POTENTIAL IN THE COMING GENERATION
W. Dickson
2 Samuel 19: 37–43; 1 Kings 19: 19–21; 2 Kings 9: 1–10
It has been a matter of thought, and conversation also, amongst the brethren as to the potentiality of the coming generation. We were speaking of the mysterious character of the work of God, and it is quite reviving to ponder what God may be working out, what He may be promoting secretly, in the hearts of our younger brethren. The scripture in Ecclesiastes speaks about the bones forming in the womb of her that is with child (see Ecclesiastes 11: 5), such being the work of God, a secret thing. But the day comes when something comes to light of a formed character, a man-child, able to take his place in the testimony (see John 16: 21).
I want to speak of these three young men in the passages read. Each of them had a secret history, and the day came when, almost suddenly, God called them into His work and His service. It appears that God was watching, watching their progress. He was tracing with the divine eye what was going on, and when the situation arose that He needed a young man for a particular juncture of the testimony, he was there and God took him up immediately, and in taking him up what came to light was that the young man had definite spiritual formation.
Our thoughts turn in that relation to Chimham, as set against the weakness and indefiniteness of Barzillai. Barzillai felt the call of David to go over to the heavenly land was more than he could undertake, but he said, “But behold thy servant Chimham—let him go over with my lord the king”. If there is an inability through weariness or weakness to go over, a Chimham (this is the only time he is mentioned in the Scriptures) comes on to our view all at once. The alacrity with which Chimham went with David is quite interesting. He did not say, ‘I am attached to Barzillai; I am fully furnished in Barzillai’s house and I think I will have to give this matter a little consideration’. He did not say that. O, beloved young people, when the heavenly land beckons, you want to go at once; be like Chimham and let Christ take you over at once. You would be far better off with the true David on the other side of the Jordan than in Barzillai’s household.
Then it says, “And the king went on to Gilgal ...”. Chimham might have said, ‘I had not expected this. I thought it would be a straight journey to Jerusalem, right straight to Jerusalem not via Gilgal’. We have to learn that if we are going with Christ the man after the flesh has to go. In that sphere of things over Jordan where Christ is supreme there is no place for the flesh, no place for the man after the flesh. What Chimham faced at Gilgal would enable him to get clear of his attachment to Barzillai’s house, but it also prepared him for the next test.
This test was an even stronger one to face than the first one, and what he found was this, that the brethren were divided (2 Samuel 19: 41–43). He had not expected this. Chimham loved David, but it must have been a test to him that the tribes were quarrelling as to whom David belonged. Did he turn back? No, he did not turn back. Chimham went on, he went on with David and he reached Jerusalem, typically he reached the height of the purpose of God in affection for Christ. I would say to younger brethren. Follow Christ; get a bond of attachment to Christ. While Barzillai called attention to him, I think Chimham had a bond of attachment to David, and in that way he stood the test of Gilgal and he stood the test of the divided conditions amongst the brethren. Have we all the moral stamina to go on despite the divided conditions that might exist? What will help you to go on? Love for Christ, love for the truth, love for the testimony, love for the brethren; all that will help you to go on to Jerusalem.
Now, as to Elisha. This scripture was referred to last night and I was impressed with the sudden nature of Elisha’s call. He was ploughing with twelve yokes before him, and he was with the twelfth. I think that had some bearing on the secret history which we have referred to. He was a diligent man, and we will not get very far without diligence. We have, to use a word, to ‘go in for things’, to go in wholeheartedly for the things of God. Elisha was a skilled man; he was skilled in the manipulation of things; he was efficient. We should not dread that word ‘efficiency’; “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2: 15)—that is efficiency. Elisha was a workman, and he was able in due course to cut in a straight line the word of truth. Now it says in verse 21, “And he (Elijah) said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them ...” (1 Kings 19: 21). What this scripture brings out, beloved brethren, is that if the Lord lays His hand on you in service, your immediate sphere of responsibility is your first charge.
There is no promotion into the wider area of prophetic service without the diligence that stands related to the immediate area of your local meeting.
Elisha took the implements of the oxen and he killed the oxen and boiled their flesh and gave it to the people. He served in grace in the immediate sphere in which he was.
Beloved young brethren, your local company is the great sphere of education. It is so for all of us, old or young. We go back home, those of us who serve a little, and we will have to merge with our brethren, our local meeting. The local brethren have got to be fed. That is what Elisha did, he fed them with boiled flesh. Typically, Christ was made available, made available locally in the way of food for His people. He was a skilful man, and he knew that to make this food available he had to boil it. He made the truth of the death of Christ available so as to be assimilated amongst the brethren. There is a lot of food amongst us. I sometimes wonder if it is assimilated enough. The priest got the jawbone, he masticated. He would leave such gatherings and he would say, ‘Well, I have to chew this over. I have got to get the gain of this in the way of spiritual appropriation’.
I turn to this other young man in 2 Kings 9. This is one of the most remarkable passages in Scripture, in fact, it is unique. Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets. Now, there were many; at one stage in the Scriptures it says there were fifty of them, fifty sons of the prophets.
There must have been a few hundred in circulation at this time, yet Elisha took one of them.
Now, how did he know which one to take? He must have known something about that young man and that there was some reliability with him, that there was some stamina in a spiritual sense, because this message with which he was entrusted was a very heavy message. I can imagine this young man saying, ‘Well, I do not think I am able for this. This is
a very heavy message you are asking me to take and I do not feel able for it’. The Lord will give you grace for anything that He wants you to do. He will furnish you. You need not say you are not able for it. This young man did not decline, he went, taking the message. What comes out was that he said more to Jehu than he was instructed to say, and yet what he said was the truth. Now what I want to bring out of that is that this young man must have been listening; as we would say, he had been listening in the meetings. He had heard the history of things. He was not idling or casual; he must have been listening, and he knew that there was more to Elisha’s message than Elisha had told him. He possibly remembered what Elijah had been told in regard to this very matter, so he went in and delivered his message.
But Elisha says, “Open the door, and flee, and tarry not”. Why was that? Elisha saw the danger. He saw that young man going to Jehu with a message like that, ‘Jehu, you are going to be anointed king’, and all the implications of it. What an opportunity for exaltation at the hands of Jehu. So Elisha said, “Open the door, and flee, and tarry not”. It is like a young brother sitting in the ministry meeting, feeling the word burning inside him, and would like to give it. The Lord would have you give it, but after, “Open the door, and flee, and tarry not”.
Get up, give your message, and flee. ‘Flee, you say, ‘What do you mean by that?’ Do not wait for the compliments. Do not wait for what will damage you. That is the way to progress in prophetic speaking. Get the message from the Lord, give it as from the Lord, and get out of sight. The testimony calls for prophets! We need prophets today, men that can deliver the message, shut the door, and flee. They do not wait for the compliments.
I do trust that these passages will show you how God can suddenly lay His hands on a young person with a secret history and make him very effective in the testimony at a time of need.
May we know it! for His name’s sake. Amen.
Address at Grimsby
18 September 1982