IN VIEW OF PURSUING THE SPIRITUAL LINE
Genesis 21: 14-21; 26: 1-6, 12
We have considered the importance of spirituality and I desire to show with the Lord’s help how we can pursue on this line. Ishmael is a contrast with Isaac in this respect; he represented someone of the household of faith, so that God promises to Abraham that He will bless Ishmael, on his account, but he is like a believer who is still found on the line of the flesh, and therefore he persecutes Isaac: “he that was born according to flesh persecuted him that was born according to Spirit”, Gal 4: 29.
We see later that Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, then in the hands of the Midianites he is sold into Egypt. The Midianites, who were also descendants of Abraham, represent those who profess to be believers, who are in opposition to what is spiritual; in Gideon’s day, the Ishmaelites fought with the Midianites against God’s people. Such elements may be found among believers, but not being spiritual, they always oppose themselves to what God is going on with.
However, God is faithful. Ishmael is placed in an extreme position; he is on the point of dying. But God hears, and Ishmael in his last extremity can turn towards Him. “And God heard the voice of the lad”. He opened Hagar’s eyes, his mother, she went and got drink for her son from the well of water; but she does not appear to be completely confident about the well for she does not remain there, that is not mentioned. Ishmael grew up and became an archer, and his mother “took him a wife out of the land of Egypt”. And the end of Hagar’s history is a warning for us all not to despise what is spiritual, and not to go to the world to find company for our children.
In contrast, in chapter 26, Isaac is presented as someone whom God makes to prosper after a test at the beginning. Some among the saints are put to the test by the fact of a small number in the local gathering and the apparent weakness that results. But whatever the conditions may be, it is not necessary to go down into Egypt. God says to Isaac: “Go not down to Egypt: dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land; and I will be with thee and bless thee”. The Lord would say to us in this that whatever the local conditions may be, we must seek life in God’s things, in the Scriptures, and go into them by the Spirit. We read in Psalm 37: “dwell in the land, and feed on faithfulness”. It is the title that would suit this chapter where we find a great expression of God’s faithfulness in the fact that, in figure, the Holy Spirit is given to abide with for ever. The truth has been lost but recovered more and more in our day, allowing us to grasp this thought that what is fitting for us is to dwell in “this land”, and to feed on faithfulness—God’s faithfulness. God commanded Isaac to dwell in this land and to sojourn there. Where do we dwell? Where are our interests? The line of prosperity is to dwell in the land. We will see further on in this land that Isaac is constantly pursued by the Philistines who are opposed to him, especially in relation to the wells, but we come back to this question. In chapter 26: 12, it is said that “Isaac sowed in that land”, and that he “received in the same year a hundredfold”. This question is also posed for us: Where are we sowing? In the epistle to the Galatians, it is said, “whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap. For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”, Gal 6: 7, 8. To sow signifies that we are concerned to reap. Isaac sowed to the Spirit; the result is a rich blessing. However weak the position may be, we always have the possibility of sowing to the Spirit through prayer; we draw near to God to lay out our needs and exercises, and we consecrate ourselves to reading the Word, seeking to be made intelligent by it; if in so doing we will gather the Lord’s recompense. The word is certain: “he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”, that is to say that the harvest is of the order of what death cannot take away. Isaac sows in “this” land and it is said that he “received in the same year a hundredfold”. And he became great: “And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great”. In chapter 24, Isaac is a figure of Christ without any doubt, but here he must be considered as a figure of a spiritual man engaged in the way of spirituality, and who received a full blessing and the possession of great spiritual riches—flocks, cattle, servants.
