SPIRITUAL ENERGY
[p. 127] SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Luke 20:34; Philippians 3:10 - 12; Genesis 35:27; Joshua 14:6
What I have to say has in view the promotion of spiritual energy in the people of God, and I have selected the passage in Philippians as furnishing a direct lead in this respect in one who by appointment under the Lord is the leader of our dispensation. But I began with Luke 20 because the Lord there refers to “that world”, as He calls it, “and the resurrection”. Luke 20:35. The circumstances under which He spoke these words was when answering the Sadducees, who were infidel materialists, and He appeals to the Scriptures, thus furnishing us with an excellent example how to meet such opposers, for they are prevalent in our days.
The Lord appeals to the Scriptures, alleging that these opposers erred, not knowing them: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God”, Matthew 22:29. Whatever else they knew, or pretended to know, their ignorance in regard of the Scriptures and the power of God was unmistakable. Then the Lord particularly alludes to Moses, as if He foresaw that the attack would be there, saying that even Moses showed that the dead rise. The thing is shown, not simply said, “in the section of the bush”, Luke 20:37 in that part of Scripture so full of precious fundamental truth — truth relative to the Deity, and that He could dwell in the burning bush; truth relative to divine purpose; truth relative to this great matter of the resurrection. The Lord thus, as is often found in the New Testament in the gospels, lets us into a vein of truth and a field of truth which is impregnable, notwithstanding all the efforts of these modern opposers. “Moses showed”, He says, “in the section of the bush”, that [p. 128] the dead rise, for God said there, “I am ... the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”; “but he is not God of the dead but of the living; for all live for him”. Luke 20:37,38.
Now, having thus brought to your attention this remarkable utterance of the Lord in this particular setting, I proceed to show how the scripture illustrates for us the way to it, that is to say, the end of the journey of faith. The house of God comes in on the way to it; it leads to it, for the house, although a provisional thing, is seen now in that which is eternal, that is, in the assembly. The house of God is that in which we are to learn now how to behave ourselves, as the scripture says; but then it is also “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth” 1 Timothy 3:15; that is another view. The one, as I understand it, is provisional, pending the restoration of Israel here, the other is eternal, for the assembly of the living God, as such, is not a temporary or provisional thing, it is a primary thought of God and therefore I connect it with “that world”. Primary thoughts all stretch on to “that world”, so that the assembly of the living God is for His use eternally. It came in in type before sin came in, and in purpose before the world, as Hebron did; they synchronise in that sense. Eve is the type of the assembly, which suggests that it was in the mind of God before sin was introduced, and that its life was to be out of death, that is to say, the idea of life out of death did not depend on the incoming of sin; it was in the mind of God before. Historically it became that, but God intimated in the plainest terms that He had before Him that kind of life, life out of death. It was not death as a penalty, but in the form of sleep — a well-known term used later as covering death in the scripture. We have therefore the idea of the assembly in that life before sin came in; it was a divine thought, a primary thought.
[p. 129] Thus, as I said, these two lines run on together, the line relating to the house of God and the line relating to the purpose of God.
The idea of the purpose of God came in before the house; it was intimated in Adam and Eve, in Abraham and in Isaac, but the house of God comes in in connection with Jacob, who was then on a journey. The journey, literally, did not lead to it alone. The end was by the way of the house but went beyond it, for you will find in Genesis 35 that Jacob was said to journey twice after he reached Bethel. I do not say that in spiritual things we leave Bethel behind, but I do say that Bethel represents one thing and Hebron another. We may reach Bethel and not reach Hebron. There is the house of God, that in which we are here and in which we are to behave ourselves according to God, and there is “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”, 1 Timothy 3:15 something that subsists beyond death, which enters into the world to come.
I want now to show, if I can, that these two things are before us, and that spiritual energy is essential, especially if we are to reach Hebron. We first have to lay hold of the divine thought, and it is a wonderful thought: “They who are counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection”. Luke 20:35. Have we, dear brethren, the light of that in our souls — of “that world”? “They who are counted worthy to have part in that world, and the resurrection from among the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage ... they are equal unto angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”. Luke 20:35,36. You see what light that is, and how in that light, laying hold of it, the believer aims at reaching the thing — not merely the light of it, but the thing itself. Paul says, “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead”. It is not a question of God raising him there. God will raise us, and quicken us all, but [p. 130] the apostle is dealing with the thing as it is to be realised now: “That I may know him”, he says, “and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead”, that is, to be out of that state, out from among the dead, to be consciously in a realm beyond death. That was what the apostle desired.
