SUFFERING

SUFFERING

Revelation 21: 18 - 20; Numbers 7: 10 - 17; Colossians 1: 24 - 27

It is in mind, dear brethren, to speak a word on suffering, having in mind certain definite exalted objectives that are linked with it. We all know that it is the time of suffering, it is not yet the time of glory, that is still before us. It is the time of suffering, and I think we want to appreciate more the privileges that are linked with this suffering period in time. God would bring into our minds the greatness of what is linked with suffering. It is something that we might reverently say that God puts a premium on. We do not naturally put a premium on suffering, but I think as we look into the subject of suffering in the divine mind, we shall see more the advantages that it affords. We shall see that it is not something to be shirked, it is not something to be flinched from; but it is something, as we apprehend the fulness of what is linked with it in the divine mind, for which we shall desire our capacity to be increased. It is a great thing to have our capacity for suffering increased and enlarged, for God places great value on the sufferings of His saints.

I have begun with this passage in the Revelation because I want to stress at the beginning the exalted objective that is reached in this wondrous city, the holy city, through the process of suffering. The stones, the precious stones, which adorn the foundations of the wall of the city, are to bring into our minds, by the Spirit, the exalted objective in the divine mind in all the sufferings of the little while that we might be called upon to pass through. I particularly want to refer to the stones as linked with the foundation. There are other features of the city that speak of the great advantages that suffering has afforded the saints, and I want to speak of what is linked with the hidden side in the foundation, and yet, we may say, not the hidden side because the marvel about this city is that its foundations are in full view. So that the stones which adorn the foundations are in full view. The city itself is said to be the bride, the Lamb’s wife, which I believe is to remind us, amongst other things, as she is brought into our view, of the great interest and pleasure that divine Persons have in what has been witnessed to, and what is the product of the capacity of this vessel in suffering. We little understand the greatness of what has come about through the principle of suffering, as seen in relation to the saints of the assembly from the beginning of the dispensation until now; and I believe that God would encourage the heart of every one of us, by showing us the prime interest that the assembly has in the divine mind as a vessel peculiarly formed and capacitated for suffering; we might say for glory, and that would be true, for the vessel has the glory of God, the city has the glory of God But the fact that she is alluded to as the Lamb’s wife at this particular juncture, and the fact that the foundations of the city are alluded to, having in them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and the fact that the foundations of the wall of the city are referred to as adorned, is to show us what is the outcome and result of the great capacity of this vessel for suffering. The more we understand suffering from this viewpoint, dear brethren, the more there will recede in our minds the disadvantages connected with it materially and naturally and temporarily for us. It would seem as if in the divine mind, in going over in such a detailed way the glory of this vessel, the holy city, that divine Persons would impress us with what the sufferings have produced in a vessel that is capacitated to share with Christ on the basis of a sympathetic link with Him in suffering, in all the glory of the administration of the moment that is in mind. She is the Lamb’s wife. I need not remind the brethren as to what the Lamb suggests, the One who is uniquely the holy Sufferer. Oh, the sufferings of Christ, in which the way has been pioneered for us in relation to the working out and effectuating of the divine thought! In suffering He has gone where we never will have to go, but in suffering He has set the model for us, left us a model; that in itself would increase in our minds the advantage of suffering, in that He has left a model. We know, what enters into the idea of a model. Peter says in regard of the Lord Jesus that He suffered leaving us a model, and we have that particular advantage of having a model in Christ for suffering. We can understand in some measure what the sufferings of Christ must mean to God, when we have in the Pentateuch detailed with such care and such precision, all that enters into the matter of the offerings. What has God in mind in giving us the infinite detail that we have in the offerings, but to impress us with this great matter of the sufferings of Christ in relation to the testimony? And I would seek tonight, that our hearts might be strengthened in suffering. And we need to feed on the sufferings of Christ. God intends that the sufferings of Christ should become food for our souls; that, as feeding upon them, they might build up in us and with us a constitution that will help us in the sufferings that we have to rejoice in having part in, in sharing with Christ in. There is that which we cannot share in. There are the sufferings of Christ that we can never enter upon. We can contemplatively take account of them, and our spirits are affected as from the distance we look on and think of all that He entered upon that full clearance might be ours. Let us think of His words, “It is finished!” the first cry after the abandonment. I believe that the first cry would, as we understand it rightly, throw into relief before our souls the greatness of the capacity of Christ for suffering, because the first cry is the witness to our minds and to our hearts that He had exhausted the judgment of God. In the hours of abandonment He underwent the judgment of God against sin and sins and, think of the profoundness of it, dear brethren, that He exhausted it! He emerged with a loud cry, “It is finished.” Think of the capacity for suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ in holy manhood. He has suffered as none of us will have to suffer, and we have to learn how to contemplate Him in suffering.

