LOYALTY TO THE ARK
B. M. Deck
1 Samuel 4: 20–22; 2 Samuel 11: 11; Psalm 132: 1–5
What brings these persons of whom we have read together is their regard for, and loyalty to the ark. In the language of Christianity we would say it is the Person of Christ. We could equally say what brings us together, beloved brethren, is also committal in loyalty and love for the Person of Jesus. The quality of that loyalty in affection is proved in how I come through the circumstances and trials of this world. The proof of my love for that Person is that I keep His word and keep His commandments. My feeling is that the Lord is not content with mere profession. The urge of the moment is absolute reality. The moment we are in is too momentous to toy with and still less to toy with the world which is about to be judged.
You remember that beloved sister who over a hundred years ago said, ‘Put away your toys—the world is on fire’. That is not being fanciful, the judgment is near, but there is a wonderful vessel going through and it relates to the present testimony of the Christ, and through infinite grace, beloved brethren, we are called to no less than that.
But to come out in the clarity and loyalty we wish to speak about means that I prove myself true in the present circumstances in which that testimony is found, with all its public decline and sorrow and smallness and weakness. What faith reaches through to is that the whole position is held from heaven where there is no breakdown whatever—there is a Man in the glory having secured everything for God and the Spirit of God has come from that scene—Oh the wonder of it! I wonder if it really affects us as it should, the indwelling Spirit in our hearts giving us power and effectiveness to be here as a witness amidst the decline. It would not appear that there will be any public recovery to what was here at the beginning. The recovery is to inward leadership in the quality of first love for Christ who is our Head in heaven, which should appeal to us as we speak of these persons.
This beloved woman, as the ark was taken, saw the glory departing—really we would have to say she could not live here without Christ—her life was elsewhere. She had to go through in travail what the public position had become, as Paul did he travailed again for those beloved Galatian saints that Christ should be formed in them. O, beloved, there is no substitute for the inward formation of that blessed Person in our affections and if it be so it is inevitable that there will be a testimony in life, but that life relates to what is beyond the power of death.
What was going through vitally in this section was going through in the power of the prophetic word. None of the words of Samuel were to fall to the ground. Oh thank God for the power of the prophetic word—let us cleave to it. It is like a lifeline. Do not let us look for big things in this world. Keep clear of it; flee it, and see that what is intrinsically precious to heaven is being formed under pressure, like those pearls deep down in the ocean, not yet displayed but being formed in intrinsic worth and presently to be displayed. Now it is a question of us accepting the pressure and suffering and being prepared to go along with it, but let us cleave to the power of the prophetic word. The administration here was weak. When Eli heard the ark was taken it is said he went backward and his neck broke. These things are solemn and searching because he did not implement his convictions. Dear brethren, the basis of our being together is our separation from evil. It is not sufficient to name it and do nothing. We need to name it soberly and justly—but we cannot go on with evil and retain the ark in all its preciousness amongst us.
Where does the Lord come to?—“Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. It is better to have that than all the pretensions of Christendom, and provide a love’s “midst” for Jesus. Oh if we touch this we shall see Christianity in its attractiveness and we shall not be content with anything less. This beloved woman travailed. Certain things were said to her, but she did not take it to heart, she refused comfort. What was affecting her? The ark was being taken. She was in sorrow—Oh that we should be too in our widowhood in the absence of Jesus, the cross standing between us and the world and all that it represents. She travailed and named the child—“the glory is departed”. Beloved, it is quickly departing—we would not say yet finally. Maybe we would of certain systems; we would need to be sober and careful about that, but we cannot limit what the Lord does. He walks amidst the seven golden lamps, we cannot limit Him—how glorious He is, how gracious He is, but let that quality of loyalty and devotedness be such that we really cannot live in this world without Jesus. That means I must find Him where He is in another world. It is wonderful that the Spirit is the witness here of Christ glorified and John in his first epistle says, “We know that the Son of God has come”. How that changes the Christian’s outlook!
We must find Him where He is. We cannot stop short of reaching the object of our affections, and that is the true Ark—the blessed Person of Christ. I believe this scripture relates to the secret side of our histories in the inward, unseen travail as we feel things as He does but with the inward assurance that there is something, in spite of all, that is going through intact and will presently be brought out, as our beloved brother has been saying, in the display of the city coming down. What a moment that will be.
