AN AFFLICTED AND POOR PEOPLE
[p. 291] AN AFFLICTED AND POOR PEOPLE
Zephaniah 3:12,13; Isaiah 37:31; Malachi 3: 16, 17; Luke 2: 25 - 38
These scriptures furnish us with instruction about what we often speak of as the remnant, a subject that runs through the prophets, and indeed through the whole Bible. The idea began early and what marks it, especially as early as Genesis, is the idea of waiting, Jacob saying, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord”, the idea of waiting for something, not indefinite or theoretic waiting, but waiting for something divinely promised. We have spoken of Saul the king today; he failed peculiarly in that ability to wait for a divinely-appointed time: he would do something before it instead of waiting. I need not say that, in suggesting the idea of a remnant, I am not speaking of the literal remnant of Israel, although that is the great burden of the subject; I have in mind the few that there are today who may be so styled. Names are given to persons, God gives names to persons and things, and Christ gives names to persons and things, and faith is marked by the same thing, by naming aright persons and things that are presented to it. So that we are to understand what is meant by this term ‘remnant’, and, as seeing its traits large and small, to be able to discern them and to clothe the persons accordingly with the whole thought; we are entitled to do that. We must read the history of the assembly in Revelation 2 and 3 — which is the only accurate and only reliable history of the assembly which is available — in that light. There are many histories written, but these two chapters are the only really reliable history of the assembly that is extant, and it is incumbent on us to read these chapters in that light, the Lord Himself [p. 292] embodying its history in those two chapters — seven brief epistles to the seven assemblies which were in the province of Asia, and in the fourth epistle, that is, the one to Thyatira, the Lord formally alludes to a remnant, “Unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira”. He formally recognises a “rest”, that is a remnant, for that is the thought in it. And, as we come down to the sixth letter, that is the one to Philadelphia, He clothes that remnant with the whole thought, that is the whole idea of the assembly, and tells her He is going to make certain to come and worship before her feet — a remarkable thing! The Lord, in the Scriptures, strictly bans any worship on our part of man as such. The whole book of the Revelation has in mind that God is to be worshipped; when John fell down and would worship the angel the Lord sent to show him the wonderful things that are disclosed in the book, it says the angel forbade it. He said, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets ... worship God”. Peter forbade Cornelius to worship him, whereas his professed representative today expects to be worshipped, but Peter forbade it and said, I am a man like you. But the Lord says to Philadelphia, I will make certain to come and worship before thy feet — a remarkable thing that He is able to do that persons who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie, they are of the synagogue of Satan, and yet the Lord has power to make them do that. It is not that they love the saints viewed in Philadelphia; they do not, but the Lord compels them to do it, showing the power He has in that book against those who might be the foes of the assembly. He says, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know ...” not, that you may know — she already knows, but that they may know — “that I have loved thee”. He advertises the fact to them, compels them to know that He loved this assembly.
[p. 293] So that the remnant is clothed with the whole thought of the assembly by the Lord in that sixth letter. The words used are as plain as possible, as intimating that He has the whole assembly in His mind in view of a literal coming, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. He has no less than the whole thought, and He makes promises to her, too, which every one here ought to recognise and ask the Lord to fulfil them. For instance, He says, “I ... will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”. I will keep you from it, He says. I often quote that to the Lord and tell Him that is a promise and that antichrist cannot appear in our time; there may be many characteristically so, but not the antichrist. But then we are to quote that promise to the Lord, He loves to have us do it. “I also will keep thee”, He says, “from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” — not simply world-dwellers, but earth-dwellers are to be tried by this terrible thing that is coming in. The Lord promises to keep us out of that, and, at the same time, to advertise to the religionists that do not care for us at all that He loves us — that they may know, He says, “that I have loved thee”. What can be more comforting than that! Well now, having said so much to focus the thing on ourselves — I mean persons who are characteristically of the remnant — I want to show certain traits of it that you may understand it more clearly and understand that you are in it; without making any boast of it, having the sense in your soul that you belong to those whom the Lord would have everybody know that He loves; not secret love, but love that He compels everyone to know.
