NAPHTALI

J. Cumming

Isaiah 9: 1, 2, 6, 7; Genesis 49: 21; Deuteronomy 33: 23; 1 Chronicles 12: 34, 38–40

It will be obvious, beloved brethren, from what I have read that I am going to say a word or two about the features brought out in Naphtali. I have read first of all from Isaiah 9. What comes to light there are persons who prove typically what the Lord Jesus can be to them, sitting in the shadow. It says, “They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death” had seen a great light. We look round the room here and take account of the fact that there are persons who have come to know Christ. Despite all the darkness and all that afflicts this scene at this present moment—and it has been unchanged throughout the generations—there is something which has been effectively wrought in our hearts through the appreciation of Jesus. That is a wonderful thing in itself and that is what these persons had come into the gain of. One of His names is “Wonderful”. Dear young brother and sister, let us at this time have some apprehension, some realization in our affections, as to Jesus, that He is wonderful, the One who supersedes everyone, the One who is to have the first place in all things. We were reminded in Colossians as we began our time together, and I would like to come back to that, “that he might have the first place in all things”, Colossians 1: 18.

It tells us here that there is going to be no end to His kingdom. He is the One who has taken up everything for God, and everything has been handed over to Him, the One that we have been singing about—‘that Man so blest’ (Hymn 348). Oh, what a Man Jesus is! He has carried through everything for God. Let us be more affected by these things, beloved brethren!—“… the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29), and then John saw Jesus as He walked and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God”, John 1: 36. Let us have some distinctive view of Jesus. You know, the world will do anything to bring things down to a common platform, to negate everything, as far as men can, of the appreciation of Jesus in His distinctiveness. That is where the opposition comes in every time. If Jesus had just conformed to the way things were in Israel when He was there in Palestine, then that would have been all right for them. But Jesus was distinctive. He was from heaven and the outlook that He would give us in our heart is heavenly. That is why, beloved young brothers and sisters, the testimony involves for every one of us a line of suffering; but what a matter it is to have the light shining in our heart and an appreciation of the One who has come in. As it says here, “the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations”—the way of reproach, the way that is despised in the outlook of all that is so cultured and educated in this world. Jesus is outside that, yet there is blessing available there.

Now that being so, I want to speak of these features that come in in Naphtali. I think it becomes a more attractive matter when we see the compensation that comes in to persons’ lives because they are prepared to take the place that Jesus has delineated—the One who has gone through and suffered, the One into whose hand everything has now been committed by God, the One who will come into public display and the One who only has the right to rule.

What a matter that will be, beloved brethren! Think of this very scene with all the darkness in it, it will get a thousand years of benign rule such as it has never had, and men will come into something that they never knew before—and it will be the answer publicly to the fact that Jesus suffered and died.

I want to turn now to Genesis 49. I am just applying these scriptures to show the kind of products which are secured as a result of Jesus coming near to men in their circumstances of sorrow and reproach, such as we know ourselves, and how they came into the saving knowledge of what He could be to them. We see how it affects their lives, and demonstrates how this one gets a name like Naphtali. It tells us in Genesis 30: 8 that it means ‘My wrestling’. Rachel was going through deep keenness of feeling at that time. She says, “Give me children, or else I die”, Genesis 30: 1. Do you remember, beloved brother and sister, when our brother Mr. Richmond gave us an address here in this city on “Give me children, or else I die”? You think of the years that have passed since then. Has his prayer, has his desire, has his ministry, fallen? The suffering side of the testimony is known by him and his son in a way that we know very little about.

Dear young brother and sister, does it affect you? I am sure it does. I take encouragement that there has been an answer to prayer, an answer to that ministry, in this very city. We get young men standing up on their feet on Monday night and they pray—pray for our beloved brethren out there in South Africa; so in a way there are children who have come up that way; they have come to appreciate something of what is working out in the testimony sufferingly, and they have a part in that. I think there is an answer to what our brother ministered. Oh, let us see to it increasingly and more sympathetically that this feature is in display with us.

