THE DIVINE CIRCLE
[p. 213] THE DIVINE CIRCLE
Mark 3:34 - 35; 1 Samuel 7:15 - 17; Acts 14:19 - 20
I was thinking, dear brethren, of the idea of a circle. As employed in Scripture it has a spiritual significance. It has a great place in scientific matters, and rightly; for it marks, to a very large extent, the physical creation and it has also a place in spiritual things. Scripture alludes to it in this way, but with spiritual intent. It involves a centre, whether this be theoretical or actual, also influence according to the proportion given by the God of measure. So that if we regard Christ as the centre, the circumference must be proportionate, the idea of “the God of measure” entering into His position, so that the circumference of that which is influenced by Christ is commensurate with His Person. It must be; and when we apply this to persons we can see at once how inclusive this influence is; and, I may say exclusive, for there is the idea of throwing off matter in the creation, and certainly in what is moral there is the idea of throwing off by influence what is extraneous. There is also the idea of holding what is according to Himself; as He says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”, John 12:32. Nothing foreign is drawn: only what is according to Himself.
So, to apply what I have remarked to Mark 3, the meaning is obvious, and applies widely, and also in detail to a meeting like the present. However general and wide spiritual thoughts may be in their bearing, they have always a local application; and the application of Mark 3 to a meeting like this is, I believe, obvious and encouraging. The chapter contemplates the crisis in the Lord’s ministry. The great good that was being done, which was undeniable, was attributed to Beelzebub. Such is the capability of the religious mind when [p. 214] tested by Christ: such are the extremes to which it will go. Think, dear brethren, of what it was to heaven that such a thing should be alleged against Jesus! The Lord deals with the charge as a word spoken against the Holy Spirit. It was against Him, but He regards it as against the Holy Spirit, for which He says there is no forgiveness.
The line is thus drawn between Christ and the world in the sharpest manner, and it remains so drawn; there is really no change. Even His relatives, whilst not going so far as to attribute the power of Beelzebub to Christ in His work, said that He was out of His mind — a most cutting thing! The allegation that persons are out of their mind is not uncommon; a similar charge was made at Pentecost, and it was reiterated by Festus at Caesarea against Paul: “much learning doth make thee mad”, he said. Acts 26:24. So that the brethren of Christ according to the flesh were not far away from those who alleged that the power of Beelzebub was operating in Him.
We do well to take account of our surroundings, and to see whether — though we may shelter ourselves under moderation — we are allied against Christ, although assuming to be His brethren, “his relatives”, (Mark 3:21). The difference is not very great, dear brethren: it is just gradation of opposition. It is opposition. Whether we really join with those who say the Lord or His followers are out of their minds, or whether we say that they are actuated by the power of the devil, we are in bad company, however moderate we may claim to be. Indeed, latitudinarianism is one of the worst things: it is a subtle thing. It is a leaven that is destructive; God abhors it. We are either for Christ or against Him. So when His mother and His brethren came and stood without, asking to see Him, He has a cool answer for them; He makes no move towards them. Let no one assume that his mere apparent moderation commends him! It is a question of the side you are on.
[p. 215] So that the Lord makes no move towards His natural relatives here.
Happily, at the moment, there was a crowd sitting around Him. It was no accident; it fitted exactly with what was required. There was a concrete expression of what was in the Lord’s mind as replacing the opposition, as replacing the system that had come under the power of the enemy. The crowd was sitting around Him. This circumstance was divinely ordered. So the Spirit of God records with emphasis the idea of a circle; it says that the Lord looked “around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him” — as the passage in Mark 3 should be translated. You say, ‘They were inactive. Why were they not active? There was plenty to be done’. But the most important thing, beloved brethren, is to sit around Jesus with listening ears and understanding hearts. As He said elsewhere: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”, John 6:29. Him whom the Father had sanctified and sent into the world. The will of God entered into that. The greatest activity, and the greatest sacrifice, are of no value at all apart from this. So that He looked round in a circuit at those who were sitting around Him and said, “Behold ... my brethren!” How precious it is to have the Lord so regard any of us, or all of us! And then He gives His reason, saying, “for whosoever shall do the will of God the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”. There was moral history behind this: those sitting around are not merely curious; they are doing the will of God.
