WORD AT A MARRIAGE
V. E. Wraighte
The fact, dear brethren, that this incident is recorded more than once is an important matter. I believe that its being recorded twice brings out that it is very pleasing to heaven. How interested heaven is in Christ and the assembly! I believe that we would be served today that our interests might be in accord with heaven’s, that we might be
thoroughly interested and concerned about, and bound up with, Christ and the assembly. We are all thankful, I am sure, in connection with this marriage today, in the ordering and ways of God with regard to our young brother and sister. But let it be a further bulwark in the history of every one of us, that Christ and the assembly are paramount in our souls and in our affections.
As we well know, the other account is in the book of Joshua in which generally it is victory upon victory, “but thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 15: 57. There is the one exception at Ai, but generally throughout the book it is victory upon victory, corresponding, no doubt, as we have been taught, with the Acts of the Apostles and reaching on to Paul and his ministry.
Here in Judges, it is somewhat different. It would link with 2 Timothy days, in which we are, dear brethren, in which each one of us is found and from which we cannot escape. There is the decline and breakdown publicly, and the humbling which we all have to accept, but in the very midst of that there are features coming to light which are most honourable and pleasing to God.
What is found with the man in this passage is the feature of overcoming and with the woman spiritual desires. We would desire this for our young brethren who have been married today, but then that there might be with every one of us these features of over-coming and of spiritual desire. So that none of us can escape the challenge. We cannot say, ‘Oh well, it was all right in the pristine days of the assembly as recorded in the Acts, but we are now in 2 Timothy days’. Think of what is available for us. There were then a man and a woman in whom these features were found, and so it is today. There is to be, and there is, every encouragement for this feature of overcoming to be found with us, and that there might be spiritual desires both with sisters and with brothers. The overcoming is to be found with us in renewed vitality; spiritual vitality that we might every one of us go through to the end and be in accord with what is pleasing to heaven at the present time.
This, as far as we can tell, is the first account of a marriage in the land but, firstly, this matter comes up—Caleb says, “He that smites Kirjath-sepher and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife”. There is a man who values Achsah. He says, as it were, ‘I will have her for myself’. To be simple, our brother has said that in relation to his wife today, ‘I will have her for myself’, but dear brethren what are our thoughts in regard to the assembly? Is it that we are so prepared, so set to overcome, in order to secure the true features of the assembly?
What does Othniel do? He overcomes, he smites Kirjath-sepher. As we know, it is the city of books, that which would tend to draw us to what is natural, even though it is legitimate.
Think of the wisdom of this world, of all that would tend to draw us naturally. I believe, dear brethren, that what the Spirit of God is after with every one of us is to get us over to what is spiritual and heavenly, so that we might be in accord with what is pleasing to heaven. So it says that Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it. There was that which he had to overcome, the great city of books, and so with every one of us what is needed is to overcome in view of being on this line of what is pleasing to heaven.
Then as regards Achsah it says that she had been given the southern land but she urged her husband to ask for the field. It is right that the sisters should do this. They should urge their husbands to ask. We would commend to our young sister that she is not to get out of her place as under headship but to know what it is to urge her husband to pray. With some of us it takes a long time, by way of experience, to come to this, but I believe that some of us with a little experience know the way the Lord passes us through exercise so that it becomes a part
of our fibre that we bow our knees to the Father, to know what it is to pray. We thank God for the exercises that we have to pass through so that we are brought this way, but behind it, I believe, is to be the urge of the sisters; they are to urge their husbands to pray. May it be so with us each one. May it be more with the sisters that they will urge their husbands to pray.
There is a need for it in these days. Paul had the great truth of Christ and the assembly before him. Think of what he had for the saints, yet it says in Ephesians that he bowed his knees to the Father.
This woman not only had the southern land—think of what God gave in addition! There is the need of these springs of water acquaintance with the Spirit of God at the present time.
Think of our Saviour and Deliverer! How we love Him! I believe He is being endeared more to every one of our souls, and yet the concern with Him is that we should come into the gain of the gift, the wonderful gift, from heaven, the blessed Spirit of God—that we should not just know it in terms but be conscious of the presence of a divine Person who is with us and in us, knowing the reality of it so that there might be freshness as enjoying the southern land.
Then there are not only to be the Ephesian upper springs, but the lower springs. Thank God for the way that we can enjoy together the wealth of the heavenly land, but then, too, some of us are beginning to learn the love of the brethren here below! Thank God for the brethren! In these days of broken conditions we are beginning to love our brethren more and more, but may we be set as those who are overcomers.
We would encourage our young brethren today. Thank God for this marriage in the Lord, but may they be overcomers, may they, too, be set to help one another on the spiritual line, and have spiritual desires that they may acquire substance that can be used in the service of God, for His name’s sake.
Gillingham
17 November 1973