THE ASSEMBLY APPRECIATED BY CHRIST
I have read these passages of Scripture, dear brethren, with the desire to show how Christ appreciates the assembly. It is good that the assembly should always be in our minds and in our hearts for it is in a unique way the object of Christ’s affections, and it is also the masterpiece of God’s work. We find also a particular interest in it for we live in the assembly’s day, and when I say day, I mean the entire period between Pentecost and the coming of the Lord. What characterises such a day is the formation of the assembly, which includes all those who are called by divine grace by means of the gospel. God is concerned with the assembly and all those who serve in the word should serve in view of the assembly. It may be that they serve in what is elementary as with milk needed for babes, however even in this ministry it is necessary to have the assembly in view.
In the first passage read, we have a figure of the appreciation that Christ has of the assembly, seen as the result of divine work. In the other passages (Genesis 24 and 1 Samuel 25), it is in figure the appreciation that Christ has of the assembly on account of certain features brought into evidence in what she does herself. One must keep both aspects in mind. When the woman is brought to man, it is not said that the woman had some intelligent and affectionate part in this movement; she is formed entirely by the work of God, and it is by God that she is brought to man. But in the case of Rebecca, she is clearly determined to set herself in movement to go to Isaac. Then, in the case of Abigail, there is equally a fresh determination to go to David. Thus the features that mark Rebecca and Abigail are the result of their intelligence and their deliberation of heart that appreciates in each case that which pre-figures Christ.
In Genesis 2, there is no mention of Adam’s feelings of emotion in seeing the perfection and characteristics of the work of God in the woman, How marvellous the divine conception as to Christ, that he should have a helpmate, and not only a helpmate in a position of responsibility such as that in which Adam had been set by God, but this helpmate would correspond to him. He would not see the least disparity between her and himself. And we may wonder at such a divine conception, in understanding that God Himself works in persons called by the glad tidings to form a vessel which can definitely be a helpmate who corresponds to Christ. We know Jesus; we know who He is in His Person; we know that He is Himself God, although become Man in grace, not having in any way renounced what He is in His Deity, forsaking nothing, but coming in humility into humanity so as to be the Man in whom all God’s thoughts have their centre, He who would be Head over all. In the heavens and upon the earth, every family will depend on Him as Head and receive His influence so that a response might be assured to God for eternity. And this is not all, for God will be expressed in all that will be expressed. If one thinks of the creatures as having been made by God, they all express life in one way or another. Some creatures can express the divine glory more distinctly than others. The books of Job and Proverbs give the details of certain creatures that represent features of divine glory. A horse, for example, although it is an unclean animal that should not be eaten, presents at the same time features of divine glory: the horse smells the battle, smells it from afar, and engages in it quickly. It does not draw back when the conflict comes, it is not afraid. This is a feature of divine glory: if there is conflict, God enters into the conflict. Similarly, a lion represents a feature of divine glory, majesty, and it turns not aside for any. We can understand that the different creatures being brought to Adam by God so that he should name them, Adam manifested the wisdom that God had placed in him in that he was able to discern the particular features of divine glory that each animal presented, and gave it a name according to those features, and the name he gave it was its name. What a tribute to the marvellous wisdom which was in Adam! He named everything correctly. Whatever name he gave was confirmed by God. But then, different creatures coming under Adam’s consideration, each named by him, he did not find a single one that fully corresponded to him. God had said, “It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him a helpmate his like”. Among all the animals brought to Adam there was not a single one that presented the idea of a helpmate his like. Whatever the features of divine glory they had presented, none of these features rose to the divine level of a helpmate his like. One can understand that man’s heart had experienced what was lacking, and I believe that it is the important point to see when Adam says, in seeing the woman brought to him: “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. Remarkable conception! The animals had been taken from the ground, but this is taken from Adam. “This shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”.