John supplies the secret; he tells us that Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”, (John 6:44). The drawing power was there; and that works out in the doing of the will of God. Matthew in the same connection says, “the will of my Father who is in the heavens” chapter 12:50, shutting out all modernism, branding as contrary to God all that is marked by the will of [p. 216] man here on earth. It is a question of the will of the Father who is in heaven. The guiding power and the will are somewhere else, not here in men. It is not unionism, nor communism; the will is where it must be, that is in the Father who is in the heavens.
So that, dear brethren, you can see how pleased the Lord is with those who sit around as at meetings of the saints. The word “crowd” is used, for it is not a question of assembly order, but of a number of persons, not in disorder, surely, but simply marked as sitting around Jesus. He is delighted with that. One is greatly encouraged in the increasing number of these gatherings, and the attention — they are pleasing to heaven. The Lord has in them a concrete example of the mind of heaven, which is no small matter; for one great principle in Scripture is the exemplification of divine ideas, and the meetings I refer to are the exemplification of a great principle set out on the mount of transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son; hear him”, (Mark 9:7). In this passage in Mark 3 it is a question of “sitting around him”, a position of quietness and restfulness. He being the centre for all.
To proceed to Samuel: I want to show that the idea of a circuit involves the Lord’s actual movements, following the assertion that Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life; that is to say, there will be no relaxing of the Lord’s service as Judge during this dispensation, whatever men may do; however loud and blatant modern communism may be, the Lord Jesus will judge for His people during the whole period; and that is a great comfort to every subject person. It is in keeping with His position as seen in Matthew, where in chapter 28, verse 20, He says, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age” — every day! How we prove it, dear brethren! But then He moves about in judgment — not in punitive judgment; that is not the point in Samuel’s ministry, although the basis of such judgment was there. God will judge according to the [p. 217] judgment arrived at by His saints, as we learn in Revelation 18:20: “God has judged your judgment upon her”. In these visits of our Lord, typified in Samuel, we learn how to judge with discrimination; a very important matter, because we all admit our great poverty in the way of judicial discrimination. It was lacking at Corinth; it is always lacking in unspiritual conditions. There is inability to judge, and so we often call evil good, and good evil. There is much of that kind of thing, but that is not the kind of judgment you would get at Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and Ramah in the days of Samuel; it is not the kind of judgment you will get where the Lord Jesus is in the midst of the “two or three” gathered to His name. You get righteous judgment where He is; as He says in the presence of the Jews: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment”, John 7:24.
According to John 18, in the presence of the high priest Christ was smitten on the cheek; another than “the Judge of Israel” was on the judgment seat, and he called good evil, and evil good. We are come “to God”, we are told, “the judge of all”, (Hebrews 12:23), and we are to learn how to judge from Him. That judgment is put into the hands of the Son of man; all judgment is in His hands, meaning, as I apprehend, that it is carried out in sympathy. We read of the vintage being fully ripe before the judgment is executed in Revelation 14:18, meaning that God is slow to wrath, slow to execute punitive judgment; but then He is not slow to bring out the facts; there should be no delay in the bringing out of the facts of any matter requiring judgment. Let them stand, and have their voice before action is taken! So the Lord, as typified in Samuel, judges in Bethel. I am speaking now of a passage well known to most of us; but it is important at the present moment. If the Lord moves around, so to speak, and judges at Bethel, it refers to His judicial service in relation to the house of God. The truth of [p. 218] the house of God had been lost for centuries. Christendom became divided up into dioceses and parishes, and so forth; one great see — Rome, indeed, dominating all. The Lord came in to deal with all that; it was a travesty of the house of God; it cut across the whole truth of the house of God.
In view of this the Lord addresses the angel of the assembly in Thyatira and presents Himself as the Son of God. He is over the house as Son. He is sitting in judgment in Bethel, as it were. This continued for centuries, but more recently the truth of the house of God has been opened up; and in our own times we are reminded of it constantly. He orders it so. Whether it be in ministry or conversation, whatever the Holy Spirit says reminds us of that, and we must never lose sight of it. The house of God is a universal thought; you never get Scripture speaking about two houses of God. There are many assemblies, but one house of God; and the Lord is constantly asserting this so that the brethren should be universal in their thoughts and affections, and not be too local. We should be local, surely; but the Lord would, as He sits, so to speak, in Bethel, impress upon us the universality of the house of God, and that it requires largeness of heart and an enlargement of the area covered by our prayers at our meetings for prayer or elsewhere. The work of God goes on as one piece, and wherever God is working, however diverse nationalities may be, the work of God is the same; it always can be linked on with what God has been doing; if any movement professing to be a work of God cannot be linked with what He has been doing, or is doing, it discredits itself and becomes questionable.
