THE ENEMY DEFEATED THROUGH THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SAINTS
John Mitchell
Esther 4: 1-3; 9-5: 2; Daniel 6: 10-11; 16 (middle)-22
I have read these two passages to seek to say a few words about the way in which the enemy with all his machinations is overthrown. It is often said, and I think it is right, that the enemy is always active, and I get the feeling that as we stand at the close of the dispensation, when the actual coming of the Lord for His own to rapture His assembly to Himself is so near, the enemy is increasing his activity. I often think of what Mr Stoney said about these matters; in his ministry you find a thread that goes through about what is near to the heart of Christ and it is that which the enemy is absolutely set against. Mr Stoney goes so far as to say that the enemy does not unchristianise anyone, of course he does not. If he did that, his guile would be apparent to even the simplest. But what he does is to seek to take away from Him that which is nearest to the heart of Christ. In other words, putting it simply, he seeks to attract us away from the high level of the truth to what is ordinary. Then, you might say, you can still have the truth, if you have, and what he is really doing will not be apparent. Now, over against that the Spirit of God is active, and I might say powerfully active, in order to maintain what is due to the heart of Christ and, in maintaining what is active, in order to maintain what is due to the heart of Christ, in doing that, He maintains in His saints here. That is how He does it. It comes out very beautifully in the book of Esther that the enemy is overthrown by what is here, indeed by what is even in the king’s palace. It is very beautiful to read it, but the essential matter is that the Spirit secures His end in the overthrow of the enemy through the suffering of the saints. Now, you might not think that that is the way, but it is so, beloved. Christianity was founded on the basis of suffering – the sufferings of Christ lie at the foundation of Christianity. The testimony has been carried on through the ages on the basis of suffering and it will continue on that basis right until the very end. I sought to say a little about this a couple of weeks ago elsewhere and I remarked that in an economy such as we have in this part of the world at the present time there is not much scope for suffering. I think that is right, beloved. Some of us who are a little older now can look back to days when things were quite different, when it was a struggle, literally a struggle, to get food and raiment, and you could see a good deal of suffering. There is not much of that today, indeed you might say what there is today is luxury, but that does not mean that there is no suffering. Beloved, there is far more suffering among the brethren, among the saints, than we may think. In one way, there is a good deal of physical suffering.
My time among the saints is relatively short but I do not think there has ever been the character of suffering physically that there is at the present time. It is not only the severity of it, and it is very severe and we do not need to go far from this locality to see it – but it is something that brings out the body feelings among the saints and you are thankful for that. At the same time, the Lord would raise the question with us, or He would put it in our minds that we ourselves should raise the question. Why is He allowing these things, why does He allow these matters? I need hardly say that the Lord makes absolutely no mistake; that is the situation at the present time among the saints and that is of His ordering, or at least His allowing. I should think it is of His ordering. We need to be sobered about these matters. Persons are suffering, and you might well say ‘Why?’. I believe they are suffering in a certain sense vicariously in view of the need to protect the testimony and to maintain the truth amongst those of us who are left at the close of the day, that it might come home to us that that, beloved, is our responsibility. There is another side of suffering. Many of us who are older remember a period when there was a good deal that is humbling and sorrowful, but God has gone on. The Lord goes on, the Spirit goes on; the Spirit never leaves the saints. Did you ever think about that? He has never left the saints, His abiding character was maintained. I remember someone saying to me, ‘I do not know how you can continue in the testimony with all the background that there is’. Well, the background is certainly humbling, but I will tell you that through it all there has been suffering among the saints, particularly among the sisterhood. There have been persons who carried the whole thing, with all that was wrong and everything of a wrong character, in their spirits sufferingly. Now I think, beloved brethren, that the character of suffering at the present time is largely that, suffering in our spirits. We remarked, as we were looking at this sort of thing a couple of weeks ago, that it was said of Joseph, that they afflicted his feet with fetters. That is the physical side and it was very severe with Joseph, but how severe it was with Christ! Think of it, and what it meant physically to Him, but it also says of Joseph that “his soul came into irons”, Ps 105: 18. That is the suffering in the spirit, dear brethren, and the suffering in spirit is far deeper, far, far deeper than the physical suffering. I believe there is a good deal of that among the saints at the present time. We might think of the inroads of worldliness, worldly things coming in to what is nearest to the heart of Christ, the assembly for His heart. The enemy is seeking his utmost to despoil that with the things of the world. Christ can never go on with the things of the world. The things of the world are in opposition to what is for the heart of Christ and I believe there is a good deal of suffering in spirit about that matter; and about the tendency for a drift away from the main line of the revival of the truth. Let us be quite clear about it, it is the enemy that lies behind that. I go back to what I said about Mr. Stoney and you will find as you go through his ministry, and I certainly commend it to the beloved brethren, that that is what he carried all the time. What had been recovered in the revival of the truth through beloved Mr Darby and others was in danger of being lost. I believe it is a very necessary thing to be reminded of that at the present time.
