"SONS OF OIL"
“SONS OF OIL”
Ezra 4:23; Haggai 1:8, 9; Zechariah 3: 1 - 5; Zechariah 4:1 - 14
We see in the scripture in Ezra that there was a power that would cause the work of the house of God to cease, and recent events have reminded us that that power still exists. There is a great power active to cause the work of the house of God to cease and we are all liable to fall under the influence of that power more or less. It is therefore of great importance that we should learn how to stand in spiritual power against it and how to secure the completion of all that belongs to the service of the house of God.
Haggai gives us another reason why the work ceased; it was not really Artaxerxes and the enemies that caused the work to cease, but the state of the people themselves. They were occupied with their own things, and the house of God had lost its place in their interest and affections. In Paul’s day all sought their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ. That state of things prevails in the Christian profession and we have to see to it with jealous care that it does not prevail in our hearts.
Zechariah is, I believe, the most important of the post-captivity books because it gives us the secret of success in the carrying on of the work and service of the house of God. So the teaching of the prophet Zechariah is of vital importance to us, and I have on my mind to say a few words on the fact that the saints are called upon to take up features which are set forth in Joshua and in Zerubbabel. These men represent saints like ourselves, who are brought by divine grace into a condition in which they can minister to the work of the house of God. Joshua and Zerubbabel were the two anointed ones or “sons of oil”, and I venture to hope that it is our holy desire and purpose to be such, because the maintenance of the divine testimony in the house of God depends on there being “sons of oil”.
The prophet saw a golden lamp, and he saw it fed with oil and that two olive trees were the sources from which the oil came. These two olive trees represent the saints as enabled of God to take up priestly and royal character so that what is suitable to God in His house shall be maintained. But we must understand that it is a time of testimony, not of great things outwardly. It [p. 152] is a time of communications from heaven, for Zechariah says eleven times in the first six chapters, “the angel that talked with me”. And it is encouraging to see that God takes up a priest who is altogether out of order, because I apprehend that no saint could be in a worse case than Joshua the high priest. Instead of being attired, as the high priest should be, with holy garments for glory and ornament, he is found in filthy garments.
I cannot but think that Joshua represents the state of the Christian profession generally in regard to priesthood, and alas! it may be more or less descriptive of my state and yours. But it is blessed to see that Jehovah in the sovereignty of His love undertakes to make this unsuitable man suitable: He undertakes to do it all from His own side. No doubt Joshua had deep exercises, for it is a solemn thing to think of serving God in a priestly way and to be conscious that one has no fitness to take up the service — our associations, or manner of life, our personal state, all unsuitable to priesthood, and therefore disqualifying us from being “sons of oil”. But it is most encouraging to see that the blessed God undertakes to put Joshua into true priestly conditions. We do not find that Joshua had a single word to say; all that he was called upon to do was to submit himself to the actings of holy love. Are we prepared to submit ourselves to the actings of love? They take place in such a meeting as this — the Spirit of God touching spots of defilement here and there, perhaps as yet not even known to ourselves, but in the sovereignty of love God exposing things that are unsuited to priesthood.
There can be no flow of the Spirit apart from holy conditions and such are the conditions of priesthood. Priesthood is one of the two “sons of oil”, and it is in view of Joshua becoming one of them that Jehovah says, “Take away the filthy garments”, and there were those standing before Him who were ready to do this service. How blessed to know that God does not do everything Himself; He loves to call in His people, His saints, and to make them serviceable in this great work of bringing about holy conditions amongst His people, so that priesthood may have its true holy character before Him. There are those standing before Him who are ready to serve us, and the ministry of the Word is the effective means by which our state is brought home to us, and then a blessed activity of divine love comes in to deal with it so that conditions result that are suitable to God.
In Zerubbabel we do not see moral exercises, which are worked out in connection with Joshua, but we see that he needs instruction.
[p. 153] The thought of royalty is that one has the mind of God so as to be able to apply it in a practical way. So David says, “Give the king thy judgments”; the great thought of the king is that he has the mind of God, and has kingly ability to apply it. Zerubbabel represents the royal element amongst the people of God, and he gets instruction by this wonderful figure of the golden lamp and its seven lamps, and the oil flowing through golden pipes. By all this he is instructed in the great fact that in connection with the work of the house of God it is “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”. That is instruction for the king; if building is to go on according to God there must be the recognition that there is no power whatever but that of God’s Spirit, involving the practical renunciation of every other kind of power.
When everything that is of human power is set aside, the great mountain that would stand in the way of the house being built becomes a plain. All difficulties are removed, and the hands that begin are able to finish. It is a day of small things indeed, but things are brought to completion. We should have nothing less than that before us. The eyes of Jehovah rejoice when they see the plummet in the hands of Zerubbabel. Royalty in the saints comes out in this, that they will not suffer any standard to be substituted for the divine one.
Zerubbabel was seen with the plummet in his hand and he was qualified, not only to lay the foundation, but to finish the work of the house of God without deviating a hair’s breadth from the divine standard. The plummet suggests that all the building is to be regulated by a perfect standard; it must conform to the divine thought. The plummet estimates things from above, and it indicates to us that the royal element amongst the people of God will not suffer anything to deviate from the divine standard. It is said of Zerubbabel, as seen with the plummet in his hand, that he had laid the foundation of the house, and his hands should finish it. That is a kingly thought; one who can begin and finish in relation to the work of the house of God is truly kingly, and that royal element is needed amongst us. The Spirit as sent from a glorified Christ acts through the saints. Of course, the Spirit viewed as a Person in the Godhead is free to act as He will and where He will, but we are speaking now of the saints as moving in spiritual power in relation to the work of the house of God. The movements of the Spirit in relation to that work require vessels, and in that connection the saints become “sons of oil”.
