CHANGE

CHANGE

1 Samuel 9: 27; 1 Samuel 10: 1 - 7; 1 Samuel 25: 39 - 42; 2 Corinthians 3: 18; Philippians 3: 20 - 21

I have in mind to speak a word on change. Christianity involves that we are changed. 2 Corinthians 3: 18 speaks of being changed “from glory to glory.” It is wonderful to take account of the changes that are brought about in Christianity; changes that involve the operation and exercise of divine power and authority, in certain relations. I have read these passages to refer to certain specific changes that take place. First, a moral change contemplated: “thou shalt be turned into another man” - changed into another man; what we might refer to as a moral change in persons. Then I want to speak of the thought of a marital change - in Abigail’s status; Abigail is a type of the assembly in the Old Testament. When we come to the anti-type, it would be in the working out of things experimentally in the members of the assembly. Then I want to speak of a spiritual change in 2 Corinthians 3, as the result of the operation of Him to Whom we have sung, the Lord Spirit, a real substantial inward change that takes place in the saints, especially in view of the service of God; not wholly limited to that, but specially with that in view; involving, too, the liberty of Christianity, entered upon, known and enjoyed by believers. Then, lastly, the greatest of all changes, as we might say, the great physical change, when the One whom we look for will come and will not tarry; when He will change our bodies, these bodies of humiliation, these bodies in which so much is experienced now, these vessels where the treasure is stored in relation to the knowledge of God. The Lord Jesus will change them by a mighty operation of His power, the power that He has to subdue all things to Himself.

It is important that every one of us should be amenable to change; it is a poor thing if we are not amenable to change, because Christianity refines us. If it does not refine us, it is questionable whether the truth has found its way inwardly with us; and God is concerned as to having truth in the inward parts. And when I say Christianity involves refinement, I not only mean spiritual refinement, but refinement in the ordinary sense of the word. You would never expect the believer, one of the children of God, to be marked by uncouthness or lack of courtesy, such things would be foreign to the children of God. Christianity does change us; the truth changes us; the teaching of the glad tidings changes us; and oh, what changes have come about with some of us! Some of us can speak experimentally about that, as taken up in the ways of God, and our ways and manners changed through the teaching, the truth of the glad tidings. Sin and the service of sin hardens us and makes us uncouth, but the truth of the glad tidings refines us, and I am speaking simply when I say so. Some may take a certain amount of pride in being what they are, uncouth as they may be, but heaven takes little stock of that. There is nothing to boast of in that. Some of us, of course, may take pride in other things, in our naturally refined ways; there is nothing in that either, when we weigh it in the light of the balances of the sanctuary.

Saul is brought into view as one through whom we are to learn in relation to the advantages that are given to him. I need not remind you dear brethren, of the advantages that we have, especially the younger brothers and sisters. What an advantage it is to be in a meeting like this tonight, to be in an environment where heavenly refinement is known and expressed, where heavenly love abides and is circulating! What a wonderful thing it is that God in His mercy should have allowed us to have part in an environment like this! I wonder if there is anyone who is thinking of leaving that environment? I wonder if there is anyone in whose heart love has grown cold; with whom spiritual joy may be on the wane? You are in an environment where God is, where heaven is near; there is no immediate distance between the environment that is in the assembly, and heaven. The Spirit of God who dwells in the assembly is not in the world, the world does not see Him nor know Him; He dwells in the assembly yet has first-hand contact with heaven. Indeed, being a divine Person, though He has taken up His abode in the assembly, we could not limit Him to that. And what He hears, He makes known to us; not what He has heard, but what He hears. He is in immediate touch with that wonderful realm on high where Jesus is as Man, Centre of the wondrous administration that is working out from that position, entering into this meeting tonight. I wonder if our hearts and our minds take it in, that what is entering into this meeting tonight is flowing from the blessed functioning of Christ as Man in heaven, working out in administrative service in the ministry, the work of the ministry, having in mind the edifying of His body! So that we have a wonderful advantage in being in this environment, where God is known. It says, “In Judah is God known,” Psalm 76: 1. It is a wonderful thing to take account of the way God is known in the assembly. Is He not known in creation? He is, indeed! His eternal power and divinity are witnessed and attested to in creation. But in the assembly, “In Judah is God known,” - not in relation to creatorial power and operation and activity, but the God whose heart has been made known in Jesus, the God who is revealed in Jesus, is the God who is known in the assembly.

