Then, subsequently, we have the development of a Christian in the light of all this; that we find in chapter 4 where the widow of the prophet comes in typically for the Spirit – she receives the Spirit.

• She learns that there is an unlimited supply; the limit was in the vessels. Then she has to sell the oil, pay her debt and live of the rest.

• Following upon her we have the woman of Shunem, who is said to be a "great woman". She makes room for the man of God; she is concerned about the testimony; Then she receives her son back from the dead.

• Then the "great pot" is set on, and the poisonous weed is brought in, and death is in the pot; Elisha remedies it by "meal". The meal would point to the humanity of Christ.

• Then we have the "man from Baal-shalisha", pointing to the heavenly side of the truth.

• Following this we have the little maid, who represents, as I understand, the testimony that is rendered by the Christian in the light of all this.

• One's exercise is that we might see how we may be evangelical without presuming to be; without taking up any official place, because that is what she represents – effective work, and yet no pretension to be anything officially.

• Hence it is within the range or every Christian, but it can only be effective in those who have developed on the lines indicated in this chapter.

J.C.S. So that the various points or suggestions that you have indicated thus lie within the range of all. There are possibilities for all the people of God, and these things must really be true of us before the testimony can flow out from us.

J.T. That is it. If you leap over chapter 4 you may have evangelical christendom, but there is no power according to God, and there must be some claim to official position to make up for that.

J.C.S. So that your suggestion is that the thing can go on today without any pretension; it is carried on on moral grounds.

J.T. Yes; and what comes out in the ministry of the little maid, confirmed as it was by Elisha, is that it is a question, not of the person who preaches, or to whom the light comes, but of the authority of the word.

E.B.McC. So that is why you emphasised "Jehovah has sent me", and linked it up with the Lord, who says,

• "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you". John 20: 21.

J.T. Quite; then the word of the little maid had to be accepted by Naaman, and later, the word of Elisha, if Naaman would be cleansed.

• The basis of the dispensation in its bearing is in subjection. The first great lesson is subjection.

• The Lord Jesus taught that in His own path here, and what God found in Christ is the standard; He could not be satisfied with anything less than that; that is the principle.

E.B.McC. That is brought about, you say, by suffering. That is the only way.

• "To make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings", Hebrews 2: 10.

J.T. So I think, the Lord taking up Paul, who is a great exemplification of the dispensation in its heavenly character, says,

• "I will show him how great things he must suffer", Acts 9: 16.

• Suffering went with the ministry.

J.C.S. He was to be both a witness and a minister, and that is what you are leading on to, is it not – that there might be witnesses here?

J.T. We cannot jump over chapter 4, and take up chapter 5 of 2 Kings.

• It is a well-known gospel chapter, but in order to preach from it one has to understand chapter 4; he has to understand chapter 2 also, but chapter 4 is of special importance. It shows us how we come in for the Spirit, and discover that the supply is unlimited; the limitations are only with us.

M.P.M. Is it similar to the thought of the Spirit in Romans:

• "the Spirit is life because of righteousness"? Romans 8: 10

J.T. Just so. The Spirit enables you to discharge every moral obligation, because no one can be a witness for Christ who has any undischarged obligations.

R.J.W. Is that why the woman is said to live? She is not a finger-post, but a living witness.

J.T. She has discharged all her obligations, paid all her debts, and lives.

J.C.S. So that according to this light there is no excuse for having obligations undischarged. All the possibilities lie in the Spirit, so that you have power to fulfil them.

J.T. I think that generally in Christendom chapter 4 is ignored, hence the world has to be appealed to for support. They resort to the world; subscriptions are taken up sometimes in large proportions.

• The work of God is carried on by the support of the world, whereas the support really is in the Spirit, and chapter 4 shows us the unlimitedness of the Spirit.

• The limitations were only with the woman; as there were no more vessels the oil stopped, but there was enough for her to pay her debts and live of the rest.

• Then what follows upon that is a great woman. Not great in the world's estimation, because she did not want worldly distinction; she said,
  • "I dwell among mine own people", 2 Kings 4: 13.

• She was a great woman because, typically, she had acquired the Spirit. She acquired the knowledge of the unlimitedness of the Spirit; hence she uses her means to provide a room or house for the prophet, the vessel of the testimony.

• Then her son is given back to her from the dead, and the man from Baal-shalisha comes in, showing that there is a heavenly supply.

• Then we have the little maid. She is a type of the kind of witness that is rendered, for all this shows that there is no pretension at all; she is just a little maid serving, waiting on her mistress, having been taken captive by the Syrians.

M.P.M. So that the little maid is in accord with all we have seen in the earlier chapters?

J.T. Yes, quite; I believe her testimony embodies all this.

M.P.M. There is very little to take account of outwardly, but much to strengthen and build us up inwardly.

J.C.S. I suppose Christendom, in a way, has really ignored the Lord – ignored the supply.

J.T. I think so; that is how the matter stands; whereas the Lord would call us back to the supply and enable us to witness without pretension – without claiming to be officials.

M.P.M. Would you explain what it means to pay one's obligations; it may not be clear to all?

J.T. Well, Romans 8 puts it concisely: the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us<

• "who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit". Romans 8: 4.

Ques. Would it be fulfilled in the maid waiting on Naaman's wife?

J.T. Well, she is content to do that; she accepted her circumstances without murmuring.

• The little maid is not marked by any national feeling; there is no resentment at all. Were she influenced by national feeling she might have said, 'Let him die, the Syrians are our oppressors'

• That would be national feeling, but she has none of that; she wants him healed. He is a leper, and she knows who can cleanse him, and so directs him to Elisha.

I think this passage helps us to be content to serve without any public recognition at all.

• Those who really serve Christ today have no public recognition, nor do they seek it. They may be "unknown, and yet well-known", because the world may pretend not to know you, even though it does know you.

A.H.R. Going back to chapter 2, is this what you would term the double portion of the Spirit?

J.T. I think the double portion is the portion of the firstborn, and it marks the whole dispensation. It is for every believer. The Spirit is here now in an unlimited way; we come into it. The double portion is what characterises the whole dispensation.

J.C.S. As you were saying, the little maid served in obscurity, but one would gather that in the exercise of her service she had discharged her obligations in such a way that her testimony was effective.

J.T. Apparently so; it weighed with them.

E.B.McC. She had light and faith. She had no doubts in her mind.

J.T. None whatever. She did nothing, but gave her word. Her word put the test for Naaman. It tested him and the flesh in him; and the kings of Syria and Israel were exposed by it; but the word of the little maid stood.

• Then Elisha did not come out to see him; he sent a messenger, saying, "Go and wash in Jordan". But Naaman was angry and went away. If you do not believe the little maid you are tested by the message of the prophet.

R.McM. It is not only a question of the forgiveness of sins. The testing of the little maid suggested something more than that.

J.T. It did: "Would that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria!"

• It is not 'with', but "before". He is a suppliant; he must take a humble place before the prophet. She is guided aright in her words.

S.F. She had carried the light of the God of Israel into that locality.

J.T. That is what I thought. What we should note is the entire absence of national feeling.

E.B.McC. She had light away beyond the officials of Israel; the king did not know what to say to Naaman.

R.J.W. Is she serving in the dignity and liberty of sonship as suggested in Romans?

J.T. Yes, typically. She is outside national feeling, she is in liberty.

J.C.S. She has apprehended the character of God's house in its universal aspect; it was to be a house of prayer for all nations.

S.F. Is it not worthy of note that the Lord uses this very incident:

• "Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed saying Naaman the Syrian", Luke 4: 27.

J.T. The Lord brings that in in Luke, so it bears out what we were saying.

• I think she would be fully in the light if we take it up anti-typically. We are really here in the presence of a believer in the light of Ephesians; he is obscure outwardly, but he knows what he is saying – he is definite.