And so you see the journeying side in Jacob. He presents the initial side of the subject, as I apprehend, Caleb being the completion of it. Jacob journeys, and Rachel dies by him. On that journey death is rolled in. God graciously snaps for us every tie and all natural links; not that nature and natural links are not right, but they do not belong to Hebron, they do not belong to “that world, and the resurrection”. We have to arrive at the snapping of them somehow in order to reach “that world, and the resurrection”; for there, we are told, they “neither marry, nor are given in marriage”, but are as the angels, “sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”. Luke 20:35,36. Mark you, it is a question of maturity in regard of the resurrection, that is, it is not simply God raising me, but my arrival at it at the present time, to be a son of the resurrection. I have faced the thing, and I have come to apprehend the power of God, so that in that power I reach the realm which the Lord calls “that world”.
Now after Rachel’s death Jacob moves on; he journeys again. The principle is journeying until you reach it, and the house of God, that in which the order of God is seen here publicly, supports you. But “that world and the resurrection” are outside the view of man and this world; it is a sphere laid hold of by faith in the power of the Spirit so as to become real. So Jacob journeys towards Hebron and God rolls in death and sorrow. Rebecca’s nurse dies [p. 131] as he reaches Bethel, and Rachel dies, and his very best after the flesh becomes corrupt, that is, Reuben sins. All that is on the way in the government of God, but all to the one end, that he may reach the goal of the journey. And so, notwithstanding Reuben’s defection and corruption, we have the allusion to the twelve sons: “Now the sons of Jacob were twelve” Genesis 35:22; that is to say, at the borders of Hebron the full divine thought of administration is seen, and Jacob arrives there; we are told further that he “came unto Isaac”. It is not yet, to him, the place of the resurrection; it is a question of Isaac. To him it was a place of death, but not death without hope; it was death with hope. And so, throughout his life, Jacob has Hebron, or the cave of Machpelah, before him as a burying place; it was for those who had faith. Even Isaac dies, but then, as I said, Jacob had reached the spot where Isaac was, where Abraham sojourned, and where Isaac sojourned. What a group of circumstances for faith around that spot!
Caleb is the consummation of this line of faith, and I wish particularly to dwell on him so that we may see, in a simple way, the kind of energy that secures Hebron, and that it is not beyond the reach of any of us. And so I refer briefly to the history of Caleb, well known to most here, but not, perhaps, to some of the younger ones. He was one of the twelve, as you will remember, sent out by Moses from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and what came to light in that service was that his feet trod that land, as it is said, “the land whereon thy feet have trodden”. Joshua 14:9. I commend that to the young, for Caleb was comparatively young at that time. He was not lying on the earth as Jacob was, but his feet trod the promised land, the whole ground of purpose, and in that connection we are told that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. These things have to be understood spiritually, The Holy Spirit puts that in a [p. 132] parenthesis so that every young christian who reads the book of Numbers should understand that there is something that existed before the world, and that it is for you.
And then, what kind of a young brother or sister sets out commendably for that inheritance? Let Jehovah tell us. “But my servant Caleb”, He says, “because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully”, Numbers 14:24. That is the secret of it — “another spirit”. Of Joshua, his companion, it was said that he had the Spirit; but the point with Caleb is “another spirit”, and no young brother or sister will ever start out for Hebron save as he changes his spirit. Of course it depends on the presence of the Holy Spirit, but it is your spirit. In what direction is your spirit moving? Is it towards this world? I know well enough how young people are governed by what this world offers, but Caleb was of another spirit. We have to begin with that — another spirit; that is the commendation for his entering that inheritance. He is to have that inheritance, and now, forty-five years afterwards, he recalls what his strength was. He is an old brother now, but when his feet trod that land he was not old, he was a young brother as age went in those days. These things are not beyond the young people, they are for them. The Spirit of God puts down for you in Numbers 13 that little parenthesis about Hebron, and you do well to stop and think over it as you read it. It is an outlet from the exercises and sorrows of the wilderness; it is light from that world for you.
So the apostle Paul in writing to the babes at Corinth, as he calls them, reminds them of “that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory; which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory)”. 1 Corinthians 2:7,8. The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory;
There is “the Lord of glory”, and there is “our glory”, which is bound up with His, but there is the hidden wisdom, too. Is that beyond you? Has it any attraction for you? God has prepared it before the world for you. Whatever this world may offer in all its phases, ecclesiastically or philosophically, can it offer anything that was before the world? Absolutely nothing! whereas God prepared for us the kind of wisdom that is beyond their range. It is “that hidden wisdom”, and He prepared it, beloved, “for our glory”. Can we do without it? If you see something of the light of that world, then you begin to say, I want to be fitted for it, I want to be educated for it.
