Now no one can suffer for the truth or be marked by patience in relation to its moral issues, unless they have a right objective. Each of the prophets had a distinctive viewpoint of divine things as well as of divine Persons.

• Isaiah treats of the King; a theme which ought to move every heart that loves Jesus.

• Jeremiah treats of the interrupted relationships between Jehovah and Israel; speaking with feelings of great sorrow, and using that divinely given outlet for sorrow – his tears. He feels with God about the sorrows concerning Israel as only a man of God can feel, and as only a son formed in love can feel.

• Ezekiel is a son of light, and he reminds us at the very beginning of his prophecy that he saw visions of God. He is a first-hand witness of certain positive things which he has seen. Woe to the professed leaders of Israel, and to the elders, who, going on with a merely heartless profession of believing in Jehovah, failed to hear the words of Ezekiel, for the man enhanced what he said by the spirit in which he said it. He was a son of light.

Isaiah, I suggest, was a son of the kingdom, and what marks a son of the kingdom is that he has seen the King. No one can be rightly described as a son of the kingdom if he has not seen the King:

• "mine eyes have seen the King".

• You may, like Isaiah, be able to give a correct outline of what is under the eye of God. For his prophecy opens with a stern denunciation of Israel, a sinful nation, laden with iniquity, full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, "from the sole of the foot even unto the head", Isaiah 1: 6.

• He indicted them in the strongest possible manner, but he was speaking generally. In Isaiah 6 the prophet speaks specifically, not primarily of the nation, but of himself; and each one who comes to a right judgment of himself will acquire light as to the Person of Christ.

• Isaiah had had much to say about the nation, he had indicted them and proved their guilt; but there was something that he himself had yet to learn, and he learnt it in the year that king Uzziah died.

Most of us are aware of the history of king Uzziah, one of the most energetic and attractive of all the kings that reigned over Judah or Israel.

• He began to reign at the age of sixteen years, and he reigned fifty-two years, and the scripture says he was marvellously helped whilst he pursued a certain course; a course which related to the days of Zechariah the prophet, who had visions of God. As long as Uzziah came under the prophetic influence he was safe.
  • "He was marvellously helped, till he became strong. But when he became strong his heart was lifted up to his downfall", 2 Chronicles 26: 15-16.

• There is nothing so serious as for a believer to move out of his divinely appointed orbit. Uzziah was helped marvellously till he was strong. As long as he remained in his divinely appointed orbit, he was helped, but the moment he coveted the gift of another and would usurp the office and function of a priest, God was at issue with him, and eighty-one priests withstood him.

Men would say he was outnumbered; but it was not a question of numbers but of spirituality, and that is what we should be concerned about. The body of spirituality was with the priests. Eighty-one of them withstood him as he left his divinely given place and sought to function as a priest.

• The Spirit of God says they were valiant men. We must never, in these spiritual crises, judge by the human mind. It is not a question of the number of the priests, but rather of those who are with God – the priests were with God.

• They ordered Uzziah out of the sanctuary; no mean thing, that, for he had been a great king, a husbandman, a builder, and a man of war – indeed, there were many features about Uzziah that must have endeared him to his subjects.

• I ought to know from the Lord Himself what is my own divinely appointed orbit and keep within it, so that this self-assertion has no place in my heart or mind, and I do not covet the office or service or gift of another.

Isaiah says it was "In the year of the death of king Uzziah", that he saw the Lord. His death synchronises with Isaiah seeing the Lord

• "high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple".

• I wonder if everyone here has seen the Lord like that. The correct title here is 'Adonai', which is said to convey the thought of 'lordship in blessing'. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, not terrorising him, but impelling and attracting him. He was attracted and allured to the spot where he saw the Lord thus "high and lifted up".

• As he saw that sight he saw also the seraphim. Each of them had six wings,
  • "with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he flew".

  • Then he goes on to say, "one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts".

• That is the holy mutuality that marks the house of God. It is like the law of the house, most holy.

This is the conversation that takes place between holy persons; the kind of conversation which, I believe, would take place at Colosse or at Philippi, where the minds of the brethren were to be centred and fixed on things lovely, and pure, and honest, and of good report. Alas, how often we feed on things that are of evil report!

• "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

• What an outlook there, instead of speaking now of the sorrowful evidences of the state of God's earthly people as the prophet had had to do, we have the speaking of the seraphim, and they say "the whole earth is full of his glory". That is the outlook of a son of the kingdom.

• Peter was a son of the kingdom. He says nothing about the rapture, but he dwells much upon the appearing, and the glory that is about to be revealed. Who could make Peter downcast, or discouraged? He had the most blessed outlook upon the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the whole earth will be "filled with his glory".

Isaiah said, "Woe unto me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips".

• Have we all come to that? James reminds us of the deadly power of the tongue. He speaks of what we see in chapter 1, of what we do in chapter 2, and of what we say in chapter 3. He describes the tongue in the most trenchant way:
  • "the tongue can no one among men tame; it is an unsettled evil, full of death-bringing poison", James 3: 8.

• It is a little member, and yet the most potent weapon for good or for evil. Do I bless the Father with my tongue? How do I use it? Isaiah says,
  • "I am a man of unclean lips".

• He is not now denouncing the nation, he is speaking of himself. Believers should have an understanding of Romans 6 and 7. No one is really happy until they have been through that experience. This painful experience has cost some of us more tears during the years we were passing through it than all the rest of our lives.

• It is an experience that cannot be obtained by reading Scripture. Do not misunderstand me, I value Scripture, but this experience one must go through between oneself and God alone. Then we are at liberty. So in Romans 8: 1 you have one in liberty, bursting forth with a note of exultation,
  • "There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus",

• then he speaks of being made free from the law of sin and of death. Oh, to see greater liberty amongst the people of God!

Isaiah says, "I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips".

• He is like Peter in Luke 5: 8, when he says,
  • "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man"

• – and yet Peter stays. Have we known that experience? The repulsiveness of sin in ourselves; coming to the point that we are full of it, saying, depart from me, and yet remaining in the Lord's presence; finding we were held to Himself by an indissoluble link of affection. Isaiah stayed; and he heard the Lord asking,
  • "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?", verse 8

    and he adds, "Here am I; send me".

• The footnote says the emphasis is on the word send. A son of the kingdom has lost all sense of 'me', or 'I'. He is content now to be sent. This service of bringing in the King is of the greatest importance, and Isaiah was concerned about it; and so he gets wonderful enlargement.

