RECOVERY AND SPOIL
Alex Craig
1 Samuel 30: 1-6, 18-25; Revelation 3: 12-13
Recovery and spoil would belong to the Philadelphian revival. It is not only that David recovered all, but he had spoil as well which is greater, something further, something greater than what he lost and recovered. As you know David appears in the address to Philadelphia; the Lord presents Himself as the Holy, the True, He that has the key of David. The key of David is used to open up the spoil. But before that there is the recovery. I thought in these days with so much distress and sorrow amongst the brethren everywhere, this locality not excluded, that there might be some sense of how the Lord can bring things in and turn things about so that there might not only be the sense of recovery with us but that we are entering into spoil. I do not know whether it is right to use the word calamity in regard of these things that take place but there they are, certainly very grievous matters. This is a chapter in David's history which is very grievous, it was a calamity.
In 1 Chronicles 7: 23 there was a man of whom it says He had a son born when calamity was in his house, God can do that, He can bring in a sense of divine blessing, even in such conditions, young people are taken home and there is much pressure upon the saints. But God is looking on and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear. He weighs these things out (see 1 Cor 10: 13). I have thought that tor years, He weighs out what we can bear and He will with the temptation make a way of escape. He is always there with support and strengthening that the grievous situation might be turned about. I trust the brethren will be encouraged by these things.
It you could speak about the Lord being put to death by the Jews as a calamity, the next thing to that was the collapse of the Church and I am going to speak about that. That is one of the greatest calamities in this period to which we belong, this Christian dispensation - the fall of the Church. But there has been recovery and there has been spoil over and above the recovery. That is very wonderful. What a loss there has been, what fall there has been - remember whence thou hast fallen (Rev 2: 5). You think of what was lost at that time in Ephesus, taken as it were by the Amalekites. They lost the sense of the headship of Christ, first love. Next to that was the great matter of union, that is Pergamos, which means much marriage when the Church linked on with the world. What a marriage that was, one of the most sorrowful of marriages, when the church was married with the world and the sense of union with Christ was lost. Headship and union, they were lost.
Then you come to Thyatira and she brings in something in its place, she endeavoured to replace what was lost. She has a vicar here for Christ. It there has been a sense of loss, men know that they have to replace it with something, and that exists to this day. But there has been recovery. I think these four last chapters of first Samuel, are like the four last churches. In chapter 28 there is Saul who had been used to remove all the soothsayers and women with a spirit of Python, and yet a time comes when he goes down to consult one. He says, find me a woman with a spirit of Python, that is Jezebel in Thyatira and a whole system of things that is there in opposition to Christ. She had four hundred prophets that ate at her table, a system raised up in opposition to the Spirit of God here.
In chapter 29 there is David. What a poor chapter that is, he is among the Philistines and they knew who he was. They said "Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul smote his thousands, and David his ten thousands?". A name to live, but dead, that is Sardis. The very David who had been so successful and had gained such a name. The work is incomplete, but God, in His goodness in the recovery, used the princes of the Philistines to bring about something with David using them to object to David going out to battle against Israel. A wonderful intervention even by way of the very princes of the Philistines. That is when God used a monk to bring about the Reformation. Divine intervention in one of themselves, to bring about the beginning of this period in which we are in, this wonderful revival. There was a certain recovery, but the works were not complete.
Then you come to Laodicea. What a situation! That is the last chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul and his three sons slain, what a chapter of darkness, no response - miserable, wretched and poor, and blind and naked. How sorrowful it is, in the last days of the church, not a mention of David. But there are the men of Jabesh-Gilead who heard of Saul's death and his sons' death and they went and took them down from the walls Beth-shan and took them to Jabesh-Gilead and buried them there. That is fine. There is something working there in the way of a revival. There is no leader, nobody prominent in the chapter, but these men appreciating Saul's intervention for them in the beginning of his history when they would have had all their eyes put out by the enemy, he intervened and saved them. Now it is beginning to work. It is like a picture, no universal leader, but something working, something real, working in the way of feelings and compassion, nothing outwardly great. I am using this in connection with the time we are in, no universal leader, no despairing for it either, but there is something working in the localities, something akin to the men of Jabesh-Gilead who appreciate divine mercy and exert themselves. It cost them something to do what they did for Saul and his sons. I hope this is working in every place. I do not expect any universal leader. I think we have missed the point when the long and effective ministry of J.T. ended, the Lord intended that there should be such internal workings without any outward greatness, without any great universal leader, you might say. There was all He had given in the way of direction for the testimony. What things came out in the great ministries as to the Head in heaven and the body here, the great truth of the heavenly character of the saints; (an attempt to reduce the character of the present saints to the level of the Old Testament saints was made). The truth of union was established and the great matter of eternal life and sonship was maintained and then the great laying out of the truth. Christ and the assembly, the Person of Christ and His greatness, the truth of the Spirit, recognised - all that has been recovered. I think what was intended was like these men of Jabesh-Gilead working compassionately and feelingly in regard of the truth, setting things on, and that is what is to happen in every locality. The work should go on. David comes from being sent back by the Philistines and he finds Ziklag spoiled and burned with fire, all that he had had taken - and especial notice is taken of his two wives as well as the belongings of the others, but special attention is drawn to David's two wives. He finds them gone. What a situation that was, "David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him; for the soul of all the people was embittered, every man because of his sons and because of his daughters; but David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God", 1 Sam 30: 6 - "Thou hast a little power"; he strengthened himself in Jehovah his God. Thank God for the little power, “thou hast not denied my name". That would ensure that there will be recovery in the face of the disaster, or calamity, in the face of all the breakdown that there has been which has been grievous: there is that "David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God". That little power coming by the way of the Spirit from Christ will ensure that there will be a full recovery. I have tried to show that there has been in these great ministries a recovery of these great things that have been lost. Thank God for it. There is the little power and the more we make room for it the more we will understand what these things are. We can have a further entrance into these great truths that we so cherish with greater power.
