THE ACQUISITION OF MORAL POWER

THE ACQUISITION OF MORAL POWER

Genesis 43: 1 - 15; Genesis 44: 14 - 34; Genesis 49: 8 - 12

I have on my heart to speak a word on how moral power and moral weight are acquired. You will notice that in the passages we have read there is constant reference to Judah; and Judah, as we know, particularly emphasizes this side of the truth. We are told in Chronicles that Judah prevailed among his brethren, and of him was the prince. I am sure that there would be a desire with all of us to acquire greater weight and power morally with God and with men. The prince suggests that idea. And I might say that there is no royal road to acquiring moral power, as men speak of a royal road, there is no short cut to it. It involves much heart searching, but God is ready to help us if we are desirous of acquiring power morally with Himself and with men. The whole bearing of the teaching in Romans has in mind that the believer should learn how to acquire moral weight and power. We can never acquire it if we do not begin in ourselves. It is important with every one of us in regard to the truth that we begin with ourselves. We must let the truth have its way in our own souls before we seek to bring it to bear upon others, and the teaching in Romans is to help the believer towards this end. Not exactly to acquire power officially, but to acquire power morally, as with the help of God we learn to deal with sin - sin as it bears on us externally, and sin as it is in us internally. No one is of much moral weight in the testimony unless he learns how to deal with this great matter of sin in himself. The exercises of Romans 6 and 7 are essential to this end. Many a believer has been crippled morally by never judging the principle of sin as in Romans 6, operating in the world around us, and affecting us too in the way in which it sometimes does. But through our baptism the moral door out of the world has been found, and we are to hold ourselves free from it. I would say to the young people that it is especially needful for us to hold ourselves free from the operation of sin upon us in a damaging way, as Romans 6 says, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought.” We are to learn to take up the teaching linked with our baptism. All here, I suppose, would be baptised, and we have to learn how to take up the teaching linked with our baptism, for it involves salvation from the world in all that is around us. We will be effective in the testimony and acquire moral weight and power, as we give full room in our souls to the truth of deliverance from the world as presented in Romans 6. Paul could say, “Thanks be to God, that ye ... have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed.”

Then I may briefly allude to the teaching of Romans 7. It is a difficult chapter, but it is a chapter that is a great help and a great advantage in the working out of matters in our souls, in view of the acquisition of moral weight and power, because we must understand and learn how to deal with sin in ourselves. We are never called to die to sin in us. We die to sin outside of us as an operating principle in the world. The teaching of the glad tidings involves that we are to be set free, delivered from the power of sin working in us. Many a young person is detained by the difficulties of the teaching linked with deliverance as in Romans 7. We set up a standard for ourselves, and maybe we feel we have fallen short of it, and distress comes into our souls and darkness comes into our minds, and we begin to wonder whether we have any appreciation of the truth at all; we begin to wonder if we have had any link with God. I know what I am speaking about; I have gone through it. I know what it is to wonder whether we should go out of fellowship, whether we have any link with God at all, the enemy working in the midst of the darkness linked with deliverance. But on the other hand, there is all the strength and support of the new husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, standing by us, so that we might be carried through on the strength of the bond of affection between our hearts and Himself. I would say to the younger brothers and sisters that if you are having a struggle within yourself, if there is darkness in your mind as to your state of soul, remember to keep your eye fixed on the new husband, the one to Whom we have been married, free from the law as we have been made through His death, “Dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God.” I feel that what is being said in this regard is important for the younger ones, because we wonder sometimes where we are. We wonder just how we stand in these difficulties of soul, and divine Persons would help us to face the matter thoroughly, because it is on these lines that we acquire moral power and moral weight. If I can deal with the matter in myself, then I have gained the advantage of being thus equipped to deal with it, not only in myself, but to deal with it as it may come up in circumstances around me.

I now come to Genesis 37 where our attention is focused on Joseph, as the centre of Jacob’s love. “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old,” and then we are told that his father loved him. In the passage that we have read we also see Benjamin coming in on this line; there is a link of affinity between Joseph and Benjamin. They are of the same mother, and they are both the objects of Jacob’s love. But following chapter 37 where Christ is so distinctly brought upon our view, in chapter 38 Judah develops a link, as alas, many do sometimes, with an Adullamite called Hirah. He goes down, as it says, and what a going down it was; for in the sin, the shame, and the degradation linked with that path, there was no moral weight acquired by Judah. It may have started with just a little thing, just a little friendship, just a little association with an Adullamite. It may have seemed all right to Judah, but it was not in the line of the testimony. I would earnestly appeal to our hearts to eschew every form of wrong link and association that would lead us on a path that morally would take us into the depth of sin and degradation. Judah has to learn, as all of us have to learn, the depth of sin and degradation in our own hearts. It is on this line that we acquire power, and moral weight. We do not ignore sin; we do not say that we have no sin. Judah has to come to it, he has to come to it the hard way; and we have had to come to things the hard way; but God helps us. It is a hard road for Judah, and it is a hard road for the brethren of Joseph, but, thank God, they come to it eventually; they come to it, but the way involves much heart searching, much testing and trial.