• In chapter 7: 14 he gets light about the birth of Christ –
  • "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and call his name Immanuel".

• He begins with that: a most precious glory of Christ. Obedience to Christ as Lord will settle every difficulty in our minds as to the Person of Christ.

• Then he goes further, for in chapter 9: 6 he dwells upon a most profound thing, he says,
  • "unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace".

• See how this son of the kingdom is growing in his apprehension of Christ! He knows no limit; his eyes are fixed on Christ, his spirit subject to His blessed authority, and as he gets further light as to this blessed Person, nothing less than the whole earth for Christ will do for Isaiah.

In chapter 11: 6 he speaks of the world to come, and tells us that "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb".

• Are we to wait for the millennium to see that? Is it not possible that spiritually that feature should be seen in every local company? Let us, like Isaiah, have a blessed outlook upon the glories of Christ, and we shall see that already the wolf and the lamb can dwell together.

• Even that is not enough for this son of the kingdom, for he would have the whole earth filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea.

• Again in chapter 35: 6 he speaks about the healing power and the blessedness of Christ as filling the millennial earth; he says, "then shall the lame man leap as a hart". Have we not seen it? Not only in Acts 3, but in our own day? A man coming in having the legs of the lame which are not equal, but as brought under the authority of Christ he can not only walk, but has power to leap upon the earth! Thank God for that.

Isaiah dwells on these things, and he goes forward until finally he claims the whole gentile earth for this blessed Person.

• There is no prophet that has such a wide outlook as this son of the kingdom, Isaiah, and he suffered in view of the prophetic word, as we are reminded in chapter 20: 2-3. He was a man of strong affections, a married man with two remarkable sons.

• It ought to be a matter of concern with all who have gift, and some commission and service from the Lord, that their household should be in entire support. Isaiah's household must have been one such. He calls his wife a prophetess, not that she had an official title, but because she was in full sympathy with his service.

• Then he had two sons, and they were remarkable lads; wherever they went they were signs to God's earthly people, they not only had distinctive names, but they had names which conveyed something, Maher-shalal-hash-baz and Shear-jashub.

• As people saw these lads of Isaiah's, they would remember that the remnant was to return, and that God was speaking through these two. You have thus a complete household supporting the prophetic testimony in view of the coming in of the King.

With Jeremiah it is different. He was a single man, he was to have neither wife nor children – chapter 16 – and yet he was a most loveable man.

• I question if there was any man in the Old Testament with such deep feelings as Jeremiah, he had most sensitive feelings, and I am going to speak of Jeremiah as a son in love. Jeremiah was loved before he was born. That is a very striking word,
  • "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I hallowed thee, I appointed thee a prophet unto the nations".

• A marvellous thing! Who knows what is in store for our children? Who could tell, as Jeremiah was born, what God had in mind for that child?
  • "Before thou camest forth out of the womb I hallowed thee".

• What a vessel would he be! What filial fear would mark him, what subjection of heart and mind! He was nurtured and nourished in love, a son in love; and he begins to speak in answer to the commandment of Jehovah, and says,
  • "Alas, Lord Jehovah! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child".

• What a comely thing for a young man to say! I would encourage the young to serve and say, "I am a child". God will fill your mouth with words, as He did for Jeremiah.

• Jeremiah was not like Moses. Scripture records that he made excuse after excuse, until finally Jehovah was angry with him and said,
  • "Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well", Exodus 4: 14.

• It is not a question of your ability to speak, but rather of dependence, so that God may be with you and He will touch your mouth, as He touched Jeremiah's mouth.

When Jeremiah began to speak, he spoke about love, for he was a son in love, not the kind of love that would gloss over matters of unrighteousness. Divine love is never active at the expense of righteousness; it cannot be, for it would not be of God. Jeremiah at once speaks about love.

• He says, "I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals", chapter 2: 2.

• If you speak in love you may have to suffer. Jeremiah is one of the great sufferers of the Old Testament, he is like Paul in relation to suffering, persecuted, vilified and misrepresented. What suffering and insult he had to bear! He was accounted worthy to die, to be smitten, insulted and ill-treated, and yet a man with the most refined sensibilities and spiritual feelings.

We talk lightly about the weeping prophet, but he was a man of intense spiritual feeling, and he was with God. He bursts forth again in chapter 9: 1,

• "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night!"

• How little we shed tears in relation to the sorrows of the church. It was said of Joseph that when he saw Benjamin his brother, his mother's son, that he sought a place where he might weep. We speak of a drawing room, or dining room, perhaps, but do our houses contain a chamber where we may weep? Every lover of Christ ought to have a chamber where he or she might weep.

• Jeremiah desired to weep "day and night", Jeremiah 9: 1. When God told him to weep – chapter 14: 17 – he was to weep "night and day", not day and night, and when Paul wept at Ephesus, he wept night and day, for a church weeper weeps in view of the morning. He does not pass out, as Jeremiah did in the ways of God, weeping
  • – for "at morn there is rejoicing", Psalm 30: 5.

I believe there were two answers, in the goodness of God to Jeremiah's weeping. One was Ezekiel and the other was Nehemiah. These two taken together show us the issue of Jeremiah's weeping.

• You may be sure that tears like that are put into God's bottle, and Ezekiel comes to light as an answer from God, and he sees visions of God.

• Nehemiah comes to light as an answer to Jeremiah's tears, and the very gates and walls that Jeremiah had sorrowed over, and wept over, were rebuilt by Nehemiah.

• If there are any weeping over church sorrows, I would commend to you the example and tears of Jeremiah. Be with God in your exercises and they cannot but be fruitful sooner or later.

Now Ezekiel is a son of light. Ezekiel saw visions of God, and he was familiar with the divine glory. I do not want to lessen the blessedness of that, or minimise the importance of it.

• Ezekiel stands out in the Old Testament as a man who familiarised himself with the glory, and believers like that are few.

• He saw visions of God, he saw the Man in the glowing brass, and he watched the glory. He could tell you its exact whereabouts at any time, he knew just where the glory was, and he could tell you what few believers could tell you – when and how it would return, and the basis upon which it would return, and what would characterise it when it returned.

• One of the most interesting features about the book of Ezekiel is this dwelling upon the glory. Ezekiel was familiar with it. I commend that to you. He was not only concerned about it, but consciously in the enjoyment of it; and so, as a son of light, he felt whatever savoured of darkness.

