STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS
W. Dickson
2 Corinthians 12: 7–9; 1 Kings 20: 26–29; Psalm 84: 1–7
When the Jews returned from Babylon and built the wall they were in great weakness. It was a small remnant that returned. They were marked by much devotion and a considerable degree of fear and trembling, so much so that in the passage we read earlier they were encouraged that “The joy of Jehovah is your strength”, Nehemiah 8: 10. In these prevalent conditions of weakness they had to look to God Himself for their strength, support, and help.
There is no doubt, beloved brethren, and I do not need to emphasize it in the least, that we live in conditions of weakness at the present time. There is numerical weakness generally, and weakness in the number of our gatherings, and in these circumstances we have to find our strength outside of ourselves. It is one of the lessons that the Lord is teaching His people these days, the blessedness of finding their strength outside of themselves in another source and in another Person altogether.
Man is naturally an independent creature, his whole environment is built up in the sense that he feels able to cope with things himself, only it is very evident if you look at the public scene that he is totally unable to cope with things. There is not a sphere, economically, politically, or in the sense of what is moral, in which man is able to cope. His inability and his weakness are manifest, and what is more solemn is that in that manifest weakness he knows no source outside of himself to turn to; but a believer does. That is the great difference between a person who is in the possession of the Holy Spirit and a person who is not. The former has a source he can turn to outside of himself, a proved source. Oft-times in an emergency men derive passing help from a certain source, and when they resort to it again in another emergency it is unavailing, but not so the believer. No matter what the crisis, the test, or the situation that the believer, or the testimony, is found in, in turning to that source outside of ourselves we find it is still the same, still abundant, still powerful, still free, in supplying what is needed for that moment.
Now I want to turn to these scriptures to show how, in conditions of outward weakness, there was a sense of the power and strength of God, over and above those conditions. I turn to Paul in Corinthians, and while it is largely what we call a levitical experience he relates (it was his experience as a minister entrusted with light from God, having received this great revelation as taken up to the third heaven), there is in it what is of profound help which abides as an instruction and an encouragement to us. Paul says that a thorn for the flesh was given to him and it was not to be taken away, even after three requests that it should be. In that sense, beloved brethren—bear with me in the use of the word—it remained with him governmentally all his life. In other words, there was a circumstance attached to his life that remained. We find that often in our personal histories, that there is something that the Lord has to bring in just to take us out of any self-sufficiency we have in our own strength, and it remains with us. It may be in the disposition of the Lord as to where He places us. It may be in a matter of health, or physical afflictions which, humanly speaking, would impair our efficiency and our enjoyment of divine things. I am sure we have said at least once in our lives in regard to a certain thing, ‘I would have been better without this’, or at least we have said, ‘I perhaps could get on better in another place’. In other words, the flesh has raised a certain resentment in our spirits against an imposition that the Lord has placed upon us in His ways, and in His government.
Now, beloved brethren, the Lord loves us; we know that. He loves us, every one of us. There is not a believer in this room, and let me say there is not a believer anywhere who has trusted His precious blood, but the Lord loves them. Now let us think of that. As we contemplate the loaf on a Lord’s day morning, let us never forget that, the Lord’s love for His own. As knowing that, and as conscious of it, coming down to ourselves, we get that assurance, though we feel so weak at times in the circumstance in which the Lord may place us.
Paul says, “I thrice besought the Lord that it might depart from me”. He besought the Lord thrice, and I think you know the reason the Lord did not remove it. If the Lord had, so to speak, endorsed the thought that Paul would have been a more effective servant without it.
