A FULL ANSWER TO GOD’S THOUGHTS

J. Renton

Genesis 12: 1–5; 30: 25–28; Exodus 2: 15–22; 2 Samuel 7: 17–20

I desire to speak, dear brethren, of the importance of coming into the fulness of what God

has in mind for us. I suppose we are all believers here and there has been on the part of each one some answer to the preaching of the glad tidings, but there is always a tendency to stop short. The enemy would occupy us with other things, but the great need is to come into the fulness of what God has in mind. The Lord would attract us and the Spirit would help us, and we need to encourage one another to provide for God more than a partial answer to His approach to us. God’s great end in approaching us is that there should be a result for Himself in life and fruit.

These scriptures illustrate in some way what is in mind. We begin with Abraham, who was called. If you read chapter 11 you would think it was Terah who was called because it says in verse 31, “Terah took Abram his son ... and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth together out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan, and came as far as Haran, and dwelt there”. But Terah was not the one who was called. Genesis 12 begins, “And Jehovah had said to Abram”, so Abram is the one who was in the divine mind in the call. Stephen in his address in Acts 7 tells us, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran ... and thence, after his father died, he removed him into this land”, the land of Canaan. Therefore something hindered Abraham. Paul in Hebrews 11 does not tell us that Abraham was detained; “By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out into the place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11: 8). What a man Abraham was! It ill becomes us to be too critical of him, and yet, great man as he was, he was detained in Haran. After his father died, Stephen tells us, he came into the land of Canaan, therefore he was hindered by what was natural, the claims of the natural.

We have to face the fact, dear brethren, that the claims of the natural are very strong indeed.

If the claims of the natural hindered a man like Abraham, how much more have we to be on our guard. We have to distinguish between the flesh and the natural. The flesh is the result of the evil poison that had its origin in the serpent and is in every one of us, but natural relationships are of God, but they are not to hinder our full answer to God’s call. The call in the glad tidings has come to every one here, and I suppose every one has answered somewhat to that call, but would there be some hindrance to coming into the fulness of what God has in mind? Even Abraham, who went out not knowing where he was going, as Paul tells us, was hindered. When he was in Ur of the Chaldeans, “Jehovah had said to Abram, Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house to the land that I will show thee”. He left the land in which he lived, which would be a big sacrifice for Abraham, but he did not leave his kindred and he came as far as Haran. How long he was there we do not know.

Something must have stirred in Abraham, something must have reminded him of his call and God’s promise, which made him move further. “The land that I will shew thee” was not Haran. God made a great promise to Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee”, but the blessing would be his as coming into the land “that I will shew thee”. But he was held up at Haran. I wonder how many of us are like that. A meeting like this might stimulate us. Maybe some touch from the Lord will be necessary that someone here may desire to come into the fulness of divine blessing. We tend to settle down; even Abraham settled down, how more likely are we to settle down in a kind of half-way house. So “Abram departed as Jehovah had said to him. And Lot went with him ...

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls that they had obtained in Haran”. There was something acquired in that half-way house but the fulness of things belonged to the land “that I will shew thee”, the land that he was promised.

The land in the Old Testament answers for us to the enjoyment of eternal life. We have the light of eternal life, and the refining touches that the Spirit has in mind to accomplish at the present time would involve in our localities the enjoyment of eternal life. Eternal life is enjoyed when we are together, the Lord in control, the Spirit free, loving one another; that is the area of eternal life. We have the truth of it, but the Lord would have us move from the half-way house of just knowing about it to be exercised to have the full enjoyment of it. It involves unity, as seen in Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” There the Lord commands the blessing, life for evermore. Eternal life is a blessing the Lord has in mind for us to enjoy as we are together in unity. So it says here, “and they went out to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came”—he arrived at the fulness of what God had in mind in calling him at the beginning.

In Genesis 30 we find Jacob who had left the land of Canaan, his place and his country, and it was right he should do so to get a wife. He was sent by his father with his blessing and he was there fourteen years. That was a long time, and yet he was obliged to be there fourteen years, because he served seven years for Rachel and he so loved her that they were in his eyes as single days, but he was given Leah instead of Rachel and he had to serve another seven years. Then Joseph is born

who is a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus; it is when Joseph was born that Jacob desired to move—for us it would mean that Jacob got an impression of Christ that caused him to think of his true place. It says, “And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”. He proposed to go to where he really belonged. He knew where he belonged and it was in his heart to go, but he was detained six years because of personal advantage. Laban made a proposal to him and he could see that if he stayed in Padan-Aram he would acquire more goods; personal advantage detained him there; how sad!