Another thing that marks this son of light is that he has amazing courage in relation to the truth. He is undaunted, he has a forehead harder than flint, and he cannot be moved, yet his heart is tender; he is loveable and is marked by the deepest and most intense feelings.

• Ezekiel becomes a widower. It is remarkable what is said of these men – one a family man, one without human ties, and one a widower.

• Ezekiel dearly loved his wife. Scripture speaks about her as the desire of his eyes. God says,
  • "Behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet thou shalt not mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down", Ezekiel 24: 16.

• The prophetic testimony must not cease, there must be no surrender of the service on account of sorrow; the volume and power of the prophetic testimony must continue, therefore Ezekiel was not to weep.

• If ever Ezekiel was proved to be a man of God it was when he lost his wife. That is one of the most touching incidents in Scripture, that a man of such fine sensitive feelings, who loved his wife, the desire of his eyes, was not allowed to weep, as bereft.

• Oh, to be in the service of God with feelings and affections like that! – showing that what is spiritual rises far above what is of nature, even though it be the sweetest divinely given relationship in nature.

Another feature about Ezekiel is his absolutely unswerving obedience to God. It is a rebuke to one.

• If he is told to take a barber's knife and shave his beard, and his head, he does it; not a complaint, nor a word about the hardness of his path, he does it.

• If told to take a tile and portray the siege of Jerusalem upon it, he does so; and if he is told to take a captive's baggage and pass out in the most abject humiliation – Ezekiel 12: 3 – he does it.

• If he is told to lie three hundred and ninety days on his left side, he does it. How we might have complained to God in suffering thus for the iniquity of Israel! And then to be forty days on his right side, as it is said,
  • "when thou hast accomplished them, thou shalt lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year", Ezekiel 4: 6.

• He was suffering in his spirit with God about the iniquity of Israel and Judah. One could enumerate the instances of Ezekiel's obedience and how he suffered.

• Not only did he speak to the elders in counsel, warning them as to the voice of Jehovah, but finally he brings into view a world where Christ shall be supreme, and the temple, of which he says the law of it is most holy.
  • One thing I learn from Ezekiel is that in the house of God I cannot do what I like; there must be no assertion of my will. Ezekiel speaks about the house, and the law of it, it is most holy.

• When he has dwelt upon the specifications and the measurements, and the outgoings and the ingoings of the tribes of Israel, he tells you the name of the city, and says from that day the name of the city is Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah is there. Ezekiel 48: 35. This is what a son of light looks for.

I desire that we might be more in the gain of the kingdom, that we should become sons of it, not merely subjects of the kingdom, but sons.

• Then sons in love, as those who feel with God about the state of the church. And that we should be sons of light, holding the truth inviolate as having foreheads as adamant, harder than flint, and if it be a question of a suffering people, that we may suffer and sympathise as Ezekiel did, for he dwelt among the captives. May the Lord help us in these things!

God did not confine Himself to material influences, for after He had made man, He gave him dominion – or made him to rule –

• "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth", Genesis 1: 28,

• indicating that there should not only be authority, but an influencing of the whole creation, through this man whom God had made.

• As we are all aware, Adam failed in this responsibility, and primarily because he came under an influence other than the divine influence. Every failure among us has its roots in this, that we have come under another influence and that, one which is not of God.

• Adam was intelligent, he was the handiwork of God; he had marvellous dignity, and wisdom, and resource enough to name intelligently all the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the air. Think what a marvellous creation Adam was! – having ability to thus name the cattle and beasts and the fowl of the air, as Jehovah Elohim brought them to him!

• He had no recourse to a dictionary, or to other sources of information, but he named them with marvellous intelligence and wisdom, as having come from the very beginning under this beneficent divine influence.

Later Adam failed, for he came under another influence, that of his wife. What an influence that may be either for good or evil! Scripture says,

• "a prudent wife is from Jehovah", Proverbs 19: 14.

• One thinks of the wife of Manoah; what an advance she was on Eve! Eve held conversation with the serpent, losing the light and practical gain of the influence of headship, whereas the wife of Manoah would not converse even with an angel of God apart from her husband. She ran and told her husband. Judges 13: 10. What a delightful expression that is in contrast to what is current today.

• Then they prayed that the angel might come again a second time, and the word says,
  • "And the Angel of God came again to the woman whilst she sat in the field", verse 9.

• I wonder how many sisters find time to sit in the field today. This woman is not so obsessed with the constancy and monotony of her work that she cannot meditate; neither is she occupied with what is transpiring in the world; she finds time to sit in the field to meditate. I believe that if sisters gave themselves more frequently to meditation, the local meetings would greatly profit.

• Even when the angel came the second time, Manoah's wife did not speak to him; she was in the recognition of headship. What an advance on Eve! She hasted and told her husband, and he did the speaking.

The book of Judges corresponds to our own day, and I refer to that in passing, to show the kind of influence the wife of Manoah recognised, and what an asset she was to her husband.

• She says later, "If Jehovah were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and an oblation at our hands", Judges 13: 23.

• Is that the line of exercise with our sisters? – occupation with Christ as the burnt-offering and the meat-offering, so that they are rendered pliable, and readily come under the influence of headship according to God.

• Well Eve failed, and Adam failed, but if so, we find that God raised up men of great spiritual influence later.

Think of Abraham! He says of himself,

• "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you", Genesis 23: 4

• – he is marked by the feelings that become a stranger and a sojourner but the sons of Heth say,
  • "Thou art a prince of God among us", verse 6.

• He was no niggardly person; he has great wealth; silver and gold and much cattle. I question if there was any man in Abraham's time so rich as he. But of what value were his riches unless they were held in the joy of stewardship?

• Isaac, too, was very rich, it says
  • "the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great", Genesis 26: 13.

• What was his spirit? It was heavenly: if his opposers come to him he makes them a feast, that is how he spends his wealth. He is not establishing his own position or furthering his own social status, but acting like God, diffusing a heavenly influence.

• So with Abraham – he influences a king and a captain. They came to Abraham, but he reproves them because of a well of water Abimelech's servants had violently taken away; and then the king sees seven ewe lambs set by themselves, and he inquires as to what they were. They set forth the kind of influence Abraham would exert.