He would have taken it away—but in leaving it, it was to bring out in Paul where the source of his strength lay. It lay not in himself, not in his own power, not in his own ability, and not in his own mind; it lay in grace—“My grace suffices thee”. Has every one of us learned in circumstances of great weakness what the power of grace can do, when circumstances have been overwhelming governmentally? You know, brethren, we are all suffering governmentally today for the history of things. That is a solemn fact. To say that we are suffering governmentally does not necessarily mean that we are the subject of God’s government in regard to sin we have done. What I am saying is that there is a certain governmental position, and we are all suffering from it in the loss of our families, the loss of our brethren, and the general declension of things. How do you carry on?—“My grace suffices thee”. In other words the Lord is telling us, ‘I could give more brethren; I could move miraculously in the healing of things in the divisions that have taken place’. He could do that, but His word to us is, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness”. Paul says he will rather boast in his weaknesses, “that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me”.
Now there is a difference between “My grace” and “the power of the Christ”. “My grace” is the divine supply that comes into your spirit in meeting the exercise, but “the power of the Christ” is a reference to His priesthood. It is a reference to the place He occupies on high as the Priest, and who has not in times of weakness been thankful for the strengthening power of our Priest? Oh, the priestly service of Christ!—when you felt things so overwhelming, to find the power of the Christ ‘dwelling’. Now that word ‘dwelling’ is ‘tabernacle’. In other words there is a certain state of contentment and restfulness in your links with divine Persons. No matter how weak you are and however testing the circumstance may be, “the power of the Christ”, the power of His priestly service, is available at all times. Some of you, dear brethren, are in very small conditions; perhaps you are the only person in a place. You may feel so weak that you cannot take the step which you feel inwardly you should take and which the Lord is laying upon you. Remember, “My grace suffices thee”, and the power of Christ will rest, upon you.
In 1 Kings 20 we find not so much an individual thought as a collective thought. The whole power of the Syrians was ranged against Israel at that time. The opposition was formidable. It is a reference to the whole world power as arrayed against the testimony of God. The forces of this world are arrayed against all that the people of God seek to hold for Himself. Syria represents that. It says that “the children of Israel were numbered and victualled”. It is a reference to our local meetings. We have had to get down to that, to numbering our local meetings, so that if one is absent our hearts go up—Where is he tonight?’, ‘Where is she tonight?’ In days of weakness every one is valuable.
That old sister who cannot get out to the meetings for the burden of her age and her bodily weakness—Oh, she is valuable, she is numbered, and perhaps her prayers are going to do something to the Syrian host. Her prayers are going to be effective. And it says they were victualled, they were fed. Why does the Lord set responsible men in a locality? He sets them there so that God’s people are fed.
The responsibility of a brother of weight and experience in any meeting is to ensure that the saints are fed. There will be no power to stand against weakness, there will be no power to stand against the enemy, unless they are numbered and victualled. It could have said numbered and fed, but it does not say that. It means that they were supplied with good substantial food. Mr. Taylor used to warn us to beware of novelties. Value the Scriptures; keep them constantly before you, and regulate what is ministered in the light of the Scriptures and in the framework of the ministries that the Lord has given, because while under the Spirit in these days there is what is fresh, in the light of the revelation of God there is nothing new.
We accept that. An old brother in Scotland used to say, ‘If it is new, it is not true; if it is true, it is not new’. Not that what you get is not fresh, but the revelation of God is complete and the ministries of the recovery, the accredited ministries, have brought out its scope for us to explore, so that we get these fresh touches.
Israel were, it says, “like two little flocks of goats; but the Syrians filled the land”. Goats do not normally go in flocks; I have never seen a flock of goats in my life. It is wonderful what christianity can do, wonderful what can be done under the power of grace. Think of that flock of goats at Antioch in Acts 13. Barnabas, Saul, Niger, a coloured man, one out of Herod’s palace, and so on. There they were, that little flock of goats, and their strength lay in the spiritual significance of that word ‘goat’. That is, they understood something of the power of separation being maintained; not separation based on legal precept, but the idea of the goat is that separation comes from holiness and a desire that things might be preserved and maintained for the pleasure of God. There is no power so great in dealing with the Syrian hosts as a little company of people, separate from the world and all that marks it, walking in the light as God is in the light and having fellowship with one another. They can defeat the Syrians. It is so and it will be so, provided we find our strength, our support and our resource in the Spirit.