And so there is the hidden wisdom, not the wisdom of the classics, as they are called, but the “hidden wisdom” which the Holy Spirit teaches. Think of that! Where is there a teacher like the Holy Spirit? as it is said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”. 1 Corinthians 2:9. That touches every young christian who loves God. God has prepared those things for us, and He has revealed them to us by His Spirit, “for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”. 1 Corinthians 2:10. And then again, “But we have the mind of Christ”. 1 Corinthians 2:16. God has given to us of His Spirit that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Now that is how it stands, and as you read that passage in Numbers, and the Holy Spirit brings home to your heart what Hebron means, you say, I want to shine in that world and the resurrection, I want to be a son there — a son of God, a son of the resurrection; that is one who is mature, and who has reached it in the power of the Spirit of God.
Now in the book of Joshua you have the thing presented fully in Caleb, so that we might see the work of God in the believer — forty-five years of the [p. 134] work of God. Look at the start he had! And here he is after forty-five years journeying with a disobedient and gainsaying people! He was not disobedient, he was not gainsaying. God Himself had also walked with the people. He was walking with them all those forty years. Was Caleb idle? No; he was comparatively young, but he was learning; he was not growing old in the wilderness. Some of us do, alas! As one sees old brothers and sisters one often sees the dimming of the light and lessening of the energy, the loss of colour, the dwelling on reminiscences. That is not “that world”; “that world” is future.
Not so with this remarkable believer, this type of a mighty man of spiritual energy; he recalls what his strength was forty-five years before. He was not neglectful to take his own measure. We should take our own measure; it is wise to do it, for we are to do things according to our measure — “according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” Romans 12:3, and Caleb knew his measure. He could recall what his strength was forty-five years before, and he says, “It is just as great today, I have lost nothing in regard of strength, in regard of energy”. He had gained much, doubtless, in the way of intelligence and experience. Where was there another like him? He had lost nothing in strength. Old brothers and sisters, of course, have what we younger ones cannot have, that is, experience; but then the point that Caleb makes is not that; the point he makes is “strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in”, Joshua 14:11 and it was not in the least degree diminished. What a man he was! Is it written for our curiosity? No! It is to give a living picture of a spiritual man, for that is what Caleb was. The fulness of what is presented in him in type is, I believe, in that passage in Philippians where we have a man striving might and main, according to the power that God had given to him, to lay hold of the resurrection — to “attain”,
as he says, “unto the resurrection from among the dead”.
And so Caleb goes over the ground with Joshua — Joshua representing God here — and calls attention to what he knew. He asks for the mountain, knowing full well the kind of inhabitants who were in it; but he was nothing daunted; he had power to overcome and to eject the enemy, for it is a question of enemies. If a graveyard existed at Hebron there was an enemy there; I mean, death was there, the power by which the family of God was held, but Caleb understood that there was power to overcome that. It is a question of the resurrection. Jacob did not have that exactly before him; I mean, he was not stressing that side, whereas Caleb does; he knows the enemy that is there and the power that is there. The more we are with God, the more we shall recognise the power that is against us. But then, beloved, “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4:4. There is a means of reaching the resurrection from among the dead; as it is said, we are raised “through faith” — what faith? The “faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”, Colossians 2:12. It is the same power that worketh in us. And then we are said to be quickened, so that we are made to live in our affections, and thus can enter on the realm of resurrection, “attaining”, as it says, to the “resurrection from among the dead”.
Now, that is what was set out in Caleb in type in the most striking way, and so while he asked for the mountain, nothing daunted, what is before the mind of the Spirit is Hebron. Hence it is said that “Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb ... because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel”. Joshua 14:13,14. That is the mind of God. The mountain represents the power, but what is in the mind of God is Hebron, that is to.
say, “that world and the resurrection”. Luke 20:35. And so “Joshua blessed him”. You see, the blessing of God is available to us in that connection. “Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb”, Joshua 14:13 as though God was delighted with such energy, with such desire to reach His thought — “that world and the resurrection”. Then it says it was secured to him and to his generation. “Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed Jehovah the God of Israel”. Joshua 14:14. And then we are told what it was. The name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; which Arba was a “great man among the Anakim. And the land rested from war”. Joshua 14:15.
That is the end, and so I would commend — especially to the young — first what Caleb was as a young man, how he had “another spirit”, and understood thoroughly that God was able to eject the enemy and to put His people in possession; and then at the age of eighty-five his strength remained, his ardour remained, and his desire for the inheritance remained. It is not simply a question of the Lord coming to take us, many talk much about that, and read about it, and rightly so far, but they have not thought of laying hold of the thing in the power of the Spirit at the present time, for that is the point, and that is what Caleb represents to us.
May the Lord bless the word and lead us into more spiritual energy, so that we may get outside, in some measure at least, of the present world, and enter into the realm of “that world and the resurrection”. Luke 20:35.