So Naphtali is the product of suffering, ‘My wrestling’, she says—“Wrestling’s of God”. You might say, ‘Well, it was not a very normal thing for her to do what she did’. That is one side of it. She had the objective before her and, like many more, discipline comes into her life as a result of the way that she took; but God turns it to good account and there is a son born and she names him Naphtali. And here is Jacob, the father, at the end of his days, and in Genesis 49 he speaks of Naphtali. He was born number six in the family, according to Genesis 30, but he is mentioned tenth in the list here. I think that is just a product of what Naphtali would really represent. He is not assertive of what might be due to him. I think he is a product of the line of ministry that John the Baptist commenced and set on as God helped him. The axe is laid at the root of the tree—it cuts across any big idea of ourselves and any attachment of importance to ourselves. So Naphtali is prepared to accept, you might say, what his father says about him, even in the tenth position. But what does he say? Just a couple of lines.

Others of the family have very much said about them, but what Jacob does say shows the substantiality of the features that you and I should have, beloved brethren—“Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words”.

I would say this; in our locality where many of us have been brought up, and we get to know the brethren, that was always the impression I had of the brothers who were recently taken from us—“A hind let loose”; there was always a readiness with them to take their part in what was proceeding, especially in the meeting for ministry, and they gave goodly words. We want to have a proper valuation of one another. Now they have been taken from us, and the point is this, dear young brethren—take your part in the testimony in the city here, and in the area. It is needful that in every place there is this readiness to be energetic in the things of the Lord. Now that energy would not be in anything that might attach to us personally in the way of ability or anything like that. It would be in the Spirit.

But if it is so, then there is that poured out—“He giveth goodly words”. O, beloved brethren, have we not much in the way of goodly words to speak about? This passage speaks, in its fulness, of Christ out of death in resurrection, “a hind let loose”. Who is going to hold Him? It is the energy of that Man, “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6: 4)—the energy that is there personally in Him, “a hind let loose”. O, beloved brethren, when you think of it, the Person we are speaking about could never be held by death; He has come out of it as having accomplished everything for God and is raised and ascended and glorified. From that position the gospel goes out, “goodly words”—the Spirit here consequent on Christ being glorified. So the goodly words proceed in the testimony in the power of the Spirit. The gospel goes out in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

We would keep in mind what I was saying, that Naphtali has this commended about him, “Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words”. You do your part, beloved brother, in encouraging the brethren with goodly words about Christ, goodly words about the assembly, and that will be for profit. Sisters, how much you can take up in this relation. Be prepared to commit yourself to it so that there is an atmosphere where everything is of Christ.

Turning to Deuteronomy 33, we have the end of the wilderness journey. Moses is speaking, and Naphtali has made a little progress. Instead of being tenth in the line he is now eleventh. Oh, are you prepared for that? We might say, ‘Surely we shall get some promotion’. Well, Naphtali has, but on the downward line. That is what helps us. The world is built up on ambition. Some of the young people are taking up jobs now, and in a certain way it is all so new and promising. But you keep control of yourself and the Lord will help you in your circumstances. There are some we knew in this city, and education and ambition and material things like that ran away with them. You keep control and the Lord will help you. “Naphtali, satisfied with favour”—Oh, I think that is a very testing matter, but Moses has taken account of it as it had been seen in Naphtali. Let us see to it that there is something like that in us. It would be a Philippian touch. Paul says there that he knew what it was to be satisfied. He knew the favour of God and knew what it was just to go on quietly. You may say, ‘Well, if my circumstances were more congenial …’ The circumstances for Paul were very, very oppressive. But he was marked by the feature of contentment.

Now, “full of the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south”. I think that is always very, very needful for us, and it makes all the difference when a brother comes in and in the part that he takes. It gives you the impression, ‘Well, at least he is enjoying what he is talking about’. What a treat it is to hear a brother preaching and to realize that he is really in the good of what he is saying. I do not think we will be effective in the testimony unless it is so. You see, we can get our words all right and we can get everything lined up, but unless the Spirit comes in, unless the Spirit is operating in that person, then it will only be words. If it is the Spirit coming out in a man, then there is power in it and it has its own conviction. Oh, let us see to it that we not only talk about the inheritance, not only have it in our minds and think about what it is going to be to enjoy it in a coming day, but are actually in the gain of things now. You may say, ‘What, with just a few brethren?’ Yes, just a few—nonetheless the reality is there in the Spirit and there are no bounds to that, beloved brethren. So let us see to it that we convey something of it.