In Psalm 84 we find what relates more to the privilege side. It says, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts!”, another link with the thought of the tabernacle. Then, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God”. How expressive that is, is it not, of the desires that the Holy Spirit would put in the heart of believers that they long not only for the company of God Himself, known in their individual circumstances, but they long for the company of God in His dwelling, in His own place. Is everybody in this room like that? Does your heart cry out for the living God? Do you long for His tabernacles? Do you long for the gathering of God’s people, where God is served, where His name is cherished? “Thine altars”, it says; why does it refer to the altars? It is a reference to the service of God.
I was speaking just this week to a young man who used to be with us and I said to him, ‘Do you never long for the Lord’s supper?’ Does your heart never long for the Lord’s supper? Here it is—“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah ... Blessed are they that dwell in thy house—they will be constantly praising thee” and “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee—they, in whose heart are the highways”. O, beloved, are the highways in our hearts? If the highways are in your heart you will long for the tabernacles, you will long for the altars, you will long for the dwelling-place of God. If the highways are in your heart you will love them. You will love what is collective. “Blessed ... they, in whose heart are the highways”; it is a reference to the Israelites when they were far away from Jerusalem; as the feast of booths came round they would say, “How amiable are thy tabernacles”. In other words, they were saying, ‘We wish we were there’. In their heart were the highways; they were thinking of the road back, up to Jerusalem, up to Zion, up to the service of God.
Then it says, “Passing through the valley of Baca”, that is, the valley of tears. Sometimes the road up to the feast of booths is a valley, of Baca. Some of us have proved that, many here have proved it, that the road up to the tabernacles is sometimes, oft-times, a valley of Baca. It means weeping, it means testing, it means sorrow, but it says “they make it a well-spring”. Oh, can you make the valley of Baca a well-spring? Can you get the help of the Holy Spirit as you go up that road? As you go up the valley of Baca, and the tears and exercises of it burden you, can you make it a well-spring? Have you power in the Holy Spirit? Can you draw on the resources in the Scriptures? “The early rain covereth it with blessings”. How thankful we are for that! And the valley of Baca has been for many not a wholly desolate place. We have found that the early rain has covered it with blessings. I understand that if you walked along the valley of Baca and you saw a crevice in the road, there would be water in it. Every sorrow brings its own recompense and the comfort that the Lord gives.
It says, “They go from strength to strength”. Now that is not altogether a cumulative thought. It does not mean that you have some strength, then you get some more, and as you move on you get yet more strength. “They go from strength to strength” means that in each step you take in the valley of Baca you get strength for that step. In other words it is to keep you absolutely and perfectly dependent in every step you take. If it were not so, beloved brethren, we would be self-sufficient and say, ‘I am strong enough, I can take the next step because I am strong’; but to go “from strength to strength” means that every step you take along that road, up to the tabernacles of God, you get grace and help and strength for that step. You say, ‘Oh, I can never take that step’. You will get grace for it if you take it. ‘I cannot take the next step’. You take it; you will get grace for it, and the next step, you will get grace for that.
“They go from strength to strength”, and then it says, “each one will appear before God in Zion”. There is no record in Scripture of anybody who lost his way going up to Zion. It says in Isaiah 35: 8 that the way is so simple that even fools shall not err therein. Why? Because you go from strength to strength, and every step you take in dependence on God He will lead you up to the great climax of His house.
Let us be more dependent, brethren. Let us rely more on the Holy Spirit. Let us rely more on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us trust God more. Faith is not a blind thing. People speak of ‘blind faith’. There is no such thing. God gives you strength for every step you take, and may all in this room today, some of us feeling very weak in ourselves, prove the strength and help that comes from God for each circumstance, for His name’s sake.
Address at Rotherham
14 October 1978