• He would say virtually to Abimelech, If your servants are on the line of violence, this is my attitude towards you, this is the kind of spirit in which I would be with you. Seven ewe lambs – creatures utterly defenceless, but suggesting ripeness and fruitfulness – that was the spirit of Abraham.

• They would be a constant reminder that in the presence of violence, Abraham's spirit and influence would dominate the situation in grace.

So one loves to think of Psalm 8: 6, for if Adam failed, God had before Him One who never failed, and the psalmist says,

• "Thou hast made him to rule over the works of thy hands".

• There is not one of us but who would accept that in theory, but I am going to plead that we accept it in practice that He is to be great among us. He is to be the pre-eminent One, and that He should have the rule over each one of us. What marvellous spiritual influence would emanate from us if we were in the good of this in our daily pathways.

• We may object to certain leaders, and resent their rule; but who could object to being under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ? As the Spirit of God says in Luke 1: 32, "He shall be great" – before ever He was born, before ever He was called the Son of God in incarnation, the angel could say
  • "He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest".

• I know we sing about it, and speak of it, and pray about it. Thank God for all these movements; and that we have the world to come before us as a subject of conversation, involving the day when His greatness shall be manifested publicly. The day when He shall reign
  • "from the river unto the ends of the earth", Psalm 72: 8

• – there is not one amongst us but exults in that blessed prospect! What sweet influences will radiate throughout the whole earth in that day when the word in Luke 1 is literally fulfilled: "He shall be great;" but may the Lord give us grace to make it true now, as we come under His rule.

I want to raise a question in all simplicity and transparency: what kind of influence are we each one wielding in public, and locally, and in the house? It is a most important question.

• So I want to speak of Moses and John, two great leaders among the people of God, who suggest the line of spiritual influence. I would ask you, as God asked Moses: "What is that in thy hand?" That is what matters for the moment.

• I am not speaking of what is in your heart, God knows what is in your heart, and we all desire to be true in heart – but has the testimony been obscured by what is in your hand?

• Jehovah says to Moses, "What is that in thy hand? And he said, A staff". A staff means that either consciously, or unconsciously, I wield a certain influence over those with whom I am in contact. Jehovah says, "Cast it on the ground", and Moses is obedient.

• I desire that we may all be attentive and follow prayerfully this word to Moses. As he cast his staff on the ground it became a serpent, and Moses fled before it. What a revelation to Moses! He had to learn the solemn result of what authority had become in man's hand, as surrendered to Satan, that such was the influence it would yield.

• Moses has to learn the necessity of divine control of himself. A most important lesson, if he is to influence the people for God. He had already learned one lesson, thank God!
  • – that "our God is a consuming fire", Hebrews 12: 29.

• But He does not consume the brethren; He says as it were to Moses, I am going on with this people marked with frailty. There is that in them which is delightful to My heart. Moses would say at the end of this lesson, I am going on with them, too.

• Do we all desire to serve the people of God? What kind of influence do we wield over them? What have we wielded hitherto, and what shall we wield henceforth? Moses fled from before the serpent; it was all he could do under the circumstances. I believe that the Lord would expose to our hearts, if we desire it, the influences which are otherwise than heavenly – He would show us their true character.

• Then Jehovah says, "Take it by the tail". Think of the scene into which the Lord Jesus came – a scene dominated by the power of Satan, who had wielded influence over the sons of men for four thousand years, so to speak. But as the Lord comes into the scene, He takes complete control of authority according to God. Delivering men from Satan's power, He brings them under authority for blessing.
  • "He taught them as having authority", Mark 1: 22.

• Moses takes the serpent by the tail and it becomes a staff again. It is not now Moses' staff, but the staff of God! That is a wonderful staff! If I wield it, it means that I do not lord it over God's heritage, I look upon the saints with all sympathy and compassion. Paul says to the Corinthians,
  • "What will ye? that I come to you with a rod; or in love, and in a spirit of meekness?", 1 Corinthians 4: 21.

• Thank God he did not come with a rod, he went in love and in the spirit of meekness, for he says in 2 Corinthians 10: 1,
  • "But I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ".

• That is not using the Scriptures against them, but bringing to bear upon a well-nigh impossible situation the meekness and gentleness of the Christ; for he had both these features.

• And so, here, Moses went with the staff of God in his hand, and think of the influence he wielded in Israel with that staff! In Exodus 17:9 he says to Joshua,
  • "Choose us men, and go out, fight with Amalek; to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand".

• If the saints are harassed by Amalek, I will go to the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. Do we pray for the saints like this? Without complaint or murmuring? I believe our prayers would be heard if we prayed in this wise.

• Moses went up with the staff of God in his hand, and with love in his heart for God's earthly people, thus he became king in Jeshurun. These are the features that belong to spiritual influence.

It says of the Lord in Luke 1:32, "He shall be great". The emphasis is on the word "He". So that however much failure there might have been in others, there is the unfolding before the eyes of our hearts of this One who is great, and who shall rule over the house of Jacob for ever and ever.

• Think of what He effected for God! Men wondered at the words of grace that were coming out of His mouth in the synagogue of Nazareth. Did He not know that if He referred to God's sovereignty, rebellion would come out of their hearts? He knew the end from the beginning, but nevertheless He went on, shedding abroad the sweet and holy influences of heaven. He had in His hand, as we may say, the staff of God – what an influence!

• Even in the house of Simon the Pharisee, what an influence He had! Did He not know what kind of a woman was there? Did He not know what was in the heart of Simon – that cold Pharisaical influence that would wither up every movement Godward?

• But He went on shedding abroad the influence of heaven, and He became exceeding great in the eyes of His disciples; the great anti-type of the one in Genesis 26:13, who became continually greater, until he was very great.

The first book of Samuel is written in order that we should have before us the kind of influence that is pleasurable to heaven.

• It is said of Saul about seven times in 1 Samuel, that he had his spear with him. It says in 1 Samuel 19: 9 that
  • "he sat in his house with his spear in his hand".

• If he lay down to sleep, it was with his spear by his side. What kind of an influence had such a man? Think of going to a brother's house to find he has his spear in his hand! What is he going to do with it? Slay his brother? Saul was going to slay David.

• But what does David do? He has the spirit that marked Abraham when he set the seven ewe lambs by themselves. David had resources in God – he played with his hand. Then it says later, when Saul tried to smite David to the wall with his spear that David played with his hand as at other times. There is the excess of grace!