Now the first thing I want to point out is in Zephaniah, that Jehovah says that He leaves in the midst certain ones, that is, it is a question from His [p. 294] point of view that I am living here in this town, for instance — it is not an accident. “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of Jehovah”. It is not, as I said, an accident; I am not here simply because I may have been born here, or have my work here in this town, but I am left here by the definite arrangement of God — left here. And a number of things arise in one’s mind as one thinks of that as to where one may be, whether he has taken matters into his own hands, looking for a better position, perhaps, better circumstances — it is very common with us to do that, and in some cases it may be God removing a brother and sister and his family to some other part; but He says, “I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of Jehovah”, that is, as it were, God calling attention to a certain kind of people that He leaves at a certain time amongst the responsible professors of the truth in this world — “I will leave in the midst of thee ...”. And then we are told that the remnant of Israel “shall not work unrighteousness, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth”. These are traits of those people, Jehovah says, that I am leaving in your town, so to speak, or in your city or in your district. Now think of the consideration there is in that; think of the gain there is in every village and town and city and country where such are. I leave in the midst of thee such a people. They are different from the persons alluded to under the pronoun ‘thee’ — these refer to responsibility publicly, responsible persons — that God leaves certain ones in their midst. That is the first point I want to make. And, secondly, they trust in the name of the Lord — not simply in the Lord, but in His name, that is, the name involving what He is, involving the Spirit here and other things that lie in the Spirit — these people trust in that. They do not [p. 295] form, in that way, a part of the community; they are distinct, but they are a great advantage to the community, God intends them to be a testimony to Him in this particular setting. He says, I have left them there — “I also will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord”. They are an afflicted and poor people; we do not like to be that. I know well enough it is what we would seek to get out of, to get out of affliction and to get out, of poverty; but Jehovah left them because of these features. A people that are afflicted and that are poor, whether it be literally poor or spiritually — that is poor in the sense in which the Lord was poor — He was the poor Man; “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him”. He had none of this world’s goods; but His poverty lay rather in that He had nothing at all, there was nothing He could join in, no ordinary conversation, no ordinary business enterprise, no ordinary society or guild, or anything that goes to form this world; the Lord could not have anything in it at all. It was not that it was wrong, but He could have nothing to do with it at all, He was poor, it ministered nothing to Him, and it says, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor”, and He tells us what a gain it is to any who do that — an afflicted and poor people and they trust in the name of Jehovah. Look into their houses and you will find that they have their Bibles to be seen and they are well read, and their children read their Bibles — they read it with them. You will find that the children ask their parents questions, and their parents answer them, not in the sense in which a Sunday school teacher answers her pupils, they are answered as part of the system, as holy, as in the precincts of the house of God; they are answered in a spiritual way, and they grow up in that — they are an afflicted and poor people but they trust in the name of Jehovah, they bring God in at every point. “The mystery of piety is great”. Think of the range of wealth that belongs to these people, they trust in the name of Jehovah. And then, the corresponding effect is that they do not tell lies, they are not back-biters, nor are they false accusers. They are different, you see, they are practically and essentially different; and moreover, “Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: but they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid”. One might venture to apply all this latter statement to a meeting like this. We are here, no man forbidding us, not a single whisper of disturbance. To what can we attribute it, but the name of the Lord? Whatever political disturbances there may be in the world, international or otherwise, it is marvellous how the brethren are kept and will be kept. The decision is in their hands, as it were, as to the whole matter. It is the whole matter, this matter of the remnant that God has left down here bearing the traits of Christ. They shall feed and lie down, it says, and none shall make them afraid. The meetings for prayer are becoming increasingly interesting. I heard a young brother the other day, only fourteen years of age, and he was praying about the international difficulties in Europe; he was praying to heaven, and heaven heard him, too. The young are brought into this, they become priests in early life, so that we feed and lie down and none make us afraid. We are trusting in the name of the Lord.
Now that is one great feature of the position. The next is in Isaiah, “The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward”. Now notice they are escaped here, not left, that is, it is another point of view; that is we are in the position as left here, it is as escaped ones, that is, we have escaped the corruption that is in the world, we have escaped the religious machinations, the religious associations in which we [p. 297] were held, and this involves that we have made our decision to leave what is evil. You know how Lot was enjoined to escape and he barely escaped, and his wife looked back — what a warning to us escaped ones or those of us who are escaping! Maybe there are those here who have not escaped yet, you do not belong to this class yet, though you may be a christian. Your very life hinges on getting out of these evil associations. And then what marks the escaped ones is that they take root downward, that is to say, we are going to stay — not here on earth, we are not earth-dwellers — “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”. These are plants of the Father’s planting, and the meaning is we are going to stay in the testimony, we are not going to be carried away with every wind of doctrine, we take root downwards and bear fruit upward. We read in the New Testament of being rooted and grounded in love; and that is what comes out in these meetings, the love that is amongst us, and the young people take root in it, they say, We are going to stay here; the Father has set us here, we are plants of His planting and we are going to stay here, taking root downwards, founded in love, and bearing fruit upward — that is the second thing, meaning that there is something for God now, bearing fruit upward. All this works out in a practical way in the assembly, for that is the holy enclosure which God has down here in the power of the Spirit in which there is fruit for God. Romans develops this, that we might serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter; we have escaped that, we have left that. We want the new thing, to bear fruit upward, with new songs in our mouths, for God puts a new song in our mouths. In Zephaniah it says He joys over us with singing, too, He has part in it; He is so pleased with the brethren in those circumstances.