I want to refer to the environment here, as to this change in a man - Saul. In 1 Samuel 9: 27 it says, “As they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to pass on before us (and he passed on), but stand thou still now, that I may cause thee to hear the word of God.” “That I may cause thee ... “ Now I want to stress in what I have to say as to Saul tonight, and his becoming changed into another man, that we are in an environment where everything is operating towards that end, that we all might be changed into better brothers and sisters. This portion of the Word is full of the thought of men, indeed in this book, while God has allowed Saul to come forward. He has in mind the man that is set out in David, whom Paul alludes to as a man after God’s heart. And while God is thinking of that, He allows the people as it were, the advantage of making their own choice. God is infinitely fair in matters; we sometimes are very unfair. How humbling it is to see the injustice and unfairness that marks us at times But God is infinitely fair, and He is allowing the people a certain measure of latitude in regard to Saul, for He has important lessons to teach us, as He does in all these matters. He may allow a certain line of things a fair amount of latitude and scope; but as in Saul, it is only to bring out the exceeding sinfulness of sin, such as we have to learn experimentally in the analysis of good and evil in our souls in Romans 7. God allows a certain latitude to a certain line of things, because He has in mind over against the dark background of the features linked with the man of sin and shame, to throw into bright relief the features of His own Anointed in all their excellence, set out in type in David, but supremely seen in the Christ of the gospels. God is infinitely fair in all these matters, and if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful. Have we not had that witnessed to in the vicissitudes of the testimony, in the recurring crises in the years that are past, in recent times as well? Have we not had the attestation in a clear, unmistakable manner of the fact that God abides faithful? What a God we have!

And Samuel here is representing God. He is a wonderful man, Samuel; he comes into the Psalms, not as a prophet, but as a priest. I think that is a wonderful commendation of him. He was one of the greatest prophets who ever lived in Old Testament times, and yet when he is brought up in Psalm 99, he is not brought up in relation to the prophetic side of his service, but what is stressed are his links with God in a priestly way - “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name.” Is that not an indication to us, dear brethren, as to what underlay Samuel’s power in prophetic ministry? Is it not an incentive to all of us to pray, and to pray, and to pray again, to be men and women of prayer? The Books of Samuel stress the matter of prayer in women and in men; they open with a woman who is a praying woman, Hannah; a woman who can speak of her horn as lifted up in Jehovah. What a sister Hannah was; a woman who can say that her horn is lifted up in Jehovah, a woman who can put into poetic utterance her appreciation of the truth, her knowledge of God arrived at through anguish of soul as beset by the persistent persecution of her rival, Peninnah! Hannah was a woman who cried inwardly, despite the suffering and the persecution. And the more we are with God, the more we shall come out as Hannah, with a song which will celebrate God and His Anointed. And Samuel is mentioned in his priestly power in the Psalms. I have no doubt Samuel prayed for Saul.

It is a wonderful thing to be in an environment and to be linked with persons who pray for you; I would encourage the hearts of the young brothers and sisters as to this matter of being prayed for. If we could only realise the value of prayer and what it has meant to our salvation! Some of us would never have been here tonight had it not been that we were prayed for. But we have been prayed for. Think of these meetings and how they have been prayed for in every part of the world! Oh, the power of prayer! Oh, that we should give ourselves more to it! We should be far greater assembly men and women if we knew what it was to spend time in prayer, in the hours of the night seasons, in the early hours of the morning; we want to have to do with God. How can we go through unless we have to do with God? Dependence becomes us, knowing what we are as creatures, knowing the vanity of our minds, the self-sufficiency of our hearts, the self-reliance and all that goes to make up the man of sin and shame. How we need to keep near to God that these features may be utterly renounced, judged in the light of God’s Anointed One, as Paul says in Colossians, “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him,” Colossians 2: 6, 7. How many of us have awakened to the fact that we have been rooted and built up in ourselves instead of the Christ, Jesus the Lord! That is the only Man that will do for God; and the sooner we are changed into another man, the better; the sooner we learn this great matter in the truth of the gospel of a change of man, the better it will be. In Romans 6, we are brought in the experience in our souls to changing our man, reckoning ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The change of man is a real thing! It is not an academic matter; it is not a theoretical matter; it is not a matter of theology. This matter of the change of man is a real practical experience, and, as I hope to draw attention to in Saul, it involves being changed “into another man.”

Samuel says, “stand thou still now, that I may cause thee to hear the word of God.” It is a secret between Saul and God, God’s representative in Samuel. Oh, to have a secret with God, to have an understanding in our souls as to where we are in the testimony, through a word from God! God would give us each a word, a word from Himself, as to the positioning of us in the testimony. The difficulty with most of us in getting into one another’s way is that we have never had the consciousness of a word from God, or being regulated by a word from God. Let us see what the word from God says and notice where it was given. It was given in “the end of the city,” and the servant had passed on. It is not a word that someone else is coming into here, others will come into it later, but this is a matter of a secret between your soul and God represented in Samuel. And it says, “Then Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it upon his head.” That is, God is going to give Saul his day, just as He gives everyone of us our day. How are we going to shine in our day? Think of the princes in Numbers and how they had their day. Saul is going to have his day. Everyone of us has his day, and it is a great thing to be regulated in that day by a word from God. Then it says, “Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him.” Think of that! We often speak of Samuel and his priestly and prophetic power, but you know, Samuel was an affectionate man. He was a man who knew and understood love in the divine realm.

