spirit. When those who bore the ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed “an ox and a fatted beast”. He would give God the fruit of his prosperity.
The linen ephod, with which he was girded, would show the feature of sobriety in a priestly way. David thus stands out typically as a spiritual man in having to do with Christ intelligently. The Lord has had to do with us, and now it is a question of our having to do with Him in the way of service. Let spiritual instincts, therefore, develop into spiritual intelligence, so that the pleasure and rest of God in relationship to Christ, should be secured in His people here.