• It was not that he did it once or twice, or even three times, but it was his constant occupation; he played with his hand. He brought in the influence of heaven, like the staff of God, and he brought such heavenly influences to bear upon Saul that the evil spirit departed from him, but finally we read of Saul falling upon his sword and dying by it. 1 Samuel 31: 4. What trust he had placed in it! Carried by his side, wielded by his hand, stuck into the ground at his bolster when he slept – trusting in the arm of flesh.

• Are we, as David did, playing with our hands when persecuted and under reproach? We are made to suffer if we continue with the harp, but the man that wields the sword falls on it; and the man that plays with the harp becomes
  • the "sweet psalmist of Israel", 2 Samuel 23: 1,

• and he sets all Israel singing. That is what we need, the kind of influence that will set the people of God free from every personal feeling, and from every kind of bondage, whether social, political, or religious – setting them free for the service of song in the house of the Lord.

I refer to John, for he is the great leader in love, for the saints of God. He does not lead exactly in authority like Moses, but in love.

• It is not what John says that impresses us so much, as what he is and what he does; it is the great volume of love that he expresses for the people of God. He says to the young men,
  • "I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong … Love not the world, nor the things in the world", 1 John 2: 14-15.

• The great snare for young men is the world – it has an unholy glamour and influence that is satanic. John would preserve you from that, young man! He did not read the newspaper to have the world exposed; he did not get his knowledge of its character from outside sources, he got it from his knowledge of divine Persons.
  • All that is in the world – "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", verse 16 – are what hold men in bondage.

• He comes nearer home still in writing to an assembly, and he speaks of the kind of spirit that may come into a local meeting; he says in 3 John 9,
  • "I wrote something to the assembly".

• We do not know what he wrote, for Diotrephes kept it back. Think of the gravity and solemnity of such an action. One brother does not compose the assembly, or one sister –
  • but "Diotrephes, who loves to have the first place among them, receives us not".

• "The first place" – is that the source of the trouble?

The only subject upon which the disciples strove together as far as is recorded was as to which of them should be greatest. It is at the root of many a division.

• The Lord said, "Of what were ye reasoning by the way?", Mark 9: 33.

• John was silent, James was silent, Peter, too, was silent, they were utterly ashamed of themselves, as well they might be – as well we might be in like case.

• And the Lord calls a little child and sets it in the midst, according to Matthew and Mark, and Mark gives an additional touch: he says Jesus took the child in His arms – that is the kind of spirit and influence that is pleasing to divine Persons.
  • "Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receives me", Mark 9: 37.

• In Luke He does differently; it says, He "set it by him", Luke 9: 47. That is the answer to every human ambition; it is the answer to any striving to be the greatest, and is to show the correspondence between the Spirit of Jesus and that little child.

• John told the Lord they had seen someone casting out demons in His name, and that they had forbidden him. All that the Lord did, was to place a little child by Him – He did not ask a single question, but the word says, "And John answering said" – he understood the challenge.

• How this searches our hearts as to whether we are on the line of being the greatest, or on the line of being as a "little child". John's answer was as if he would say, Lord, I will tell you what we did, proving how unlike the little child we have been.

Dear brethren, let us not keep anything back from the Lord. If He wounds,

• "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are profuse", Proverbs 27: 6.

• John never forgot his lesson. How did he know how to deal with Diotrephes? He got his power through intimacy with Christ – through leaning on the breast of Jesus.

• Not one of us is immune from this snare, this love of the first place. A sister likes to be first in hospitality, or a brother in the meeting, he wants to lead, or to minister. Are we going to lead in suffering and love, or are we going to lead in giving information or even light, merely?

• John learned how to influence from lying in the bosom of Jesus, and he says of Diotrephes,
  • "If I come, I will bring to remembrance his works which he does, babbling against us with wicked words", 3 John: 10.

• Think of speaking against John, or against any leader who is marked by the Spirit of Christ! You may say it is unthinkable, but it is not, for we have seen and heard this many a time in our own short histories; and John says, "I will bring to remembrance". He expects that there will be sufficient power in Gaius and others in that locality to deal with that difficult situation.

In Revelation 11: 1 we find that John is given a reed like a staff to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship in it.

• Think of the mighty influence wielded by the apostle John: what a heart he had! What a vast amount of love for the saints! Truly a leader in love! Think again of Paul:
  • "Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved", 2 Corinthians 12: 15.

• Think, too, of Peter: he speaks of himself as their
  • "fellow-elder and witness of the sufferings of the Christ", and then says, "shepherd the flock of God which is among you", 1 Peter 5: 1-2.

• He exhorts the elders not to be as
  • "lording it over your possessions, but being models for the flock".

• Thus we may hear the voices of Peter, John, and Paul. The weakest brother and the weakest sister are part of the assembly, and though they may appear to us to be the least intelligent, yet they have a judgment of things according to God. Paul says you cannot despise them.

• We are to be clothed with humility, so that our influence may be such that God may give us grace in relation to one another.

Now the reed is like a staff or rod. If I am going to measure things with that, I must have love. We can only measure such things by love, and according to love.

• So that the question is raised at once, What do I love? Are my movements among the saints of God the movements of one who loves? See what scope for service there is there!

• I am not to take up too much time – there are others there. As I take account of the temple, I learn that I must shed there the influence of one who loves.

• Then John is to measure the altar. We may speak of our sufferings, and of what we have surrendered personally, but what about measuring the altar? Think of the sufferings of Christ! Of His mighty surrender! Of His giving up all that He had! – Yes, giving Himself!

• Can I measure the altar unless I am in some little way in accord with that altar – prepared to surrender myself?

John is also to measure those that worship, perhaps the most difficult thing of all.

• We often say, I do not think there is much in this one or that one – we are measuring up the saints. But how can I measure the worshippers unless I love them in deed and in truth?

• So John, the great servant chosen for this service, is the outstanding leader in love, and his influence remains – thank God! According to 1 Corinthians 13: 7-8
  • "Love never fails;" it "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things".

• Love does not behave itself unseemly, and is not puffed up, but it seeks the wealth and the spiritual good of others.

That is the kind of influence that I would plead for at this time. John is the great leader amongst the people of God in love, his influence emanating from his place in intimacy in the bosom of Jesus.

May the Lord help us and bless His word.

Isaac, in Genesis 26, was like Abraham, only that he had an additional feature to contend with.