So we come to this book of Esther where I have read. It is a very unusual book and there might be a good deal of confusion about it. I suppose you may wonder about it having a place in the scriptures. As we well know, God is not even mentioned in the whole book, prayer is not mentioned once in the whole book, and yet God is unquestionably there. Publicly He may be hiding Himself, He may be withdrawn somewhat in a public way, but God never gives up the testimony. He never gives up the defence of the testimony. Let us be assured of that. Another feature of the book is that God’s things are held very largely by two persons, Mordecai and Esther. Mordecai is referred to more often than not as “Mordecai the Jew”. Indeed, apart from only two references in 2 Kings, the thought of “the Jew” appears for the first time in this book and there are more references to the thought here than anywhere else in scripture. The “Jew” here is a derogatory term, a term of reproach. Earlier, of course, it was the “Hebrew”: “Abraham the Hebrew”, but here it is “Mordecai the Jew” and he is there alone, absolutely alone. One thing you have to say about him is that he was concerned about the rights of the throne and he was prepared to die for the rights of the throne. Now, I ask oneself the question: ‘Am I prepared to die at the present time for the rights of the throne, the rights of Christ?’ Mordecai was. Another feature about him, which is very attractive, is that he was a man of affection.
The second character is Esther: Esther was an orphan. Think of that, she had no father and no mother alive, and Mordecai, who was her father’s nephew, took her to take care of her. It says he “took her for his own daughter”, Esther 2: 7. She became a member of his family. He was an affectionate man, he was a family man, and that, I need hardly say, is John’s line of ministry which is appropriate at the present day. But, while he is a family man and an affectionate man, he is a man who stood rigidly by the rights of the throne. He never gave anything up, and had no intention of giving anything up, even though it meant putting his own life in danger. Where we read it says that “when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his garments, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry”. Think of what it meant to Mordecai, that for a time the Agagite had sway over the throne. Think of the awfulness of that, the enemy’s direct representative could have sway over the throne, and the result was that the Jews were to be wiped out entirely. Let us make no mistake, beloved, about what is in the enemy’s mind. There is no mercy, there is nothing of that sort with Satan, he would have obliterated the Jews, God’s people. They were under discipline, under very severe discipline, they had been unfaithful, extraordinarily unfaithful, but there is a man, Mordecai, who has them in his affections. He was a Jew himself and the extermination of the Jews would have meant his extermination, but I do not think that Mordecai was concerned about his own life, because he was prepared to sacrifice his own life. What he was concerned about was the continuation of the divine thought: God and His people. And so he comes, as it says, “even before the king’s gate”, and the law was clear. He was a law-abiding man, but where the law offended his conscience in relation to God’s rights, God’s rights took charge. He was prepared, then, to come to the king’s very gate, in garments of mourning, as feeling keenly what the situation was – one man. Think of that, against the whole power of a tremendous kingdom. The Agagite, Haman, had sway over the king, and the Jews were to be obliterated entirely, and one man carries that in his affection, he suffers in spirit. Would you do that, dear friend? Could I do it? I think the Spirit of God would raise that issue with us and give us the help needed that we take these matters up and take them up feelingly and yet positively, determinedly, in order that what is of God and what is of Christ may continue as long as the dispensation continues. But then he needed help: I do not want to go into the complication of it – there are quite a number of young people here – but Mordecai would suggest the responsible side among the saints, a man who could take up matters that belong to God and give a lead in them, and he certainly gives a good lead here. Esther would suggest the subjective side and it is necessary in the overthrow of the enemy that the subjective side is brought into the conflict, that is that the saints, the brethren, putting it simply, are brought into the matter. It does not become entirely the matter for one man, but it becomes a matter for all the brethren. I would say in passing for our younger brethren here, that Esther was a young woman, she was not an old person. You might think, ‘What you are saying is very good, but it is for the elder brethren’. It is not for the elder brethren alone, beloved, it is for all of us, young and old. We were speaking of that, as I said, a couple of weeks ago. We were thinking of Joseph, seventeen years of age – think about that, seventeen years of age – and he held to what was right, what was true. It is a matter for us all, young and old, and Esther is brought into it. At first, she is not very sympathetic with Mordecai, she does not like his garb. It is not the kind of garb that she thinks is suitable, and at any rate she realised