David asked for the ephod. Another great factor entering into the Philadelphian revival is the recognition of Christ's place as the Holy and the True. What a presentation He makes of Himself, the Holy, the True. That is the ephod coming forward; it is all in Christ Himself, it all begins with Him. Think of the ephod by which David will put himself in touch with God, where he gets the assurance from God that he will recover. Beloved brethren, we are in days of recovery, the great truths, as I have endeavoured to point out, are available and the power is here to enter into them that there may be a sense in our souls of nothing being lost even though we are in the midst of Church failure. We can have the sense that things have been recovered. God in His sovereign goodness has brought about recovery. We can enter upon things as they are in God's mind and the greatness of Christ too in His own position.
It says "David inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he said to him, Pursue", and then "David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken: and David recovered his two wives". These two wives stand out as what was precious and intimate with David. We often assess things according to how things affect us and what has been our loss. Think of what it meant to David for his two wives to have been taken away, but they were recovered. The great truth of what the assembly is to Christ, not only with these two wives here, but the two leading types of what we come into - I will remind us all of that - Eve and Rebecca. Think of what has been recovered to us in our day regarding the particular character of the assembly to Christ, what it is to Him. These two wives have a special place in the Spirit's mind in bringing them forward that we might get some impression as to what the assembly is to Christ. We have come into the knowledge of these things, may the emotions and feelings and sensibilities that belong to such relationships be found with us. Aim at that in the service, aim at having something as helped by the Spirit to answer to Christ with certain feelings of suitability to Him and answering to His own heart; that has been recovered. What would the service of God that we have nowadays be without these great truths having been brought out. They all existed before but the knowledge of them has been recovered to us and we should count on the Spirit's help to answer to them in reality with emotions and feelings in love suitable to the relationship. It is quite easy to go through things in a mechanical sort of way, casual. We have the hymnbook and some fine expressions in it, but may there be that with us too that is found in our souls in answer to Christ. Think of Eve and Rebecca, two leading types, his two wives and nothing missed by them. But then David brought all back. That is the day we are in. You can be sure that there will be nothing lost, everything will be brought back; you could not conceive of anything else. Having to do with God and God having to do with these things, you could not conceive of anything else, but that all will be brought back. But not only that, God will not be satisfied with just a recovery; He will bring something in that does not really belong to being brought back. The spoil will form no part of what had been lost, it is something else, something extra. That is what the key of David comes in to open up to us. "He who has the key of David" (Rev 3: 7). He will open up fresh things to us. How wonderful that is. There is a statute going with that, David comes back and they all get their portions, their wives and their children, sons and daughters and their goods, and these four hundred men who went with him, some of them objected to the two hundred who remained behind getting anything of the spoil. They did not mind them getting what belonged to them, but some of those four hundred men who went with David did not like the idea of handing over the spoil, that is what they had taken from the Amalekites. It was not theirs in the first place, it was spoil, something extra. David made another statute. I wonder if there is anything in this great period of revival, in the way of the Lord in the sovereignty of His love making any statutes. I wonder if there has been anything like that? Something fresh; you might say they had statutes and ordinances enough in Israel, but here is David making one. You get some sense of the Lord's own activity in matters, entering into things among His people and making a statute of love. He says I will make them come and bow down before your feet, make them know that I have loved thee, a statute of love. And it stands; they that go down to the battle and those that stay at home they share and share alike. That is Philadelphian characteristics, we do not keep everything to ourselves, but we are to share them as a statute of love on David's part. Something new, something fresh, something that belongs to this time, the time of the end of the revival. How wonderful that is!
I want now to link the spoil, and what David says with what the Lord says to the overcomer. David is an overcomer and these conditions that we are in demand overcoming. There is much that would detain us and hold us but to the overcomer He brings in the great thought, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God". Think of all that, I take that to be the opening by the key of David of the spoil that belongs to this time of recovery. The overcomer is coming into the good of it. Four times over you have Him saying "my God" - it is what belongs to our time and what can be experienced as the Lord's own doing. I plead for that, to understand more of what the Lord does amongst us and what He is doing. It is not all a question of us, but to find out His movements and what He says and does. I believe that belongs to the time we are in, the time of spoil when it is something beyond the idea of recovery. I am not talking about innovations and things like that that may come in, we do not want them; but we want what the Lord is doing, the Lord serving amongst us. Look for that in every meeting, especially at the Supper. It is a question of what He would introduce Himself and something that is really exhilarating, something that gives you the feeling of wealth and substance. These are all eternal thoughts - 'my God', 'the city of my God' and 'the new Jerusalem'. He does not call it the Holy Jerusalem. It is called both in this book of Revelation, the holy City Jerusalem coming down into the world to come, but coming day and in eternity as a bride adorned for her husband it is the New Jerusalem. These are eternal thoughts. I am trying to say that this is the spoil that belongs to these days in which we are. It bears upon the great fact of things being recovered, but additionally the idea of the enriching thoughts that the Lord would give us. Make way for Him - that is my plea - and His headship and a sense of the power He would give for us to enter into these things and be more responsive in feelings towards Himself. May we know these things, the wonderful enriching character of what He is able to do and the use of the key, the key of David.
When you come to David in scripture you come to something very special, you come to a quality of manhood that goes right from his inception to the last chapter of the Bible, David. He is after God's own heart, the great antitype Himself. Could He not lead us into the use of that key opening up to us the wealth of God's eternal thoughts, and we can touch these things, but it is only as we have some sense of the service of Christ amongst us. May we know it more, for His Name's sake.
REDBRIDGE
11 March 1995