Well now the third feature is in Malachi, that is,
[p. 298] the Spirit of God turns the thing round now; there is another view and a very beautiful view, one of the most beautiful views you can get. It refers to a certain time when very naughty things were happening amongst the people of God. God is making great promises, too, in this chapter — I will open the windows of heaven — ready to do anything for His people, as He always is. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”, He says elsewhere. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, ... and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”. That is God’s attitude, and we are proving it, too, in a little way. But “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another” — this is not ordinary table talk which sometimes is damaging to the saints; foolish conversation and jesting which are not convenient are to be abandoned, but this sort of conversation is heavenly converse — “they that feared the Lord spake often one to another”they are all on the same footing; the circle of brethren described here sit down together, maybe in a brother’s house, at his table, for there is no respect of persons — I mean, “they that feared the Lord”, that is the class in mind, it is the remnant under this heading. Then they “spake often one to another” — we are not told what they said, but heaven heard. One of the most interesting things to me is the activities of heaven that Scripture indicates, and how earth is the great theatre of operations now, and how heaven is attracted by what is going on; and here is a company of brothers and sisters in a town that fear the Lord, and they are at a brother’s house or in the meeting room, they are speaking to one another and heaven hears — it says, “The Lord hearkened, and heard it”, that is, He leaned His ear over, so to speak. Think of that now, think of an action like that on the part of God.
[p. 299] What did they say? As if He just leant His ear — the sound was distinct. He said, I have heard the cry of Sodom and I have come down to see that I may know — God comes down.
Well, how different this is, it is not a cry, He hears from a company of brothers and sisters who fear the Lord; they are speaking one to another in a heavenly way, their voices betoken it; hush, this is important, heaven would say; God hearkened and heard — He is not deaf, He hearkened and heard. And He liked what they were saying. How testing that is as to any matter, any time, that we are in holy converse, for God hears, He likes our voices, but then He likes our words when they are in the power of the Spirit, our conversation is a matter of interest above, dear brethren — not exactly what they were saying here, we are not told what it was, but the Lord heard their words, and He says, I will put that down in a book. The use of the word ‘book’ is interesting — “book of remembrance”. It is not that the Lord would forget what they say. He does forget things — thank God He does, it is one of the comforts of every true saint that God can and does forget; never remember again, is said of the believer’s sins before he is converted. But now He has another book here, it is a book of remembrance written, it says, for them that fear Jehovah. Some of us may not, you know, for there is a great deal of lightness among the young — one notices it — they go off and do things they know they should not, they take up ways they know they should not; that shows the absence of the fear of God — there is no fear of God before their eyes in that particular matter. It is for those who fear the Lord this book is written, and it says, “They shall be mine” — it is what they are to God, that is the point made, not as left here now, but what is heard up there, what is pleasurable up there. How one would love to look into that book of remembrance! And then it says, “They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels”, they will have a place. What a rich collection there is up there, a collection of jewels. What are these jewels? The fruit of the work of God worked out in exercise and pressure — “when I make up my jewels”. And He goes on to speak about sonship, one of the most precious thoughts that run through Scripture. “They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”that is the end of the Old Testament. We begin early with the thought of sonship — the direct word as to it applied to Israel in Exodus 4: now we have it in these people who know how to speak to one another; they are not babes, they are men developed after God; they are sons, they know how to speak to one another. One has to be trained to speak among the brethren. I do not mean to speak as I am speaking now, but to speak in holy converse. One of the great items we come to in Hebrews is “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” — we come to that; we want to know how to behave amongst them, to speak amongst them.