There are other sufferings of Christ which are more in mind tonight, in what we have to say, in which we can have part. Oh, the necessity for feeding upon the sufferings of Christ! We need, dear brethren, to go into the gospels more, especially to feed upon the perfection of manhood seen in Jesus. The reason why, perhaps, we are not formed in the features of manhood as we should be, is because we have not fed enough on the perfections of manhood as seen in the Christ of the gospels. The epistles set us up in the primary thoughts of Christianity. They set us up in relation to Christianity established in relation to Christ in heaven and the Spirit down here. But as having thus been set up, we go back into the gospels and take account of what is set out in them, in order that we might be built up in the features of spiritual manhood needed and required to fill out in fulness our part in Christianity as set out in the epistles.

So the city is said to be the Lamb’s wife. She is suitable to Him in glory, as we see here, but she is suited to Him in suffering too, as the Lamb’s wife. I particularly want to allude to this matter of the precious stones in the foundation of the wall, so that we might all be encouraged, while things may be difficult at the present time. If we could but see, as heaven sees, the testings, afflictions and sufferings of the saints, the diversified character of them, the variety that enters into the different tests and afflictions of the saints, if we could but see what heaven sees, what has been arrived at through them, what a sight it would be! The twelve stones of aesthetic beauty adorning the foundations of the wall of the city are to remind us of the great diversified result, the result of the working out of suffering among the saints. We often wonder at the different things that affect us. Some are tried by one thing, some are tried by another; but is it not an encouragement to see, that as the suffering themselves are diversified, the result will be diversified, but all in infinite unity, the unity of love, as the twelve stones suggest. These stones of variegated beauty and glory, all suggest to our minds and our hearts what is arrived at through the principle and process of suffering in the present little while. And I say this, to encourage our hearts. The brethren in this city have suffered, and will suffer, and the brethren in other cities are suffering. And we suffer not only on account of these specific matters to which I refer, but other matters too in connection with our bodies, in connection with sickness and bereavement, in connection with infirmity and weakness, in connection with our businesses, and pressure in an economic way. All these things are under the divine hand, all held in relation to the exalted object that is in mind, namely, that the holy city, in the foundations of it, will be adorned by twelve stones; nothing less, dear brethren, than the twelve stones. And it is an encouragement to think that every feature of suffering that the saints are called upon to pass through, is part of the divine specific end that is in mind in the twelve stones.

It says, “the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned.” It is not just that they are placed there, but they are adorning the wall of the city. We think of what the wall of the city represents now; the principles that the brethren have stood for, that they have laid down their lives for. Publicly there may seem no result, and we are not always to expect that God will come in for us as we think He should come in. There may be no deliverance for us, but we want to see that what is in the divine mind is not just exactly deliverance. What is in the divine mind is that there should be produced through the process an enlarged capacity to suffer, for God delights to think of persons formed after Christ, not only in relation to His thoughts in glory, but formed after Christ in suffering, in the spirit of suffering. It is an important thing, that we see suffering and affliction and tests from this viewpoint, that God has had one Man under His eye here in Whom the whole perfection of suffering has been set out, and what fragrance, what redolent odours ascended to God from the sufferings of Christ! Every detail and feature of suffering only served to bring out the infinite fragrance of the holy excellence of the manhood that was there.

