THE VALUE OF WHAT IS IN THE BODY
J. Renton
1 Samuel 25: 32–35; 2 Samuel 20: 15–19, 22 (first sentence); 21: 10–14; 1 Kings 1: 1–4
One of the objectives in the giving of the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 is “with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ”. That work is proceeding, and there is a result in the body.
There is also the need to take responsibility; the Lord expects persons to take on responsibility, but very often those who take on responsibility are not all they ought to be, such persons therefore need to value what is in the body. In church history defection came in with persons responsible; publicly the responsible element has failed the Lord, hence the ruin publicly, but what goes through is what is in the body. What has come all through the centuries is what was formed of Christ in the body here. Responsibly and publicly there is ruin, but we need to value what is in the body. That is why I read of these four women who appear in the time of David, when David was not what he ought to be. It may be a word for us who take on responsibility locally. We are all responsible. The Lord addresses the angels of the seven assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3. All are responsible, but some are more responsible than others. In anything that is done in our localities responsible persons need to have the mind of God, otherwise things become difficult. When these women appeared in David’s time David was responsible, but he did not have the mind of God. It was characteristic of David to enquire of Jehovah, but he did not always enquire; every time he enquired of Jehovah he got the mind of God, and he went forward dependently and successfully, and the Lord’s interests
prospered in his hand. But he did not always enquire, and in these scriptures we have read, when these women come to light, David did not have the mind of God, but there was in these four women the element that he had to appreciate and that we need to appreciate more, maybe, than we have done.
First of all we have Abigail, often spoken of. This is the first time, as far as I discern, that David makes a request from anybody; he made a request from Nabal and he was insulted, and David reacted immediately. He did not enquire of Jehovah; he did not have the mind of God. Persons who take responsibility ought to have the mind of God; but David did not enquire.
But Abigail comes to light; she was no doubt the result of ministry. Ministry is given for the edifying of the body of Christ, and Abigail was the result of that kind of ministry. The opening verses of the chapter say that “Samuel died; and all Israel were gathered together, and lamented him; and they buried him in his house at Ramah” (1 Samuel 25: 11). I have no doubt Abigail can be viewed as the result of Samuel’s ministry. The result of ministry may be more valuable than the one who ministers, because the result of ministry from Christ is the formation of Christ, and that is what we see in Abigail. We need increasingly to value what is in the body. It may not appear on the surface, but it is meant to be expressed. Abigail gave expression to what she represented; she had discernment when David did not.
We need to value, dear brethren, what is in the body in our localities. It may be in sisters, but not only in sisters; it is what is in persons in divine formation. The responsible element, of course, is necessary, but it is most important that persons who take on responsibility should have God’s mind. David says himself, “blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day
from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging myself with mine own hand”. You see how far David is away from the mind of God; that was not David characteristically. Actually, Abigail represented what David was characteristically, while David was not representing what he really was as a man of God, and that can happen, and does happen. But there was something reliable in what was in the body. He says, “Indeed, as Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, who has restrained me from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any male”. There would have been unnecessary loss of life had not Abigail intervened with her discernment, had she not supplied what David lacked for the moment; as applying to ourselves, had what was in the body not expressed itself to help the responsible element. Responsibility has to be taken on, but let us have increasing regard for what is in the body.
Then, too, what is in the body needs to be expressed; it is to be active as Abigail was here; she might have had discernment and kept quiet and remained where she was, but what she was expressed itself and acted and saved David from a great calamity. She said, “And now, my lord, as Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Jehovah has restrained thee from coming with bloodshed” (1 Samuel 25: 26). David here, responsible, had to be restrained, and the restraining element was Abigail, who was of divine workmanship and reliable at the moment. David recognized it, he listened, and there was a saving of life. We need therefore to value what is in the body.
Now in 2 Samuel 20 David is called the king, but he does not have judgment, in fact he acts politically, well below what he was characteristically. He commits himself to Amasa in chapter 19, but he let him down. He speaks to Abishai in verse 6 of chapter 20, but his weakness and lack of judgment made way for Joab to come into the situation; and that kind of thing can happen to us. David was responsible but he let things slip. This kind of thing has happened, no doubt, over and over again in church history, making way for a man like Joab, an unspiritual man who would have destroyed the whole city. But there was a woman there and she was the means of the salvation of the place. She speaks of “a mother in Israel”; she had motherly features; she had in mind to maintain life with the minimum loss. She suggests that one man is responsible, and that one man has to be dealt with, not the whole city. She is spoken of as a wise woman, a woman who had judgment, a woman who knew how to act. David ought to have had judgment, but he was weak and left things to others, left things to an unspiritual element. These are all lessons for us.
So this wise woman “cried out of the city, Hear, hear”; she had wisdom; she had right judgment; but that in a sense was not sufficient; that right judgment has to be expressed.
