BURDEN BEARING
[p. 357] BURDEN BEARING
I had in mind, dear brethren, to speak about burden bearing, which brings before us the great subject of levitical service, and the first text being from Galatians reminds us of the great levite, that is, Paul, who is singled out as the one specially to be heard. You will all remember how that in approaching the great work in Philippi the Spirit of God tells us that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. Much is said of his speaking in Acts, but at Philippi it was the things he said, and not only that he should be listened to, but that the things he said should be attended to. I may add that the great departure from the truth of christianity lies in the want of it, Eutychus of Troas representing what happens where there is inattention to what Paul says. He fell. You will all remember the occasion, and it is important that young persons here should take note of it. They came together on the first day of the week to break bread, and Paul discoursed until midnight. It was a test. We may look out for tests. Many move on and seem to be with the brethren in the truth until the test arises. The Lord has given us a test recently. It is on now — a new feature relative to His Person. It is becoming a test, and it is now a question of how we shall meet this test. Eutychus, as you will remember, was amongst those present. No doubt there was a large number of brethren of different ages and sexes and inclusive of a good number of well-known levites, well-known ministers of the truth besides Paul. It was a great occasion spiritually; there were many lights, we are told, in the upper chamber, but in spite of all the lights Eutychus slept and fell.
[p. 358] I refer to that because of the importance of my first remark — of listening to Paul. It is he who speaks to us here and we ought to attend to the things of which he speaks. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend to the things spoken by Paul. I have selected this as one of the things appearing in this well-known epistle which is addressed to brethren who were imbibing a damaging doctrine, a doctrine of demand. They were taught, and they were accepting the teaching, that they should be circumcised and keep the law. It was a doctrine of demand, and any who are, in any way, affected by the spirit of demand on their brethren do well to attend to this remark or injunction of the apostle Paul. The spirit of demand is the Old Testament, the spirit of supply is the New. We have to learn the spirit of the New, how to supply instead of how to demand, because the insistence of demand is sure to bring about circumstances where there are no means of paying such demands, and people have to make assignments. So that this word of the apostle Paul deserves attention by us all, but especially if there be in any section, or in any place, or in anyone, the spirit of demand. It is accompanied by shutting out somebody else. That is how the apostle treats of it. The teachers of demand would shut him out at any rate, and if Paul were shut out from the hearts and minds of the Galatians, they would certainly be spiritually bankrupt, and have to live on one another. It is a terrible situation when we have to live on one another. That is a state pictured in 2 Kings, a state of poverty. They were biting and devouring one another in Galatia, and were in danger of being consumed one of another. This word is to be noted in a special way by us, dear brethren, unless we are on the line of supply. Then, of course, we ought to remember, too, that the right principle is ministry, that is giving, which is the principle of christianity. It is supply and not [p. 359] demand. Not that antinomianism is to be allowed in the least degree. There must be law and order. There is law in this very verse. Whose law? The law of Christ. He it is who gives law to the universe. He is the Lawgiver, but the point here is that it is the law of Christ. This epistle takes us to the law of new creation, the rule of new creation. You will not find any record of that in any law book in the whole world. It is outside man’s realm altogether. Man in the flesh cannot enter into that realm at all. The apostle says, “as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God”, Galatians 6:16. It is a very fine expression, the Israel of God, not the Israel of demand, but the Israel of supply, the spiritual Israel — Israel that will fill the world with fruit presently (Isaiah 27:6), and the Israel that now is, namely those who have the Spirit.
To come back to the idea of burden bearing, the verse in connection with which I am speaking makes things very practical. Instead of demanding from the brethren, it is a question of putting your shoulder to burdens. Then they become very different. You, yourself, become different. You are bearing a brother’s burden now instead of demanding of him. The verse is very practical, because it introduces one another to your mind at once, and, at the same time, their burden. In a verse or two lower down there is the balance to this, that every man shall bear his own burden, which is another thing — an important side, but I am speaking for the moment of burden bearing for others and for the Lord. As I said, Paul is the great model and the great instructor in the levitical service. He comes very near to Eleazar the priest, very near to Christ in a spiritual sense.