Ques. I thought of what we had before us this morning of the Lord typified by Elijah. Is it necessary to company with him to know how to move?

J.T. That is what I thought. Elisha had to travel with him from point to point, each point representing some feature of the testimony, and then they cross Jordan.

• There are the sons of the prophets looking on. These are persons who stand afar off; they have information, but the information is second-hand, and Elisha knows better than they do.

• There are many who have information about the ascension and second coming of the Lord, but they have it second-hand, and the persons from whom they have got it know much more about it than they do.

• They may talk more about it, but the second coming of the Lord is known to those who get it first-hand better than to those who get it second-hand.

• "I have indeed heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock not trained: turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou art Jehovah my God".

J.T. Quite. This very important principle of going down into the water is greatly emphasised in Scripture. We had it yesterday:

• "Into which few, that is eight souls, were saved through water", 1 Peter 3: 20.

• So in Jeremiah there is a remarkable passage in which the prophet is told to take his girdle and go to Euphrates and hide it in a hole in a rock; but it says,
  • "Dip it not in water". Jeremiah 13: 1.

• Then he is directed to go again, and the girdle is marred – good for nothing. However near we may be to God outwardly – as the people of Israel were His girdle about His loins – unless we are dipped in water we are good for nothing.

• Many are outwardly very near – actively engaged in the Lord's service, and yet in not accepting death they are ultimately good for nothing. We have to accept death; that is what Elisha insists on here.

• There is no change in the mind of God; the greatest man has to come down. There is only one way; in going down we accept the thing definitely. Thus Naaman's flesh comes again as the flesh of a little child. It is a new start – born again. It is a new start; but more than that, he is cleansed.

Ques. Would it suggest resurrection – the flesh of a little child?

J.T. I think it is what one is as cleansed. It refers to what we are spiritually now as accepting the death of Christ. I do not think this teaching goes beyond Romans, which prepares us for the assembly; it brings in the material for the assembly.

Ques. How does John 3 come in here?

J.T. It synchronises in the sense that it is a new start: "It is needful that ye should be born anew" John 3: 7 is the thought.

E.B.McC. You come thus into the organisation of David. There is a state in which David has his mighty men – not as great in the world, but like the little maid. W.W. Would you say we see the evidence of a new start in the sensibilities that Naaman expressed?

J.T. That is what our attention has been called to: "Two mules' burden of earth".

• He has sensibilities now of what is due to God. So in Exodus 20: 22-24 God says,
  • "Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven … an altar of earth shalt thou make unto me".

• That would be the acknowledgement of what we are before Him.

J.C.S. It is still Romans.

J.T. Quite; it does not go beyond Romans. It is remarkable how this word of the little maid works out. It exposes the whole world. The king of Syria, the worldly thoughts of Naaman, and the king of Israel are all exposed.

J.C.S. You want the testimony to go forth like that in Wellington.

J.T. Well, it is within the range of every one of us to bear witness to Christ. The privilege of this is indeed great.

E.B.McC. I think that is very helpful. It would set forth the activities of the assemblies in life.

J.T. The great point in reference to life is that it is out of death according to what it is for God, and we have in Hosea 6 an example. Verse 2 says,

• "After two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight", Hosea 6: 2.

• The Lord, I believe, in showing Himself alive to His disciples after He rose, intended to set out before their eyes what life is as before God.
  • "He showed himself" to them "alive"; not 'risen'.

• Of course He was risen, but the point was "alive". Everyone who rested his eyes on the Lord during those forty days, especially when He intended to convey the idea of life as manifestation, would remember ever afterwards what the divine idea was, and would seek to be conformed to it.

• Colossians is intended to bring about in us conformity to Christ as alive; indeed, it is said, as we read in chapter 2,
  • "He had quickened together with him".

• I understand the word 'together' has reference to the saints. So that, as quickened together with Him, the thought is we are to live with Him, as He is.

• Then again, in the prophet Isaiah, in the case of Hezekiah, we have a further thought of the living – in life; his soul is delivered. Hezekiah was cut off figuratively in the meridian of his life, but he is made to live. He is brought up from the gates of the grave, and he says,
  • "The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day", Isaiah 38: 19.

• So that we are to live in God's sight according to Christ, and then praise as in life.

E.B.McC. Hezekiah would set forth one who would arise from the dead, and as risen he says, "The living, he shall praise thee".

J.T. Yes, and it is in the house of the Lord; and so the Psalms end, as we have often remarked, with everything that has breath praising the Lord.

• The great thing is to see that it is all living – everything that has breath. I think that our meetings for worship sometimes run short of breath.

• We do not run short of words, because they have been coined for us; others have used them; they are thus ready made. But it is not words only, it is breath expressed in words; and if we run short of breath, so to speak, it is wise to stop.

• We have to admit it. We are not equal to very much that is for God. We are equal for more that is from God.

E.B.McC. Breath means spiritual life.

J.T. Yes, that is the idea of breath.

R.J.W. Do you connect that with John 20 in any way?

J.T. Well, the Lord breathed into them. That would be that they were to have His Spirit. Whilst we are down here we need the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

W.J.P. Do you connect John 6 with support?

J.T. Yes, the "bread of God" is the support of life.

J.C.S. Do you think the Lord Jesus in Acts 1 presented Himself "living" so that they might have some idea of life according to God?

J.T. Well, I thought that. You see, all that happened during the forty days was a pattern of what should come about later by the Spirit. Hence, among other things, He presents Himself alive, or living.

• They would see a living Man, and that would ever afterwards impress every one of them, and each one would say, 'That is what Christ was when I saw Him'.

• And Peter, in presenting Dorcas, presented her alive, or living. There would be a woman set down in the midst of the saints. They would have before them constantly a living woman.

• Lazarus was one of those that sat at table with the Lord – a great testimony to life there.

Ques. Would Colossians answer to the forty days of our Lord?

J.T. That is what I thought. It is the working out of that in the Christian circle, or the assembly; we are to be brought into accord with Him.

• "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him".

• He is the test for all.

J.C.S. So that, to follow the figure, Colossians would show that the bees had been active?

J.T. I thought we might work it out that way. There were bees and honey, showing typically, that the activity of life had yielded something the Lord would take up. He asks,

• "Have ye anything here to eat?" Luke 24: 41.

• They gave Him part of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb, and He took it and ate before them.

M.P.M. In that way He drinks of the brook by the way, and gets refreshment from His saints.

J.T. Quite so.

Ques. What is the thought, He ate honey and went on?

J.T. It indicates, I think, what the Lord receives now from those who are alive from the dead, for the assembly is the product of His death.

• He looks for the sweetness of mutual relations among the brethren. It is delightful.

• The Lord's supper, for instance, rightly apprehended, is that we sit down together and feed on what is presented to us through the love of Christ seen in Him as dead; because it is a dead Christ that is before us immediately, not a living Christ.

• It is not that we remember Him as dead; we remember Him as alive – as absent; but the memorial is, in the simplest sense, that He has been into death – the blood separate from the body; that the Lord Jesus actually died, and that He died in love.

• Nothing can exceed the sweetness of that, as rightly apprehended. The saints sit down together and have communion in it, and love springs out of it. He gets His portion out of all that.

J.C.S. So that the love which is carried to us in the suggestion of a dead Christ is to be formative and productive. We have thus something in life answering spiritually to what was seen in Him during those forty days.

J.T. That, I think, is exactly what we come to. It is a question for us all, how much we are in that life as in the assembly; and we should not go beyond our measure in our activity there.

Ques. Would you say this evidence of life is to be seen here on earth?

J.T. That is really the Christian circle – the green spot, anticipating the time when life shall be apparent everywhere. The Christian circle is the green spot now, and Colossians is to remove all that hinders; the thorns and weeds that grow naturally have to be kept out.

• That is what Colossians is mainly for, so that there should be full development of life in the assembly. There is thus the full result of
  • "holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God", Colossians 2: 19.