God had in mind in the dispensation from the beginning to the end - in Peter, in John, in the twelve, in Paul to follow (exceeding all others in suffering outside of Christ), and then the martyrs down through the ages to our own time when sufferings are more of a spiritual character, but nevertheless real - the continuation of the delight He found in Christ here in this great matter of suffering. It is not that He delights to see us suffering, dear brethren, but He delights in what comes through suffering; the ability as it were of His own work to go through in relation to that which would overthrow every one of us naturally. What pleasure, what delight God has in the matter of suffering, and we have to count it a matter of rejoicing that we are called to share in this matter of suffering, and the divine result in the holy city would impress our minds with the advantages of suffering. So that we can see the divine premium put on suffering because the result in the twelve stones is reached via this end. It shows that the results are varied but all in themselves perfect, because whether it be the first stone or the twelfth stone, the glory does not decrease in any one of them. Each of the twelve in itself is so distinctive, but in the aggregate adding to the glory of the whole position in the foundations, and we have to get an apprehension of this in our minds, in all that we are passing through, when things seem so difficult and it seems as if we can go on no longer. Our natural strength may ebb, it may be sapped, our minds may tend to give way under the strain; but let us remember that, as it were, beyond all is the great divine objective of the holy city whose foundations will be adorned with nothing less than the twelve stones. That is, the whole idea, the whole objective in suffering, the twelve stones in diversified beauty all adding to the glory of the whole in the foundations of the city. That is what might be hidden ordinarily, but what is brought out into full view in the heavenly city, as if God will be delighted to give testimony in that day to all that is the result of what the saints have passed through in suffering untold, in the present dispensation.

One would desire that our hearts may be strengthened in this, dear brethren, so that we might not look at the things which are seen, and be overcome with the difficulties, with the sufferings, intense as they may be, but that we might be with divine Persons in the great objective to be reached in diversified beauty and glory in the precious stones. The very allusion to precious stones suggests the value in the divine eye. The Lord Jesus is going over this matter with John. He wants us to be impressed, not only with the city as a whole, but with the diversified features entering into it, as suggested in the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. We think of how they suffered; we think of the detailed suffering in their lives, John, James and the others; what a testimony there was to suffering! But how they adorned the position in suffering, and we are to adorn the position in suffering. Spiritual dignity is to come out of suffering, for that is the divine end. The stones are cast in the sufferings of this little while. The twelve precious stones of variegated beauty all suggest the fine result that has been arrived at through the pressure and suffering and afflictions of the present time.

I want to elucidate a little what is in one’s mind from the type. I want to refer to the princes of Numbers 7 as an encouragement to our hearts in apprehending and appreciating the value of the principle of suffering, and to encourage our hearts from this standpoint that the matter is taken full account of by God, and God comes personally into this chapter linking on with the outgoings of thought and affection on the part of the princes in the appreciation of the principle of suffering. You will recall that it is said that the princes presented the dedication gift of the altar on the day that it was anointed, and the princes presented their offering before the altar. Now you will remember that there is one thing about the anointing of the altar that is different from everything else, and I believe it serves to show the premium that is divinely put on the feature of suffering. In Leviticus we are told in relation to the day of the anointing, that the altar was anointed seven times. Knowing as we do what is meant by that, it is intended that this feature should stand out in our minds; it is not just something in the background. The suffering position is not just something by the way. It is not just something, as it were, haphazard, but it is set in our view in a very defined and definite way as signified in the anointing of it seven times. The princes here recognise the value of the altar; it says they “presented the dedication-gift of the altar on the day that it was anointed.” As I understand it and as we would all understand it, it means that they have taken into full account this outstanding feature in the tabernacle, the altar, and they are moving in their hearts and in their thoughts in the appreciation of it. And God, as it were, holds up everything for the moment to enlarge upon our view what He thinks of a movement like this; and I believe God would bring it into our minds tonight, so that, as we are brought onto His own side in regard to the principle of suffering, we may appreciate it in the light of the divine thought as to it; and as we move in that appreciation of it, God would give us a sense of the delight He has in it.