What is in the body, and the right judgment, has to express itself. So this wise woman “cried out of the city, Hear, hear—say, I pray you, unto Joab”. She cries out. There was need for someone to cry out, and she cried out, “Hear, hear—say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. And he came near to her; and the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he said, I am he. And she said to him, Listen to the words of thy handmaid. And he said, I am listening”. There was moral power with her, not with the king, not with the one who was responsible; the moral power was with the woman; the moral power was in what can be likened to the body in divine workmanship. It was reliable, more reliable than responsible persons sometimes are; more reliable than David. Think of the moral power of this woman to get Joab to listen; he said, “I am listening”; ruthless warrior that he was, he said, “I am listening”. It was the salvation of the whole city at this critical time.
Incidentally, in the earlier part of this section Joab assassinated Amasa, and Amasa was wallowing in blood in the highway; it says, “all the people stood still” when they saw Amasa.
There was in this chapter the main issue, the main issue was Sheba. Amasa was a side-issue, very serious, but nevertheless a side-issue. A man “removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by stood still” (2 Samuel 20: 12). They were held up, but when Amasa was removed out of the highway all the people went after Joab to pursue after Sheba; the main issue was Sheba; Amasa was a side-issue, a very serious one, but that had to be left for the moment. Often in a main issue, side-issues come in which deflect and disturb and occupy us, but it is the main issue that has to be pursued, the side-issue was seen to later; it was not neglected. God saw that what Joab did to Amasa was finally dealt with; but there was the main issue pursued and this woman comes to light in the city.
Now in 2 Samuel 21 another woman comes to light. This is the chapter of the Gibeonites. There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and eventually David enquired of Jehovah and he got the answer, but the king was weak in judgment; he left the judgment to the Gibeonites. Instead of the king in responsibility acting with right judgment, he leaves the judgment to others, in this case to the Gibeonites. “David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and with what shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of Jehovah? And the Gibeonites said to him, As to Saul and his house, it is with us no question of receiving silver or gold, neither is it for us to have any man put to death in Israel”. David said, “What ye say will I do for you” (2 Samuel 21: 3, 4). Think of one responsible saying to the Gibeonites, ‘What you say; just what you say’. This is lack of judgment with David. The Gibeonites say, It is not for us to put any man to death, and when David says, “What ye say will I do”, they ask for the death of seven men of Saul’s house. See how weak David is; but there is a woman here. These men were slaughtered; it says in verse 9, “and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before Jehovah. And they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the first days of the harvest, in the beginning of barley harvest”.
David lacked judgment and he lacked right feelings; the feelings that David ought to have had were found with this woman—“Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens, and suffered neither the fowl of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night”. This woman had right feelings regarding the whole matter. “And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done”.
Someone told David about Rizpah’s feelings and actions, and then David was alerted and eventually he went and took the bones. How many times bones are mentioned! “David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan ... and he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And they buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the, country of Benjamin in Zela”. The bones suggest that something remained to be done; something was left; issues were unresolved, but this woman’s exercise becomes a means of matters being rightly resolved, and issues settled. The feelings of this woman caused David at last to bury these bones, to have matters finally settled according to God. How important it is that things should be settled! It says, “And afterwards God was propitious to the land”. Do we not want God to be propitious? We do not wish famine conditions, things not as congenial as they ought to be, not the food supply that there ought to be. The Lord would help us as appreciating the right feelings amongst the brethren, as represented in Rizpah here, to have matters settled, issues concluded according to God, that God may be propitious to the land.
In 1 Kings 1 we have David’s weakness, a lack of vitality, a lack of warmth which clothes did not supply. His servants said to him, “Let there be found for my lord the king a young virgin; and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him ... that my lord the king may get warm”. Oh what a fine element this is! There was with David waning, weakness, lack of vitality; but a young virgin brought in life, warmth, vitality. If we compare the end of 2 Samuel, and the beginning of 1 Kings, with 1 Chronicles we may conclude that Abishag had part in reviving David and the establishing of the service of God. Here David is in abject weakness and strengthening comes in by this young virgin. There is the suggestion that they should look for such a person, and it says, “they sought for a fair damsel throughout the territory of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king”. Oh may there be a searching for this kind of element to bring in freshness of warmth and vitality at the present time. In our local settings we may need this kind of thing to be found. She is a very attractive person, “And the damsel was very fair; and cherished the king, and ministered to him; but the king knew her not”.
All this was in view of the selection of Solomon. There immediately comes in the rising of Adonijah—“I will be king”. What was the answer to this kind of element? Abishag was the answer; David was not able for it, but Abishag brought in the strengthening, the vitality and the warmth that was needed to revive the responsible element represented in David. It says in 1 Kings 1: 15, “And Bathsheba went in to the king into the chamber; and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered to the king”. Dear brethren, we need to support those who take on responsibility; there is need to strengthen, maybe need of adjustment, maybe need of restraint; that is how things are going to be held for God’s pleasure and God’s glory. May we as responsible persons value what is in the body, divine workmanship, divine formation. Let us depend on it; it is the dependable element, but it needs to be expressed in helping, restraining or strengthening, or bringing light to persons responsible. May it be so in our local settings for the continuance in dignity of the testimony, and for the pleasure and glory and service of God.
Address at Ealing
7 June 1986