SERVICE AMONG THE SAINTS
J. Mitchell
Numbers 12: 5–8; Philippians 1: 21–26
I read these two passages having in mind to say a little about service among the saints. It is right to desire to serve the saints, and while what I have to say may have its direct application to brothers, I trust the spirit of it may be of use to our sisters. As we think of the way in which Christ has served us in the laying down of His precious life, that holy life of Jesus that He laid down in death—that would generate a desire with us that we should serve Him. It would appeal to our hearts as we think of the glorious service of Christ to us, but service too in a supreme way to His God and Father. If we are thinking in any sense of service we would take pattern from our Lord Jesus Christ who was the perfect servant. Mark’s gospel presents Him in that character, and I commend it to our younger brethren as something to read and pray about, so that anything that we do among the saints or that we do for men generally may take character from the service of Christ. That should always be in mind in everything that we undertake; we should take account of the pattern that has been set out for us in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that what is done may in the spirit of it be characteristic of Himself.
I have taken up two well known servants, one in the Old Testament and one in the New; in each of them you would see God’s best in service as taking character in spirit or in actuality from Christ Himself. Where we read in Numbers, God speaks to Miriam and Aaron of “my servant Moses”. Think of how much Moses actually meant to God. What a servant he was.
There was no one like him in the Old Testament who served in the way he served. At one time he almost complainingly (which of course is not right for a servant) speaks to God about having to carry the people in his bosom. These were
very real things to Moses, and it reminds me of Mr. Coates’ word, that if you want to serve the saints be prepared to have your heart broken. That comes out especially in Moses when it speaks about him carrying the people in his bosom. That is really what service involves. It is arduous labour, it is a test to our affections. The real root of it is love for Christ, but developing love for His saints; there is no other basis on which it can be taken up. But I have brought forward these two men that we might, in some measure, see what the divine requirement is for service among the saints. Let me say, before I speak of that, dear brethren, that there is ample opportunity and ample room for service. Indeed I would go as far as to say that there is a crying need at the present moment for persons who are devoted to Christ and devoted to the saints, and prepared to serve them no matter what it may involve.
Now Moses was a remarkable man. He had a remarkable upbringing having been born into a remarkable household. In Exodus it says, “a man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi” (Exodus 2: 1), indicating that it was in the divine mind from the very beginning that Moses should be available for service to God. Every one of us, in some measure, can take account of ourselves in that character. But Moses was brought up at the court of Pharaoh. That is where he spent the first forty years of his life, and no doubt he was a most intelligent man who had been extremely well versed in the things of the world at that time. Nevertheless he had levitical instincts. When he was grown he went out to view his brethren. He had his brethren in his heart and he went out to take account of the circumstances in which they were, and when he saw one being afflicted by an Egyptian, he smote the Egyptian and buried him in the sand (Exodus 2: 12). Later when he saw two Hebrew men quarrelling, he intervened but his levitical spirit was not recognised. These incidents show that Moses had levitical instincts, but he had no levitical skill at that point.
However God was going to form him in a way in which those levitical instincts would be governed by levitical skill. That is something that is needed among the saints; not only the desire and the instinct to care for what is right under God, but to do things in the right way.
When he fled from Pharaoh he is found sitting at a well. How beautiful that is, a man who had known what Pharaoh’s court was, sitting there patiently. He had known what grandeur was, he had known the great intelligence of the supreme power in the world at that time, he was right in the centre of that system, and here he is content to sit by a well. I think that is beautiful. When these shepherdesses come onto view, his levitical instinct comes into expression immediately and he seeks to serve them. The shepherds sought to hinder the flock being watered, but Moses immediately intervenes and helps the women. When they go back to the father, he says, “Why are ye come so soon today?” (Exodus 2: 18), and they say an Egyptian helped them. He says, Where is the man? I think all these things bear on levitical service. He had performed that service for them but there was little recognition of it until he was sent for. I think that is very touching. Before we speak about that, let us think of him sitting by that well.
I would say beloved brother, beloved sister, if in any measure you wish to serve the saints that is a necessary place to sit. Be in relation to the Holy Spirit of God. Think of the service of the Spirit throughout the dispensation, the patience, the care, the extended service of the Holy Spirit of God. It ought to draw out our affections to the Spirit. At the close of the dispensation we have been helped to give the Spirit the place that is proper to Him, but think of the way in which He has served all through the dispensation, largely unrecognised for large periods of time, but nevertheless there in His patient service towards the saints. It is a great thing thus, beloved brother, beloved sister, to typically sit by that well and drink into something of the Holy Spirit’s service. Let it affect your heart and let it govern your ways and make sure that what you undertake is done in the power of the Spirit. I think that is what marked Moses. From that moment on he undertook things typically in the power and character of the Spirit.
