THE END OF THE DISPENSATION IN POWER

J. Mitchell

Judges 16: 21–31; Zechariah 4: 1–14

I seek from these passages, dear brethren, to say a word about the end closing in power. We know that the beginning of the dispensation opened in power. Even a casual reader of the early chapters of Acts would have to admit that. The coming in of the Spirit was in power.

Considering who the Spirit is, it could not be otherwise, and if you think too of the circumstances related to the coming in of the Spirit, that is the Lord going through death, coming out of it, and then enthroned as a Man on high, it would have been morally impossible for the dispensation to commence other than in power. But we have often been reminded that there is a moral similarity between the end and what was there at the beginning; not exactly an outward likeness because the assembly was intact at the beginning, and at the end we are in broken days as we shall see from both of these passages.

Nevertheless, even though we are in broken days, the dispensation is going to end in spiritual power. I seek in some small measure, beloved brethren, to encourage one another on that line because I think it is necessary. We need to have our eyes and our affections directed in this wise, to see that the dispensation is going to close in power. There is a verse in Ecclesiastes which reads, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning” (Ecclesiastes 7: 8). That has been very much in one’s mind. As we look abroad, currently, that might seem a very difficult thing to understand, but I believe, beloved brethren, if we are with God, and we are subject to the Spirit, we will see that there is, at present, spiritual power among the saints that is going to ensure that the dispensation will close in power. On the public side there is much to humble and to sorrow over. There is an expression of Mr. Lyon of which I am very fond. He used to speak of John, in the early chapters of

Revelation, as the broken-hearted churchman, and I think that is something that ought to mark us as we consider the public state of the assembly. We need broken-hearted churchmen who feel what has come in, and has spoiled what is for the heart of Christ. Nevertheless, alongside of that, there is the need to see that the Spirit of God is still here, and still operating, and He is bringing in power among the saints so that the days in which we are will end in power.

Now Samson sets that out in some measure. His history was mixed but it was marked by power. Earlier in Judges 16 he took the doors of the gate of the city and the posts, and carried them up to the top of the mountain before Hebron; nothing could stand in his way. The power of God was evidenced in Samson. He took on the Philistines and there was nothing the Philistines could do about it. He was a mystery to them; he was, speaking very simply, a thorn in their flesh. No man could stand in the presence of Samson. Such was the power that was exercised in the coming in of the Spirit. There is a certain analogy to a river in the chapters in the beginning of the Acts. A river flows on a particular course, and though men might tamper with it, they even dam it up, but one thing they cannot do, is to stop a river; there is power in a river, it goes on inexorably, and there is no man able to invent some system of bringing a river to a halt. In the early chapters of the Acts, the whole opposition of Satan was against the saints, but they went on in power, and the whole of the enemy’s power had to give way to them. Nothing could stop them. The testimony went forward in a powerful way, and whatever man did, and whatever Satan did, the testimony was not hindered one whit. That is very beautiful. But then very soon declension came in and that was the case with Samson.

Samson loved a Philistine woman; that, of course, was his downfall. The subtlety of her ways with him, is but a type of the way that the enemy has acted in the

dispensation. It is a subtle underhand way that he has operated to gain the affections of the saints, and thus to weaken them in relation to Christ, and Samson comes nearer and nearer to disclosing the secret of his power till finally it is disclosed. Then his power is gone. What a sobering thing that is. Where we read it says, “And the Philistines seized him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gazah, and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he had to grind in the prison-house”. As we translate that into our dispensation, beloved brethren, the situation would bring out the affections of the broken-hearted churchmen. As lovers of Christ we should feel what the world has done to what belongs to Him. It should give us a thorough judgment of the world. Samson at the end says, “that I may take one vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes”. Now you might say that vengeance is inappropriate to our dispensation. I want to draw a distinction between persons and the system. It is right that we should have a thorough judgment of the system, and be with God about it, and think of what the world in its system has done to what belongs to Christ, what is precious to His own heart.

Think of the contrast in Samson a man of power and there he is in the prison-house made to grind. That is what the world has done to the church. The world has made it her servant.