• The Lord gets His portion, and He gives it to the Father. There is an indication here, Judges 14, that the Father gets His part.

W.J.P. Would that occur on Lord's day morning: he ate and went on, and gave to his father and mother?

J.T. Well, one would not strain the scripture or be fanciful, but there seems to be an indication there of what the Lord does.

• Samson "turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat", Judges 14: 8-9.

G.R.G. Would that be an example of the Lord accepting the honeycomb from His disciples and appropriating to Himself the fruit of His own death?

J.T. Well, that is what I was thinking. In Luke 24 He comes to them and says,

• "Have ye here any meat?"

• The bees had been working. The two had returned from Emmaus having had their share of the honey, because the Lord appeared to them in the breaking of bread, and they related that; but the others also had been working, because the Lord had appeared unto Simon, and they were all there together in the light of these things; thus the honeycomb was being formed.

• Hence when the Lord comes, He says, "Have ye anything here to eat?" That put them to the test. He knew what was there, but He would bring it out.

W.J.P. How do you view the lion in death?

J.T. It is death, but now productive of life as Christ has been into it. It says, "it roared against him", verse 5; but now the bees and honey are in the carcase.

E.B.McC. It sets forth the death of Christ, and the assembly coming out of His death.

J.T. Yes, it is a striking figure of that. The bees are in the carcase, and the honey was there; so that it is life out of death, or through death.

W.J.P. I suppose Samson's riddle would explain that.

J.T. Yes, quite.

J.C.S. If the Lord were to come and ask us whether we had anything to eat, it might be testing. Have we any honey, and are we in life?

J.T. It is not necessary that everyone should speak. It is a question of the power of life, as I remarked; because it may be that we need to hear something from Him that would be of more value than what we are endeavouring to say to Him. He would have something to say to us.

R.McM. Would we be conscious of what our measure is, and know when we are out of breath?

J.T. I think if we were with God we should know just when we had reached the limit of our worship.

• Of course the Lord helps us as we draw near to God, but there is much repetition of words, which should be avoided; and then a brother need not speak just because he is present.

Ques. Is the honey found in the assembly?

J.T. I think it is the product of mutual relations.

Ques. The result of the affections of the saints, would you say?

J.T. Just so, as set together in the assembly.

J.C.S. So that we should know when we are in assembly whether we are out of breath, so to speak; whether we are going beyond the power of life.

J.T. The Lord might have something to say. One idea in the assembly is that He speaks. He loves to hear our voices, but He speaks.

• The setting of 1 Corinthians is: in chapter 11 you have the Lord's supper; then in chapter 12 His operations; in chapter 13 it is love in the saints, which is the way of surpassing excellence; and in chapter 14 ministry.

J.C.S. So that when breath no longer remains, to keep up the figure, the Lord may address a word to us at that moment. It would be for us to listen then.

J.T. I think one feature of the assembly is for the very purpose that there might be divine speaking, which results in replenishment. There is always increase from the Head; increase, not through what we say, but rather in what He says.

• "Holding fast the head, from whom all the body …", Colossians 2: 19.

• The increase is in what comes from the Lord.

Ques. Are you limiting your remarks to when we are actually in assembly?

J.T. I am speaking for the moment of that, because as there you would look for the movement of life in what we are before God. The honeycomb represents more than one bee; it is the outcome of mutual relations, so there is something for the Lord.

J.C.S. I suppose there is no moment when the affections of the saints are so susceptible, or when they can be so readily impressed with what is spiritual. It seems really a unique moment for the Lord to address us at that time; He would say something to us.

Rem. The land beyond Jordan flowed with milk and honey.

J.T. Yes, just so; there is plenty there.

M.P.M. But we are not able to sustain our part very long; we have limitations.

J.T. Generally we cannot afford very much, and the Lord knows that we are very limited. It is wisdom to recognise our limitations.

M.P.M. The danger is of becoming artificial.

E.B.McC. Is there not a certain light governing us at that moment?

J.T. There is a certain light which governs us as we come together to break bread. Then there is the thought of what we are for God, and for that you need particularly to have power.

• Many break bread, and so far own they are helped and nourished, but do not go over Jordan; they are not disfellowshipped by that. They are in the assembly, but they lack the power to go over Jordan.

• It is as we recognise the Lord as Head that He would lead us to the Father. But then that is not all. 1 Corinthians shows there is more than that. As a matter of fact there is all that follows during the week as the extension of the saints having come together in assembly.

• This is one thing; but there is another, and according to 1 Corinthians 14 the assembly involves ministry, and prophecy edifies the assembly.

M.P.M. And would the light that governs us in coming together thus govern the Lord's ministry to us at that time?

J.T. I think so. A message from the Lord is opportune, and if we consult the saints we would find they enjoy it. We have to admit it, most of us need constantly to be ministered to.

H.L.D. Would there be a special character about that ministry?

J.T. No doubt there would. What we have just then been engaged with would lend a peculiar character to it. It would be a word from the Head.

S.F. Would you say that such a word would fit in well and come about when breath is exhausted?

J.T. Well, that is what I thought. The Lord might speak to us then.

Ques. Joseph said to his brethren, "come near to me". Genesis 45: 4 Would that involve the idea?

J.T. I think that leads on to the assembly – to what we are before God. Then there were communications after that which Joseph made. That would fit in with what we were saying.

J.C.S. So you think a word at that moment would descend gracefully on the spirits of the saints.

J.T. It is the refreshment of the dew coming down mediatorially, I apprehend, because Hermon refers to Christ as the Mediator. I would like to leave with the sense that something came into my soul from the Lord; also that something had gone from me to Him.

Ques. Would you say that ministry from the Lord in the assembly would be productive of further breathing?

J.T. No doubt.

E.B.McC. It is the five words in the Spirit – a word from the Lord.

J.T. Brevity is the thing, but each of the five words has its own weight and power.

Ques. It would be like a "word fitly spoken"? Proverbs 25: 11.

J.T. Well, just so; it is just a word, but it is fitly spoken, and becomes an ornament.

Ques. Would you mind saying a word about "in assembly"?

J.T. We come together in assembly to break bread; that is how we come together; and it is the beginning of the week.

• It would seem that 1 Corinthians 11, 12, 13 and 14 cover the whole week, because all the ministry that comes in is of a piece, but it begins with the breaking of bread.

Ques. Would you expect to find the savour of it at the prayer meeting?

J.T. Yes. The assembly's life is one of weeks, in a sense. We learn individually by the day; so you have the time between the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Spirit – fifty days, or weeks, see Leviticus 23; sometimes it is "weeks", sometimes "days". I think the weeks refer to assembly history, and the days to individual history.

Ques. The assembly would answer to the swarm of bees?

J.T. I thought that. Judges 14 would give you the initial idea, not that one would be fanciful; but there is denoted in a swarm of bees all the energy of life. They are all active, and there is the result. They are not working aimlessly. I think the bee represents life in its instincts. There are no creatures more marked by intelligent instincts than bees.

E.B.McC. The instincts of life were with Deborah – the name meaning 'a bee'.

W.J.P. The bee always works toward the hive. It is not the individual idea.

J.T. It is collective. The bee works collectively.

Ques. Would you say that the honey given by, Samson to his father and mother would bring in the thought of the family?

J.T. No doubt. There is an indication there of what the Lord does.

J.C.S. The great thing to look for is the activity of life in the assembly. Colossians has been introduced as showing that certain things have to be guarded, or they will neutralise that.

J.T. Then another thing in regard to Samson. While there is much about his history that is very humiliating and extremely incongruous to us, to say the least, still, the life-line runs through his history, and this is developed in chapter 15.

• He finds a fresh jawbone of an ass, meaning that this life which has just begun must be sustained by being kept near death; death is ever there; and the Lord's supper, I think, maintains the death of the Lord in its freshness continually, so that we do not get far removed from it. If we do the life is not sustained, because this life is out of death. It is a great principle of the life we have.