• Abimelech came, and Phichol, and with them Abimelech's friend. So that you have the king, representing the political sphere, and the captain of the host, representing the military power, and the king's friend, bringing in the social side, which is the greatest snare of all for many believers.

• Many are unable to withstand the patronage of the king's friend; they say, 'I have a friend at court'. Is Isaac flattered? Does he seek the favour of the king? Is he pandering to the world in its social aspect? Not at all!

• Though they had hated him, he can be a giver. He made them a feast. Ah, beloved, there is nothing which will disarm men like the manner of our giving. You may say they hate you. That is not to be wondered at, for the Lord Himself said,
  • "If the world hate you, know that it has hated me before you", John 15: 18.

• But instead of personal feelings, or animosity arising in our hearts in the presence of the world's hatred, there is to be the lavishness of divine giving. As we learn of Him, we become blessers instead of persecutors: we become givers instead of receivers.

• Saul is one who takes – 1 Samuel 8: 11 – and there are plenty of takers. Do not let us add to their number. Six times it is said of king Saul, "he will take". That is the spirit that marks the world, the line of demand. We are not to be like that; we are to be givers.

One is reminded of a later day when there was collective giving on the part of the children of Israel, as recorded in the book of Exodus. That was most delightful giving; and how freely they had received.

• A way had been opened for them through the Red Sea. They had stood still, and seen the salvation of Jehovah, and they had begun to sing. It was a song of glad response to the operations of divine Persons. And what did they sing?
  • "This is my God, and I will glorify Him", Exodus 15: 2.

• How God loves to hold the believer to his early vow: thus later in the book we find that the time had come for the children of Israel to fulfil their vow, and they are bidden to bring their offering.
  • "Every one whose heart is willing, let him bring it, Jehovah's heave-offering", Exodus 35: 5.

• There were wise and willing-hearted women as well as men, and they brought Jehovah's offering to the work. Oh, what pleasure God had in this wondrous giving! Indeed, He says of it in a later day,
  • "I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown", Jeremiah 2: 2.

• God never forgets giving like that. They brought in such abundance that it is said,
  • "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work … Then Moses gave commandment, and … the people were restrained from bringing", Exodus 36: 5-6.

• Is that the measure and manner of our giving? Is there too much? The Lord would delight to use a company to administer His bounty, where there was "too much". There is ample scope for the outlet of our affections in relation to giving.

I draw attention now to David, for he was the most princely giver in relation to God and His interests

• Men talk about wealth; they speak about millionaires and multi-millionaires, but I would draw attention to David's giving, and the manner of it. He gives in three ways.
  • In 1 Chronicles 22: 14 he says, "In my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver".

• Think of that! No millionaire in the world could give what David gave! People pierce themselves through with many sorrows in the pursuit of riches; it is a most baneful thing, but
  • "Piety with contentment is great gain", 1 Timothy 6: 6.

    "Freely ye have received, freely give".

• Again, David says in chapter 29,
  • "I have prepared according to all my power for the house of my God gold for things of gold, and silver for things of silver, and brass for things of brass, iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood".

• "According to all my power". It is not in poverty and affliction now. It is the power of the Holy Spirit producing in the believer such affectionate response to divine Persons, that he gives according to all his power. Have you done that? There is great need of it, that there should be no deficiency in the house of God.

• Then David says finally – verses 3, 4 – and best of all,
  • "Moreover, in my affection for the house of my God I have given of my own property … three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir", that is the very finest gold.

    Then he speaks of "seven thousand talents of refined silver".

• He is not bringing, as they did in Malachi, what is lame, or despised, or has a blemish. He brings up what is "refined". He brings the choicest and the best, for the offering is not for man, but for God, and it must be what is costly and magnifical.

• So David gives in these three ways, and I commend them to our earnest and prayerful consideration. He gave in his affliction, that is, in poverty, or distress. Is there anyone here in poverty, anyone under pressure? I am not asking you to give gold and silver, if you have not gold and silver; but I am asking that you should give to divine Persons out of your very poverty and pressure, that you should minister to them.

• Think of David's gift, one million talents of silver, and one hundred thousand talents of gold! How it puts the giving of this poor world in the shade. Then he says to God,
  • "of that which is from thy hand have we given thee", chapter 29: 14.

Do we understand stewardship? We often think that it has to do with surplus, but it has to do with my home, my salary, it may be my week's wages, or my day's wages.

• I look upon all that I have and say, 'I am a steward', not of what is left when the household expenses, and food, and clothing are paid for, but a steward of the whole. I wish I understood that better.

• I speak practically, as receiving everything that I have as coming to me from the hand of God; I am a steward in relation to the whole, and not a part of the whole. That governs my spending. There are things that I can buy, for all things are lawful, even in these straightened times, but there are things that I can do without, for all things are not expedient.

• The Lord is coming soon, and in these last moments we should be governed, not by what is lawful, but by what is expedient. Let us think of what we spend during the week; how much have we given to divine interests? Stewardship would set us right in regard to the value of things. It would help us in relation to our giving.

• You can give in your poverty, your distress, your afflictions, your pressure. Few, if any, have ever been as poor as the widow in Luke 21. She had two mites, which make a farthing. In Mark 12: 41-43 the Lord sat over against the treasury, and watched how they gave – not what they gave, but the manner of their giving, and He said,
  • "This poor widow has cast in more than all who have cast into the treasury".

• She casts in two mites. She might have kept one, and the Lord appraised the gift at its proper value.

Then David says that he gave according to all his power. And finally, he says, in his affection for the house of his God, he gave of his own property.

• Now what about that bank balance? – that excess? In 1 Chronicles 29: 3 you come to the excess, and what governed David? His affection for the house of his God. What delightful giving is this!
  • "In my affection for the house of my God I have given of my own property".

• How delightful is that excess of affection in the sight of heaven! David does not take the slightest credit to himself: he says to God,
  • "Of that which is from thy hand have we given thee", 1 Chronicles 29: 14,

    while he says to Solomon his son, "And thou shalt add to it", 1 Chronicles 22: 14.

• What a comforting word to you and me – "and thou shalt add to it!" Then he raised a searching question:
  • "Who is willing to offer to Jehovah this day?", 1 Chronicles 29: 5.

• Are we willing hearted? If we are, we shall give more lavishly for the rest of our time than ever before. Who then is willing? You may ask, How am I to give?

I think Jehoiada the priest gives remarkable instruction typically of the manner and quality of our giving.

