NAMING PERSONS AND THINGS
NAMING PERSONS AND THINGS
2 Timothy 3: 8; 2 Kings 18: 4; 1 Kings 3: 23 - 28; Genesis 2: 19 - 25
What enters into these scriptures as the subject for an address is the idea of naming persons and things. I might remark that the first to give a name formally was God. It is indeed a divine prerogative to give names. This prerogative is seen in God Himself, who, as it is said, called their name, that is the name of the man and the woman, Adam, in the day that they were created. It is seen there in God. And then in His representatives later throughout the Scriptures, we have the divine prerogative of name-giving, until we get into the New Testament, in which we find the Lord Jesus, God manifest in flesh, employing this same prerogative in giving names. In a way that is more interesting to us, or should be, than this, for each of us is named by the Lord. So that both now and in the future, our distinction through life shall be expressed in the name given.
We have, indeed, in the beginning of the Acts, the crowd of names. It might be thought that that is a little disorderly or irregular — a crowd. It is certainly not an assembly thought. But it is remarkably accurate. It is used for it brings out what I am, in that each of those one hundred and twenty persons had a distinction. The fact that they are seen prolifically does not rob them severally of that distinction. And they are counted. So that it becomes very interesting to those of us who are taken up sovereignly, that we shall develop under the hand of the Lord, especially through discipline, what is in the divine mind, so that it may be expressed in each of us. Cases may arise as to persons and of course, alas, there are many — as far as we can see — who are under [p. 2] discipline, whose spiritual distinction is not visible to us.
But in these cases we have to retire, and we can do so restfully, knowing that there will be no discrepancy whatever in result — that each one will fit as he is designed to fit. How it comes about is another matter, and is inscrutable as far as we are concerned. But the names will all be there, and each will shine in his own glory; “for star differs from star in glory”, 1 Corinthians 15: 41. We can take that to suggest as to what we should be, dear brethren; that the brilliance and radiance of light should be in us, as the light is the life. The idea of life is that the life is the light. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. So in each of us the life developed has been the light. And that will radiate and denote the name. For the stars are all named, and so are the saints. The saints are the new creation, and all bears on them — what each of the saints is to be. All that is very wonderful, and far more than I could touch on now. But, as I said, it is a divine prerogative to give names, and every believer comes under that. The examples we have are only to remind us of the universality of the principle. It could not be otherwise as we think of the saints and how God regards them — that each should be divinely in order and distinguished by name, not simply accidental, but given divinely, as in the case of Peter.
Well now, what I have in mind is to transfer that thought to ourselves — as to giving names — how we are to acquire the way of it. One may say that of me as I am able to name a thing. We will see some propensities in names, and there are many. The natural man has a great many. The Spirit of God has a list of the propensities or the evils of man — what proceeds out of his heart. The Lord gives a list of about thirteen. The apostle Paul gives about sixteen works of the flesh in Galatians, and about ten descriptions [p. 3] of wicked men in the letter to Corinth. These are to be tabulated and watched over. One has to discover them in oneself. As one discovers them in oneself, and gives the name proper to each, one has the mastery over it. I do not say the name itself gives the mastery over it, but the Holy Spirit enables you to master it.
Well now, this leads me to the first scripture read — that is in Timothy. We have two names that only appear in this particular scripture, although they allude to persons that lived many hundreds of years earlier — Jannes and Jambres. We need not tax ourselves as to how the apostle Paul arrived at these names. He wrote by the Spirit of God. We need not tax ourselves as to how Jude knew that Enoch had prophesied about sinners in our own times. He spoke also by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is conversant with every person and thing from the beginning of the creation until now. But then if Paul used these names there surely is some reason — it is not merely that what he wrote was indited by the Spirit.