• He takes, as the better version reads, "a fresh jawbone". Judges 15: 15. Death had just happened.

• The Lord's supper should ever be as if it had happened just now; it should come to us as if we were present when it occurred. Thus the Lord's supper, rightly apprehended, maintains us in freshness – it is a 'fresh' jawbone; so we are kept near the death of the Lord always.

• Then, later, he takes the gates, bar and all – showing the energy of life in power – and takes them up to the top of the hill before Hebron, which, I think, directs us to Colossians, which is our Hebron. It is before the world was. It is the purpose of God for us, outside the world.

• That is what you get in Samson, and I think it helps greatly as to the maintenance of life amongst us, because if I am to reach Colossians it is not enough that I have the Spirit of God; I must be formed.

• The Spirit is only mentioned once, and that is to say that they loved in the Spirit; that was the kind of love they had at Colosse. It was not a preferential love – not of special friendships, but love like God's love. Love in the Spirit is general – you love all the saints.

M.P.M. The word 'together' would come in there.

Rem. It is the privilege of all to contribute to the honey supply.

J.T. It is; every saint should have something. The Lord went after two on the way to Emmaus. I understand Emmaus means what is insignificant.

• The Lord, in going out after them and bringing them back, shows that He is concerned about the most insignificant believer. He appeared to these two; then they contributed. The most insignificant, as we speak, is intended to contribute.

M.P.M. It would be difficult to get a better illustration of the thought of mutuality than what is seen in a hive of bees. They are all working together for the commonwealth.

Ques. Is there anything in the thought that it was a swarm – not a hive? They had swarmed.

J.T. That word 'swarm' has been used a good deal lately. Where meetings are too large it is a wise thing to swarm, so that you may all yield something for the Lord.

E.B.McC. You were saying that bees have instinct.

J.T. I think they represent the intelligent instincts of life. We are brought into correspondence with Him in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

• In Colossians 1 all the fulness dwelt in Him personally; but in the second chapter it dwells in Him bodily, so as to be within our reach, and we are "filled full" in Him.

• That I take to be objective truth; that is, we are circumcised in his circumcision,
  • "in the putting off of the body of the flesh" Colossians 2: 11

• – the power of it; then we are baptised and risen with Him:
  • "buried with him in baptism" Colossians 2: 12;

• buried and risen with Him through the faith of the working of God, who raised Him from among the dead. So that positionally we are set up in relation to Christ as risen, as He was during the forty days.

• Then we are quickened – quickened together with Him. By the Spirit we are made to actually live with Christ, and this is the ground of the Christian circle. We are brought into correspondence with Christ, and made to live with Him in our affections.

J.C.S. That is the answer to Christ presented living – I mean the answer to it in the saints.

J.T. Exactly. We are living now – we are living with Him.

R.J.W. It says in the Acts, "he presented himself living after he had suffered" Acts 1: 3; He assembled with them.

J.T. That is very good. The living One – He assembled with them.

• In Colossians 2 He has blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that stood against us; He has taken them out of the way; and then He spoils principalities and powers, making a show of them openly.

• Everything is removed, so that we need not be hindered by legal requirements – things belonging to a past dispensation but which have been set aside in His cross.

J.C.S. None of these things have any place in that sphere where there is life out of death.

J.T. He has taken the handwriting out of the way. Now there is room for the development of life; so the next thing is, we are to hold the Head. The whole body, as it says, is nourished from Him:

• "From whom all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God". Colossians 2: 19.

• There is development of life from Christ.

H.L.D. Do you think the saints touch life in part here and there, but do not continue in it? The great objective seems to be life.

J.T. I think we are very spasmodic. We touch it occasionally, but it is the continuance of the thing we should be concerned about. The object of the chapter is to develop life.

J.C.S. The continuance of it depends on how near we keep to the death of Christ.

Ques. What is the increase of God?

J.T. It is increase according to Him. If you look at the creation you see what wonderful bounty God has – how rich the supply is. No matter what part of the creation you look at, there is abundance.

• Take the heavens, see the immensity of things; or on the earth the same thing appears – the abundance of everything as God gives it.

• So, if you look at the Christian company, the increase is of that kind – it is great; it is according to God.

Rem. If you take the figure of the bees in the activity of life you get increase.

J.T. The thing is to increase in love according to the pattern of Christ – the increase of God.

J.C.S. How do we hold the Head?

J.T. In our minds and affections. You apprehend Christ as He is. In Colossians He is Head personally; in Romans morally.

• In Romans He comes into my soul on moral grounds, because He is my Saviour; He has done everything for me, and eclipses all else. He supersedes everybody on moral lines.

• But in Colossians He is Head on personal lines, being what He is, He is the beginning of the creation of God. He is the Head of the body, the assembly. He must have pre-eminence in all things, because of what He is personally.

• Then in the epistle to the Ephesians He is made Head. God has made Him Head of the body now. We have to apprehend Him in these three lights in order to rightly hold the Head.

R.J.W. In Romans there is the power to solve all questions of good and evil, and in Ephesians He is able to bring to pass all the purposes of God.

J.T. In Colossians you hold Him as He is presented there; then nourishment comes in from Him, and God gives the increase. There is the working of the joints and bands, and God gives the increase.

W.J.P. Would holding the Head safeguard us from turning to any other source?

J.T. I often picture Mary Magdalene in John 20. Suppose you went to her with the latest book on philosophy and said, 'Mary, here is something that will help you'. What would she think? The Lord was there, and He was everything to her. She needed nothing outside of Him. She would say, 'I don't need it'.

• That is the point in Colossians; you do not need anything outside of Christ.

L.D.B. There is a book that sometimes troubles us a little – the hymn book.

Ques. Do you think we arrive at the thought of His Headship in Colossians as we apprehend Him as the Son of His love?

J.T. That is it. We are translated by the Father out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So He should be before us.

W.J.P. You would encourage us to bring both Bible and hymn book?

J.T. Certainly. "The word of God and freely addressing him" is the principle of Christianity.

M.P.M. What you say brings in necessary adjustment for many of us.

E.B.McC. You were speaking elsewhere of the highest note. How would that come in with a word from the Lord on Lord's day morning?

J.T. It is like the angel going up in the flame in Judges; but that would not hinder Him speaking.

J.C.S. It is the climax on the upward line, the other is the downward line.

J.T. Exactly.

S.F. That is, our time expires, and it is necessary for us to go home, but as to the meeting, I like the idea that, it is left open.

J.T. It is.

R.J.W. That is, there were twelve men there, and the prayer is all in the plural.

J.T. That is what was needed. Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Spirit. That was the foundation of the Ephesian assembly, wherein there were conditions that would agree with heaven.

A.R.G. Is the thought making room for Him amongst us?

J.T. That is the idea.

H.L.D. Would this refer to Pentecost? There they were praying.

J.T. No doubt. This was written long after Pentecost, and it is to encourage us to pray; because if you see brethren biting and devouring one another, how can you tell whether they have the Spirit or not? The question is whether they have.

J.C.S. The idea is that the furnishings would all be orderly, beautiful; all animated with divine love flowing from the Spirit. It is a place where the Lord can come and feel at home, and the Spirit can rest without being disturbed, and the brethren can rest.

J.T. You see it in Ephesus. Paul represented the Lord in visiting Ephesus after the assembly had been set up.

• He embraces them as he leaves them, and then, as he returns and calls for the elders, they embrace him. There is the evidence of spiritual affections. If the Lord Himself had come He would have been received just as Paul, because Paul was His representative.

• As he went to Tyre, as recorded in the next chapter, Acts 21, the brethren, their wives and children came out to the seashore, and all kneeled down together and prayed. There you see heavenly conditions. What a spectacle for heaven as they were all there with the apostle!