I suppose that the brethren wondered why they could ever have allowed their hands to become involved with the matter of the delivering over of Joseph; but there it was. And God has to teach us, through all these matters, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. You ask, Is not sin sinful? Yes it is, but in Romans 7 we are told that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. Some times persons are allowed to go into the world to taste sin, in all the depth of the shame and degradation linked with it. God has to pass some that way in order that we might know what it is to avoid it, not that there is to be any premium put upon it; but these matters are real and we know that they are real, but we need to be with God about them. Whatever came into the history between Genesis 38 and Genesis 43, something had happened in Judah’s soul, something had come about. He is getting right as to the truth. He had been involved with the others in the matter of the delivering up of Joseph to the Midianites, but something has occurred, and we are reminded of the work of God as it goes on in our souls, its mysterious operations working along with the moral side in discerning between good and evil in our souls. The work of God, basically underlying everything, helps us to come to a right judgment of things, and Judah is coming to a right judgment of things. What I desire to stress in this passage that I have read from chapter 43 is that Judah is holding to the truth. The truth was that everything was to be regulated, as we heard today in prayer, by Joseph’s commandment, and Judah holds to that; he will not give up that thought. It is not what Reuben says; it is not what some of the others say; it is not even what Jacob says. It is what Joseph says. So Judah is governed by the light that God has given in regard to the position. He says to his father, “The man did positively testify to us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, unless your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food; but if thou do not send him, we will not go down.” Notice the moral power in Judah. You see, things have gone on. Judah was involved with the others of his brethren in what had happened, but not any longer; he is not drifting along with the many now. He is standing out and making the thing a moral issue. It is a moral issue now. The truth is that Joseph’s commandment must regulate; and that is the truth today, dear brethren, the Lord’s commandment must regulate. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me shall be loved by my Father.” Oh, the blessedness in this wonderful day of the assembly of being regulated by the word of Christ, being regulated by the commandment of Jesus. How important it is! We all know what it is to allow men’s words to regulate us, but the point with Judah is, Joseph has spoken the word and that word must prevail.

You will remember that the same thing happened in 2 Samuel in the crisis when David was dethroned. Joab wanted to slay Absalom hanging in the terebinth, but there was a man there, unnamed, who said to Joab that the king had commanded a certain thing, and that Joab heard it, and others had heard it; and the man would not yield his ground. It was a question of the word of David, the word of the King, the true King, and he was holding his ground and would not let go. I think that is important in every matter in all our lives, that we be regulated by the word of Christ. You young people as you go to school, what is going to regulate you - what the teacher says? No! Not a bit. What the Lord says must regulate. They may tell you to do what is wrong, but as you acquire moral weight you say, ‘No, this is what the Lord says, and this is what I am going to stand by and stand to!’ As it says of the noble in Isaiah 32: 8, “to noble things doth he stand.” Nobility acquired in this way on moral lines is a great matter. You stand to noble things, you stand to your confession of Christ. You have come under His saving grace, you have been relieved from the consequences of your sins and you are enjoying peace of conscience, and you are committed to the fellowship and fully in line publicly with the rejected Lord. Stand to that. Stand to your confession of Him through thick and thin, whatever may come in. As to those of us who are older, our businesses may be affected, and our opportunities of getting on may be affected, but these are to be regulated by the commandment of Jesus, the commandment of Joseph, and that is what Judah is insisting on. He says, “If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food; but if thou do not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, Ye shall not see my face, unless your brother be with you. And Israel said, Why did ye deal so ill with me as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked very closely after us, and after our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye a brother?” Note all this. They are conscious that Joseph was getting near, Joseph was getting under things, They had that sense in their conscience. In all that the Lord is doing He is aiming to get us right on moral lines. He wants us to be right on moral lines, and the whole issue now is focusing on the brother in Benjamin.