Well now, speaking to younger brothers and sisters here touching burdens, if you are to take up the service of burden bearing, you may be faced with [p. 360] certain features of it that are not at all inviting. The Acts is a book of precedents; the principle of the book of Acts is to show us not so much precept as precedent, how things are done. It is noticeable that young men are brought into burden bearing early in the book, and on a very solemn occasion, when Ananias and Sapphira made the attempt to lie to the Holy Spirit. They did lie to the Holy Spirit. They agreed to do it, but they did not do it together; they did it separately, which makes the guilt more heinous. The young men in the company carried out Ananias, and carried him out dead. That is burden bearing but of a very solemn kind. I speak of it, because it is well to face what there is to be faced in the service of God. The exigencies of the testimony involve much that is very distasteful and sorrowful, but very necessary. Submission to Christ, and to His will, will enable us to do what is to be done, and not shirk it. It is a very humbling thing here, but there is no hint that they shrank from this service. Peter pronounces a very solemn judgment of God, discerned by the Spirit. Ananias falls and is carried out — a very solemn thing. The service ought to be carrying in, but he is carried out to be buried. I have no doubt that the fact that he was buried is a testimony to his christianity, that he was a believer. However guilty or dishonouring to the Lord a believer is, if known to be genuine, we must respect it. Ananias was carried out to be buried, not in the potter’s field, that I am sure of. He was respected, but it was a burden. Sapphira comes in later; there is no repentance there. She had space to repent, so to speak. I cannot doubt that the Holy Spirit had to say to that woman, but her sin was carried and maintained for the extended period. She lied to the Holy Spirit. It was a united thing, which was met and could only be met entirely as it was met, in divine power. As I said, these were burdens,
[p. 361] and they carried them out and buried them. They are young men, and that is all that is said of them. At the burial of Stephen it is said that they were devout men. It was a service, too, a sorrowful service. They made lamentation over him, as if the Lord would remind us that in such services He looks for feelings, right feelings. What is meant by all this? If I am obliged to do something of the kind that I mention, what is meant by it? How does it affect God? How does it affect the testimony? How did Ananias and Sapphira affect the testimony? Most distressingly. God vindicated His Name in the power that was in the assembly, for that was what the enemy was aiming at. What the enemy aims at, God asserts in power. How does Stephen affect the testimony? Gloriously, there was never a more glorious testimony next to the Lord. How delightful to carry Stephen, although their hearts were filled with sorrow. Devout men buried him. It was a burden they had to carry. It does not say that they carried him, but they did doubtless. They buried him and made great lamentation over him. They had feeling in the thing. It is a fine feature of levitical work to have feelings corresponding with what I am doing. If it is a work of sorrow, do it in sorrow and in tears, but if it is a work of joy, do it with joy. A vessel should be in keeping with what is being done.
I read in Numbers 4 because it is a chapter that opens up this great subject in its application. Amongst other things, this and the previous chapters bring all the saints into the levitical position. There were some twenty-two thousand of them, from a month old and upward, meaning that all these were held for service. Of these twenty-two thousand, something like eight thousand five hundred were actually nominated for the service, being of the age of thirty and upwards, a goodly number, enough to represent [p. 362] the saints that are needed for the great levitical work. You will observe the word ‘burden’ here. It was no light service; it was onerous, drudgery, a service involving, as the word ‘service’ means in the first part of the chapter, what is laborious or very toilsome, sacrificial indeed. The apostle speaks of the sacrificial service which he carried on. From Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, that immense territory, he had not failed to fully announce the gospel of Christ. It is a service in the wilderness of bearing burdens. To balance this in your minds, dear brethren, I would remark that in the land it is not that. There are two phases of the subject. Believers viewed as levites in the wilderness are workers, burden bearers, but viewed as in Joshua they are influential persons. The great feature there is to exert a heavenly influence in one’s environment. One has the ability to do it, belonging to the church of the first-born ones registered in heaven. Every levite is a first born. Of no other family could that be said. Each one has a dignity equal to the other. It is a most exalted family. Its place is in heaven; it is registered in heaven. It is typified in Joshua. They, the levites, had forty-eight cities assigned to them. They have no portion in the land otherwise. They were distributed throughout the tribes, and were thus to exert the influence of heaven — a very fine function, and one that balances, as you can see, the drudgery of the desert. The two services go together, and are carried on in holy heavenly dignity in one’s apprehension of his place in Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “I am among you as he that serveth” Luke 22:27, supremely the Servant, and amongst the others.
That is the idea of it. Think of who He was! Being who He was, He could be what He was down here amongst His own, not simply the Servant, but the One that actually did the service, the One that served. That is the idea of the levite; he does the [p. 363] work. If the work has to be done, the levite does it. If there is a burden to be borne, the levite bears it.
This chapter in Numbers contemplates the levites’ position in relation to the tabernacle, not in cities, but from a triangular position in relation to the tabernacle. The fore part of what I might call the rectangular position was occupied not by levites, that is, the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, which faced the sun-rising as having its own meaning, was occupied by Moses and Aaron and the sons of Aaron. The levites had no title to enter there, but they nevertheless had assigned to them, each of the three families in the levites, their position in relation to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. What a position, dear brethren! We were speaking of it this afternoon as a sort of bodyguard of spiritual power, the entrance itself being in the hands of the priests. They were to keep the charge of the sanctuary. That was the word to Aaron and his sons. That holy entrance was guarded by the priests, and on the south side was Kohath; as the sun arose and moved towards the west it passed through the south and it suggests the favour of God. On the west side accompanying Ephraim and his tribes were the Gershonites, and on the north side accompanying Dan and his tribes were the Merarites. You may say what is the value of these distinctions? If you have had any part in levitical service, you will understand a little of these distinctions. You will understand that it is a much happier thing to serve as I am serving you here now in the sunshine of God. There is no adversary or evil occurrent. I am not conscious of it. I am in a position favoured in serving you. I am borne up by your prayers. But if, after I leave this room, I go back to our brother’s house and hear of some sorrow that has occurred, in some meeting, some division, some defection, it is a [p. 364] very different matter. I may be indirectly responsible, to have to say to it in some way. I am apt to be despondent and discouraged; I am apt to lose hope. That is the position of the Gershonite at the rear of the tabernacle, looking towards the west where the sun goes down. A very different position, you can see that.
