(ii) ‘THIS GOOD LAND’
Henry Hutson
Deuteronomy 8: 7-9 (to “nothing”); 26: 1-11
These passages came to mind as our beloved brother finished speaking, especially the reference to the springs and satisfaction, ‘this good land’. There are two accounts of it in chapter 8 and in chapter 11 where it is particularly in contrast to the land of Egypt, but chapter 8 is full of the goodness of Jehovah who brought them there. He brought them through the wilderness to humble them and to know the words which the Lord Jesus Himself quoted, “man doth not live by bread alone, but by everything that goeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live” (v.3). As our brother has said, at times like this we look for what comes from the mouth of Jehovah, something that would refresh. There are these thoughts, “waterbrooks … springs”, as the Lord Jesus has said of the living water – “shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14), and then “deep waters”. We believe the beloved brethren would have touched something of the deep waters in the occasion at Sunbury and doubtless in the other occasions held over the past weekend, some sense of what springs up in freshness and vitality through the Spirit’s grace and power; and then, as our brother has said, there are the wonderful fruits so that there is complete satisfaction, “thou shalt lack nothing”. What a wonderful thing! Our land is not a material one, our land is a heavenly land and we can, through grace, touch it. The land, of which the Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare you a place … I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”, John 14: 3.
Our brother referred to bearing fruit and I thought that we have in chapter 8 the fulness of the supply from God’s side and in chapter 26 we have some sense of the return that is looked for. It was so in the remarkable way the conversation with the woman at Sychar’s well turned in relation to the great matter of the worship of God, “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth”, John 4: 23. We would have some sense of that in what comes in here, that this beloved man, as bringing his basket and the fruits of the land, comes in some sense into what is really in truth, his heart is moved, there is reality and his spirit is moved too. We do not get that side so much in the Old Testament, but no doubt it was there in holy men of old. So, this man comes and presents it to the priest. How precious that is as we think of what is under the hand of the Lord Jesus and what we can bring that He, so to say, would lead us into, “him who is God and Father” (1 Cor. 15: 24), in some sense of the blessedness of the portion that is ours as “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Eph. 1: 3. I just submit these few thoughts as trusting that they may further what was in the mind and heart of our beloved brother and what the Lord might say to us tonight. In His precious Name.