The next place at which Samuel judges is Gilgal. Gilgal is well known to us, it is the place of circumcision the second time. When we have a thing a second time, the Spirit of God is impressing upon us how important it is — that it has already been proved to be effective;
[p. 219] let it be proved again; let it be re-asserted! That is one idea connected with Gilgal; a great principle is applied a second time. So you have sharp knives — much is made of the ordinance, and finally God says, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you”, (Joshua 5:9). God has done it. It is Colossian ground in Joshua 5, but involving Ephesians; it is the Canaan side of Jordan. It should stir our hearts as the word “Canaan” is mentioned in this connection. It is divine territory, and God is asserting what is suitable to it; it is His land. Amongst the things that come out here, one is that He makes His people weak lest there might be any assertion of their natural strength in the territory of God. So we have not only the actual fact of circumcision, but the people were to remain there at Gilgal until they were whole; figuratively, until we are set up in a spiritual constitution; that is to say, we are “buried with him (Christ) in baptism” according to Colossians 2, and “raised with him through faith of the working of God” — the faith of it. All this alludes to state in us. The “faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”, (verse 12). Then added to that, we are quickened together with Christ, suggesting that we are made whole thus. No one is made whole from circumcision until quickened with Christ — not healed simply, but made whole. We are made to live in Another, as apart from the flesh. Living according to the flesh is done with in circumcision, as it is said, “in the circumcision of the Christ”, (verse 11). The reproach of Egypt is rolled away by God. He has done it Himself; He assumes we wish Him to do it; that we are not now hankering after Egypt; so He Himself helps us to get rid of the flesh, but in a way that is humbling and painful. So that we are to be made whole before we move. We move in a new power, quickened together with Christ. Ephesians goes further; there it says that God “has raised us up together and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, (chapter 2:6). God sets us down in heaven in a new state altogether, in love; He sets us down in heaven, in Christ Jesus. How beautifully and effectively is the reproach of Egypt rolled away! and we see that God has done it.
Mizpah comes next, which is, I suppose, to be taken to mean what is said of it as first introduced in Scripture; “The Lord watch”, says Laban, “between me and thee”, (Genesis 31:49). The meaning of it is “watch-tower”, suggesting, obviously, the idea of watching. That word “watch” has a great place in Matthew and Mark: “What I say to you, I say to all, watch”, (Mark 13:37). The idea enters into Gethsemane. The Lord as in Gethsemane was facing the enemy in all his power. It touches the heart, dear brethren! The word “Gethsemane” is used only by Matthew and Mark — the gospels which speak of the forsaking of God. The Lord says to some of His disciples, “Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder”, Matthew 26:36. How touching that is! And then He takes three with Him, and they are to watch; but He has to say to them, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?”(Matthew 26:40) If the Lord moves to Mizpah, we cannot but be impressed with this, that there is need for watching — watching, surely, for the Lord’s coming; but it is also a question of keeping a sharp look-out for the enemy’s workings; watching for the souls of the saints, too. These places of judgment therefore refer to certain features of our position which the Lord would stress as needed, and it is quite clear, dear brethren, that we are to be on the alert if He is stressing any of these features, that we be not careless or indifferent to what He is saying; if we are, we shall miss His mind, and the visit to Mizpah is lost as far, at least, as we are concerned. We cannot afford to lose anything the Lord is stressing at any given time.
Ramah comes next; it is at the end of the circuit. The idea of Samuel’s return is connected with it; “his return was to Ramah”. As one returns from a mission, or a service, his countenance or attitude will indicate his success or otherwise, and so it is with the Lord’s return as to Ramah; it suggests elevation. We have the idea of persons returning after services in Scripture. No doubt in the case of Paul and Barnabas returning from their first missionary journey to Antioch, the countenances of these dear men would bespeak their blessed and triumphant experience. They were full of it; they brought the assembly together and related to them “all that God had done with them”. (Acts 14:27). They merged with the brethren, but their hearts and minds were full of the work of God; and as they went up to Jerusalem later, passing through Phoenicia and Samaria they related the conversion of those of the nations. “And they caused great joy to all the brethren”, Acts 15:3. And at Jerusalem great attention was given to them as they told of “all the signs and wonders that God had wrought among the nations by them”(Acts 15:12). As the Lord (in type seen in Samuel) returns from these circuits. He is pleased as He sees results — brethren getting on a little here and there as to things which He is pressing upon them. You may be sure He is watching with the greatest vigilance for any little move as to what is progressing in our souls, and He is pleased after any little bit of service here, if He sees brethren coming to it, making headway. All this, I believe, enters into the return to Ramah.
