HANDFULS

Genesis 41:47,48; Ruth 2:14-16; 1 Kings 17:12-16

These scriptures refer to handfuls, which is a very gracious term because a handful is within the compass of each of us, young and old. A handful in the sense of some impression of Christ would enable us – linking on with what our brother has said – to carry out the will of God as it applies to each of us in some way. It would be something laid upon us by the Holy Spirit, something perhaps which reflects the walk of the Lord Jesus. A handful would stimulate us to take on an impression of Christ – the One who did the will of God in all its fulness.

When we think of the Lord Jesus Himself in relation to a ‘handful’, it is rather different. On the great day of atonement described in Leviticus 16, the high priest went into the holiest with both hands full of fragrant incense beaten small (Lev.16:12). There, outside the veil, was the slaughtered bullock. How awful were the Lord’s atoning sufferings. There at Calvary, the incense was beaten small. Every minute of those three hours of the forsaking had its own significance and every minute produced its own fragrance for God. The high priest took the censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar into the holiest and he put the incense on the fire. A cloud of fragrant incense was emitted which covered the mercy seat. What was the meaning of it all? It meant that, in the great work of redemption which required the laying down of the life of Jesus and the shedding of His precious blood, there was something that was infinitely fragrant to the nostrils of God Himself.

There was what was fragrant to God in the One who accomplished the will of God in its most intimate and holy detail. It was the will of God that that precious life should be laid down. But what satisfaction for God to savour the fragrance of the holy incense!

The Lord Jesus is ever unique in that respect – not just a handful, but both hands full of fragrant incense beaten small. Yet for us there is a handful, and it is available to each of us. We have touched on this in our recent readings on Joseph. For seven years – what full complete provision – the land brought forth by handfuls, and Joseph gathered in the produce and put the food in the cities. That is to say for everyone, for every citizen, there was a handful of corn to satisfy every appetite, sufficient to meet every need. Each one of us is a field in that sense, or has a field. The scripture says, “Prepare thy work without, and put thy field in order, and afterwards build thy house”, Prov.24:27.

How important the field is: fertility of soul is essential. Our hearts are to be tilled, productive and fruitful. We may think we do not have much, but scripture speaks about how much food there is in the tillage of the poor (Prov.13:23). In a sense, we are all poor, we may feel poor in our appreciation of what God has provided in His grace and in His mercy. But as we engage in tillage, there is increase. That is to say, as we till the ground, as we search our souls and enjoy these holy links in communion with the Lord Jesus and with divine Persons, there is that produced in our souls which is for the divine pleasure and for our own nourishment.

“And put the food in the cities; the food of the fields of the city, which were around about it, he laid up in it”: that should be an exercise for each one of us, that our fields should be productive so that we are able to bring into the city something for the satisfaction and enjoyment of all in the gathering. Our local assemblies should be depositories where food is laid up in order that the hearts of all might be satisfied. How affecting that the Lord Jesus prophetically took the place of being a tiller of the ground: “I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for man acquired me as bondman from my youth”, Zec.13:5. How touching to think thus of the Lord in His lowly service here – as a bondman and tiller carrying out the will of His master. He took that ground in blessed humility, as a tiller of the ground. “Much food is in the tillage of the poor”: we can have part in that, by securing from our own fields handfuls of food for our local gatherings so that our local assemblies are built up and become a place of nourishment and sustenance for our souls.

We come to Ruth, a very fine study. Mercy and grace had reached Ruth the Moabitess, and in her history and return from the country of Moab, she chanced to light on an allotment of Boaz. How grateful we are for the way divine mercy has met us and has found us. Grace has worked with us, and the result is that we have come to an allotment of Boaz. Boaz speaks of the Lord Jesus, and in his allotment she has this great encounter with Boaz himself. It says, “he reached her parched corn”. Can you picture the scene? There was this Moabitess maiden, welcomed into such a blessed circle of mutual happiness and joy. Boaz himself, the kinsman redeemer, reaches her parched corn and she ate and was sufficed. But that was not all. Boaz says to his workmen, the reapers, “ye shall also sometimes draw out for her some ears out of the handfuls”. Each of us, as reapers, should have handfuls from which we can draw out ears for the comfort, edification, stimulation and enjoyment of others. They were to draw out handfuls “and leave them that she may glean”.

Gleaning is a very blessed activity, is it not? It requires some effort to glean. You have to search for the corn first of all. Once the ear is identified, it has to be beaten out for your own satisfaction so that you make the most of it and utilise what is available. Sometimes we are a bit indolent, but beating out the ears requires attention and energy. Ruth “beat out what she had gleaned” (v.17). That is a very healthy exercise, meaning that we reflect upon and assimilate what we glean. We may gain an impression of Christ in our meetings, but then we need to beat it out. That is, as you consider and contemplate what you have received, something emerges in your soul that builds up your spiritual constitution, resulting in what is more pleasurable and more bountiful for the heart of God Himself.

In 1 Kings 17, the circumstances were difficult. Elijah, the great prophet of Jehovah at that time, encountered a widow woman. She was gathering two sticks, and she was wishing to die. What an outlook – wishing to die. She says she only has a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse; but one little impression of Christ is able to sustain us. Do you think the testimony is going to die out? There is still a handful of meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse. Something of Christ remains to bear us up, to see us through. In the address to Philadelphia (Rev.3:7-13), there is mention of “a little power” (v.8). It may be little, but a little power enables you to go through the opened door into that realm of divine purpose so blessed, and to enjoy these sublime relationships that are available to us. A little power brings us into these things. How we should desire to know, in dependence and humility, something of what belongs to Philadelphia. A handful of meal would not look very much in a big barrel, but it was sufficient to sustain the widow and her son and Elijah for a full year. It was a whole year, a complete exercise, and there was divine provision available for it. We encounter testing issues, ongoing situations and circumstances in our lives, but for a whole year they were sustained by the handful of meal and a little oil. The Holy Spirit’s power, represented in the oil, is available to us in that way, but also the handful of meal, suggestive of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus to meet our every need.

The handful will continue until the end of the dispensation, when the Lord comes for His own. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Heb.13:8. He is ever with us. He is the Sustainer of life and He is also the Revealer of secrets (see note, Gen.41:45). He is the Bread of life too, the true bread that comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world (John 6:32,33). The handful of meal will sustain us right to the journey’s end. We may think it too little, but it is all-sufficient to take us to that long-expected moment when the Lord Jesus Himself shall come and take us to be with Him. Then it will be no longer a little handful of meal, but Christ there in all His glory, His all-sufficiency, and we will be with Him eternally. But He remains available to us in the present time, and the Holy Spirit is always with us. There is resource for whatever circumstance we may encounter.

May we be encouraged by these things. My thought is simply, that the handful is available and is sufficient for every exercise. You and I can gather up a handful and, from it, draw out some food for the edification of another. That is how the local assembly prospers; we build up each other in that way, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith”, Jude v.20. That is an individual matter but collectively, the aggregate of it contributes to the blessing of all. It is the economy of local assemblies, how they work together to produce a positive result. It says in our scripture in Genesis “and put the food in the cities; the food of the fields of the city”. Each city has its own field, and so, in the economy of local assemblies, each local assembly is self-sufficient in that way. But the economy of local assemblies also means that, while they are self-sufficient, each one works in cooperation with the others. It is the practical, mutual working out of the blessed fellowship into which all believers are called, the fellowship of God’s Son (1 Cor.1:9).

May our hearts be encouraged, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh

1 August 2023

Jim T Brown