We know that work of formation is in fact still going on now. This is what is set before us in chapter 4 of the epistle to the Ephesians. The Man who has gone on high has given gifts in view of the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, v 12. It is said that God “formed” the woman, literally “built”, Gen 2: 22. This suggests successive operations. Building is not creating. There is an action which is going on, it is the edification of the body of Christ, the construction of the vessel which is to be Christ’s fulness. Evidently, Christ must die, and nothing of God’s work could have been effectuated without the accomplishment of redemption; I believe that what signifies morally the death of Christ is found in all God’s work in us. God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and while he slept he took one of the ribs from the man and closed up flesh in its stead. It is then that he formed, “built”, a woman for the man. As I have said, this formation, this edification, is going on now. The work of the ministry, ‘the work of service’, continues, having in view the edification, the construction of the body of Christ, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, Eph 4: 13. This is what is being effectuated. It is not to be considered as an abstract idea, as a picture on a wall; it is a definite thought that God has always had before Him since the day of Pentecost, and which He is pursuing currently in the power of the Spirit. This work is almost ready now, and inasmuch as we can see the saints moving together, we have something that represents what the assembly is: by recognising God’s work in the saints, we have the right to clothe them with God’s thoughts for them.
We can rest assured, dear brethren, that God is producing nothing in us that is not of Christ. He repudiates all that is not of Him. What we are naturally, this is not of Christ, and it is on account of what we are in our natural state that Christ had to die, so that before God the present order of man we have part in by nature is ended in death and is forever removed from God’s sight in burial. But what is marvellous is that God works in us, producing there, I repeat, what is of Christ and nothing other than what is of Christ. This work is marvellous, having as a definite result that the whole assembly will correspond perfectly to Christ as Man. There will be nothing superfluous, and nothing lacking; all will answer perfectly to Christ, will be the body of Christ, will be Christ’s fulness. Yes, all this has been conceived by God Himself. Christ has already “ascended up above all the heavens”, exalted “above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named”, and God has given Him to be “head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Eph 1: 22, 23. The Spirit of God considers the assembly as being complete, He sees it according to God’s point of view, and it says that it is “the fulness of him who fills all in all”. With what pleasure the Lord considers the assembly! If Adam says: “This time” it is that deep feelings fill his heart in the presence of the marvellous being that God brings to him, entirely of him, and qualified to be “a helpmate” in that she is like him. She is there, a distinct person, with her personality, with the beauty which is her own, with her own affections, with her own intelligence; nevertheless, there is in her not the least thing that has not come from Adam: “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. God is only producing in the saints what is morally of Christ and I believe that we can say with certainty that in seeing the definite result of the work of God, the heart of Christ is moved. I put this before you, dear brethren, so that you may receive in your spirits some impressions of what the assembly is for Christ. It is very appropriate to take account of this on the first day of the week, in the measure in which faith and power operate in us by the Spirit, and to have the feeling that there is, under the eye of Christ, in a representative way, what speaks to Him of the assembly, what is so precious to Him, what is in principle, the helpmate His like.
Let us pass to Genesis 24. It is said that “Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi”, that is to say, from ‘The Well of Living who reveals Himself’, an allusion to the character in which the Holy Spirit is down here in this dispensation, in accord with the full revelation of God. Beer-sheba is also a type of the Spirit, but presented I believe as having place with ourselves through our personal exercises; this is why many things are said about Beer-sheba: the well is dug, there is contesting for the wells, etc; however, as far as I remember, it is not said that the well at Lahai-roi was dug, but simply that it was there. It therefore represents in this way the Spirit down here in this dispensation, introducing the full revelation of God and making it effective. It is evidently in Christ that God is revealed, but in this respect the Spirit is down here to make this revelation effective. It is from thence that Isaac is returning, showing how the Lord must be considered, the One who finds His pleasure to have the assembly with Himself, so that, being under His hand, she responds to the way God is made known in such a marvellous revelation.
We can see in Rebecca a person to whom a testimony has been presented and who responds to it. This is not exactly the result of the work of God but rather a person who responds to a testimony that is presented to them. It is indeed evident that if we respond to a testimony that God presents to us, it is because there is a work of God in us and we are led to respond to this testimony. However, we know how to discern this particular point of view presented to us in the Scripture. As we know, Rebecca was of Isaac’s kindred. She knew her genealogy. She could speak of it. It is good that we too should be able to speak of our own genealogy, taking account of ourselves as born of God. And born of God, as the fruit of the work of God, we are of Christ, of His order of manhood, “both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”, Heb 2: 11. We have to take account of this. Rebecca could therefore speak of her lineage, knowing of whom she was the daughter and granddaughter. Then, she was characterised by certain features which characterise us equally, which show that are faithful to our birth, that God’s work is in us, that we manifest what is of God in us. It is possible that the work of God in us might be obscured but Rebecca expressed the work of God in her, from whom she was descended. It is first said that she was a virgin; that she had kept herself from all that could defile her. Paul anxious about this with the Corinthians, desiring that that there should be no doubt that they were, as subjects of God’s work born of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus. He expresses his anxiety as to this: “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ”, 2 Cor 11: 3. He desired to present them to Christ “as a chaste virgin”. He was very much occupied with their features of chastity, of purity in a world of defilement.