You remember when matters were affected in Exodus in Moses’ relation with Zipporah his wife, and she was using the wrong kind of language, that God came in. While He was dealing with Moses, it is a salutary word for those who, like Moses, have any part in the service. Moses was going on without the circumcision. God says in principle I won’t have it! And He will not have it in any of us; He will not have us go on making room for the flesh, allowing the flesh uncontrolled liberty! Circumcision must come in and especially with the servants of God. There must be the inward cutting off of the flesh, not the external matter merely; the legal man is concerned about the branches, but that is not circumcision. Circumcision is the application of the death of Christ in the power of the Spirit to all that I am and have inwardly. Many of us would cut off the flesh outwardly, but have never had a right judgment of it inwardly. God says as it were, I am not going on with you, Moses, until this matter is faced. And God comes upon Moses to slay him! He is going to kill Moses. “Our God is a consuming fire.” We cannot presume to have to do with the things of God and act in a fleshly way while representing God. God will not have it! But then, behind it, immediately behind it, God is thinking of His servant. We might have ruled Moses out altogether. We might have said, had we been listening, “That’s the end of Moses.” But what does God do? He gives Moses a word. He tells Aaron to go into the wilderness to meet Moses, and Moses meets him in the wilderness; and it says that Aaron kissed him. Think of that, dear brethren! I have said that God is infinitely fair. If He deals with us in severity in matters, as with Moses who presumed to go on ostensibly without the principle of circumcision in his house, yet on the other hand He comes in and provides the resource of love to stimulate Moses, and encourage him. Right in the wilderness where there was no resource, as it were, to strengthen and to encourage, the brother Aaron, the priestly man, the man of love, the man with affection, was there with a kiss. So God is infinitely fair; and let us be like God in all these matters; let us be careful lest we should take things into our hands and deal with Moses ourselves as we think he should be dealt with. It is God’s matter! God says, “To me belongs vengeance; I will recompense, “Hebrews 10: 30. Let none of us, in any shape or form, act retributively in any matter! Let us leave what belongs to God in His own realm to Himself in the exercise of His own prerogatives.

It says here in 1 Samuel 10: 1 that Samuel kissed Saul. It is a good start. I would say to all the young brothers and sisters here, you have an excellent start; if you go out of fellowship as Saul did, you cannot blame your start. You have been surrounded by the love of the brethren; the brethren love you; we love you here tonight; God loves you, the Father loves you, the Lord Jesus loves you, the Spirit loves you, and the brethren love you. You are surrounded by affection in a circle of affections all divine, as the poet has said. What a start you have had! It is not an arbitrary realm, at least it should not be, it is not a realm which will repel you; it is a realm where you are going to have every advantage of a good start. So he “kissed him, and said, Is it not because Jehovah has anointed thee prince over his inheritance?” Samuel is moving according to the word of God. He is not saying, Well I have my own reserves, I have my own judgment about Saul. Samuel is with God, and we want to be with God in all these matters.

Then he says, “When thou goest from me today” - notice that, today, not tomorrow or the day after - “thou shalt meet two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah.” That is, things are operating immediately to help us all the way. Notice the stress on “two men by Rachel’s sepulchre.” Oh, what Rachel’s sepulchre brings up in the minds of the saints! It was where death was experienced in relation to that which was so near and dear to the heart of Jacob; the natural tie between him and Rachel, all his natural hopes, as it were, buried when he buried Rachel. What a time it was for Jacob! He never forgot it! He brings it up to Joseph long after. When the matter of Ephraim and Manasseh was coming up (Joseph’s seed) Jacob does not fail to tell Joseph in tender language of how Rachel died by him. Rachel’s grave not only brings up the matter of death to natural hopes and desires, but it brings up the thought of holy feelings, the feelings that belong to the testimony where God is known, because the testimony of God is bathed in the feelings of Jesus. Let us remember that, because the Manhood of Jesus, the incarnation, casts a retroactive glow on the whole of the Old Testament. And the tears of godly men in relation to the truth, and in relation to the testimony, are but the Spirit of Christ operating in them, as we are told - the tears of a prophet too, for Jeremiah mentions Rachel. And Matthew, the administrative gospel, brings up Rachel. What a personality Rachel was, well-known above, well-known below! What a woman she was! And Saul has the advantage of this feature of education in this wonderful environment - “two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin.” Oh, what Benjamin, little Benjamin, brings up, not the pretension that we see all around! Saul was head and shoulders above the people, but the first thing he has to learn is linked with the environment of a sepulchre and Benjamin, little Benjamin, brings up, not the pretension Benjamin - and the prophets speak of Bethlehem. Micah 5: 2, says, “little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me who is to be Ruler in Israel: whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.”