The epistle is a peculiar one. It is, you might say, his last will and testament. The saints were in his heart. The truth was in his heart. He was concerned about the truth. He says to Timothy, “the things that thou hast heard of me ... commit thou to faithful men”, 2 Timothy 2: 2. He was concerned that that should be cared for — put into the hands of faithful men — not as a creed. He had in mind that his teaching should be handed down in spirit, as in the hands of faithful men. He was concerned about that. It was his last will and testament. He desired that the precious truth that he had received from the Lord should be handed down to us, not only in letter but in the Spirit. And so he is concerned about it in that way, and in many other things one might cite, in order that the truth might stand, and the structure [p. 4] of the assembly might stand, as the structure of the assembly of God stands.
Another thing that he stresses is the things that are “in Christ Jesus” — everything was there. The whole letter is permeated with the thought that what is most precious should be cared for, the things that are “in Christ Jesus” — the promise of life, for instance, and truth and love. And many other things that I might cite, as “salvation which is in Christ Jesus”. All is fixed in that way in infinite security, and so it has come down to us intact. And then, as to the negative side he mentions these two names, Jannes and Jambres. One would inquire as to where he got those names. How his mind travelled back to the Nile! How he would think of those magicians imitating what Aaron did with his rod turning water to blood. How he would think of Pharaoh here.
And then there was the gruesome thing of the Nile being turned into blood, and the poor Egyptians digging around for a little water. That which is for the refreshment of men turned into death — the mere profession of christianity. How he would feel that!
And as he proceeded to the next plague, the plague of frogs, he would feel that demons were creeping in amongst the saints. How he would be conscious of it as he was there in person in Rome, hearing about the saints throughout the world. The doctrine of demons — such doctrine as was taught by Hymenaeus and Philetus — doctrines that eat as doth a gangrene.
And then he comes along and thinks of the plague of gnats. He would see how the plagues of Egypt corresponded with his own times. The third plague referred to what God was doing, I mean doing consistently with Himself. The frogs did not denote what is of God. They denote what is of demons. The river turned into blood denotes death. But when you come to the dust of the earth — all the dust of Egypt, we are told — the rod of Moses turned it into [p. 5] gnats. You may see there a sure representative of life, figurative of the saints. If God takes up a symbol in that way, we shall find that God has done it in wisdom. There is no modification of the third plague. It is simply brought in, and there is no cessation of it here. It is not said to cease like the others.
How all that would come up in the mind of the great servant of God that I am speaking of. He is speaking of the life that is in Christ Jesus. The promise of life before the world was — fixed in Christ. Men and women are being made to live, in the power of God, in relation to that. How all that would come into his mind. And so, as I said, the dust of Egypt was turned into living creatures, reminding us of how results were made. Adam was made of dust — but then made to live. And then we read in that same epistle that God has brought through the gospel life and incorruptibility to light. Not only are we made to live in mortal bodies, but incorruptibility means immortality. Life and immortality are brought to light. How great are all these things! This thought of life — all things made to live in Christ. “Quickened together with him”, Colossians 2:13. How the apostle would think of all that.
These two names come into his mind. He understands. He brings down the whole position of the plagues in Egypt to the present time, and he shows that the enemy, in his agents, was acting against the truth of God. These two men Jannes and Jambres are the agents against Moses. So they are today against the people of God — against the truth. As “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, thus these also withstand the truth”. Now I speak in this way, dear brethren, of the importance of being able to name things, and to give them the right names.
We are confronted with this wicked opposition resident in these men. As they withstood Moses so these men withstand the truth at the present time. There [p. 6] they are. These two men existed. They are in the mind of the Spirit of God. They are carried down, and the apostle Paul is used to name them for the first time, so that you may understand the distinction they had as ministers of Satan. He speaks of ministers of Satan in 2 Corinthians 11: 13 - 15. Yet they were probably nominally in fellowship at Corinth turned into angels of light. As soon as I can give the name to a thing, I have the mastery.