that he was clothed in sackcloth and in the king’s gate his life was in danger. Bear in mind that this king Ahasuerus was a ruthless king. There was very little mercy: seek no mercy from Satan, there was very little mercy from Ahasuerus; so she sends raiment to clothe Mordecai and take away his sackcloth from him, but there is no changing of the raiment of Mordecai. His mind is fixed, in his spirit he is carrying the whole matter sufferingly: think of that, “a bitter cry”, it says. It came right home to his inwards as he carried the awfulness of the position and carried it sufferingly in himself. But he is a good leader and he pleads with Esther, where we read – He approaches in a most beautiful but nevertheless faithful way and he says to her, “Imagine not in thy heart that thou shalt escape … For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there arise relief and deliverance to the Jews from another place” (vv 12-14). He was quite sure about that, you could not shake his confidence in his God. Now that is a great thing, beloved, that no matter what may come in, to be maintained in our confidence in God. As I say, God does not appear in this book, yet He is there all the time, working behind the scenes, and you can see that. He is watching every move, both Satan’s moves and the moves of Mordecai and Esther, and coming in where it is needed in His own way. It is marvellous the way that God comes in to affect the complete overthrow of Haman and all that attaches to him. Mordecai goes on to say, “And who knows whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (v 14). Well, beloved, this is our time. It is not the time of others, and if the Lord may spare us there may yet be times ahead of us, but this is our time. You might say, ‘Why am I in fellowship?’ That is a good question. You have to answer that sovereignty comes into that, but the other side is that you are here “for such a time as this”, for the maintenance of the truth that is precious to the heart of Christ in a difficult day. That is why you are here and let that come home to us. Mordecai brings that home to Esther and the result is that Esther says she will go forward with it, “and if I perish, I perish” (v 16). In this address we have read of three persons, Mordecai, Esther and Daniel, who came near to death and they did not value their life above the maintenance of the truth.
Now these are things that are written in the scriptures for us. You might be going your own way gaily: that is an Agagite feature, if you remember, the Agagite came to Samuel “gaily” (1 Sam 15: 32). The enemy is in that, beloved. It is a day of sobriety, not that we do not have joy. As you go on into the next chapter, what Esther proposes is two banquets. You might say, in the face of the fact that at any moment the Jews are going to lose their lives, you are going to have banquets? Yes, God goes on with what is positive, what is enjoyable, what is for the joy of the hearts of the saints, and the banquets were banquets of wine. You might think that is strange being put in the scriptures, but elsewhere it says that it cheers God and man (see Judges 9: 13). In the midst of these committals, sobering as they are, the Lord is putting out His hand upon us at the present time, and saying, ‘Are you committed to this? Are you committed to the maintenance of the truth, whatever it may involve?’ But alongside that He is saying, do not forget the wine, that is necessary; keep the hearts of the saints up, a very necessary thing. We need to keep up the joy. I think that the Spirit of God would help us. As we commit ourselves to what is necessary in a sobering way for the maintenance of the truth, that we are maintained in the joy of Christianity, the joy of a Man who has been through all the suffering and is now enthroned at God’s right hand. He would draw us into it, the great system of blessing of which He is the Sun and the Centre, for the enjoyment of it. I think that is very necessary and I think that the Spirit of God would help us, so that while there is the side of suffering and soberly carrying the state of things amongst the saints even unto death, alongside of that there is this banquet of wine. I do not go into the detail of it, the brethren know the passage, but Esther, taking her life in hand, goes into the king and she is received by the king. That is why I say, though God’s name is not mentioned, nevertheless He is here and not only is He here, but He is active. If we take up our responsibilities in the maintenance of divine matters, God will be with us and He will act in His own time, make no mistake about that. Never think that God will be tardy, He will not. He will act when the time comes, but He would be glad to find a warrant, if I may use that expression, the state among us, that justifies His acting. He acts here, and even in the next chapter, “sleep fled from the king” (6: 2). He sent for the record book and, in the record book, he came across the record of what Mordecai had done earlier for the protection of the king. He asks, “What … has been done to Mordecai for this?” I do not go into it, but really what it means is the beginning of the overthrow of the Agagite. Even Haman’s wife says to him that if he is beginning to fall in the presence of the Jews it is the end of him. And it was. So that God comes in in His own time, beloved, but he looks to us to take on the responsibility of it.