Indeed they called for Samson to make sport, and sorrowfully that is what the world as a system has done to what belongs to the heart of Christ. I often think as I pass a church door, that that belongs to Christ, yet it is in the hands, in the grips of the world’s system; we need to feel these things inwardly, and deeply, and be with God about them. That is what happened to Samson. He was forced to make sport for the Philistines.

Then where we read it says, “But the hair of his head began to grow after he was shaved”. It is the evidence of growth of spiritual life and power. His Nazariteship was beginning to assert itself. The secret of his power lay in his Nazariteship, these seven locks of

his head. How beautiful were the seven locks of Samson’s head. To Philadelphia, the Lord says, “that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3: 11. That is a link with the blessing of Joseph which is Nazariteship (Genesis 49: 26). The call at the present day is for Nazariteship.

Scripture tells us that the Nazarites of Israel were purer than snow, whiter than milk (Lamentations 4: 7). Nazariteship is one of the scarcest things in Scripture. Apart from Numbers 6 there are only five direct references altogether through the whole of Scripture to the Nazarite. Nazarites are not very common. But Nazariteship is open to every one, and the day calls for the special vow of the Nazarite. Not an ordinary vow, but a special vow; the committal to put everything else aside, even what is appropriate to nature in view of spiritual power coming into evidence.

So it says, “But the hair of his head began to grow”, that is revival and life. We are within the precincts of revival, but let it be revival in life, not some external idea, but let it be life in the midst of the terrible declension. It is only life according to God that will hold the truth in these closing days. That is what was typically seen in Samson. The Philistines missed it, it was a mystery to them. If they had seen it they would have shaved him again to take it away.

Think of the Spirit of God bringing about in these closing days revival and life. It is unseen by the world, untouched by the world, and is going on to conclude in power. That is a wonderful thing and that is what happens to Samson. In Samson’s exercises in the prison-house, he had come to a thorough judgment of the world. Samson, as a man, sad to say, had actually tampered with the world. If you tamper with the world you are going to be caught by it as sure as can be. That was his history, a mixed history, in which he had tampered with the world. But the prison-house experience had led him to a thorough judgment of it. Now he is there in spiritual power; two eyes gone, that is the governmental side publicly and no recovery in that respect, but inward spiritual power is recovered in Samson so that he says to the little lad,

“Let loose of me”. That is the present time, beloved brethren. We want to hear that voice,

“Let loose of me”, as though the last vestiges of the world’s system would be cast off, and there he is entirely apart from the whole system of things that had brought him under its power and under its sway, and had cost him his two eyes. He says, Let me feel the pillars; the whole basis on which that system stood, all that upheld it, comes under his power. I believe the Spirit of God would be giving us that cry at the present time; let us feel these pillars, beloved brethren. He cried to God, “And he bowed himself with might”, and the whole system comes down. It says that he slew more at his death than during his life. You might say, Well, that is not very victorious, but I think it is. The way to victory is through death.

That is the moral way to it. There is only one way if we are going to be maintained in spiritual power at the close of the dispensation, and that involves the acceptance of death. The Lord Jesus had to die out of this world and He had to die to this world. There was no alternative for Him. I am not thinking about what He had to meet in the moral question. What I am thinking is, for the kind of Man that He was morally, there was only one thing for Him and that was to die out of this world but also He had to die to it, and that is our privilege. I know it is easy to speak of it, but quite sobering to take account of it, and another matter to work it out. I put the truth before us, beloved, and seek that the Spirit of God may help us in the working out of it.

So Samson suffered, he held these pillars, “And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood (and he supported himself upon them), the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines! And he bowed himself with might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people that were therein”. You see the power that was there at the end. It says, “So the dead that he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain in his life”. That shows, I think,

better is the end of a thing than the beginning; there was more power at the end. He had lost his two eyes and, he had to grind in the prison-house, but life in the power of the Spirit typically is there in Samson, so that the end is greater than the beginning. Well, that is the public side.