Well now, I go on to 2 Kings. We read that Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen serpent — he called it Nehushtan. As far as I know, we only get it once in Scripture. We get what it means, of course — a piece of brass. But it refers to something handed down that once was good. What a history it had. And I see it lifted up. The Lord Jesus Himself refers to it.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”, John 3: 14. The Lord Jesus took the words into His own mouth.
“If ... any man ... beheld the serpent of brass, he lived”. What virtue was in that serpent at that time! But has it got the virtue now? No. It never was essentially anything more than a piece of brass. But then God put virtue in it at that time. And faith laid hold of that. It is a type of Christ. Looking at it at that time was looking at Christ. “If a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived”, Numbers 21: 9. It was the way of life.
The word ‘tradition’ in itself is not objectionable, but as used in apostate christendom, it is a pernicious thought, and apostate christianity is built up largely on tradition. That is, what is called the writings of the fathers, running on down for several centuries.
And the Apocrypha, too, writings that in themselves may be very spurious — ones containing things that cannot be used as the foundation of the faith and hence are pernicious. And here was this piece of brass carried down to the days of Hezekiah. And so [p. 7] it was that a man of faith corresponding with Paul was needed; Hezekiah was a wonderful saint. He had his blemishes, alas, but he is a wonderful saint, and is honoured in that he is able to use this word ‘Nehushtan’.
As I am speaking here tonight, I think of the young people. Look around and think of the evils that confront you — things that have been carried into the teachings of the school from tradition — or from modernism, that is the opposite to it. And it is for each to be able to say, ‘That is that’, to tabulate it.
As soon as you do it in faith, you have overcome it.
This is one of the most practical things I can bring before you. You can name a thing for yourself, not borrowing it from others. Hezekiah did not borrow his name, nor did Paul. It was his own spiritual intelligence that the Holy Spirit used. And that is what I am leading to, that you might be able to put a name on it.
‘Well’, they might say to Hezekiah, ‘this thing has been used as an object of address. It has been used as a deity’. And we have such things as that. Suppose I take the Lord’s supper, one of the most precious things we have; what has it become? Generally abroad, particularly in Rome, what was once just a symbol of the Lord Jesus, and is yet to those who love Him, has become an object of veneration. Well, as soon as a man gets his eye opened to that, what does he say? ‘Open idolatry’. That is what it is. What does a man that has his eye opened say? ‘Well’, he says, ‘that is just apiece of bread’. And that is what Hezekiah means. ‘It is just a trifle of brass. With all your incense that is what it is’. Well now, who is able to say that of himself? ‘I have seen the thing. I know that that thing has become venerated and worshipped and all it is is a traditional thing turned into idolatry’. We can name it, you see, and as I name it I am delivered from it. I have mastered it.
[p. 8] Well now, I go on to what is more positive, and that is, the assembly viewed as a mother. I suppose the idea of the mother is in the range of each person. Almost every child here has some conception of the mother. I suppose the knowledge of the mother is primary with every person. The mother has to do with us more than any, and a mother’s love and a mother’s care remain, perhaps, more than any with every person. And so it is that the picture in 1 Kings 3 helps us as to discerning the saints in this light. It is a guide to us. Here are two persons — two mothers — and they are contending for a living child. Who is the mother of the child? There is only one man in the whole universe that can tell who the mother of that child is. Thank God for him! He is a type of Christ. He had prayed for wisdom and God greatly honoured that prayer. He says, ‘I have heard it. And I gave you wisdom. I greatly honour you because you did not pray for other things’.
And he is tested because of his wisdom. God loves to test us and brings up one test after another. Whether we can name the real thing in the test, brings out where we are, if we have had to do with God. These propensities and traits of evil that I have been speaking of; by the process of elimination, have I been able to tell the evil from the good? Evil is apt to so clothe itself that it will appear at least portionately good, and that is what tests me. “Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil”. They are not able to name things. And so Solomon is tested. And each of us is tested.
These two women are figurative of the saints. Where is the mother? What am I going to call these people? As I look abroad in Christendom today, I see how many sects there are. Do I really feel how incongruous it is? What is my response now the thing is there before me? Can I put a name on these?