He is taken into that house and he served for forty years caring for the flock of another. I often think of Jacob, a delightful character, but a man who had to learn through deep discipline. He went down to Padan-Aram in the clothes that he stood in, you might say, and he came back an exceedingly rich man through his own business acumen that was characteristic of Jacob. Moses went down to Midian in the clothes in which he stood, and he came up with a wife and a son and an ass and a staff. That is all he had, nothing other than that. I think that shows the levitical spirit, that he was forty years behind the wilderness and for those forty years there was nothing for himself in a material sense. I would say there was plenty for him in experience with God. He was learning day by day in caring for that flock, what it would mean to care for God’s people in the wilderness. What a carer he was! He learned by that experience; he was not in it for what he himself could get out of it, he was in it truly for sacrificial love. The basis of service is love, and he cared in love for the flock of another. That is what marks service at the present time, caring for the flock of another. It tells us that Moses led them behind the wilderness to the mountain of God. All his leadership of that flock was to go up the mountain of God, leading them away from the world and into God’s realm where they would be in relation to God. He was learning there in that forty years to lead God’s people through the wilderness.
He comes to that time when he has that experience of seeing the bush burning and he turned aside to see it (Exodus 3: 3). What an experience that was. There are many applications to that, but there is one that always affects me. We are told that God is a consuming fire
but that His mercies are new morning by morning, and “ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed”, Malachi 3: 6. I think the sons of Jacob refers to the people in their responsible and wayward character and the experience they had of what it was for God’s mercies to be new morning by morning. I suppose in the forty years in the wilderness the thorn-bush character would have come out in the people. We do not need to read far into the book of Exodus to see that, the murmurings that were there. Then in the passage we read in Numbers 12 they were murmuring against Moses. There it was Aaron and Miriam, his own brother and sister, persons of the levitical family, who were in the service of God but they were envying their brother. Think of what Moses had to bear. Think of the thorn-bush character coming out in those forty years, yet he had to learn that the thorn-bush was not consumed. That is the thing to get into our souls in relation to God’s people, that is, “ye, sons of Jacob, are not consumed”, that is not the divine way. The divine way is patience in service in order that they might be brought through, in order that they might be maintained in relation to God Himself.
So you see what a servant he was, what an experience he had. He was a man of great power.
Well that is true but I do not go into that at the present time, rather am I thinking of the man who was able to care for the people and carry them in his bosom through that wilderness, so that we might see that character of service. It is a true levitical character; to care for the saints and to carry them in your affections. I feel for myself how little one can do that.
One of the things said of Paul as to his sufferings was “the burden of all the assemblies”, 2 Corinthians 11: 28. As committed in some measure to serve the Lord’s people here, you would have to accept all that goes with it, including the tears. Think of the tears that have been shed. I am conscious of that myself in one’s own history. I have known persons who really cared for the saints of God to shed tears over them, and these are the
tears that are kept in God’s bottle. That is what is involved in it. Do not think for one moment that if you wish to take on service it is an easy path, it is not. It is a very difficult path, but it is a path in which the love of Christ and the love of the Spirit will serve you and see you through. So there is this attack against Moses, and it was not the only attack; think of the number of times that the people rose up against Moses. At the end of the wilderness journey he twice tells the people, as they are about to go into the land, that God was angry with him on their account. Think of that, a man who had not the privilege of going into the land although his heart was there. He loved Canaan, that goodly land, he says, and yet because of his service to the people he was unable to go into it. That is the character of the servant of God’s people, and if your desire is to take up service these are the things you will have to face.
But here, I just speak of it briefly, Miriam and Aaron spoke against him. It says that they “spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken; for he had taken a Cushite as wife. And they said, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only to Moses? has he not spoken also to us?”, Numbers 12: 1, 2. It has often been said that taking the Ethiopian wife was the excuse, and it is never difficult to find excuses. There was something deeper than that, there was jealousy in their hearts. Jealousy in this respect is a terrible thing among the people of God. Sovereignty comes into the matter of gift; we just have to recognise that and simply bow to it. It is a very easy thing to accept, and it is for our blessing to accept, but then alongside sovereignty I would say there is always the moral characteristics of the persons concerned. In these times of pressure moral beauty comes out. It says, “the man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. It brought out the moral beauty of the man. All these attacks bring out in the true servant the moral grace that is there, he was “very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. The Spirit of God records that at the time of this opposition to Moses.