Then again, I am told somebody attacks me, it may be, or I am told somebody said something wrong, something hostile to Christ. That is the north wind. I am in the position of the Merarites. Can I stand up against that north wind of persecution? You see, beloved, the position is threefold; it is not that one levite is there and another here. It is my position in a threefold way. Each of us has to face these points of the compass, and do our service notwithstanding. That is the thing. You carry your burden in spite of the north wind; you carry your burden in spite of possible disappointment because of what is happening; you carry your burden as you seek to be here in the joyous sense of the favour of God and of the brethren.
In either case, it is a question of doing my duty, a service of bearing my burden. That is the idea, dear brethren, and you can see how the levite flanks the whole position against the enemy. There are the common people in their thousands outside. I do not mean to say that the “common people”, to use a scriptural word, are different from the levites. That is another phase of our position, that we are doing our duty in the workshop, in the kitchen, or whatever it may be. That is not levitical work, or priestly; that is the ordinary common work. All that lies beyond. The levite stands between that and the holy dwelling place of God. That shows us how as approaching the holy dwelling place of God we need to take account of our commonalty, so to say, and of our levitical position. It is constant reduction. We have the [p. 365] priests who are only a few. The point in the priesthood is not numbers but quality, spiritual discernment and power, for in truth we are all priests.
The position of the levite, therefore, is of the utmost importance, and as I said, we do well to take notice of this injunction, “Bear ye one another’s burdens”, because that is the test. One may say, I want to serve the Lord, and indeed say, I am a servant of the Lord. The test of that is what you do for your neighbour. The servant of the Lord may do what I am doing here. People think that is something. It is serving the Lord, but it is not bearing the burdens of the brethren. Bearing the burdens of the brethren is much less conspicuous, much less likely to bring in distinction amongst us, and yet, beloved, that is the word that Paul gives to us, and we have to open our hearts to listen and attend to the things, to bear the burdens of the brethren. Instead of demanding from them, visit them; visit their houses and find out just what it is that is burdening them.
This leads me to speak of many burdens that are borne that we should not expect anybody to bear, and which we should not bear ourselves. There are burdens that are of no value. Everything a levite bore was of value. He bore nothing else, and I am afraid many of us bear burdens that are of no value whatever, that we do not need to bear at all. It comes to my mind that the epistle to the Philippians infers that maybe nobody else will think of bearing your burden with you, but if you cast it on God He will bear it with you. Make known your requests to God, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:7. If there be no levite in the place, we can always turn to God. He will never fail to take on a burden.
Why should we carry a useless burden? I suspect [p. 366] that many of us, beloved, are like Issachar. There is a great difference between Issachar of Genesis 49 and of 1 Chronicles 12. You will remember how in 1 Chronicles 12 when David was to be crowned by all Israel, we are not told how many men came, but the Issacharites were men “that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment”. They crowned David and anointed him. In Genesis 49 we are told that Issachar is like a beast bowed down between two burdens; Genesis 49:14. In Ireland the expression is well-known, the ass crouching between two hurdles, one on either side. One has often seen it bowing down, or lying down under them. That is the figure used. He crouches down between two hurdles. What are the two? What kind of burden is he bearing? The world on the one side and his calling on the other. He saw that the land was pleasant. He goes down between them. He submitted to tribute. No child of God should be under tribute to the world. Many of us are, we want ease. That was what was the matter with Issachar, he wanted ease. He did not like his neighbours to be talking about him as separate. His neighbours would like him to be this, that and the other thing, to join in with them in what they were doing. That would put an end to all persecution and reproach very effectively. You will have to keep that up, you may depend upon it, if for once you submit yourself as a tributary to the world, the world will hold you to it. It will come regularly to you and demand tribute. You have got to pay, and that means that you are no longer free. He longed to be free, no doubt, for he was a true Israelite, and ultimately came to it. He is, for the moment, seen crouching between two hurdles. Poor despicable type of the believer! Burdens to be sure he had, but of what value? They [p. 367] were just holding him down, and he was making no spiritual headway at all. These burdens, you see, are fruitless, combining the calling of God — normal christianity, with the world. It is not worth consideration; it is not worth carrying. Certainly no spiritual brother will help you. If you carry it you will carry it alone. You will have to trust to the world to pay your tax. That is not the burden that is to be borne. “Bear ye one another’s burdens”, legitimate burdens, and they bring us near to one another, and we test out our levitical instincts and ability in beginning thus, and in fulfilling the law of Christ. That is no small matter. It is a poor thing if the law of the Lord fall to the ground. I pray for law and order in the world even, but what about the law of Christ? Is that not to be maintained? Yes, the true levite will maintain it. It is a question of bearing the burdens of the brethren. “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ”. Thus in every place where there is a meeting, the law of Christ is maintained. The levite magnifies the law of Christ, and now in a simple way we bear the burdens of the saints. “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ”.