• Then in Ptolemais he went up and saluted the brethren, and spent a day with them.

G.R.G. "He … went on eating". Does that indicate that the supply of honey was continuously available?

J.T. Just so.

Ques. Would you say our meeting this afternoon is an outcome of this morning's meeting?

J.T. Yes, certainly.

Ques. Should we always be moving on that line, in connection with what you were saying about the meeting being left open?

J.T. Yes. It is available for the Lord when we come together; there is something for Him. Numbers 28 prescribes the number and order of Jehovah's offerings, and we are to be there to offer them.

G.H.C. I think the end of Luke confirms what you have been saying. After the Lord partook of the fish and honeycomb He spoke to them and opened their understanding, so that they might understand the Scriptures, and then He led them out to Bethany.

Unless a thing pleases God it is of no moral value, and I have chosen this passage from Genesis 40 believing that it foreshadowed the expression of life in a flesh-and-blood condition, which pleased God – a life that was for God.

• The chief baker, of whom I did not read, presents what was not for God. It was primarily intended for God. The white bread in the baskets and the baked meats or victuals were for Pharaoh – for God typically, but the birds of the air got them.

Now, that may seem a peculiar reference, but one is reminded of young persons starting out in life, as we speak, and the inquiry that comes into one's mind with regard to them is whether their lives are to be for God or for men; whether those sweetmeats on the top – for the best is on the top – are for God, or whether the birds of the air are going to have them.

• They are about in great numbers – vultures, ready to snap up everything that might be for God.

• The Lord met a young man, as you will remember, and in His conversation with him He looked on him and He loved him. I suppose that the young man, in the energy and freshness of life, reminded the Lord of the divine thought.

• He would have had that young man; He desired to have him for God, but He did not have him. What was lovable in that young man went to the birds, from what Scripture tells us, for he went away from Jesus. Satan got that young man, obviously; he went away from Jesus.

So, as I said, the birds got the fine food the baker had on his head in the three baskets. I have no doubt he illustrates man as set up here, furnished with much intended to be for God, but Satan got him, and so he was hanged upon a tree;

• whereas the butler is, I believe, set forth to represent the Lord Jesus – the life that expressed itself in Him as a Man in this world.

The vine is there, and the bud, the blossom, the cluster, and the grapes, and then the pressing – all for God.

It was a 'life divine below' – Hymn 6 – but not exactly a miraculous life, although of course we know His conception was miraculous, but that is not for the public.

• He was born as a babe, everything in the life of Jesus was normal, but of course of its own kind. There was the vine, there was the bud, the blossom, and there were the grapes; and then, beloved – and let this sink into our hearts – there was the pressing of the grapes.

Such was the life that came under God's eye in the precious life of Jesus.

• There was nothing to call attention to in a public way any more than a vine in a vineyard. It was normal, perfectly normal, divinely normal; but Jesus was cast upon God, as we are told, from the very outset of His being as incarnate.

• This could not have been said about any other babe, although marvellous things are said about babes in the Old Testament, and I have no doubt these marvellous things all had reference in type to Jesus. Jacob took hold of his brother's heel as a babe – a remarkable thing; he would supplant Esau.

• In Jesus we have, from the very outset, the expression of dependence; that was never said of a babe. It was for God, who alone understood it. The outward effects must have been there; Scripture is silent as to that. But God knew the movement of the heart of that babe, and it was delightful to Him.

Then, as we are told, He grew in wisdom and stature. Think of that being said of Jesus, the Son of God! He grew in these things – in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

• What should mark every child born into this world, but was never found before, was there. As He is in the temple with the doctors, you see the perfection of maturity; He was both hearing, you will notice, and asking questions.
  • In the prophets He says, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned". Isaiah 50: 4.

• Marvellous words from Him! They are there to bring before us the perfection of His humanity
  • "He learned obedience", Hebrews 5: 8

• we are told. Let us understand it. He is a real Man, and yet
  • "God over all, blessed for ever".

  • As John says. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". John 1: 1.

• Being that, it was His to command, never to obey; but now His condition is changed, and He learns, for He says,
  • "Mine ears hast thou digged". Psalm 40: 6.

Such was the perfection, the reality of the humanity of Christ. At the age of twelve He is in the midst of the doctors. He is not criticising; He is not asserting that He is God; He is not working miracles; He is simply

• "hearing them and asking them questions". Luke 2: 46.

• An excellent model for us – for young people particularly – hearing and asking questions. The doctors
  • "were astonished at his understanding and answers".

• Doubtless they were proud of their learning. Had they learned "morning by morning" to hear from God? Were they wont
  • "to speak a word in season to him that is weary"? Isaiah 50: 4

• Here was One who was learning; He was hearing and asking questions, and His understanding and answers astonished those learned doctors. Think of what that must have been to God, as He looked down on these doctors, with this holy Boy of twelve in their midst! It was all humanly and yet divinely perfect.

• His parents thought He was in the company, but He was not; and they return to Jerusalem and find Him. There was a great difference between the mind of heaven and the mind of her who loved Him most on earth.
  • "Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing",

• Mary said, reproachfully. It was well they sorrowed, but He says,
  • "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

• The light is beginning to shine. "Thy father", says Mary, "and I". He says, "my Father's business". Luke 2: 48-49. What a word for Joseph! Was He about Joseph's business?

• He was indeed about to take up the tools, the plane and the saw, for He was to be a carpenter. He was about to serve His reputed father in the workshop. Wonderful fact for us!

• But did He refer to Joseph's business in the temple? No, beloved, it was His Father's business, God's business. It was something for Joseph to think over; it was an opportunity for him to learn; doubtless he did; doubtless Mary did.

• But then He went down and was subject after that. The light had shone in that word for Mary and Joseph, and now He goes down and is subject to them. I can understand Him saying to Joseph, 'I am going to do business for you', for Joseph was His reputed father, and He did.
  • "Is not this the carpenter?" Mark 6: 3 it says.

• One is moved as one thinks of the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, the Creator and Upholder of everything in the universe, taking a plane, or a saw, or a chisel, and working.

• These are facts of Scripture, and they are to be taken into our hearts, that He was a real Man; and whilst here about His Father's business, yet He worked with His reputed father, Joseph, as a carpenter.

• Then the veil drops in His wonderful history for eighteen years. What happened in those eighteen years we might well think over. I mean we might read, as we are entitled to by the Spirit, between the lines.

• What a life it must have been as He toiled as a carpenter! He had grown up before God
  • "as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground", Isaiah 53: 2

• full of sap, more than in all the cedars. The cedars of Lebanon are full of sap. "In him was life"; life was there. In that outward lowliness and obscurity, life was there.

• And now as they were all baptised He was baptised, the last, and the heavens proclaimed Him. The heavens proclaimed their estimate of all that He is. He was the "Vine". There were the buds, the blossom, and the cluster, as I said, and the grapes; everything was normal; they were all there in the life of Jesus. Let us understand it.

• The butler pressed the grapes into "Pharaoh's cup". The Lord Jesus, in all this, thought of God, the cup was Pharaoh's cup. As I may say, He held the cup in His hand, and all His precious life was, as it were, poured into it for God. It was for God, and in His death it was pressed – that precious life was pressed out of Him, so to speak.

Those drops of sweat as of blood that flowed from Him in Gethsemane were precious to God.

• They were the expression of a Man's exercise as under the pressure of Satan – Satan bringing death to bear upon Him. Satan had come back with all his power, and would have pressed upon Him the weight of death, which was in the cup the Father was giving to Him.

• He was going to drink that; but, as I might say, He had the cup in His hand, and that holy precious life of His was to be poured out into it; it was for God.

• I suppose Jesus was never more precious, if one may use comparisons; He was never more precious than when He said,
  • "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

• It was infinite perfection in Man, and Man bearing the full weight of divine wrath. It was pressed out there for God. Who can speak adequately of it? But it is for us to feed upon.

