READING AT THE ROOM
READING AT THE ROOM
JT This passage serves to illustrate David’s submission to the will of God, and his acceptance of responsibility. We were impressed today with the presence of Saul at the death of Stephen, resulting ultimately in the thread of the testimony being taken up by him. The fulness of what was expressed in [p. 172] Stephen — the heavenly side — was developed in Paul. I was thinking too of Solomon coming in to take up the service of God as David was removed. These cases indicate what God will do in our circumstances as responsibility is accepted. David accepted it; he lay upon the earth in submission to the will of God; but when the child was taken the will of God was completed on that point, and the sequel involves the carrying on of the testimony. Solomon comes in immediately; he comes in as responsibility is accepted. David evidently had hoped that God would raise up the child, but the will of God was different, and he submitted. Then he arose from the earth, which was his proper place, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothing and went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Thus he ministered to the will of God under these circumstances. And he explains fully what governed him: the child would not return. But God would bring in another.
AN You mean that responsibility is taken up in relation to the continuance of the testimony?
JT That is what I thought. So Solomon comes in immediately, and the Lord loves him, and gives him a name, Jedidiah. That is the principle on which the testimony is carried on — in one whom the Lord loves. That was potential; the cause of the love would come out in due course. I was thinking specially of the principle of accepting responsibility. God would place it on us, as illustrated in Hagar. She is the first with whom is connected the idea of the system of grace, illustrated in the well. She takes her son and casts him under a shrub to die. But the word is, “God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is”. Genesis 21:17 Where the actual need is, and where the cry goes up, God hears. She is directed to take up the lad, and hold him in her arms, that was her responsibility. If we take up and hold, as it were, in our hands before God, what is our distinctive responsibility [p. 173] He will come in and answer. So Hagar’s eyes are opened to the well, she draws from it, and the lad lives.
AN It is one whom “the Lord loved” that carries on the testimony.
JT That is so. The Lord has His eye on the young men and young women. The testimony is to be continued, but on this principle of the acceptance of responsibility. Indeed, that is the principle on which the Lord Jesus became man. So God put it on Hagar to take up the lad in her hands, instead of leaving him under the shrub.
AN It would connect itself with what you remarked earlier today; there is the submission to the will of God, but there is the ministering to the will of God. Hagar was on that line, and David was on that line, ministering to the will of God, which is really the continuance of the testimony.
JT Hagar had a great opportunity to minister to the will of God, but while she filled her flask and gave the lad drink, and he revived and grew, she took a wife for him from Egypt, which spoilt the whole position. Not so with David; with him self-judgment was present, and Solomon comes in and the Lord loves him.
Ques What place do you give to sovereignty in all this? With regard to Saul, God chose him to be a vessel.
JT The sovereignty of God underlies everything. We are “come to mount Zion”. Hebrews 12:22. But it was no accident that Saul was present at the death of Stephen; he undoubtedly got an impression he never lost. Saul was holding the clothes of those who stoned the martyr, and he “was consenting”. Note, he not only held the clothes, but he was consenting. God can act on one although as yet there may be no outward evidence that he is a vessel.
[p. 174] Rem You referred to Abraham last night in connection with the same line of things. He accepted responsibility, and so Isaac comes in.
JT That is how it worked out. God gave him the covenant of circumcision, and then “went up from Abraham”; Genesis 17:22 so that he is left as to what he will do. He brings in circumcision in every detail, and then God came in in company. In the course of that wonderful time (Genesis 18) they had, He would bring out again that Isaac was to be born. That is the principle upon which God acts; Isaac is given to an obedient man. And if Isaac — typically Christ — is given, the world must go, so Sodom is destroyed. All this came out in that meeting, but all was connected with the obedience of Abraham.
Ques I wish you would say a little more about submission to the will of God and ministering to His will. Does one flow out of the other?
JT I think so. We see how beautifully David acted. He lay on the earth, as if he accepted that as his due; that was where he came from. It was the acceptance of the judgment of God. But the will of God goes beyond the judgment of God; His judgment is involved in it, but His grace and counsel are also involved in it, and David comes into all this. He rises from the earth when the child is taken, washes and anoints himself, changes his garments — he is taking on a new character under God’s eye, and then he enters into the house of the Lord and worships. He is ministering to the will of God.
Rem There is a progressive tendency, a deepening sense of responsibility, in the measure in which God is known.
Rem So that ministering to the will of God is not only that I say that will is right, but there is something for God’s pleasure in what I am doing, a fragrance and a savour.
JT “By the which will we are sanctified”. Hebrews 10:10 That is what comes out here; sanctification is seen in David.
CSS In all our circumstances, if we seek to be in submission to the will of God, and to be here answering to His pleasure, blessing, enlargement and worship will be the outflow. Might I ask for a little more about what you mean by submitting to the will of God?
JT I think he submits to the will of God in lying on the earth. He was saying virtually: ‘It is a question of God’s will whether the child lives or otherwise; whatever it may be, I accept it’. That was ministering to it, but negatively so. But when he arose from the earth, washed and anointed himself and entered into the house of God, he was ministering to it positively. God had no pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but Christ came to do His will — that was where the pleasure was. But it is by that same will that we are sanctified, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ; and what follows is the holiest — liberty to approach God.
Ques Is there any connection between this and Acts 13, where they ministered to the Lord?
JT There it is the same thought. They ministered to the Lord and fasted; it was the kind of thing that was in the assembly there. It was to the credit of the assembly that they were there, that God was obtaining His service there.
AN Your point, I understand, is that on the one hand there is submission to the will of God whatever that might be; but in ministering to the will of God it is like the ram of consecration; there is energy, you take it up definitely. It is more than submission; there is energy connected with it.