But immediately we have the jealousy of the Philistines that is manifested in the fact that they stopped the wells—an expression of the Philistines’ constant opposition, that is to say, the natural mind which seeks to appropriate the things of God in an intellectual way. Let us be on our guard! for it is easy to carry the Philistine with us; it is a great danger for those who have natural intelligence. The Holy Spirit requires of us, in order to work freely, a spirit of dependence and constant prayer, always seeking God’s presence. At the beginning of the book of the Acts, we read that the Lord says to His disciples “to await the promise of the Father, which said he ye have heard of me. For John indeed baptised with water, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit after now not many days”. He does not specify the number of days; in fact it was ten days after that the Holy Spirit descended; but the Lord had said to them “not many days”: this was to be a test with the resource of remaining continually in prayer, having learned this character from Jesus. He Himself was in prayer when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.
If we desire to become spiritual, we have to come to understand that the Spirit requires dependence in us, which we learn from Christ; he would have us renounce our reliance upon our natural capacities to understand God’s things.
The Philistines have therefore stopped the wells. Isaac digs them again. If we do not go on with the Spirit, the truth is a dead letter. Isaac has the exercise to dig again so that the water can flow. It is an exercise that we need to have constantly; freeing the wells of what hinders the water from flowing. The Spirit is always there, but has he full liberty to flow? Otherwise, we must have the exercise to dig so that we are freed from what makes an obstacle. The servants of Isaac also dig; which shows that all are concerned to have freshness. We must all be committed to have freshness by the Spirit, what brethren previously have enjoyed, which corresponds to the re-opening of the wells. At the beginning of the passage, it is mentioned that Isaac “pitched his camp in the valley” (v 17) which confirms what we are saying, that he had to be marked by dependence in humility. You necessarily go down to go into the valley, it is a feature that the Spirit recognises and which will allow Him to bring out the features of life and freshness. Then new wells are dug. The Spirit searches the depths of God; if it is good to seek freshness as to past truths, it is indispensable to dig new wells so as to have the present mind of the Spirit. So that we find that Isaac possessed a greater number of wells than Abraham. Isaac marks a present spiritual progress in which all have part: the servants dug in the valley and they found living water.
The opposition does not delay to manifest itself in a new way: the contention of the shepherds of Gerah with Isaac’s shepherds is a new effort of the Philistines, who reclaimed what had been brought to light by spiritual exercise, so as to appropriate it: it is a spirit of rivalry which is in evidence. But Isaac refuses to contend and he digs other wells. Then the contention ceases. We have to accept the exercises relating to digging the wells in order to reach the current of the Spirit, who is ready to set us free from everything that would hinder His operations. The fruit of all these exercises is enlargement and great fruitfulness: “For now Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land”.
And that same night, Jehovah appeared to Isaac, it is encouraging to see that Jehovah gives him immediately the fruit of what he had sowed: “he received in the same year a hundredfold”, v 12. And Jehovah appeared to him at Beer-Sheba and Isaac’s servants dug a well there. Every exercise that Isaac faces encourages others in this exercise. In verse 25, it is said, “he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah”. Being set in movement on a spiritual line, Isaac is found in new and fresh relations with God. Isaac draws near to God in the light of the encouragements he has received from Him.
Then we read that Isaac pitched his tent there and a new well is dug. Isaac is now subjected to a new test by these three men: Abimelech, Ahuzzath, and Phichol, military men who represent the principle of social importance; they are great men and their proposition to Isaac is a challenge for him, that is to say, if he is going to continue on the spiritual line or not. Isaac is shown to be great enough to resist them: he treats them with grace, but he sends them away, v 31. This shows that Isaac is not overcome, he keeps both his power and his liberty. This is the consequence of being set in movement on the line of spirituality.
At the end of the chapter, the end is reached: the servants come and say to Isaac, “we have found water”. And this is Beer-Sheba, which suggests for us the local assembly where water will not fail to flow, that is to say there will be spiritual freshness if each brother and each sister is more engaged with God’s thoughts.
Isaac’s history is put in contrast with that of Ishmael. With Isaac, we have the line on which we can become spiritual. The Holy Spirit being always with us, the possibilities in this sense are infinite. All depends on the room that we make for Him. May the Lord help us to give Him ever more room!
BEAUVOISIN
5th November 1954
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These meetings have been translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, July 1955
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