THE DIVINE OBJECTIVE
E.T.Maynard
I felt encouraged to refer to these scriptures; - I trust it is of the Lord, following on what we have had before us during this favourable time. I trust that the Spirit will be free to bring forward something that would encourage us with the thought of divine objective, having before us what is finally in the divine mind in our being secured for the pleasure of God. I thought that these two scriptures would illustrate how we might become affected profitably by the word of God coming to us, and set ourselves to reach the divine objective. We have been encouraged to see that there has been no diminishing of what was set on in the beginning from the divine side for carrying through to completion what God has in mind, and there will not be any diminishing until the end. I believe, beloved brethren, we need to be alerted and encouraged by what we hear, and move in relation to the divine objective.
These two passages involve some of the choicest thoughts. One is that the food supply, as a result of God coming in in recovery, is assured until the end. Another is that Christ is the centre of divine operations, and the Spirit of God would attract us freshly to Him as the Son of God, the One who is able for everything that relates to the pleasure of God, and the Son of man in relation to men in the securing of persons like you and me, involving the work of God, among whom God will tabernacle eternally.
The reference to Naomi affords a wonderful incentive in the way of help. Like ourselves, she had had a history of failure; not all failure, of course, because the work of God is what goes through and comes through in recovery in spite of failure. But I would like to mention a few points in these passages for our present help. In the passage in Ruth it speaks of a way: "the way... to the land of Judah". I believe the same thought applies in John; although it is not formally mentioned it is demonstrated. I want to suggest the land of Judah as an area where the praises of God are sustained - the way to the land of Judah - and the way to the Son of God. These two thoughts, among others, seem to be suggested to us in these passages.
Naomi, after her long years of experience (which we trust each one of us here has profited by, years of experience in discipline and the wondrous ways of God) comes to a point where there is a direct word from God about what He has in mind. It says of her, after this bereavement and all that attends it, that "she had heard in the fields of Moab how that Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread". This involves what was current; they must have been getting bread when she heard about it. It does not say (although it involves it) that Jehovah had visited His people and given them bread. Notice what it says; "to give them bread". I believe, dear brethren, in the faith of our souls, that this will obtain to the end. He had visited his people to give them bread, and what we need to be encouraged about in the local assemblies is the food supply. What a wonderful thing, that we have been recovered, rescued from ruin. Jehovah has visited His people to give them bread. It is past, it is current and it is future; bread is assured. She heard that. We have heard much today. Her hearing the word of God is immediately followed by her move from "the place where she had been". Whatever we have attained to up until now, one would encourage us all that we remove from the place where we have been. It is a question of fresh movement as the Lord comes in with a particular ministry, and Naomi illustrates how you and I can, with the help of the Spirit applying these scriptures, get on to the divine objective. It says here, "Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah". You would like to feel that after these meetings today there is some fresh movement in our hearts towards the land of Judah, which means that something freshly springs up in our hearts in relation to what is for the pleasure of God in the system of grace to which we belong and that the service of God will be enriched. I think that is a good application; she moved from the place where she had been. Up until then much was accumulated that was going through, but you can never have too much, you can never get to the place where you must not go further, never! So I felt encouraged to call attention to this because there should be some evidence, beloved, that we move from the place where we have been and get on to the way that leads to the land of Judah. That is an incentive.
These two scriptures, I believe, synchronise in the way they illustrate this idea. Here is a man, Philip, who has been secured by the Lord Jesus, by His own personal service. He finds Nathanael. Nathanael seemed to be thinking of a future time when every man shall sit under his own vine and under his figtree (see Mic 4: 4). I believe it is right to say, beloved brethren, that the Lord takes account of the slightest expression of our appreciation of what ministry involves, as to what God would secure in us for His pleasure. He finds Nathanael, who was sitting under the fig-tree, I suppose, when Philip found him, and said "We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets, Jesus, the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth". That would cover quite a lot, more than you and I could ever attempt to cover - Moses and the prophets. Think of the fulness of the ministry of the incoming of Jesus, Son of God. Think of all that was involved in Philip's word to Nathanael, "We have found him" ; that is the whole line of ministry that has gone before, the One in whom this is personally concentrated. What a thing that would be! But Nathanael wants to be sure. We are learning, beloved brethren, more and more the truth and the experience of the fact that God's ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts (see Isa 55: 8). Nathanael said "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" We are being helped currently as to the good, the wonderful things that the Spirit of God is bringing out of conditions of reproach, conditions that men as such would regard with contempt. But Nathanael was real. We make mistakes, we blunder sometimes; who does not? But if you are real, if the thing at bottom is real, it will come through; the Lord will see to that. Nathanael said "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"; and Philip was very simple and I suppose the simpler we are the better; he said "Come and see". He did not argue with him, he did not attempt to give him an address; he just said "Come and see". It was the same thing that the Lord had said to the men that left John and followed Him; he uses the Lord's own words "Come and see"; and he went. He is going on the way that leads to the Son of God. Immediately after Philip says "Come and see", "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him", and He spoke to him. He evaluated His own work as He does in you and me; none is able to evaluate His work like Himself; and He said "Behold one truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile". What a word for Nathanael! What a word for you and me, beloved brethren! The Lord is able to show His appreciation because He is a real Man; the reality of His manhood is more and more being impressed upon us by the blessed Spirit. What a Man He is! How He must have gone out to Nathanael in His feelings in the midst of what was murderous, soon to be apprehended and insulted and spit upon and killed. But He saw this man coming to Him. It is the way that leads to the Son of God, because of what he had heard. Jesus says "Behold one truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael says to him, Whence knowest thou me?" It must have been a delight to the Lord's heart for He knows all things from beginning to end. We look forward, beloved brethren, to Israel's recovery: the rapture of the saints, the coming out with the Lord Jesus of the assembly, and the recovery of Israel. What a joy it must have been to the heart of the Lord, in the midst of a murderous condition of things and rejection, to see a man who is cherishing the divine objective. He said "4Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee". What a wonderful thing that was! Who can express fully what it was to the heart of Christ when He saw Nathanael sitting under the fig-tree; it was the appreciation of divine objective.
I want to encourage our hearts, beloved brethren, that we commit ourselves individually, from the youngest to the oldest, that we are prepared to remove from the place where we have been because of what we have heard, and follow through the way that leads to the divine objective, the way that leads to the land of Judah and the way that leads to the Son of God. May this be our portion as we are sustained through the period that we are left here, that this way, I might say this two-fold expression of the same way, may possess us and that we may provide conditions that will finally issue in our getting through to the divine objective. May it be so, for His Name's sake.
LONDON
18 October 1974