You will notice that it says, “the princes presented their offering before the altar. And Jehovah said to Moses, They shall present their offering for the dedication of the altar, each prince on his day.” Now we read, dear brethren, what comes in at the end in Revelation in the foundations of the holy city. Here, we are reminded of what enters into it at the beginning in the Acts, at the inauguration, and we are to take account of the twelve in the beginning of the Acts in this light. Suffering was something that was understood by them. Peter in his epistle would help us in the way he writes. He would show us that it was not taken on as something that could be avoided, something that just came in by the way; he would show us that it was taken on in the light of the divine intent that the saints should suffer. We often view it as if it were something that comes in by the way, but we want to see that it is in the divine mind. The altar is an integral part of the divine system. It belongs to the present time. It belongs to the millennium. It belongs to the public position. It does not quite belong to eternity; the altar is linked with the court. That is, the value of it is in the present time and in the public position in the millennium. The great value that God puts on the principle of suffering is set out in the place that the altar had and the way it was anointed seven times in the day of the anointing. The princes, coming in as they do, represent what is in our hearts as the Spirit of God has His way with us promoting ennobling thoughts with us, promoting exalted objectives with us. It represents what there is with us as moving in concert with the divine mind, apprehending the importance of the principle of suffering. It says, “Jehovah said to Moses, They shall present their offering for the dedication of the altar, each prince on his day.” Now we are to be reminded of this. It speaks to us of the pleasure that God has in going into what each of us has come to in regard to the altar, what each of us has arrived at in regard to the sufferings of Christ, for that is what is in mind, in our apprehension and appreciation of them. We pass through these trials and difficulties and afflictions, so intense at times, pressure so intense at times, and we get occupied with ourselves, and our weakness at times well-nigh overwhelms us. But the Spirit of God would help us to get the exalted objective in mind in relation to suffering, that the capacity in correspondence with Christ, in so far as we can suffer with Christ, is in mind in passing us this way. It is a wonderful thing to think, dear brethren, of the pleasure and delight that heaven has in capacity to suffer. You will notice that in the detail of the princes’ offering, much is said as to vessels. You will notice it is said in verse 13 in regard to the first two vessels, “both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for an oblation.” Any one of us who has read Leviticus 2 would be reminded in this of the preciousness of the sufferings of Christ in the three-fold way in which they are presented in the oblation there, and now what marks these princes in moving in appreciation of the altar, is that they understand something about that, and we are to understand something about the sufferings of Christ in the three-fold way in which they are presented in the oblation in Leviticus 2. It says, “both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for an oblation,” emphasising what the Lord Jesus went through under the eye of God in the perfection of His humanity for the delight and pleasure of God; and as we contemplate that kind of manhood and our vessels, in principle, are filled with thoughts of appreciation of that kind of manhood, we shall come out in the features of it, for it is a different kind of Man from what is around us. We know that men suffer around us, we know that they pass through pressure and difficulties, but what is to be seen in the saints is a different kind of Man, features of another kind of Man, the Man that was anointed with the Holy Spirit as suggested in the mingling with oil, the kind of Man that the Spirit could come upon, the kind of Man that the Spirit was seen in relation to; all this would mark the princes in substance in themselves. They are not only presenting it to God objectively in relation to the dedication of the altar, but they themselves are the vessels that they present, filled with this thought that comes out in the features that are suggested in this kind of manhood. That is what the type suggests.

Then it says, “one cup of ten shekels of gold, full of incense.” Notice this word, “full”. I believe it is to remind us of this matter of capacity, capacity that is linked with the appreciation of suffering. It means that God has in mind that we should understand this matter of capacity developed in the appreciation of suffering, and the infinite pleasure that God has in it. And we are to take account of the saints in our cities and that through which they are passing, some of them passing through things far more severely than others; and we want to be with God and see what has been enlarged through it, see the capacity that is being enlarged through it. And every one of us who are in these circumstances of suffering need to be concerned more as to the enlargement of the capacity in relation to suffering. Then it says, “one young bullock, one ram, one yearling lamb, for a burnt-offering; one buck of the goats, for a sin-offering,” all these details representing that not only is the altar in mind, but what is to be on the altar is in mind. And I believe it suggests that, as committing ourselves to what the altar suggests, the great thought of Christ, unique in suffering in relation to the carrying out of the divine will, we are to be reminded, as moving in the appreciation of that, how God would have us marked by the features that were seen in Him in the way we think, in the way we speak, in the way we act, in the way we move. For I believe that is the thought in the vessels full of the incense and full of the fine flour, and the animals, it is what we are inwardly and what we are outwardly. The vessels full of the fine flour and the incense are speaking of what is within; the animals have to do with what is without, as for instance in the burnt-offering itself. Christ marked in His movements by devotion to the will of God, or in other ways as we may think of it in these animals here. It says, “This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.” How God goes over all these twelve offerings in detail, as if He would enlarge upon our view what He thinks of the saints in the Numbers position in the wilderness, moving in the appreciation of His ways in regard to this matter of suffering, especially in the appreciation of the supreme thought of suffering set out in type in Christ in the altar.