What does Benjamin represent? Benjamin represents the work of God in the family of God, untouched, untainted by sin. He had no part in the crime, he had no part in what was done; he does not speak; he does not act; he is just there, Benjamin. It is the work of God basically, according to John’s ministry; and Joseph says, in the solution of the moral question in regard of his brethren and the relations with himself, that we must make way for Benjamin. It is important to see the place that this family feature has, the place that the brother has. The brother, according to the truth, is not established by ecclesiastical privileges. Our relationship as brethren according to the truth in the New Testament is established according to our place in the family of God. We have the work of God abstractly in the family of God according to John’s ministry, in type in Benjamin. It is important to bear that in mind, that ecclesiastical privileges do not constitute us a brother. We come into the family of God, not on the basis of ecclesiastical privilege, but on the line of generation. Children of God is what we are to God. Brethren is what we are to one another as belonging to that family. I know that the thought of the brother works out in the way of practical support in other matters, but in the family of God our relationship as brethren is linked with generation, divine generation. We are begotten of God. It is a great thing to realise that, so that a person who is withdrawn from does not cease to be one of the family of God. He is still carried in our thoughts, abstractly, as a member of the family of God, although deprived of the privileges of fellowship; and we should pray for him, speak to God about him, in that light, for his recovery. It is important, dear brethren, that we should understand that it is a day of recovery. The Lord Jesus has died to gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. We must have that in our minds according to John’s ministry.

You will remember in Deuteronomy 25, if I may speak of it as it comes into one’s mind, it says, “If there be a controversy between men, and they resort to judgment, and they judge their case; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be if the wicked man,” notice this, “it shall be if the wicked man have deserved to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and be beaten before his face, according to the measure of his wickedness with a certain number of stripes. With forty stripes shall they beat him; they shall not exceed.” Now notice this, “they shall not exceed, lest, if they continue to beat him with many stripes above these, thy brother become despicable in thine eyes.” It is important that we should understand that setting of the truth, that whatever comes in, our brother in that light is not to be despicable in our eyes.

Now Joseph insists on Benjamin being brought, and Judah holds to the word of Joseph. In our language, that is the word of the Lord, and we are going to be regulated, not by what men say, but by what the Lord says. They say in chapter 43, “The man asked very closely after us.” I love that thought. The Lord does not operate at a great distance. I suppose we have all proved that however deep our sorrows, the travail and anguish and distress of soul we have gone through, the Lord has been very near. He has been asking us very closely about matters because He loves us so well; He does not want us to get into sin; He does not want us to lose the joy in our souls of uninterrupted communion through the activities and operations of sin. He loves us far too well for that. Think of Joseph’s love for his brethren, even though they had committed such a dastardly crime; think of his love for them. And it says, “Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live, and not die, both we and thou and our little ones. I will be surety for him.” Look at the moral weight this man is acquiring, for he is speaking to Jacob his father. He says we will not go down. Jacob’s word should have regulated Judah in the ordinary matters, but this is not an ordinary matter; and if it comes to Christ, His word must come first. His word must regulate us. Judah has come to that. He is standing by it. He will not give up the ground. The Lord helps us as we stand by that. That is the line on which we acquire moral power. He is not only going to stand by Joseph’s word, but he is prepared to take all the consequences. We have to be prepared to lose our lives. We should all be prepared to lose our lives for the interests of Christ. That is the line on which we acquire moral weight and moral power. Then it says, “Of my hand shalt thou require him.” And then it says in verse 11, “And their father Israel said to them,” - notice the delightfulness of this. Jacob is brought into this movement in a dignified way as “Israel” suggests. If you stand by the truth you will always find that the Lord will give you someone else to stand with you in it. The truth will assert itself; that is what it is doing here. It is asserting itself, and Israel says, “If it is then so, do this: take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels.” Thank God they had not lost their vessels. They still had their vessels. We may say we have not lost our vessels, dear brethren, we have vessels to carry things in, we have got sacks to carry corn in, and vessels to carry the best fruits of the land in. The work of God furnishes us with these great matters, carrying capacity, a wonderful thing. Often we say in regard to meetings and to ministry, ‘I cannot take all that in.’ Well, we are not expected to take all that in. None of us is expected to take all that in, but we can carry things, even supposing we cannot eat things. We can carry them. There is carrying capacity as well as appropriating capacity, a great thing to notice in the type here.

Now in chapter 44 Judah goes up, and they take Benjamin with them. That is, they have taken on the truth, the regulation by Joseph’s commandment. Joseph is dealing with them a step at a time. He gets Benjamin up, and he operates now on the high level of the silver cup, the glory of redemption, to detain Benjamin. This precious feature is too great, Joseph would say, to be lost. I want to retain it. He wants to detain Benjamin. This great system of service is set in operation to retain this precious feature. Divine persons are interested in the work of God in all its unsullied character, identified, it may be in the public position, with all that is around. Just as Benjamin was identified with his brethren whose hands were stained with the guilt of the crime of delivering Joseph up, yet he was apart from it morally, and Joseph says I want that feature, I want that side; and he wants to retain it. The Lord begins to operate, and how the Lord operates in ways that are difficult to describe. He has means, He has a house here under His hand. Thank God for that house, Joseph’s house, the holy affections that radiate in that realm, and the holy feelings that that environment is replete with. Oh! dear brethren, think of the feelings of Joseph, pent up as they may be for a time; but when the time comes, their release comes into view. What feelings lay behind all the rough speaking, all the treatment of the brethren; it all comes out in the disclosure of his heart based on Judah’s intervention. Joseph operates to have Benjamin returned. He wants to bring the brethren back to Benjamin, he wants to bring them in their thoughts to Benjamin, to the work of God in all its basic uncorrupted character. The Lord would like to bring us to that - so it says Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house.