Well now, I wanted to go on to the passage in Numbers, because it gives us another view of life. This time it is a question of combating man's will; that is not what the vine refers to.

• It is now a question of combating the will of man as risen up in opposition to God in the band of Korah. We are beset, dear brethren, all round with this will of man; men by training and education asserting a right to priesthood because they are Levites.

• >There are thousands and thousands of men in the 'cloth' in Christendom who claim to be Levites, and claim priesthood because they are Levites, and they have to be tested; they have to be met.

• It is not so much what the life is for God, but what it is in testimony against evil. Hence there are twelve rods, representing all, we might say; and they are laid up before the Lord. It says,
  • "Aaron's rod was among them".

• It is a challenge, you see, that Aaron's rod has no advantage.

Now we have not what is normal, as I have been dwelling on, but what is, I might say, miraculous; a bare rod or staff bears fruit overnight. The wonderful fact is that the Son of God has lain in death, as it says,

• "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth", Matthew 12: 40.

• Aaron's rod was among them – among the others; the Son of God was among the dead. He actually died, and was buried.

• What a time of exercise Moses and Aaron must have had during the night! In the morning Aaron's rod had budded, bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds. God had dealt effectively with the spirit of rebellion in the swallowing up of these wicked men who had rebelled against their leaders.

• Yet the flesh was there, and they would be concerned as awaiting the result of the test. The disciples of Jesus also had deep exercise as He lay in death. But the answer was to come, and the answer was in the Son of God declaring Himself.
  • He is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection", Romans 1: 4.

• He is known thus to faith.

I want you to particularly follow what I am saying in this, because it is the secret of withstanding the will of man in religious things.

• John's gospel comes in to establish our souls in the faith of the Son of God. It is a question of life, but it is life on the principle of faith. So John's gospel is that His disciples might believe on Him.

• They were disciples before, but they needed to be established in the light of the Son of God. Hence John says,
  • "This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed on him".

• Then at the end, after all the signs but one are recorded, he says,
  • "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book", John 20: 30.

• There was abundance more of evidence if necessary, but there was nothing more needed for faith. All you want is a witness, and John's signs afforded adequate witness of the resurrection. So he says,
  • "These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name", John 20: 31.

What I am speaking about is the secret of contending with the will of the flesh in religious things. How can we withstand it? Only by the faith of the Son of God.

• "Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God". 1 John 5: 5.

• God would have that light in our souls. We hold life now in His name, but then we get the evidence of it while here.

• It was a dry stick laid among the others. It had "budded". I was speaking of this as miraculous – it is miraculous. I suppose the Lord's resurrection and appearance to His disciples was the greatest sign.

• Peter, John and Mary had gone to the sepulchre and found it empty – Peter went into the sepulchre, and he saw the linen clothes,
  • "and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself". John 20: 7.

• There was unquestionable evidence that the Son of God had risen. Everything was in order, there was not a struggle, for as the Son of God enters into the conflict with death there can be only one result.
  • "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?" Psalm 114: 5.

• Death was to be out of sight as the feet of the priests touched the waters, although Jordan overflowed its banks. So John says,
  • "This is the disciple which testifieth of these things; … and we know that his testimony is true". John 21: 24.

• We know his testimony is true. It was a miracle, it was the Son of God asserting His power. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by resurrection from among the dead.

• So that now we have life in another form: it is not now a vine, it is now an almond. We know from the book of Jeremiah what the almond signifies. God says,
  • "I am watchful over my word to perform it". Jeremiah 1: 12.

• It we want things finally effected it must be on this line, not on the life of Jesus on earth. It is the life of the Son of God now as He is risen from among the dead. So it says in verse 8,
  • "It came to pass that on the morrow … behold the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded".

• Now it is a life established by a miracle, but it is a life perfect in its own order.

• Well, I dwell on this in both cases. In regard to the vine, we have the bud, we have the blossom, and the cluster, and the bunch of grapes. I mention in connection with this, with the start of budding,
  • that young brethren and sisters must be on their guard against taking short cuts in the things of God.

• We must all be on our guard against it, things must be on the principle of the bud, the blossom and the fruit. They must be in that order. The idea of being ripe is a great thing for God.

But I want now, in closing, to dwell on the almond, because it is in the life of Christ as He is now that you get finality.

• According to Jeremiah, the almond signifies that God is watchful over His word to perform it, and I give you the Scripture which I think confirms this in a remarkable way. It is where Paul says he was
  • "an apostle according to the promise of life". 2 Timothy 1: 1.

• This appears in 2 Timothy, which epistle contemplates the breakdown of the church. God had promised life, and had brought it into effect. Paul was apostle in this connection.

• So the almond is brought out; it budded, it blossomed, and the ripened almonds were there, for the rebels. You cannot answer these rebels with mere human ability or learning; you can only answer them effectively by life, the life that is in Christ. It is a life that is outside the range of man. Jannes and Jambres in Egypt of old said,
  • "This is the finger of God". Exodus 8: 19.

• Here is something they cannot touch, they cannot imitate it, it is beyond them; hence it is victory. So that God proceeds effectively to perform His word; He says, I am watchful over it to perform it. He has now, in a Man in resurrection, the life He has promised, and that Man has gone up into heaven, and given us the Spirit that we might "know".

John writes, "That ye may know that ye have eternal life". 1 John 5: 13.

• The gospel of John is
  • "That ye might believe", John 20: 31 and as believing have it.

  • But the epistle is, "that ye may know that ye have" it, 1 John 5: 13;

• and knowing that we have it makes us victorious. No one can overcome us. The most learned, the most able, after the flesh, cannot stand before a man who knows that he has everlasting life
  • John says, "The Son of God has come", 1 John 5: 20;

• we know He has come, and it is
  • "by water and blood". 1 John 5: 6.

• It is not the incarnation in the epistle of John. When he says He has come, it is by death, the means of cleansing, so that we should have eternal life. He is now risen, and has given us an understanding.

God would have us here on the line of the almond. Whether it be what He will do for my own soul, or whether it be what He will do through me,

• I can rely on the faithfulness of God.

• He has the life now that is irresistible – it is supreme. It is established in resurrection, it is life in the Son of God.

I read in the epistle to the Corinthians to see how God is now working out His purpose on this line.

• They insinuated that the great apostle was using lightness – prevaricating. No, he says,
  • "the Son of God, … who was preached among you by us … was not yea and nay".

• The Son of God is not yea and nay,
  • "but yea is", he says, "in him".

• He is risen from the dead; it is the Son of God.
  • Paul says, "we preached him", and it is "yea" that is "in him", "and Amen".

• The "yea" is the assertion of the will of God, and the "Amen" is the complete answer to it subjectively, as I apprehend. So that He has watched over His word to perform it. The apostle says,
  • "He that establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God".

    God is doing that.

  • "Who also hath sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts".

I only refer to that so that we might see in this life the almond, for the purpose of God is yea and amen in Christ.

• He is working it out in detail, and I want everyone, myself included, to lay hold of the thought of the almond. It is a life established on miracle, and it is supreme over every other power.

• God is watching over every one of us to perform His word in regard to us, and then to use us. There is not one of us that God would not use on the principle of this life, but not on any other. It is on the principle of the almond that God is working out His purpose in us and through us; so that,
  • "All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us".

One feature in Colossians is adjustment; that is, everything is to be according to Christ.

• "As therefore ye have received the Christ", it says, "walk in him"; Colossians 2: 6

• and whatever is not in accord with Christ is to be rejected. That is the principle in Colossians, and we are told in that epistle that
  • the Father "has delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love", Colossians 1: 13.

• The book of Proverbs is the book of the Son of the Father's love. It is the book of Solomon's proverbs, and he is the son of David, we are told.

You see, therefore, beloved brethren, that the adjustment is in the hands of One who will deal gently with us – who will deal in affection with us, and yet with the utmost firmness and precision.