Now Urijah is a remarkable man. It is not here so much the secret side. It is the public side of the testimony. The ark is in booths and Joab and the armies are in the field. Urijah is one of the morally great of Scripture. We have to speak carefully and humbly but would we not like to be numbered among those identified in the testimony of the Lord? Paul says God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, (Urijah was no coward) but of power, and love, and wise discretion (2 Timothy 1: 7). Beloved, we are not left to walk the path of a Christian without divine support—how could we? It was the remarkable quality of devotedness in this beloved man that even refused what was legitimate and right. He says, Even as thy soul liveth I could not do it. Oh that we should be freshly imbued with the gravity of the moment we are in. You see the position publicly requires persons who regard the Person of Christ above all else. Step into those ranks for the few moments that remain!
Fill those ranks as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. There is room in those ranks for each one of us. Many, alas, have defected; how we sorrow over it! We think of those that have gone before us too, faithful men who have instructed us—they were faithful in their generation; but what about this generation? Very likely it is the last hour, and we are called upon to step forward into those ranks.
What are you going to put first? Nature, or the world? surely not! Why, the cross stands betwixt us and the world. Never walk those streets without remembering it is where our Lord was crucified. The appeal is to step forward and identify yourself in love’s committal to the testimony of the Christ. Do not be afraid of the outward smallness or the weakness. There is divine support and this remarkable man shines in a devotedness that makes him, as I have said, one of the morally great of Scripture. What a place in glory he yet awaits, and we with him. We are not looking for display now—we await that. The crown of righteousness is laid up for those that love His appearing. In the little time that remains, beloved brethren, let our committals be deeper, and divine grace will sustain us in the ranks of the good soldiers of Jesus Christ until He comes.
And now just a word as to Psalm 132, where David would not “give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”. Now this brings things nearer to us. It is a place for Christ now in this provisional time. Personally He is in the glory, “received up in glory”. But what an appeal to us to furnish a circle in love—a midst He comes to in which He is undisturbed. Is it setting the standard too high? It is not. And this beloved, recovered man (as we all are through grace) would not give sleep to his eyes, he would not go up to his couch—so urgent was his committal—until a place should be found, secured, and kept in holy suitability to the One who would come. What an appeal to us! We often speak, and rightly so, of the assembly; as a beloved servant once said, ‘What else is there to speak about?’ It is the vessel that Christ loves.
Oh, we are called to wonderful things! What is first in our minds? Not that we are dead to nature, but do not feed it—the spiritual is greater. Oh, from now on let it be Christ first. What motivated this beloved servant was the ark. “We heard of it at Ephratah (which is Bethlehem), we found it in the fields of the wood”. Ah, David (now a type of Christ) knew the well of Bethlehem. He said, There is no water like that water. The heart of Christ longs for the sweetness of that response that comes from the well in the gate of Bethlehem. Dear brethren, these things are not mysteries. It is what wells up in the hearts of His lovers.
Whatever others are doing, whatever the great Philistine system is doing—I am going to break through, and furnish something in love’s response to meet the longings of the One I love. These are feeling things. You see what governs my whole movement in this world is my attachment to Him. Oh, thank God for the Scriptures and their commandments, and it behoves us to keep to them for our own sake. Search the Scriptures. Your own protection is in them, in keeping the word. Let our service result from inward devotedness to the Person of Christ.