[p. 154] I hope we really desire to be “sons of oil”? If I am not a “son of oil”, how can I minister anything that will be light in relation to the house of God? How can I build or have the plummet in my hand? The plummet is intended to regulate everything in the public service of God according to His mind. The plummet has been applied to things particularly during the last hundred years. There was a very long period — many centuries — when people thought of nothing more, at the best, than doing something to improve the state of things that existed. I trust, beloved brethren, that we have moved away from that standpoint altogether and that we have no thought of improving what exists, but we have the thought of working to a divine pattern and a divine standard. We have the thought of working to what has been set forth in the teaching of the apostles and prophets, and as this is before us constructional work goes on, and I believe God’s intent is that it shall be brought to completion.
We must admit that we come short of that yet; much that transpires in our meetings would have no place if we had reached the completion of the divine thought. In order to reach it there must be priestly conditions and royal conditions. It has always been God’s thought that priesthood and royalty should go together in connection with the blessed activities of God’s Spirit. When these two elements are combined there is a flow of the Spirit which maintains divine light according to the perfection of the divine thought. Things are maintained in ministry as light, and then they are worked out constructionally in the actual service of the house.
I trust we are moving on to the completion of what is in the mind of God, but I would impress upon my own heart and yours that very much depends on the exercises which go on in our souls in relation to these two great thoughts of priesthood and royalty. As they are worked out in us we become “sons of oil”. Both characters are going to be taken up by Christ; this book speaks of the time when Christ will be a Priest upon His throne; He is going to be the Branch and the Headstone; He is going to hold publicly these blessed characters for God. But at the present time the work of the house of God is being carried on by the power of the Spirit through the saints, so that it is of the greatest importance that we should be truly “sons of oil”. This depends on us now, and God is well pleased to effect in us everything that is necessary in order that all that is in His mind shall be brought to completion. We have not to reach this by human movements [p. 155] of might or power, but the blessed God would be pleased to take us in hand, and, if need be, deal with our state even though it might be as bad as that of Joshua. I am not saying it is, but it is encouraging to see that if it were as bad as that of Joshua, God would undertake to deal with it, and to use the effective ministry that goes on on the part of those that stand before Him to eliminate all the elements that are unsuited to His own holiness. Priesthood has to do with holy conditions of service Godward, but the royal character has to do, as I understand it, with the maintenance of public order. There is a certain public order in the house of God which has to be maintained in royal power. “Sons of oil” are able to hold the plummet and to see that there is no deviation from the divine mind. During the last hundred years we have had to learn that many things deviated from the straight plummet line; they would not bear the standard of God’s mind, and we have had to learn to adjust things to that standard. Royal features have come out in the saints as that has gone on.
I commend these thoughts to the affections and the exercises of the brethren, that we should take up these things in a very practical way so that we may truly become “sons of oil”. If there is to be the manifestation of the Spirit of God in the assembly, it will come normally through the saints. If we are not “sons of oil” to furnish the oil for the light the testimony of God must wane; the light will burn dim. All depends upon our being maintained in priestly and royal conditions, and therefore I urge upon the brethren — and this is a matter for brothers and sisters alike — that we should earnestly desire to take up this character of “sons of oil”, and to be concerned that priestly and royal conditions are really with us. Do not let us be content with a respectable kind of Christian life that keeps itself pure from manifest evil, but let us be set to cultivate those inward priestly relations with God that are suited to Himself, and then the royal character that has to do with what is outward. As we learn the mind of God, as we bring things to the test of the plummet, we shall get things more and more adjusted and brought into conformity with the divine standard, and then those who begin can finish. If we are on those lines we shall not break down half-way; the Lord will not have to say of us, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”. If we move in this priestly and royal way we shall bring things to completion.
Is it possible that just a few people meeting together in a simple way can reach God’s great thoughts in completion? Yes, that is what He intends. And that is why He says, “Who has despised the day of small things”. He intends that things shall be brought to completion on a small scale before they are brought to completion on a grand scale in the day that is coming. What a pleasure it is to God to see anyone in priestly attire before Him, and what a pleasure it is to Him to see a king — a man with a plummet in his hand — testing everything by what is suited to God! Things are brought to completion on that line. Let us remember that the house of God is one, and it is universal; so that what is secured in any locality is gain to the house universally. If we want to help our brethren in other parts of the world, the beat way we can do it is by working out to completion the divine thoughts in our own locality. In being secured there they are secured in God’s mind for the whole house. There is something secured, the value and power of which God can make advantageous in every part of His house. As the saints become vessels of the Spirit, ministering what is of the Spirit to one another, the whole thing is being brought on its way to completion. We are drawing near to the time when the headstone will be brought forth with shoutings. The wonderful place of Christ as the Headstone is coming into evidence amongst His people, filling their hearts with holy rapture, with shoutings of “Grace, grace unto it!” What a blessed consummation of the work of God! May it be more, before us in living power, to the glory and praise of God!