Now I come to Paul, just for a minute, to show how this great picture in the New Testament takes up the matter. Colossians, as we know, is a critical epistle and helps us to see, as the glory of Christ is presented to us and the greatness of the assembly, as these thoughts lay hold of us, the need of going all the way; that the objectives are so great, so infinitely great, that we must go all the way. The objectives in the teaching in Colossians are to help us that we may not fall short but that we may go all the way. I want to speak of it for a moment in relation to this matter of suffering. He says, “I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up ... “ Notice this reference to filling, again the reference to capacity. If the holy city suggests capacity, if the vessels of the prince’s that they brought suggest capacity, here again we have the thought of capacity brought before our view in a vessel, a man of like passions with ourselves, but one who in devoted love for the assembly was prepared to fill up that which was behind of the tribulations of Christ in his flesh, for His body, which is the assembly. The exalted objective we can see is in mind in His body, the assembly. And Paul is one of the great leaders in suffering, and we are to understand how sufferings come in on this line, that we are to be concerned as to how we view them, as to how we take up suffering from this viewpoint, whether we just view it in regard to what it means to ourselves, or whether we understand the prime place that the assembly has. That is what is in Paul’s mind here. He says, “I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body.” Think of what it would be to Paul in the midst of all the pressure and the afflictions of the various hours in which it was so intense, what it was to him to have before his mind and his soul, Christ’s body, the assembly, the mystery, that which was hidden throughout the ages in God, that which was in the purposes and counsels of divine love! Think of how the sufferings were balanced by the weight of the greatness of the objectives in regard to the assembly in that light One would encourage our hearts, dear brethren, by reminding us of this side of the sufferings, for while it is seen specially in Paul, the door is open for every one of us, as appreciating the principle of suffering, to go in for it more and more, filling it up indeed, filling up what is behind, seen uniquely in Paul. It is wonderful to think that the Lord has not completed all the sufferings, that some of the sufferings have been left behind as it were. It says, “I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ.” Think of it, think of the Lord speaking of His own in this light! He has left us a model in suffering, but here we have the tribulations which are behind, in the filling out of which we come in, as it were, after Christ. What an exalted objective, having the assembly in mind!

We should be encouraged in regard to this feature of suffering, to see how divine objectives are in mind through it all. There may not be deliverance, and indeed in many cases there is not; but think of what is being expanded and enlarged through all the processes of suffering. We have thought first of the twelve stones, the great flexible administrative number, the number of love; the twelve stones in their variegated beauty, the result of the processes of suffering. In Numbers we have the princes moving in the appreciation of the principle of suffering, and bringing into our view what was developed in them in manhood in their apprehension of Christ’s humanity in the type, in all its uniqueness; this no doubt marking them, as the type would suggest. It is to mark us too, as we appreciate the altar, and as we move in the appreciation of what is suggested in Numbers 7. And then there is the great exalted line of suffering; set in our cities as we are, in different ways, but yet we are thinking of Christ’s body, thinking of the assembly; thinking of what is behind of the tribulations of Christ, realising the greatness of our portion in having part in filling that out, filling up what is behind. Oh, that we may not be behind in it, but realise more and more the advantages of suffering, the greatness of our position in the assembly as linked with suffering! The assembly as the holy city in Revelation 21 shows the full result of it, a result that cannot be improved on. May our hearts be encouraged, and our minds helped in the midst of suffering, so that we may not be overcome, so that the enemy may not gain the advantage in the hour of pressure, in the time of suffering, by casting before us all the disadvantages of it. Let God help us to see all the advantages of it, as we have referred to them in these passages, and to yield ourselves to it in view of our soon appearing with Christ in glory.