In Zechariah you get the inward side, but you find the same principle there. The setting of that chapter is that the people had been recovered from Babylon, and that is a very affecting thing. It was God who had effected that. He put it into the heart of Cyrus, a gentile king. That was a remarkable matter. As you review the history of the testimony over the last two hundred years you can see the divine hand in the way that things, have been revived amongst us, and the way that there has been recovery to the truth. If you look at it from the responsible side you have to say that there has been a good deal of ups and downs in it. The people came back, according to Ezra, and they laid the foundation of the house with energy, with zeal, and with joy. As they looked at Jerusalem they thought of that house as being the dwelling place of God, and they would think of all its pristine glory under Solomon. Now they come and what is left of Jerusalem at that time was but a heap of rubble. Yet they laid the foundation of that house, with joy, with singing, there was victory in their souls. But according to Haggai and Zechariah the enemy gets in, and the zeal that marked them at the beginning was not maintained. I think we would all admit that that is very largely reflective of our own histories.

God in His faithfulness gave them prophets who prophesied, and not only did these prophets prophesy, but it tells us in the book of Ezra that they helped the people in the building. They did the practical work that was involved in the building. That is the background to this prophesy.

Zechariah gets this vision. It says, “And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a

man that is wakened out of his sleep”. That is something that is well worth taking account of,

“a man that is wakened out of his sleep”. The word in Ephesians is, “Wake up, thou that steepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee” (Ephesians 5: 14). The shining of Christ publicly will be seen in the millennial day but the Christ shining upon us is known at the present time. It refers to the beauty of what we have in this revival.

What a wonderful thing that is. There he is awakened out of sleep, and the angel said to him,

“What seest thou?” It is wonderful to think about the interest of heaven in a man like Zechariah. In chapter 2 he saw a man going to measure Jerusalem with a measuring line in his hand, and the word is, “Run, speak to this young man” (Zechariah 2: 4); heaven is interested in men if they are interested in the days of revival. Outwardly there may be very little to measure. Somebody might have said to that young man. It is not worth it, there is not enough to measure; but God brought in the craftsman and there was a positive building. The man had it in his mind that he would measure Jerusalem. As you take a step in this direction heaven gives you a view of what the thing is in heaven’s eyes, and that is what he gets here.

The foundation of the house had been laid. It could have been said, It was not very much.

Somebody who was a little bit critical might have said, It is very little, is it not? Is it worth it all? But the foundation of the house was there, and God sees the foundation and as far as He is concerned He sees the end. The firm foundation of God stands and, from the public side, you might think of it as not being very much. But in heaven’s view, God sees the complete thing, and not only does He see the complete thing, but He would show interested persons His own view of the complete thing.

So that what he sees here is “a lamp-stand all of gold”. I think that is a very fine thing. That means there is divine workmanship throughout. “For we are his workmanship” (Ephesians 2: 10), that is what we are, and that

is what I think we need to have our eyes upon, divine workmanship coming to light, not so much the public side of things. To count the numbers in some localities you only need one hand, but that is not the point. The point is to see divine workmanship there, and that is beautiful—“a lamp-stand all of gold”. Not only is it a beautiful thing all of gold, but it is going to function. It is “a lamp-stand”, it is going to shed light, and “with a bowl upon the top of it”, that is there is ample resource for the Spirit of God to fill and maintain this system.

That is the idea in the bowl upon the top of it. There is a vessel that is going to contain the oil.

The lamp-stand in Exodus had to have the oil replenished, but there is no need for replenishment in this lamp-stand; there is a divine system there, a spiritual system that is flowing in all its beauty and all its worth, and all its power. What a wonderful thing that is.

The next thing it says is, “its seven lamps thereon”. The idea of lamps is to shed light, seven lamps, seven is perfection. In one of the letters to the seven assemblies, it speaks of the seven spirits of God, that is the complete adequacy of the Spirit to meet any situation and to maintain the saints in power no matter what the outward circumstances may be. Here there are seven lamps. That is something we need to think about; there is going to be perfection of light. It could be said the seven lamps suggest those who minister among the saints. I would say this to those who minister, the great need is spirituality; spiritual ministers are needed. It is not a question of knowledge, it is a question of persons who make room for the Spirit. If I may say a word to the beloved brethren as a whole, let us make sure that those who have been asked to minister are persons who are marked by spirituality. I say that feelingly. I fear lest the brethren be led astray. A brother I was speaking to some little time ago shared these exercises. He reminded me that Mr. Stoney spoke about carnal ministers. Carnal ministers would lead towards the world. That is where they lead and there is a danger of

that at the present time. In these seven lamps you see the perfection of a spiritual system operating in view of the saints being given light and being led rightly into that great spiritual realm in which we should have our part.