Now finally in Luke what I want to show is the thought carried through to the New Testament; the same remnant, but Christ personally now, not in Spirit only. Christ was here in Spirit as early as Noah, really here, the Spirit of Christ as man, but not personally, He was still in the form of God; but now He is in the form of Man, or as a Babe, and as such, He is amongst the remnant, so that there is great advancement now, but they are equal to it. The idea is that God is moving on all the time, and, as we progress, we are moving on with God. God has come in now in Christ in a Babe — marvellous thought! ‘Nor yet in triumph passing’, as the hymn says, ‘but human infancy’ (188:4) — but nevertheless the Person [p. 301] was there. And what comes out in the remnant in Luke is beautiful intelligence surpassing by far anything I have touched on yet. Indeed the truth of the body is intimated in the delicate passing through of holy sentiments in the first chapter. As the salutation of Mary fell on the ears of Elizabeth the unborn Babe leaped for joy — think of that! What an inscrutable medium of feeling in those women, one the prospective mother of our Lord, the other the prospective mother of John the baptist. What a remnant that was — not only of Israel surely, far more, a nucleus of the assembly, the very fine feelings of the body already there. Mary went, after the conversation with Gabriel, with haste to the hill country of Judaea to her cousin Elizabeth and she entered the house and saluted Elizabeth. It was the mother of Christ, as Elizabeth said, “the mother of my Lord”, for she says, “As soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy”. And so it is that, as the body is understood and we are linked up in refinement in the power of the Spirit in the most delicate mediums and bonds, every joint and every nerve will fill its niche; any voice conveying Christ in any way passes through and thrills the whole body. That is the remnant in Luke. And then Mary contributed in remarkable intelligence — but I cannot go into that. I only wanted just to call your attention to this, dear brethren, a most precious jewel of the fact of truth — not the truth in words; but the fact of truth — of the refined relations that were there in the body of Christ. “Now ye are the body of Christ”.
Do we not know it? Each one should know it; the vital eternal relations in which we are set as members one of another, members of Christ, called the body of Christ.
Now in Simeon and in Anna we have the full thought of this as the remnant. Simeon was characteristically a man in Jerusalem, as we have often [p. 302] noticed; that is to say, Jerusalem stands for the testimony, it was in the mind of God and throughout Luke it stands. “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem”, it says, “until ye be endued with power from on high”, Luke 24: 49. The idea remains — we have come to Jerusalem above but the idea remains. So Simeon was a man in Jerusalem and he was in the power of the Spirit of God. You do not get that so put in the remnant features I have spoken of, but here is a man moving in the power of the Spirit of God, he comes by the Spirit into the temple — that is not simply sitting down in the meeting room or in the assembly outwardly, coming in by the Spirit is a great thought, and he took the Babe in his arms”the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”. A visible Christ, not now Christ in Spirit as in the Old Testament, but a visible Christ here, the Word become flesh. Well, He is in the arms of Simeon, the remnant has Him in intelligence, a man in the Spirit. It is only a man in the Spirit can take the Babe in his arms, he is fit to do it, and he blesses God. He says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” — he is a worshipper in the temple, never was one more so in all the history of the temple than that man, and he is able to tell about Him, to give a full thought about Him in relation to gentiles — ourselves. “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”. He is able to tell us about Him.
And then finally — the details are full of precious instruction and light now — Anna comes up at the same time, and we are told how long she had been married — seven years she had lived with a husband from her virginity, and Simeon is an old man, too, about to depart, but we have not his history — he is just a man of Jerusalem. Now we have this woman’s history, all is to distinguish her in our eyes; she [p. 303] came up at the same hour, one of the greatest things about her is her energy, and that is one of the features I should press amongst the brethren. I do not know how old she was, maybe a hundred and five years old, but she came up that hour; she came at the right point, she did not miss it — we are told, “She coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem”. She came in at the right time, but what is the secret of that? She was always in the temple characteristically, that was her home, as it were, and she did not miss it. Absentees from the meetings miss a lot; it is no feature of the remnant to be absent from the meetings, but the very contrary. The beginning of the assembly is presented in this way, this great event that happens is shared in by all and no one can afford to miss the great things that occur constantly amongst the brethren; hence the importance of being with the brethren, assembling ourselves together, not forsaking it. The idea in the remnant is that we speak often, and one is encouraged — and one knows perhaps more than others because of getting about so much — by the remarkable increase of interest there is in the coming together of the saints often. Do not miss any time in which there is the possibility of a divine intervention. It is not once a year now, as it was at the pool of Bethesda — it is constant, as the opportunity offers; there is divine intervention. We cannot afford to miss them. “She coming in that instant”, and she was ready for it, ready for the great event, and she gave thanks; that is, it was a thanksgiving time, and she “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem”.
That is all, dear brethren, and I hope that no one will miss the application of the truth in these practical ways in which I have sought to present it.