Sometimes what is natural detains us, for what is natural is very strong, but it has to be superseded by what is spiritual. Then we have to judge any feature of personal advantage which might be a means of detaining us from coming into what Jacob speaks of as “my place and ... my country”. A meeting like this provides an occasion for coming to decisions. If there is the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ, His grace, His attractiveness, what there is for Him, does it touch some chord that will result in a decision? Jacob makes this decision here, but personal advantage, more of this world’s goods, hindered him another six years. Do not be hindered, dear fellow-believer. Do not let what is natural hinder you, do not let any personal advantage hinder you. What is for God is far more blessed, Jacob’s place and his country would for us be God’s purpose. Let nothing hinder our coming into the full possession of what God has in mind.

We read about Moses. Moses had been brought up in Pharaoh’s court. He was forty years old at the time of this incident. To refer again to Stephen’s address, “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his

words and deeds”, Acts 7: 22. What a speaker he would be, whether he spoke on politics or business or whatever subject, he was mighty in his words—and in his deeds, whether in sport or in the army, he was a great man in Egypt. Just previous to where we read he slew an Egyptian. I suppose it would not cause much effort for Moses, a man mighty in deeds, to slay an Egyptian. He had right desires in doing so but he had to learn another way; God had another way. “Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat by the well”. Mighty in words and deeds, instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, there he was sitting by the well. What a fine attitude that was! He was drawing from another source, he was learning that there was not sufficiency in self. Like that woman that we read of earlier who was bereft of her husband and was resourceless but found resource in the oil, which would be for us the Spirit, so Moses is deriving from another source; he sat by the well, unlearning—and learning another way, learning to depend on the Holy Spirit. He is not detained by what is natural here and he is not there for personal advantage as he might have been in Egypt; he is learning another way.

It says, “And he sat by the well. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came … And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses rose and helped them”. He did not tackle the shepherds; he no doubt would have been able for these shepherds, for he was mighty in his words and deeds, but he did not act like that. He acted in a different way altogether, he rose up and helped the daughters; he was on a positive line, he was helping. So it says, “And Moses consented to remain with the man”. It was the will of God, and he consented. He did not rebel; he did not say, This is not good enough for a man like me with all the learning I have had; he consented to dwell with the man in the locality where he was. “And Moses consented to remain with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter”; he was given her; he did not take her, he was given her; he consented to remain with the man and he accepted Zipporah.

She was not too easy; it is like accepting conditions in our local setting. We have not chosen one another. Moses did not choose Zipporah, he was given Zipporah and he consented. How important it is to consent to accept our local conditions. We have not selected one another, but we have the best conditions that God can give us in which to work and learn together. He consented to remain with the man; he accepted what he was given in that local setting and he was there for forty years. He trained there, he learned by working with Zipporah for forty years to lead two million people in the wilderness for forty years; it was all part of his training in view of his service and being available for what God had in mind. He began by consenting and accepting the conditions as they were as the ordering of God and the will of God. Let us be those who consent and who accept, and work among, our local brethren God has given to us. From one point of view the Lord is saying to us, These people in your locality are good enough for Me to live with eternally and I will give them to you for a few years to work with. Let us view one another this way, dear brethren; let us get the best out of one another. Moses got the best from Zipporah; there was result, there was the son Gershom and another one later, there was fruit, and it came about by his consenting and accepting attitude.

David, in 2 Samuel, had to learn God’s way. David had his own ideas and they appeared to be good, in fact, he is thinking about God—“And it came to pass when the king dwelt in his house, and Jehovah had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedars, and the ark of God dwells under curtains” (2 Samuel 7: l, 2). He had God’s house in mind but he had his own ideas about it and Jehovah said to him, No, David, not your way, My way. That often happens in our histories; we have our own thoughts. We sometimes are upset because things do not work out the way we think they ought to work out. Jehovah said, No, David, I appreciate what you have in mind but it is going to be My way. Did David sulk about that? Did he rebel? It says, “And king David went in and sat before Jehovah, and said, Who am I, Lord Jehovah, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” The answer is in the presence of God.

It is to David’s credit that he accepted that his way was not God’s way. God’s way is always best, not only for ourselves but for Him and in the result for Him. David says, “Yet this hath been a small thing in thy sight. Lord Jehovah; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, Lord Jehovah?” He is saying, Is it such a one as I that has come into all this blessing? David learned the blessing of accepting God’s way. Is this the manner of man? Even such as I? Even such as ourselves, dear brethren, can have our part in doing things God’s way. “And is this the manner of man.

Lord Jehovah? And what can David say more to thee?” He is a worshipper here, he sees that God’s way is better than his way and there is great blessing attached to it. He becomes a worshipper, he comes into the fulness of the knowledge of God in this chapter and into the light that God had in mind, sonship in Solomon.

That is all I have to say, dear brethren. May we be encouraged. May we not be detained. May we be set to go on to fulness for God’s glory and pleasure.

Address at Brooklyn. N.Y.
28 April 1984