So David rises in the psalm to say that Jehovah has chosen Zion. We have come to mount Zion, city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem. Oh to think that our calling is heavenly, and our destiny is heaven, and we come into present enjoyment because of simple devoted attachment to the
Person of Christ. I just leave this word of appeal that we may furnish this quality of loyalty to Him who is worthy of our all. May the fruit of our being together tonight result in love’s committal to His interests until He comes, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Auckland, 26 January 1983
THE LORD’S VICTORY AND HIS SYMPATHY
J. Renton
Our sister has fallen asleep through Jesus. As our brother said in prayer, it is an experience none of us has yet had, but for her it is an experience of bliss, we may be assured of that. We are in the presence of the article of death, but what makes all the difference to the believer when he faces death is to appreciate that the Lord Jesus has lain in death. Samson’s riddle says, “Out of the eater ...”—the eater is death, the great devastator of mankind. Think of all the sorrows that have resulted from this mighty eater, the great enemy, because death is spoken of as an enemy in 1 Corinthians 15: 26. This great enemy has devastated mankind from Abel, whom we understand was the first to die, right down to the present day. But there was one death that was different, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the only One whose life was not forfeited. All our lives are forfeited because of the disobedience of the first Adam; the whole race is under the penalty of death; but there was One blessed Man here whose life was not forfeited, the only One who had a right to live; but that blessed, holy, unique Man went into death.
“Out of the eater”, out of the desolator, has come food. Who could have thought that death would yield? but the death of the Lord Jesus has yielded a wondrous living throng. It has brought in life, it has brought in food for the believer. The Lord said, “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal” (John 6: 54); “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him” (John 6: 56). The death of the Lord Jesus provides food for the believer, “Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong”, out of the strength of death, “came forth sweetness”. Think of the sweetness of knowing our sister’s present experience, sweetly fallen asleep through Jesus, the Lord Jesus being instrumental in putting our sister to sleep. How sweet to think of that!
“Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong”—death—“came forth sweetness”.
Life, true life, life according to God, has come out of the death of the Lord Jesus. It is wonderful to think of our Lord Jesus Christ as a mighty Conqueror over death. He invaded that empire. He came out of it victorious. He stepped out of that tomb in life out of death, and believers share that same life with Him. “Quickened together with him” (Colossians 2: 13) means that we are made to live in His life, and it all results from the death of the Lord Jesus and His coming out in resurrection. We were reading last night of the Lord saying, “I am the resurrection and the life”, John 11: 25. Life was inherent in our Lord Jesus Christ; resurrection was inherent in Him. Death could not hold Him. The miracle was that He died; it was no miracle that He arose, knowing who He is, because resurrection was inherent in Him.
What a mighty Conqueror! What a Saviour to know and to trust and to love!
But we see in John 11 that while the Lord Jesus is the mighty Conqueror over death. He is by no means aloof from the feelings of sorrow through which we pass. He knows what sorrows are. We read this touching verse, “Jesus therefore, when he saw her weeping”—that is, Mary—“and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit”. How many here are deeply moved in spirit, especially those who sorrow most; our beloved brother the husband of our sister, and her mother, are deeply moved in spirit. Others too are deeply moved in spirit. Let us remember that the Lord Jesus Himself “was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled”. Think of the trouble there has been, the awful desolation, death ending forever what is natural. The natural is sweet and is of God, but death ends it forever, but the Lord Jesus has feelings, such feelings for each person who is in sorrow at this time. He is now living, exalted, a glorious Man, but He is the same Jesus as He was here, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Hebrews 13: 8. He would have us know His sympathies, His compassions, His feelings for us. He has actually taken our sister, but He is not aloof from the feelings that result in persons who have such a deep sense of loss.
May we all appreciate, may we all know better, our Lord Jesus Christ, and how He can draw near. What a heart He has! Our great High Priest is able to sympathise. There is nothing of sorrow that we go through that the Lord Jesus Himself has not gone through. He is not in sorrow now, therefore He is able to devote all His attention and provide all the sympathy that is needed for those that are going through these experiences.
So it says, “Jesus wept”. Think of that; He shed tears. There has been a blessed, holy Man here who has shed tears, in perfection feeling the sorrows that result from death, that eater, that devourer of mankind. The Lord Jesus wept, and He would give us a sense of how near He can be to us, how deep His feelings are. May we all know something about it! As our brother has said, we are all among the mourners today, but there are those who feel, and will feel, the sorrow most. There is sorrow today, and if the Lord does not come for us soon there are days ahead—maybe months ahead—when the effects of this desolator will be felt, but the Lord’s presence is to be known. There is a throne of grace available. “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”, Hebrews 4: 16. Whatever season it is, there is grace, the personal grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, available to each one of us.
May we know more of it, for His name’s sake.