Now I turn to Daniel, not to say much about it, because the prophecy of Daniel is well known and this particular story is well known. We remember it as little children, Daniel in the den of lions. Where I read it says, “And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed”. There, as in Esther, the decision as far as the men of that day was concerned was completed, and it could never be reversed. That is what they say to the king. The king was a weak king. It suggests, does it not, the present time, where kingship is on the wane publicly and democracy is on the increase. But the king is powerless. Think of that. These Gentile monarchs were powerful kings, but in this matter he is absolutely powerless. Think of the grip the enemy has, and was there any way in which is could be reversed? So it says, “When Daniel knew that the writing was signed”, he did not go and hide somewhere obscure to protect his life: it says, “he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime”. Now this was the custom of Daniel’s. Paul speaks about “at my prayers”, Eph 1: 16. These would be specific times each day when he turned aside from the things of the day to be alone with God, engaged with the things of God. What would the subject be as he spoke to God? It would be the assembly, would it not? You think of Paul, the greatest apostle of the assembly, and that is what he would carry feelingly before God at his prayers. In type, that is what Daniel carries here. His windows were open towards Jerusalem and he prayed three times a day. I have often thought about it. You could say that in the beginning of chapter 1 when he refused the king’s delicate food, ‘Why trouble yourself, Daniel? Jerusalem is a heap of ruins, the house of God at Jerusalem does not exist, the whole city has been burned with fire, there is nothing to be seen in it all’. ‘Ah’, Daniel would say, ‘not for me. I carry it in my affections just as though it was all there’. We are in days of brokenness, but do you carry the assembly in your affections? I often find that persons are quick to say you are sectarian, but we should seek to carry in our affections the whole truth of the assembly. You might say it is like Jerusalem, it appears to be shattered in ruins, but that does not hinder us carrying the whole truth of the assembly. I think that is one of the things that Mr Taylor encouraged us to do – to think whole thoughts. When you think about the assembly, think whole thoughts, not partial ones. We used to speak about the remnant, and Mr Taylor was helped to say it is not a remnant, it is persons in the present day who are carrying whole truths as to the assembly and seeking to work them out. That was Daniel in type. The service of God, as far as Daniel was concerned, would never be hindered by what these jealous people had wrought. Their action arose from sheer envy, that is all that it was. There was no principle lying behind it. It was just pure envy, and they knew they could not get a point at Daniel except concerning his God. They knew also that they could quite easily get a point concerning his God, because he was a man who, in his testimony, exhibited the truth as to God and what belonged to God. So he opened his windows three times a day, and, of course, as to be expected, they came in a band and they took him away and they presented him to the king. There was a man high in the realm, Daniel, and yet he was going against the king’s decree and there was no way out. The king had no way in which he could cancel that decree, so there was no answer for Daniel, but to be put in the den of lions: “Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions”, and they put a stone there, and Daniel did not raise a finger, but God beheld it all. He may have publicly cast off His people, and we may be in days of great ruin, and they certainly are, and it is perfectly right that every one of us should carry the responsibility for the ruin. We should feel these things beloved – that is suffering in spirit – and feel the tremendous disorder that has come in publicly to the assembly of God. Daniel is not overcome by that. I have no doubt Daniel felt it, but he is not overcome by it, he goes on with the service of God, and the result is that he is released, the lions had no power.
I trust that what one has said might find an inlet into our hearts. Let us think of what is so pleasurable to the heart of Christ, what is so pleasurable to the heart of God, and as you see the enemy exercising all his power against it, let us seek to be committed to the maintenance of it, whatever the cost may be.
May it be so, for His Name’s sake.
MALVERN
26 August 2005