• He was a remarkable man, and he has written across his tomb, what is probably one of the finest epitaphs in the Old Testament.
  • He "grew old and was full of days, and he died; … And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house", 2 Chronicles 24: 15-16.

• He saw the need, and in 2 Kings 12: 9 we read
  • "And Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Jehovah".

Now I want to raise a very practical question. What governs my giving?

• Am I influenced by the altar, or do I give mechanically? Have I made up my mind beforehand what I shall give, or do I lend myself to having my affections moved by the altar?

• In Kings we go by way of the altar, for if we are to give worthily, our impressions must be formed by the altar. It is evident that the box should be beside the altar. The love of Christ for the assembly is presented in the loaf, and there is the love of God as made known by Christ in the cup. What lavish giving it speaks of, as Paul says,
  • "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift", 2 Corinthians 9: 15.

• What lavish giving! Am I to be unresponsive? Is it not fitting that these things should find an answer in my heart? That I should respond to the love of Christ and the love of God in the loaf and the cup?

• So there is the box, and it is beside the altar. I may give in small measure because I have only feebly been affected by the death of Christ, but the contemplation of His giving would surely move my heart. He surrendered everything. Seeing one pearl of great price, He went and sold all that He had that He might purchase it.

In Acts 20: 28 we read of "the assembly of God, which he" [that is, God] "has purchased with the blood of his own", without saying who "his own" is.

• Oh, the lavishness of divine giving! Am I to be unresponsive? There is the chest beside the altar.

• You will remember in the early days of the church's history, the lavishness of the giving that obtained. How the saints came to light as givers. If they had land or houses, they sold them, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. There is the recognition of apostolic authority, and no murmuring or complaining afterwards about what was done.

• If our giving was more in accord with the altar, the administration of our bounty would be a very simple matter, for what is given in love, would be administered in love. Great grace was upon them all. They ate their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and were in favour with all the people.

Then Barnabas came in. The apostles named him the "son of consolation". Why? Because he came in just at the right time to manifest what was an outstanding feature of christianity. He had some land, and he sold it.

• The last few moments of the church's history ought to be marked by what obtained at the beginning, not only in a spiritual and moral way, but in some measure in a material way.

• People ask if there are those capable of administering. Well, if we give rightly, it will certainly be administered rightly.

• There is not a long period left for anyone of us here, let us see to it that, as Peter says, "the rest of his time", 1 Peter 4: 2, may be marked in this way by giving.

Barnabas brought his offering to the apostles, and laid it at their feet. That is what the Lord loves, that we should trust the local brethren's administration, and if we have love in our hearts, we shall give.

• So the apostle Paul in Acts 20 reminds them of
  • "the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive".

  • "I have shewed you all things" and then, "I have coveted the silver or gold or clothing of no one".

• He speaks in the most touching way:
  • "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus".

• You cannot find those words in the gospels, but it shows the importance of being near to Christ, so that we may get our impressions from Him; "remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said".

• I can imagine the beloved apostle laying emphasis on the word, "that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive". That is the last public word to the assembly, and it is calculated, if rightly apprehended, to enhance our thoughts as to giving; so that the word may be responded to,
  • "freely ye have received, freely give".

May the Lord bless the word.

You will remember that it was in a day of great lawlessness, when dissatisfaction prevailed on almost every hand, that Jotham uttered his parable.

• A lawless one, a figure of antichrist, I have no doubt, had arisen. He coveted the throne, he would rule the people. Unqualified, unspiritual, as he was, he would rule them, and he would adopt any and every means whereby to bring them under his rule or authority, for there are the artifices of the devil. He is not confined to one method of attack, there are his "wiles", the word is plural.

• It was at that time Jotham uttered his parable, and he says,
  • "The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them".

• They appealed to the olive-tree, and the olive-tree said,
  • "Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to wave over the trees?"

• – as if to say, 'The thing is unthinkable'. And who that has in any wise known the joy of the Holy Spirit would wish to move from the appointed path of the will of God? What promotion could it be which takes anyone out of the path of the will of God?

• So I have in mind at this juncture the honouring of God and man, and I believe for that honouring, it is essential that we should pay attention to, and make room for, the Holy Spirit. A most important thing, for the Holy Spirit in these last days is ignored, is insulted.

• He is forgotten, He is quenched, and yet He is a divine Person, with feelings and affections as strong and as sensitive as the Father and the Son – a divine Person co-equal with both. One would stress the importance of resting in the conscious sense of having the Holy Spirit.

• The trees appeal to the fig-tree, and the fig-tree says,
  • "Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?"

• That again reminds us that the fig-tree was satisfied. I suppose the fig-tree in scripture speaks of what God sought for, and at one time found, amongst His people Israel, that they should represent God amongst men. So He says in Hosea 9: 10,
  • "I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; as first-ripe fruit on the fig-tree, I saw your fathers".

• I believe in that early day of Israel's history, there was not only a response Godward, but there was a desire to set forth God amongst the nations. Then the trees appealed to the vine, and the vine says,
  • "Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave over the trees?"

• Again it would appear as if the suggestion were unthinkable. It is one of the trees of the Lord and it is satisfied. I believe that these features seen in the olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine, remind us of a precious response Godward which should mark every believer.

Now I come to Psalm 104. It is a psalm which is well worthy of contemplation, for in the soul of the psalmist at the beginning there is a profound sense of the greatness of Jehovah – he says,

• "thou art very great", verse 1.

• Then he begins to describe in the most minute detail His operations. He operates for the benefit of all creation, in spite of being misunderstood, and mistrusted. He continues as a beneficent Creator to consider for, and care for, every part of His creation, even the young lions, for it is said,
  • "the young lions roar after the prey, and to seek their food from God", verse 21.

• Marvellous thing! And as the psalmist views the different species in creation, he says,
  • "These all look unto thee", – all of them – "that thou mayest give their food in its season", verse 27.

• What a God He is! In spite of men and in spite of the lawlessness of men, there is not one single bit of creation that is out of His hand. He has surrendered nothing, neither will He, in spite of what men do, He continues to be good. As His people sang, and as we sing, 'For he is good' – 'How good is the God we adore'! Hymn 23.

• We have the most abundant proof of the goodness of God, whether to the birds, or to the beasts of the field, or to the fish of the sea, He is good. We cannot too insistently press upon men that He is good.