• For Solomon, who built the house, being imbued with the most extraordinary wisdom known up to that time, would of necessity act according to that wisdom in all his dealings, and so
  • "the Father … has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love", Colossians 1: 13.

• Notice, it is not into the 'house' of the Son of His love, for we cannot be in the house save as we pass through the kingdom. It says,
  • "who has delivered us from the authority of darkness", Colossians 1: 13.

• We need to come under another authority.

What exists abroad in what is called Christendom is the authority of darkness.

• That is to say, certain doctrines and systems have authority over men's minds and consciences by reason, in some instances, of their antiquity, and in others by reason of human greatness and learning. In every instance it is the authority of darkness.

• Men are held in it with a good conscience, for the reason that their consciences are darkened, and darkness has authority over them.

• Many of the Lord's dear people are held in that darkness, and what God is doing at the present time is delivering souls from the authority of darkness.

Mark that word 'authority', as it should be rendered.

• From whatever cause – what power such a doctrine or system has over my conscience, and the more restful I am in it, the worse it is.

• Hence God moves – the Father moves – to deliver souls from the authority of darkness, and to translate us
  • "into the kingdom of the Son of his love". Colossians 1: 13.

• Think of the difference, beloved, between the authority of darkness and the authority of the Son of the Father's love.

• Those of us who have come under the latter know the blessedness of it, that while the Lord is firm in His dealings with us, they are all the dealings of love – they are the dealings of love combined with infinite wisdom.

• So that it is an immense thing for everyone, especially the young ones, to know that they are placed by the Father under the authority of the Son, for it is His kingdom.

Well now, as I said, Solomon is a type of Christ as the Son of the Father's love. He is the most interesting babe in the Old Testament. His history is given to us from the very outset, so that we might have a full view of Christ, in type, as the Son of the Father's love.

• I do not know an expression that is, in a way, more interesting than that
  • – "the Son of the Father's love".

  • John says, "We have contemplated his glory".

  • "The Word", he says, "became flesh and dwelt among us". John 1: 14.

• One thinks with pleasure of the Lord, "The Word" as become flesh, moving about among men here upon earth. It is not that He visited among us, but He dwelt among us. He came within the range of men in that way – into their houses, mingled in their families, dwelt as a neighbour, so that He might become known to men. Hence John says,
  • "We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father", John 1: 14.

• It is not the Father there. It is an only one with a father; a figure that is intelligible to everyone on the earth, as one may say, for who is it who has not some idea of an only one with his father?

John contemplated the Lord Jesus as dwelling amongst men as an only one with a father.

• Who can undertake to define the details on which that statement was based? But He was known to the apostles, beloved, in that way. He was known as an only one with a father.

• So in chapter 1 of Hebrews, where the glory of Christ is unfolded before us so that He might become the supreme object of our hearts, we are told that God said,
  • "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son", Hebrews 1: 5.

• This is a quotation, as I understand, from 2 Samuel 7: 14, enforced as it is in Psalm 89, showing that Solomon is to be taken as a type of the Lord Jesus as the Son of the Father's love. Throughout the book of Proverbs we have the rule of the Son of the Father's love.

As I said, Solomon is the most interesting babe in the Old Testament.

• I do not wish to eclipse others, such as Isaac, but what you find is that when Solomon was born he received a name prophetically from Jehovah. He had the names of Solomon and Jedidiah at the same time.

• God Himself loved him, and he is nurtured in the light of what he was to Jehovah both by David and Bathsheba his mother. He was his father's son; as he says,
  • "I was a son unto my father" Proverbs 4: 3

• – that is a word for young believers. It is not simply that he was David's son, but he was a son unto him, which is a different idea. In contra-distinction to Absalom and others he grew up in his father's affections and his mother's affections. As he says,
  • "Tender and an only one in the sight of my mother". Proverbs 4: 3.

• So he is nurtured in tenderest affections in his father's house, and is qualified to address himself to all those that are transferred from the authority of darkness into the kingdom. Hence this book of the Proverbs.

Now, having said all this to make the situation clear, I want to come to my subject, and that is – adjustment.

• I use this word because it is a very forceful one – an expressive one – as applicable to every believer.

• I suppose there is not a believer in the whole world who does not even now need adjustment, and we need it in order that we should be on the one hand ornamental, and on the other useful.

• The word comes to us thus severally as to how much we ornament the house of God, and how far we are useful in it. For the idea of a vessel, as we get it here, is that it is to be useful, and we all know how vessels may be ornamental at the same time as being useful, and that is the divine intent.

The idea is that there should be a vessel for the refiner, and one covets the thought of it.

• The word is applied peculiarly to Paul. I think he stands out, after Christ, as the ideal of heaven as a vessel. The Lord said of him,
  • "He is an elect vessel unto me". Acts 9: 15.

• What an immense thing that was! And then He appointed him as a minister and a witness. I want you to note for a moment, beloved, the great thought the Lord had in that vessel.

• He appointed him a minister; that is, an official servant; not a slave, but one set up in dignity in service. And then He said further, "and a witness"; the two things go together.

• The idea of a witness is martyrdom, but service is carried out in authority. He is a vessel to be employed as a servant and a witness.

So that I take it the apostle Paul is our model after Christ. He was called from heaven; the light shone round about him from heaven; he received his commission from heaven; and he said,

• "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision". Acts 26: 19.

• He is here now in entire subjection to Christ, and in entire availability to Christ. He is for use – he is
  • "sanctified, and meet for the Master's use", 2 Timothy 2: 21.

• Think, dear brethren, of what the Lord had in that vessel. One never tires of referring to Paul as a model in that way.

Well now, this chapter, as you will observe, was transcribed by the men of Hezekiah. It begins the third division of the book of Proverbs, and incidentally calls attention to the great gain of research – of diligence.

• These Proverbs had continued to exist in Israel for many years, and apparently no one obtained any good from them until the days of Hezekiah. I mention that because of the great importance of research – of inquiry. The Lord says,
  • "Search the Scriptures". John 5: 39.

• We cannot do without that. Every line of Scripture was inspired of God, and is profitable – every Scripture; so that we cannot do without the Scriptures. It is not enough to know the Bible in all the versions; we have to "search the Scriptures". John 5: 39.

It says, "the men of Hezekiah". That idea, I take it, corresponds with Solomon's times.

• "Happy are thy men", 1 Kings 10: 8, 2 Chronicles 9: 7

• the queen of Sheba said; and Hezekiah has men. It is a great thing to get hold of the idea of men. The epistle to the Corinthians is mainly to bring that about in the Corinthians.

• They were babes. He said he could not write unto them as unto perfect. He could speak among the perfect the hidden wisdom that God had before the world prepared for those that love Him. Babes, on account of their state, shut themselves off from the precious hidden wisdom of God.

• But Hezekiah has his men, and they transcribed the Proverbs that are recorded in this chapter. What a find it was in those days! for Hezekiah's days, as our own, were days in which adjustment was needed.

This chapter opens up with the idea that God hides.

• "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing"

• – a very remarkable fact to stand out. If it is the glory of God to hide a thing, then we may be sure there are things hidden which have to be sought out.

• For God, in the exigencies of His nature, values the things that He has; and He conceals them in order to disclose them to those who love Him.
  • "God has revealed them unto us".

  • "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him", 1 Corinthians 2: 9.

• Hence He conceals things. I mention this because it stands out in the forefront of this great principle of adjustment that there are things that God hides.

Then it says, "The honour of kings is to search out a matter".

• That is, what God, in the exigencies of His nature, may hide, Christ searches out officially. We have to take in the idea of His mediatorship, and one feature is that He searches out things for us.

• Solomon himself represents the principle of a king searching out; he had right-of-way everywhere. If Solomon needed to investigate anything in Beersheba he could do so; he was king. If he needed to investigate in Dan he could do so. The king has right-of-way.