Then it says, “they will say to thee, The asses are found which thou wentest to seek, and behold, thy father has dismissed the matter of the asses, and is anxious about you.” Look how Saul is being impregnated in his mind with this matter of care about him! We are to be reminded of this. Samuel goes on to speak of these three men who are going up to God to Bethel, and then the hill of God, then the company of prophets, and Samuel says, “And the Spirit of Jehovah will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And it shall be, when these signs shall come to thee, thou shalt do as they hand shall find; for God is with thee.” That is, God is wanting to change us, from this viewpoint. He wants to help every one of us as having to do with the truth. That is the principle. Saul is having to do with the truth, and it is to act and react on him, and the Spirit of God coming upon him, he is to be changed into another man. It is a moral change. Dear brethren, is there not room for moral changes with us? Is there not room for change in oneself, and with each one of us? Oh, how we need to make room for the truth! Let the truth assert itself; let the truth have its way! Let the environment bear in upon us that we may be changed from the ways linked with the man of the flesh, the man of the world, for that is what Saul is; he represents the flesh that you positively cannot improve in any shape or form whatever you set it down in the midst of.

Now I come to just a word as to Abigail. What extrication she had to experience! What extrication some of us have had to experience! She had been linked with the folly of a Nabal. That speaks of a system which had no use for David, and would not want to make room for him. While Abigail morally gets disentangled in the working out of the truth in the chapter, there comes the time when the marital status is changed, and it says, “And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil”; 1 Samuel 25: 39. David realises what an influence Abigail was, and a change has come about - Nabal is dead; that side of things is ended. David says, I want Abigail now; and the ministry goes out to attach Abigail (type of the assembly in its members) to the one to whom she rightly belongs, David, type of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a change it is! It says, “she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” Think of this great personality, Abigail - a woman of worth; a woman of dignity; a mistress who had young men and maidens! But think of the result of this change - the lowliness that marked her! And how, lowliness becomes us! The truth of the assembly subjected to Christ - how it should work out in the members - lowliness, bond-service, committed in love to stand by the saints, the servants of Christ, as it says, “to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” What grace, dear brethren What refinement! What a change!

Abigail involves a changed outlook, no longer harassed by the unsympathetic feelings and lack of understanding with Nabal. She is linked now with David where her affections can find free flow, as under the spell and power of the ministry in the servants of David her lord. What a wonderful thing the ministry is, dear brethren - the glory of it, the radiancy in it attracting our hearts to Christ - the Spirit in obscuring grace behind it, serving - and then Christ’s love in relation to the assembly, that our hearts may be won over completely to David and his system, as Abigail’s was!

Now this spiritual change in relation to the Lord the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3. It says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.” What a change! This is a real change; it is not a fancied change, dear brethren. The word is ‘metamorphose’, a strong word employed to bring out the reality, the strength of the change, “from glory to glory.” It involves liberty. The apostle has been dealing with the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of death, the letter and not the spirit, and he is bringing in the brethren on to the ground of confidence. Over this whole second letter could be written, The promotion of confidence among the brethren. Time and again he speaks of it; he speaks in this chapter, of his confidence, and then the whole context is alluding to it. He refers to this matter of the change by the Spirit, not now by prophetic service and environment in Samuel, nor by David and his attractiveness exactly, and the powerful ministry of his servants in winning Abigail and communing with her; but it is now the Spirit, in His lowly, obscure but authoritative service. Let us not have minimised in our minds, the authority linked with the Spirit in this matter. It is as if the Spirit is gently, using His authority, (and what authority it is!) to bring about this liberty, this change among the brethren, “according to the same image from glory to glory.” The Spirit only has one Man before Him, and that is Christ. The end will be that we shall all be like Christ, but we want to be like Him now.

Then the last change, as to our bodies. Oh, what a change, dear brethren, when the Lord shall take the matter in hand, linked with the Spirit in the light of Romans 8, when He will come and will apply His power, that power that He has (not He will have) to subdue all things to Himself! He is going to apply that power to our bodies - “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up ... “ we shall be changed - changed by His power. His operating power, and we shall have bodies like His own to enjoy with Himself in the realms above the unending bliss of part with Him! Oh, what a change, dear brethren!

May the ministry come home to us that we all may make room for change; that we may make better men and women, brothers and sisters, in the assembly.