JD Is it in the sense of furthering? Not only are you not opposing it, but sympathetic with [p. 176] it and furthering it.
JT So that God has pleasure in you.
CSS Submission would be the first thought, and ministering to the will of God second?
JT Submission is in itself ministering to the will of God negatively, but there is the positive thing. In a supreme way the Lord ministered to the will of God, “Not my will, but thine be done”. Luke 22:42. That is the supreme expression of it. But that is not all. The resurrection of Christ and all that has come out in Him since, is ministering to the will of God. If the Father has glorified Him immediately, He glorifies the Father. In Ephesians 1 we have, “the good pleasure of his will”, Ephesians 1:5 “the mystery of his will”, Ephesians 1:9 and “the counsel of his own will”. Ephesians 1:11.
AN You get the two sides in Isaiah 53:7 “He is brought as a Iamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth”. But on the other hand: “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand”. Isaiah 53:10. In the one there is submission, but in the other He takes up the pleasure of God.
JT Quite, in a positive way. I think it is very beautiful to see the intelligence of David; he was beyond the letter of the law, he was in the spirit of the thing. He knew God. He says: “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again?”. It is right that we should mourn and feel things, but God alone can meet such a situation as existed and He will do it in a positive way. That is what comes out in Solomon. That is what has been going on since Pentecost. Stephen died a young man, I judge, and most of the apostles died comparatively young. Even Paul was not a very old man, though he calls himself “Paul the aged”; Philemon 9 that would no doubt allude to the compression of his life. The principle is bringing in others, and this witnesses to the patience of God in continuing His testimony.
CSS Committing it to Timothy, and Timothy to faithful men, that there should always be something for God.
JT Our exercise should be for a Saul, for a Solomon — those whom God can bring in quite unexpectedly, because they both came in an unexpected and unusual way. The patience, power and resources of God are seen in all this.
JD In Acts 15 Paul has an exercise to visit the brethren and see how they are getting on, and feeling arose between him and Barnabas. Immediately afterwards Timothy comes to light, of whom he says: “I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state” Philippians 2:20 — as if God took account of this ministry to His will, and continued it by bringing in Timothy.
JT That is a very apt illustration of what we have been saying.
Ques To go back to your illustration of Hagar, do you think taking up the lad in her arms is illustrative of one taking up one’s responsibilities in connection with the assembly?
JT That is what I was thinking. It is remarkable how the principle of local responsibility runs through Scripture. “God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is”. Genesis 21:17. Where was he? Thrown under a shrub. Many of us do that, we just let things that we cannot manage go by the board. She said: “Let me not see the death of the child”, Genesis 21:16 but she has to go and hold him in her hands. He was a good-sized boy, fourteen years of age. She would feel that weight, and the more she felt it, the more she would look to God. Infidels may ridicule the idea of her holding a boy of that age. We do not know how big he may have [p. 178] been, but he was fourteen years of age anyway. He could persecute others too. But there he was, he was Abraham’s son, and because of that he is an object of divine care. As soon as she takes him up in her arms, she is shown the well.
The next thing, in Genesis 21, is Abraham’s assertion that he had dug the well. He was on the line of the testimony, and that well was essential to it. He was in power; he could rebuke Abimelech, king of the Philistines, and he gave him seven ewe lambs: “That they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well”. Genesis 21:30. The seven ewe lambs represent the subject spirit of Christ, but there is power in it. You will never get into what is wrong in that spirit. You will be a son of peace. It is in that spirit the testimony is to go on. It was not found in Hagar and Ishmael, but it was found in Abraham, “the father of all them that believe”. Romans 4:11.
Ques Is not that the greatest difficulty, the spirit in which we take up a thing?
JT I am sure of it. The seven ewe lambs are standing over against Abimelech and his military man. On Abraham’s side the war is to be carried on in the spirit typified in these lambs.
AN “Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” But the Lord says: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them”. Luke 9:54,55. You are on the line of saving, but it is by your spirit that you help.
JT And in the next chapter (Luke 10) the Lord sends out the seventy, and their great concern would be to find “a son of peace”. Luke 10:6.
Rem A spirit like that does not mean weakness, but power.
JT You would not give way an inch where the truth was concerned, but you would be yielding with your neighbours. “Let your gentleness be known of all men”, Philippians 4: 5.
Rem And even in standing for the truth your spirit would be like Christ.
JT It is very remarkable that the seven ewe Iambs are mentioned three times in a verse or two, as if that were the point. “That they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well”. Genesis 21:30. The well is the thing that you have to rely on to carry on the testimony. Hagar did not go on with it, she went to Egypt, but Abraham went on with it.
Rem While at one period of your history you may answer to Hagar taking up her responsibility, you may utterly break down later.
JT Indeed, that is the solemn thing; so the Spirit of God goes on to show how with Abraham the idea is carried on, the well is there, and the seven ewe Iambs.
Ques What would be the present application of the well? I was thinking of the Philistines filling up the wells.
JT I think the well alludes to the system of grace in which the Holy Spirit is active and dominant. It was first presented to the Jew, symbolised in Hagar and Ishmael, but they did not value it. It came out to the gentiles later. The woman of Samaria exemplifies the idea. She goes to the world, but not as Hagar did; she goes and says: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” John 4:29 — and they came. She is delivered from the world and she draws others out of the world, and makes a place for Christ. He abides with them two days.
Ques Do you think the spirit of John the baptist would help? “He must increase, but I must decrease”. John 3:30. He had answered to his responsibilities, and having done so he was content to go out of [p. 180] sight.
JT Yes. He gladly makes way for Christ, “Who baptises with the Holy Spirit”. John 1:33. He takes away the sin of the world and baptises with the Holy Spirit. By Him the will of God is thus established universally both negatively and positively.