• Thus the Lord Jesus, having gone on high, is in a position to search out everything officially, and He does so in the gift of the Spirit. We have here the power of search:
  • "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God", 1 Corinthians 2: 10.

• Think of what is within our range, dear brethren, on the principle of inquiry! As the men of Hezekiah transcribed these neglected Proverbs, so the inquiring believer, as having the Spirit, may reach the depths of God.

Then the next great principle that confronts us here is that of height.

It says, "The heavens for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable".

• You see, adjustment is not local merely; if I am to be adjusted I am standing in relation to the highest heights and the deepest depths. Think of the vastness of the divine thought, beloved! We are told that
  • "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens", Ephesians 4: 10.

• How far who can tell? But I am to be adjusted in relation to Christ in that position.

Then it says, "The earth for depth". You might inquire, 'Is that the crust of the earth?' as geologists say. Which of the strata does that refer to? It refers to them all, and more.

• We are told that the Lord Jesus was three days and three nights – not in the crust of the earth – but in the heart of the earth. He could not go lower than that.

• "The earth for depth;" you say, 'Are you speaking geologically?' No, I am speaking spiritually.

• The Lord Jesus Christ went down – He went down in love. As the thought of His descent enters into my soul it prepares me for the wonderful adjustment which God proposes. He lay three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He went to the very lowest possible point in His love.

• Ephesians contemplates that, through ministry, we are to be brought
  • "to know the breadth and length and depth and height". Ephesians 3: 18.

• Think of the depth!

I would urge everyone here to look at this – that your precious Saviour lay three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Would you not like to see where He lay? The angel said,

• "Come, see the place where the Lord lay", Matthew 28: 6.

• We have to take account of it spiritually. He went down to the lowest possible depth, and we are to know it. So we have
  • "the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable";

  • as one may say, "The love of Christ which passeth knowledge". Ephesians 3: 19.

The next thing, dear brethren, is, "Take away the dross from the silver".

• That is a process that we have to submit to. Young people especially are very slow to admit the presence of the dross, but it is there, and in a large measure.

• The silver is there, too, thank God. It is there in everyone that is "born again"; but the dross has to go. It may be an irksome experience, but the Lord loves us too well to allow that to stay.

• As you see it go, you see the wisdom of His love. He seeks to have a vessel, and so the dross has to be removed.

Then it says, "Take away the wicked". There are those who allow the wicked in their communion.

• You cannot have anything suitable unless there is the principle of taking away the wicked. The fellowship of God's people repels the wicked.
  • "Remove the wicked person from amongst yourselves", 1 Corinthians 5: 13.

• It is obligatory on every company of Christians in the world to remove wickedness. It has to be dealt with authoritatively. It is a question of the king's authority, otherwise there is not establishment.

• Things were tottering at Corinth because the wicked was allowed. He had to be removed, and he was removed, thank God.

• Then the door was open for God to come in and open up His heart to them, as we see in the second letter to the saints there.

• It was only a little while ago that, on the ship on which I was sailing, there was celebrated what is known as Holy Communion at seven o'clock in the morning, and it was open to all. Think of that! Think of throwing open to all the precious symbols of the body of Christ and the blood of Christ!

• How can His throne be established when wicked persons are allowed to sit down and partake of the emblems?

Then it goes on to speak of our relations one with another. It says in verse 6,

• "Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men".

• That is the next thing. This is a word to young men who would serve the Lord. May He add to their number! As Moses said,
  • "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets", Numbers 11:  29.

• The need is great, but before we can serve we have to learn to take the low place.
  • "Put not thyself forth in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men".

• That is a principle of adjustment that every young man aspiring to service should take special notice of, because the Lord is over the house, and your place in it must be determined by Him.

• True enough that your gift merits room for you; it does, but nevertheless your gift does not determine your place in the house; the Lord determines your place there. The Son is over the house, and He gives you your place.

• No right-minded person would wish it otherwise; you want everything regulated by the Lord. Hence it goes on to say,
  • "for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up higher, than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes see".

• There is a word; wait for that word from the Prince, "Come up higher".

Then, as I said, it goes on to speak of our relations one with another. I must hasten through the following verse,

"Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame".

• Here we have a word for everyone of us, for the tendency with us is to strive – to contend for our points and our cause; and this verse enjoins us to avoid that. You may be put to shame; it may mean your ruin, for your pride may get the better of you and
  • "a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city", Proverbs 18: 19.

• So that one has to be on his guard amongst his brethren about contending – about entering into strife. The principle of the house is that it is composed of sons of peace. "Solomon" means 'peace', and so the house is to be marked by that – by peace.

Then follows, "Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself, and discover not a secret to another".

• If there is a cause between us, let us debate it in secret. "Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself". What a simple and yet practical and effective principle this is! We have elsewhere,
  • "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother". Matthew 18: 15.

• You see how practical all this is, that the saints should be adjusted in relation to the height and the depth, and then in relation to one another. So that you are to debate thy cause with thy neighbour by himself, and as it says,
  • "Discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away".

Now, dear brethren, I have come to the end of what I call adjustment. We are set in relation with one another in the light and in the presence of supreme height and depth – the love of Christ in the depth to which He went, and the height to which He has gone.

• We are in the presence of that wonderful love. We are adjusted in relation to all that; we regard each other in that light, and now we look for ornamentation. It says, "A word fitly spoken".

• How delightful to heaven it is that a company of God's people should be set down thus adjusted!
  • Then, "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver".

• How delightful to listen to a word like that! The house of God is ornamented by such words. Scripture abounds with them from the lips of Christ and from the lips of others.

Then the next thing is, "as an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear".

• Under these conditions, dear brethren, we are allowed to listen to reproof.
  • "Faithful are the wounds of a friend";

• and heaven looks down as a brother seeks to gain his brother by reproof; and as that brother attends in subjection, it is like "an earring of gold". As one bends over humbly and in subjection to hear a wise reproof, it is "an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold".

• A wise man using his lips to convey a wise reproof, and an attentive ear receiving it, is likened to an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold in that way.

Thus in these simple practical ways, dear brethren, the house of God is ornamented. Then in the next verse, which is the last one I intend to speak on, we have what accrues to God under these circumstances. It says,

• "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him; for he refresheth the soul of his masters".

• In these simple ways we have the ornamentation of the house in vessels fitted for it, and then we have refreshment for the blessed God Himself in a messenger.

• The idea of a divine messenger is of immense importance, for it involves a question of trustworthiness. Is there one that God can entrust a message to?

• So a faithful messenger is like the cold of snow in harvest; he refreshes the soul of his masters. Notice the "masters". Philip had two. You will remember the angel sent him, and then the Spirit of God sends him.

• So that the position of a servant is that he has masters, and in faithfulness he is like snow in harvest time; he is refreshing.
  • "He refresheth the soul of his masters".

I suppose the greatest accruement from the gospel address is what goes to God.

• I don't know how many preachings – gospel meetings – Noah held, or whether he held them at all. I do know he was a preacher, such a preacher that the Spirit of Christ is said to have preached in him.

• I don't know how many heard him, but I do know that he refreshed God. He had no converts as far as we know. The results of his service were outwardly small, but we may be sure of this, that during the 120 years of his service he refreshed the soul of his Master in his faithfulness.

I say that so that we might not be discouraged in our preachings. The first great principle in a messenger is to be faithful. As Paul says,

• "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision". Acts 26: 19.

• He went from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum. He says, "I have fully preached" – marvellous statement of faithfulness –
  • "I have fully preached the gospel of Christ". Romans 15: 19.

• How much refreshment there was for God in it! He was a sweet odour of Christ unto God in those who were saved and in those that perished; even in those that perished, for he says,
  • "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish", 2 Corinthians 2: 15.

• So that we have every encouragement to go in for adjustment, so as to be vessels for ornament and for use in the house of God.