Then it says, “Jehovah spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting. And they went out, they three. And Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words’. God justifies His servant. It has often been said that a servant need never justify himself in any matter whatsoever. God justifies the righteous, there is no question about that, and He stands by Moses and he speaks of him as “my servant Moses”. That was really the verse that was upon one’s heart to bring out. That is what He says, “my servant Moses”. Think of the intimacy that existed between God and His servant, and He justifies him, speaking severely to Miriam and Aaron. Miriam as a result became “leprous as snow”, a terrible thing. Moses was the youngest of the three, and nature often comes into matters; I tell you something dear brother, dear sister, when you allow nature to govern your considerations you shut God out. It is a sobering thing but that is the fact. God was shut out here but He defends His servant, and the result is that Miriam “was leprous as snow”. Well I leave that with you, the character of the man, the meekest man in all the earth. What a man he was! And the way in which the history leads him to that.
I come now to Paul, and I have read this passage in Philippians. It is a passage that I find extraordinarily attractive, but also extraordinarily exercising. It is one of the most exercising passages in the whole of Scripture. Paul is writing to the Philippians and saying to them that he is not very sure as to what is before him, but he says, “for me to live is Christ, and to die gain”. I am never very clear whether it means that Christ was his object, or whether Christ was the power of his life, or whether Christ was the expression of his life. Maybe it was all three. I suppose it would be. If you had seen Paul do something you would have said, Well
that is the way that Christ would have done it. What a matter that is, and that is not beyond us. Do not think that these things are beyond anyone because we have the Spirit of Christ in us to help us to the end that what comes into expression in all that we do is Christ Himself.
Paul could say that, “Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 11: 1. He could draw attention to himself. I know persons will say, Well he was an apostle. So he was, but he was a man in flesh and blood conditions like you and me, and he can say, “Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ”. So that clearly Christ was expressed in Paul’s life. It was seen there.
I think he learned that on the Damascus road when he was struck down, and all that Saul of Tarsus was morally was smashed there, it was finished, never to be put together again. All that he was as a man here, and everything in which he lived and in which he boasted was gone for ever. He comes up a totally different man. Think of him there as blind being led into that city, taken by the hand, having said, “What shall I do, Lord?” What a change! I think that shows the character of the man. He could say in this very epistle, “seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ”, Philippians 3: 12. What a thing that is, “taken possession of by Christ”. I find that challenging for oneself, and I put it to one’s brethren. Is there any little corner in your heart of which you might be saying, I will reserve that for myself? Paul was “taken possession of by Christ”; that is, he gave everything to Him. There were no secret corners in his heart. I know what it is, I am no different to anyone else, to seek to reserve something, just maybe some little thing for yourself, but the thing is to give everything to Christ. Make yourself open for Him and for Him alone. What joy and blessedness enters into that, if you give your everything to Christ Himself. Then you come and be in some measure like what Paul says here, “for me to live is Christ”. I suppose as he woke in the morning, the first thing that would be in his heart was Christ; the first thing that would be in his mind
would be Christ. As he went to bed at night, the last thing in his consciousness would have been Christ and what is due to Christ; his whole day would have been filled out in that way with consideration for Christ. I think that is what it means, “for me to live is Christ”.
And then he goes on to say, “to die gain”. That is what was before him, he says, “I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better”. Think of how much Christ meant to him that he could say that, “departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better, but remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes”. He puts remaining in the way of a sacrifice. It would appear from the scripture that he had a choice, and if he had had his choice, his affections were running along that line, of
“departure and being with Christ”. How wonderful that is, but he says, “having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better, but remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes; and having confidence of this, I know that I shall remain and abide along with you all”. That is to bring out the sacrificial character of the life of Paul. I say that those are the characteristics of a person who wishes to serve the saints. It is sacrificial service, and everything that is undertaken, every consideration comes under that sacrificial intent of subjecting everything to the service of Christ and to the service of the saints. You might say I am making things difficult, but I trust not. I think that love for Christ would commit the true servant to every consideration being for Christ and for the service to His saints. He says, “I know that I shall remain and abide along with you all, for your progress”. He was not concerned for himself, he was concerned about the progress of the saints, and that was all his consideration. We know what it really involved for him. This is one of the prison epistles. It was written from prison and it is part of Paul’s sufferings. Departure to be with Christ would have been relief from those sufferings, but that is not governing him. It is what is
good for the saints. Would that we are of that spirit. May the Lord bless the word to us, for His name’s sake.
Address at Ormond Beach
23 December 2000