Then it says there are seven pipes to the lamps, and, as the footnote tells us that is seven pipes to each lamp, forty-nine pipes. That is really the workings of the body, a spiritual system.

Paul says to the Corinthians, “But concerning spiritual manifestations, brethren”, 1

Corinthians 12: 1. He had to say to that company that he was not able to speak to them as to spiritual but as to fleshly (1 Corinthians 3: 11); yet he can bring on to view the great spiritual system that there is. How wonderful that is! So that you see this thing working in the great sources and channels of supply. They are all feeding into these seven lamps, so that divine light is being diffused there; the whole light of a great spiritual system is being diffused among the saints. That is a very wonderful thing, and it is working out here in the very circumstances in which we are; in broken days, days in which there is very much smallness, as it says, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Let us not be too concerned about the day of small things, except, as we have said, carrying in our feelings what has happened to what belongs to Christ. But let us be concerned to have our part, sisters and brothers, in this great spiritual system of supply, that provides the power for the diffusion of divine light among the saints. That will hold the brethren and keep them from the world. It will lead them into God’s world, a world that we shall soon enter on actually and be there eternally, when there will be nothing of the flesh or this order of things to hinder the full entrance into what is spiritual. The great thing is to enter into it now spiritually.

The angel is very concerned that Zechariah understands what he sees. There are “two olive-trees beside it”, and later on, “These are the two sons of oil, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth”. Another

has said that the two sons of oil might refer to Zerubbabel and to Joshua the high priest, and it strikes me there might be just a hint of the apostle and high priest of our confession; not exactly as referring to Christ personally, but rather as referring to that element among the saints. In John 13 there is both the water and the linen towel. The water might connect with the apostolic or authoritative side while the towel might link more with the priestly side.

Zerubbabel was the governor, and that side is always needed among the saints. There is some feeling against it; persons do not care too much for the stressing of authority, but where would any society be without authority? How much more it is so in the assembly. The authority of the Lord is needed there—“let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. We need that beloved. That will keep us safe, it will keep us secure. Then alongside Moses you need Aaron; there is the priestly side.

Mr. Taylor said that if the service of God be taken up apart from the family relationship, we shall have a hard legal system, more or less perhaps governed by the word of God but without the affections underlying it. But he added that if we have only the family idea it might tend to undue looseness, whereas the priests were charged with the law (Vol.25, pp.277, 278). Now we do not want either of these. The apostle and high priest brings out the perfect balance of what is in the divine mind in relation to the saints. So that authority is exercised with feeling that is appropriate to it. Moses and Aaron are both needed. They are the leaders in Israel. It is not only Moses, but Aaron went along with him; the brotherly side, the feeling side. God says to Moses of Aaron that he is going out to meet him. Aaron is referred to as his brother, the levite, and he said when he saw Moses he would be glad in his heart, When he saw Moses he kissed him. There is the feeling side coming in. I think that is the two sons of oil, a great spiritual resource and system that is here for the diffusion of the divine light among the saints.

Then it says, “Knowest thou not what these are? And I said, No, my lord. And he answered ...

This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou dost become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings—Grace, grace unto it!”. As I remarked, the foundation was newly laid but as far as God was concerned, the headstone was being brought forward with victory, with shoutings, “Grace, grace unto it!”.

God can see the completed thing when there is only the very beginning of it; but not only would He see the thing in its completion and all its beauty, in victory and in power, but He would give us to see it. May the Lord help us, beloved, to see what is in the divine mind at the present time, so that we might be encouraged to go on in it for His name’s sake.

Address at Barbados
11 October 1996