Now I want to come over to 1 Chronicles 12. This is a scripture that we can use to support a three-day meeting and it helps us on that line, so all the neighbouring localities here would be encouraged as to three-day meetings. But in this chapter, which is a chapter where typically Christ’s glory becomes pre-eminent, where Christ becomes “everything, and in all” (Colossians 3: 11), you have this commendation as to those who came from Naphtali to make David king—“a thousand captains, and with them thirty-seven thousand with shield and spear”. It is an interesting matter that these captains should be brought in here, “a thousand captains”. There are very much larger numbers of others in the chapter, but that is not the point. There are a thousand captains and with them thirty-seven thousand.

I think this brings to our notice, beloved brethren, a need for the brethren being with things as leadership is manifested. You have the principle of leadership, captains, but you have a stated number with them. Oh, we want to be in that, you know, to realize that what proceeds in the assembly is not democracy; it is the authority of what the kingdom would represent. That always has to be adhered to, but it is in no way detached from the body of the saints. These thousand men who were distinguished as being leaders, captains, were with those thirty-seven thousand. I think that is a needful thing in our localities. We do not aspire to a one-man show.

Oh, we want to get past that kind of thing, to realize that the unity of things amongst us calls for the Spirit’s operations in those who have something and are prepared to take on responsibility, and then there are those who have the feeling, ‘That is the lead that I want to follow’. Let us be in that.

They are armed with shield and spear. Now, I am borrowing from Ephesians when I link these two things together. If ever there was a day, beloved brethren, when we need the shield of faith it is today. Materialism and self-assertiveness are marking the world, rank unbelief, you might say, and atheism. We have got to hold on to the shield of faith. It tells us in that chapter, “with which ye will be able to quench all the inflamed darts of the wicked one”, Ephesians 6: 16. So when these suggestions come along, and these questions are propagated by persons, or it may be in things you read, the shield of faith is necessary, and its protection is proved. It is quite an interesting word—“the inflamed darts of the wicked one”. The note says, ‘darts with burning stuff at the end were in use’. These must have been quite destructive. May I bring it a little closer home, beloved brethren? One thing I think we have to watch—and I am not saying they are of this nature—but we want to be very careful as to the number of letters that are circulated. I think there is a need for us to develop direct links with one another, and if I do not understand what a brother has said, or do not follow what is done, then surely it is on me to speak to that brother personally. You say, ‘Well, it might involve distance’. That may be so, but there has been a lot of damage done through letters being sent and then copied and circulated.

I am only applying this scripture. We want to watch that; the enemy can use these things to our detriment. Beloved brethren, there would be less trouble if brothers would speak directly to one another. I remember it being said in a reading here, and it always stuck to me, ‘internationally as long as the nations keep talking to one another then it is safe; refusal to speak can be dangerous’. I think that is just the idea I want to leave. Keep speaking about things, keep exercised about things prayerfully and responsibly. The difficulty always is when you come to an impasse; then you do not talk to one another; then what happens?

Usually an issue that is regrettable. Oh, let us see to it that our links together are bright and that there is none of this, you might say, insidious working that the enemy can use to the detriment of the testimony. These men all had a shield and spear. It tells us also in Ephesians about “the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word”, Ephesians 6: 17. Oh, beloved young brethren, that is the effectiveness which deals with anything that is anti-God, anything that is against Christ, anything that is against the truth of the assembly—the word of God. Let us be steeped in that. Maybe most of us would say we should read the Scriptures more. We were reminded in the reading about the Spirit of truth, and He abides in us. That would exercise us as to what is inward and how that is sustained. As we rely on the Spirit of truth He will help us in regard to every issue and every difficulty, and positively into the way of growth and results for God.

In the last few verses, beloved brethren, all this comes together. Naphtali included, and there is the pre-eminence of David. That is what we want to come to and may it be more and more so in our gatherings together that He “is everything, and in all”, Colossians 3: 11. May we be encouraged in this, for His name’s sake.

Address in Edinburgh
14 January 1984