[p. 9] That is what comes out. Where is the child? A living child, not a dead one. This woman is standing there and says, ‘That is my son’. And the other one says, ‘No, that is my son’. And the king says, “Bring me a sword”. Now, dear friends, the sword is the word of God. It penetrates, according to the description we have of it, “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. I am in the presence of the king, of Christ, and he says, “Bring me a sword”.
He is going to use it. If the living child is to be cut in two, the mother says, ‘Oh no! That cannot be’. She yearned for her child. That is what to look for, genuine affection for the people of God. Look for loyalty to Christ, of course, but love for one another. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. Look for that.
Here, you see, it is like a company of Christians. They go after the child. They bring them up on the manna. For they “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them: (now the rock was the Christ; )” 1 Corinthians 10: 3, 4. One would love to speak of it to every Christian in the world. Find the mother; to be able to put this name on the saints viewed in that light. And thus the woman that says, ‘Cut the child in two’, represents professing Christianity. She was heartless. She is not the mother of the child. See how she is to go. She is to leave that public position with that stamp upon her. She is not a true mother. Whereas the other has disclosed her true heart. Like the Lord Jesus and like the apostle Paul, we yearn for our brethren. Well now, that is assembly truth, as presented to us in Galatians. Sarah is the type of it. She is the true mother of the child. Jerusalem above is our [p. 10] mother. I think now of the young. The saints love you as a young christian, and would seek to nurture you, and bring you up in the assembly for the Lord’s pleasure.
Well now, I pass on to the last scripture read in Genesis 2, so that I may bring out this position more clearly. We read that He “brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them”. Think of the wonderful simplicity of it. He took a sheep and brought it before Adam. Now what has He got in His mind? “To see what he would call them”.
That is, He would have delight in the process. Now we come to the older brothers and sisters here, developed christians. The figure applies to us who are more experienced. God knows how to test us when we are old as when we are young. Now there he is.
It is some movement of life. It is for me to see that movement of life and name it. And God has pleasure in the process. I have often thought of the history of heaven. What history goes on day and night in heaven. Each of us makes history. As God brings a creature to Adam, history is being made. “To see what he would call them”. What pleasure it would give to God to see the intelligence of His wonderful handiwork in man, to see the intelligence he had.
I cannot say how long it took to name all those animals.
Sometimes we speak about Numbers 7 where the twelve princes of Israel offered. Each had his day.
What history was made in those twelve days! Each day was filled with one of those princes. Heaven was delighted with it. The beautiful offerings corresponded with Christ in a typical way. Well now, how long did it take for all these creatures to come before Adam? You cannot say. But what delight it brought to God. He was seeing, working out in that creature, the wonderful intelligence He had put there. God says, ‘How pleasing that is to Me’. Adam was [p. 11] able to name a creature according to the movements of life. Whatever Adam called a creature, that was its name. God was so pleased with the process.
And finally, to come to see the assembly in that wonderful chapter, that is what I am leading up to, to be able to see the assembly, not only as the mother, but as the bride of Christ, to see it in its movements. And so God brought her to Adam. It says, “And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman”. The word ‘built’ is used for the first time. What a time it must have been to Jehovah as He brought this creature to man. Well now, he says to Jehovah, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”.
You see, brethren, this is the top stone. We are called upon to name a thing in the sublimest character.
We should be able to detect and name these traits of Christ in the saints, the traits of Christ worked out femininely in the saints. Adam says, “she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man”.
Now that is the end of what I had to say. I just wanted to lead you on to spiritual refinement, as it says, “the spiritual discerns all things” (1 Corinthians 2: 15), that you might see the reflection of Christ in the slightest way. “The spiritual discerns all things”, as Adam discerned himself in the woman. As we read the epistles to the Corinthians and Ephesians, we shall acquire the habit of discerning these traits in the Lord’s people, the body of Christ as seen in the universe of God.