I do not desire to go into the detail, but I refer to the continual acquisition of moral power on the part of Judah, seen in the way he takes up the matter and does not excuse himself. You might say, ‘Judah, you have some right to excuse yourself, you stood by the commandment of Joseph; why not tell Joseph that?’ Well, he does in effect. But the point is that Judah sees there is no use for excuses. He says, “God has found out the iniquity of thy servants; behold, we are my lord’s bondmen, both we, and he in whose hand the cup has been found.” And then it says, “Judah came near to him.” There is something more than coming to the end of ourselves; there is something more than coming to just a judgment of sin as in these few verses. What comes out from verse 18 to the end of the chapter, is the full expression of the holy feelings of the family of God compressed in a vessel like Judah. What a wonderful thing to have in our localities, dear brethren, a Judah who can express the feelings of the family of God, that can bring love into the matter. Notice how it says of Benjamin, his father loves him. John’s ministry stresses love. It is the secret of the whole position in the working out of the truth. Love. The love of the Father in committing the administration into the hands of the Son, and the love among the saints. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves.” Let us make room for love - love that would think the best and speak the best. Not that sin is ignored, Judah fully acknowledges it, but then he makes way, as it were, for the work of God to come out. He makes way for what he has acquired morally with Joseph and with God, as I might say in our way of speaking, to express itself. He speaks in one of the most moving passages that we have in all the word of God. Even the higher critics and secular writers say that there are very few passages in the canon of the scripture to compare with this one, with all its moving appeal. But we are not thinking of the human side; we are thinking of the work of God and the family of God, and we are thinking of divine Persons. How the Lord delights to see those that can supply what is needed. Paul says of certain in Corinth, Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, “they have supplied what was lacking on your part.” Think of brethren like that in a locality. Think of what these brothers were in Corinth; they supplied what was lacking. The most of us are on the line of demanding what is due to us. We ought to be more concerned about supplying what is lacking. The more heavenly we are, the more we are in the enjoyment of the family of God, whether as children, or in sonship, the more we will be on the supplying line, supplying what is lacking; and that is just what Judah does. Judah makes way for the disclosure of Joseph. Joseph comes into the matter and there are affections freely flowing as Joseph releases all that was pent up in the way of love towards him.

Now I come to this last passage which shows us clearly the great moral power in Judah. Judah becomes the sanctuary of God. When God takes the children of Israel out of Egypt later, Judah was His sanctuary, Israel His dominion. Judah has the nearest place, the sanctuary. It is an interesting thing too, in regard to Benjamin, that the house was in Benjamin’s territory. “The beloved of Jehovah - he shall dwell ... between his shoulders.” There were these two great links in the chain of events that lead to the full disclosure of Joseph and what a place of honour they come into. Judah becomes the sanctuary, and Benjamin becomes the house in principle. The beloved of Jehovah, he shall dwell between his shoulders, meaning Benjamin’s territory, where Jerusalem was. “Judah - as to thee, thy brethren will praise thee; thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies.” That is what the line of acquiring moral power gives us, that is where we are brought to. Would the young brothers and sisters like to have their hand on the neck of their enemies - sin, and the world, and all the principles of the flesh that operate to bring us into bondage? Would you like to get your hand on the neck of your enemies? It is reached along the line that Judah travelled, that is, in coming to a right judgment about yourself and your own heart in all its nakedness - coming to God’s judgment about matters. You remember when Tamar’s sin came to light Judah said, “Bring her forth, that she may be burned.” Many of us are like that, you know. David, whose ancestor he was, was incensed and indignant when the parable came to him as to the sin, and he was ready to put the man to death, just like Judah, “Bring her forth, that she may be burned.” But Judah got right. Then it says here, “Thy father’s children will bow down to thee. Judah is a young lion.” Then in verse 10, “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet.” Now notice this, that the man that held to regulation by Joseph’s commandment is the man with whom the lawgiver is now linked. I think it is a beautiful touch, dear brethren, as to the acquisition of moral power. It does not drop on us as a mantle out of the air. It is developed in a hard and difficult way, but it is developed in our relations with Christ and with God, and as making room for the Holy Spirit.

So it says in verse 11, “He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass’s colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes. The eyes are red with wine.” I believe that in our language, that suggests one who knows what it is to make room for the Spirit - the holy stimulating features that are linked with the Spirit’s activities. What moral power Judah acquired; and the door is open to every one of us, brothers and sisters alike, to acquire power likewise.

May the Lord help us to take this way.