But then, the service of judgment goes on; there is no cessation of it. He judged Israel there, it says, as if that was a very advantageous place; and what can we deduce from that? As far as I can see, it suggests that the Lord would impress the idea of moral elevation upon the brethren. Without that I do not see how we shall get on; we shall gradually sink and sink and sink, and merge into what He spues out of His mouth, unless this principle of moral elevation is maintained; that is, withdrawal in mind and heart from what is current religiously. “There was his house”, we are told. One comes thus near to where the Lord lives; as was enquired of Him by the two disciples in John 1: “where dwellest thou?” We come near to it in a moral way, as following this circuit, and learn the kind of circumstances and surroundings of His abode. Where He lives is where He is free — where His affections can go out. Might I remind the brethren how practical all this is? It is a question of conditions into which the Lord can come and be free, and in which His affections can go out freely.
Then what follows upon that is the altar, as if the Lord were to say that the worship of God can be maintained here. Brethren have spoken together profitably about the service of God, but here we have the altar, as if He would say that conditions here warrant the setting up of the worship of God. That is the idea of it — over against the dishonour of the service of God abroad in Christendom. Is that not a great matter? The idea of the altar is that the service of God is to be maintained, and that is what the Lord is bent upon. In that service He is known as the “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man”, (Hebrews 8:2). We may now go on to Acts 14; there is in that chapter what, I believe, should touch us; that is the encircling by the disciples, of the servant, the sufferer, the martyr. There may be no martyrdom today in the ordinary sense, but in Scripture the word alludes to suffering for the testimony; and may I not say there is such a thing as that today — suffering for the testimony? Would not any one of us be ashamed if he did not have some little part in that? It is our privilege; everyone of us may come into the suffering for the testimony. Paul was suffering for it here in a very extreme way. The chapter affords the circumstances which lead up to this incident; but he was drawn out of the city as dead. What a triumph the enemy thought he had [p. 223] secured! We are not to ignore that word ‘city’, for the city is pre-eminently that in which God’s testimony is rendered; “do ye remain in the city”, the Lord said to His disciples, “till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24:49. So as He went up to heaven they went into the city, and there they testified, and there they suffered. When Paul was dragged out as dead, the enemy would think he had triumphed, but the testimony was to go on in the city, and Satan cannot set aside what God is intent upon, not even as to where the testimony is to be rendered; so that the apostle is encircled by the brethren.
I would especially appeal to the brethren as to this. It is a time of suffering, and we should value, as Peter and Paul did, the privilege of suffering for the testimony. The disciples encircled the apostle, we are told, and he rose up. You might inquire. What will he do if he rises up? Will he not greet every brother standing around? It does not say that; Scripture is always accurate, not only in its words, but also as to what is suitable in any given circumstances. The point is that the testimony is to go on, and so the apostle went into the city, meaning that however severe the sufferings, when the Lord comes in and releases us from any pressure, let us resume our service. Service is in view here. There are no broken ends; but the link is held, even where there seemed to be victory for the enemy. The apostle entered into the city, and so the position is held. After that, he goes with Barnabas to other cities. It is a great triumph for God.
I am speaking, dear brethren, of the encircling — how the Lord would call our affections into the sufferings of those who testify for Him. How He values “the disciples” as encircling the martyr! Their encircling became the occasion of his resuscitation to life; he rose up, and entered into the city. Would these disciples ever forget this? They would not, I am sure. It would be a reminder to them not to forget to encircle every [p. 224] one suffering for the truth. It is a great matter to encircle the servants — especially those who are serving and suffering. Whether we do it in our affections, our prayers, or otherwise, God uses it. So that the apostle resumed his service, entering into the city, and then going to other cities. He went with Barnabas to Derbe and preached the gospel “to that city”. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, establishing the souls of the disciples there. They ordained elders in every assembly; and having prayed with fastings they committed them to the Lord, on whom they had believed. Then having spoken the word in Perga, they came down to Attalia; and thence they sailed away to Antioch, from which city “they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled”(Acts 14:26). We can thus see, dear brethren, how the fulfilment of the work of the great apostle involved the encircling by the disciples of the worker as he suffered.
The Lord will, I am sure, use these suggestions as to the thought of a circuit and encircling, to sober and stimulate us all as to His present movements and services, and the services and sufferings of His workers.