That is what was found in Rebecca. It speaks to us first of the beauty of her countenance, and it then says that she was a virgin. This is not all, for she was not only marked by what was morally suitable, but by certain spiritual features. She was accustomed to going down to the well every day, with her pitcher on her shoulder, which indicates the energy that marked her. She went down to the fountain, drew water and served the servant using the pitcher. The pitcher has a remarkable place in this chapter, as if Rebecca is identified with her pitcher. Not only is a person born of God seen, but also a person who appreciates the Spirit of God, ready to give Him all the place He needs and not only on certain occasions but each day, for that is her life. Every day, she went down to the well with “her pitcher upon her shoulder”. The question, dear brethren, is therefore to know if we are marked by these spiritual features which belong to those who are born of God, who appreciate the Spirit of God.
Thus marked by these features, Rebecca received the testimony that related to Isaac, the beloved son of his father. The servant testified to the fact that his master had had a son to whom “unto him has he given all that he has”. Have you received this testimony as to Christ? “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. Have you some idea of the existence of another world that has the Son of the Father’s love for its centre? Does this occupy our minds, dear beloved brethren? Or are we preoccupied with what fills the present age, with what can be seen? The Spirit of God is come to render testimony to the fact that “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, that there is another world of which the Father is the Originator and of which the Son is the Centre. The Spirit being come to attach us to Christ, so that Christ should have her of which Rebecca is a figure. Such is the testimony presented to Rebecca, the testimony that she received, about which her mother and her brother said that the thing proceeded from God. Up to this point, everything is relatively simple, but the servant had no time to lose; he would not stay a single night; in the morning, he said that he had to go. Evidently, we are set in movement when the Lord comes. Yes, the whole assembly will be set in movement towards Christ then, but it is matter of knowing if we are ready to move now. Laban and her mother said: “Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten”. It was a suggestion to lose time, to accept the testimony in an abstract sense, without responding immediately. The servant said: “Do not hinder me”. They call the young maiden and ask her: “Wilt thou go with this man?” She replies, “I will go”. One can understand what pleasure it would have been to the heart of Isaac when the servant told him how Rebecca had said, “I will go”, when it had been suggested that she remain several days. This way of acting must have commended her to Isaac, and how it commends us to the heart of Christ if He sees us decided to move with the Spirit to enter into spiritual things! The world is not here what could keep us back, but more natural ties. All the rights of nature were be supplanted with Rebecca by the call of the servant and by the testimony he rendered to the son, he to whom Abraham had given all that he had.
Rebecca acts. She arose, she and her maids, “and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man”. She says, “I will go”, and she went. It is not enough to have good desires, good impulses, but it is a matter of continuing. In one of the Psalms, David says, “One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek”, Ps 27: 4. It is happy when there are good desires in the heart; but it is only happy if the desires are really followed. “Rebecca arose, and her maids”. He exercised influence over them. If someone is set in movement, others also will be set in movement. And notice the accent placed on the feminine idea as answering to the man. Rebecca had her maids. Abigail also had her own, and Esther also. This feminine thought is accented in different types of the assembly as if God loves to see this develop and extend. Then it is said that “the servant took Rebecca and went away”.
Now Isaac lifted up his eyes and saw camels coming: “behold, camels were coming”. Note this, it is a bit like “this time” in Genesis 2. “Behold”, as if the Spirit of God would have us understand that the heart of Isaac would be moved in seeing that camels were coming, a collective movement in his direction. It is not said that it was Rebecca who arrived, but it is a matter of a concrete movement in the power of the Spirit of God in Isaac’s direction. It is that which the Lord loves to see, especially when we are together, that there is a movement together in the direction of Himself in the power of the Spirit of God, who can call a true response from the assembly for Himself. It is possible to have a good movement towards someone but the Lord loves to see a movement together: “behold, camels were coming”. The Spirit of God unifies the saints in the appreciation of Christ to whom they belong and to whom they are united. The Lord particularly appreciates this promptness in answering now to the testimony of the Spirit, for preferring what is spiritual to what is natural, to move with the saints directed to Himself in the unity of the Spirit. I believe that this particular pleasure to the heart of Christ, who sees real value in the assembly as such features are manifested: “behold, camels were coming”. The mention even of the wells of Lahai-roi (on which the chapter is not extended) indicates that the Lord appreciates the assembly united to Him in affection, to express a response in the way in which God is presented in revelation.
I pass now to Abigail. It is about the present position, Christ being rejected. David was rejected although having been anointed in chapter 17 of this first book of Samuel; his rights could not therefore be doubted. He had indeed been anointed by God; but he was nevertheless rejected by Saul, rejected by Nabal. But he had sent his companions, ten young men whom he sent to Nabal saying to them, “go to Nabal, and salute him in my name”; we read that they spoke to Nabal “in the name of David”. This is the position we occupy currently, dear brethren, while we move together in the fellowship of the God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and also in the fellowship of His death, for we have accepted the fact that He is rejected down here. This is the fellowship to which the Name of the Lord Jesus is attached, a fellowship full of dignity, 1 Cor 1: 9. And these rights are recognised only by those who invoke His Name. David’s young men therefore salute Nabal in His Name, but Nabal replies harshly to them: “Who is David?” adding, “There are many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master”, as if to pour opprobrium on the position of separation, which however was according to God, the divinely ordered position and divinely maintained. God was not with Saul; He was not with Nabal; He was with David. Now Abigail manifests her true worth and David says to her, “blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou”. She discerned the times and discerned what was righteous in God’s sight; she disavows Nabal and presents herself to David with great gifts. All the saints with whom the heart of Christ is occupied, those who are ready to remember Him, those who reject all that is opposed to His rights, they are able to bring with themselves a certain wealth derived from God’s work in them, the appreciation they have of Christ, the appreciation they have of the brethren, all this represents a true wealth which can be presented in fellowship. In bringing this wealth, Abigail can say, “let it be given to the young men that follow my lord”. She shows in this her affection for David in being faithful to the fellowship. Dear brethren, you say that you love Christ, but are you faithful to the fellowship? This is important for the Name of the Lord is attached to the fellowship, and you cannot just affirm your love for Christ if you are not ready to abide faithful to the fellowship. Abigail showed her affection for David by being ready to commit herself to the fellowship, and she brings all this wealth into the position of rejection in which David is found: “let it be given to the young men that follow my lord”. Abigail’s movement had hindered David from his vengeance. There was no doubt a certain weakness in David, in that he was prepared to do himself justice; but I suppose we can also say that the judgment that the world merits for rejecting Christ, which will surely fall, is deferred because of the presence of saints faithful to Christ. As long as they are there, faithful to Christ, the judgment that the world merits is held back; but when all the faithful have been taken away from the world, then there will only remain down here that which calls down divine judgment, which will justly fall on this world.
David says: “blessed be thy discernment”. He appreciates it. She has righteous thoughts as to him and righteous thoughts as to Nabal. “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him”. She repudiates him in a true estimation of the fellowship, ready to sustain it while having a humble mind as to herself, as she answers those who come to seek her to become David’s wife: “Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”. We need to have our feet washed as long as we remain down here. This woman does not enter into fellowship, counting on others, counting on their love. Her language is that. All that I desire to know is to love the brethren; all that I desire to be able to do is to wash their feet. One can rest assured that the Lord appreciates such a spirit. One can understand how David had to appreciate it. She “became his wife”, which is not exactly to say that she became united in the body of heavenly privilege, but united in the position of opprobrium that marks the present time. What comfort for David in this position, in her who sought nothing for herself but she only desired “to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”. It is thus that the Lord has a great appreciation of the assembly.
May we have a just appreciation of the assembly according to its different aspects, what she is as the result of God’s work on the one hand, a helpmate for Christ, a helpmate His like, what she is in her movements in response to the Spirit, putting spiritual things before natural things, what she is in her readiness to have part in the rigours implied in the rejection of Christ in the spirit of love which knows to abase itself lower even than the brethren as a servant who washes the feet of the servants.
May God give us the grace to be marked by these features!
MARGATE
8th October 1955
From Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle
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