• So this beautiful psalm reminds us of what He has done. He has caused grass to grow for the cattle. That is a wonderful thing. Even the cattle are in His mind, and, if the cattle, how much more His people, how much more man, made in His own image and likeness!

• He has gone further. He has caused the herb to grow for the service of man, relating probably to the abundance of His mercies, how He encompasses men, not merely His people, but men, with abundant mercies day by day – food to eat, air to breathe, and rest of mind and body. He would care for men, however unthankful they may be, and however unholy they may be. He cares for men. Oh what a God He is!

• But again, He has gone further, and He has given, according to the verses I read, three specific things for men, and I believe they specially refer to His people. He gives wine to make glad man's heart. He gives oil to make his face to shine; and He gives bread to strengthen man's heart.

Now I would remind you of how this operates in the believer, and I turn now to John's gospel, for in chapter 2 we have wine; in chapter 4 we have what answers to oil; and in chapter 6 we have bread.

• I would dwell on those things for a moment as suggesting the activities of the giving God, and showing how completely He would set up and establish the believer so that he is rendered entirely independent as to his spirit, of anything there is in this world. If we come to it in any small degree it will give us great joy.

• So I would refer to what took place at Cana of Galilee. When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said to him,
  • "They have no wine", John 2: 3.

• This is not a gross and evil scene depicted here, this is not a company marked by lawlessness such as exists amongst men, particularly today. It is the best in nature, a marriage, a time when natural joy runs high. It is nature at its best: the bridegroom is there and the bride is there, and the disciples of Jesus are there, and the mother of Jesus is there. It is the best in nature, but, though Jesus is there, they wanted wine.

• I wonder how many of us have come to that, that the very best in nature, the most precious links, the most endearing ties, can afford nothing to compare with the profound joy the blessed God is willing to give to His people. So the Lord answers Mary in what seems to be a very hard way, He says to her,
  • "Woman" – He does not say 'Mother', mark that. He says "What have I to do with thee, woman?", John 2: 4,

• as if to say that the most precious tie cannot be allowed to interfere with what is about to take place. The transition here is from the best in nature, with its solemn deficiency, to a region where everyone is made profoundly joyous by the introduction of the new wine, which makes glad the heart of man.

I come to chapter 4. You remember that there you find a woman who was greatly dissatisfied. There are thousands such, who are dissatisfied. And as this woman comes to draw water Jesus said to her

• "Give me to drink", verse 7.

• Think of the blessed Son of God there, as One who deigns to ask – "Give me to drink". Was it the mere literal water that He desired? He was weary with the way that He had come; the "way" suggesting to one's heart the ceaseless, untiring activity and zeal in relation to the holy interests of God, and of His people.

• He was weary with the way that He had come – weary physically, as many have been since – but never too weary, thank God, to enter into conversation with one who was in a state of serious dissatisfaction, and who longed for something to meet her deepest need. Then he says
  • "If thou knewest the gift of God …", verse 10.

• Ah, the giving God was there, He was about to give living water, He was about to speak of a divine source of satisfaction from which, if a person drank, he would never again thirst for ever – and I want to speak of the effects of that.

• When Christ as the prophet had probed the conscience, and when everything was settled, beyond the region of mercies, it says the woman
  • "left her waterpot", verse 28

• – the finest thing a person can do. It had engrossed her, she had looked to the waterpot as a means of satisfaction and she had looked to the well, and she had said,
  • "Art thou greater than our father Jacob?", verse 12.

• Of course He was! In chapter 4 He is greater than Jacob; in chapter 6 He is greater than Moses; and in chapter 8 He is greater than Abraham. Oh, let us hold at all cost to the greatness of Christ, He supersedes all, He is above all!
  • The woman says "Our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle".

• Think of persons, think of believers, being satisfied with a well from which cattle drink! There is no "living water" for cattle. There is the well of Jacob, there are the mercies of God, and the care of a beneficent Creator – for cattle. But He has much more for us.
  • It says, "The woman then left her waterpot and went away into the city, and says to the men …".

• Do you not think that she would be known! Do you not think that prior to this her countenance had probably been something like Cain's? And God takes account of men's countenances. He says to Cain,
  • "Why is thy countenance fallen?", Genesis 4: 6

• – a striking reference to the compassions of God, who is the observer of all men. Do you not think that as she came to the well with an aching void and a heart marked by deep sadness, her face would have betokened the inward dissatisfaction of her heart?

• She went to the men of the city. She did not shut herself up, or just speak to the neighbours on occasions, but she went boldly in her courage, having something at least of the reputation, it may have been, of a Rahab, to the men of the city. They are the persons to go to, persons who know you, persons who know me. She went to the men of the city, and she said to them,
  • "Come".

I hope we are all Fstomed to saying that word. I do not mean to each other, I mean to those in the office, in the world. You cannot say more than that? "Come".

• "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done", verse 29.

• Do you think that any one of us would, apart from the grace of God, readily invite a person to come and hear a truthful and accurate account in detail of every saying, and every thought, and every deed of ours from the time of our birth? We would cover our faces with shame, apart from the grace of God.

• Do you not think her face shone with oil that day? – oil to make the face to shine. So effective, so compelling, so convincing, was her testimony that they came. Oh, how full our meeting-rooms would be for the promulgation of the gospel testimony, – in spite of the reproach that rests on many of them, – if each one of us were saying to the men of the city,
  • "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?"

• And thank God, they came. Oh, the compelling power in testimony of a person whose face is shining as with oil.

Then, in chapter 6 we are reminded by John the writer that there was much grass in the place where Jesus was – a very significant allusion.

• You see how God would disarm the prejudice of men, there is much grass. Any intelligent right-minded person would say – especially if they had read Psalm 104 – This is one of the sovereign movements of God in creation: no one but God could make grass to grow.
  • It says, "there was much grass in the place", verse 10.

• If any one took account of the grass, they would say, Grass was made to grow for the cattle, and if God has cattle in mind, He must have me in mind.

• Then John goes further and describes the feeding of the five thousand. They sat down and they were filled, one of the simplest things possible, but it is not the end, it is not appropriation, it is reception. Every believer has received – there is not a single believer who has not received,
  • "Freely ye have received", Matthew 10: 8.

• Lord has something more than the mere handing out of food, the mere reception on the part of His people of food which is His to give. He begins to speak later of what was to some a hard saying. They speak about Moses and they refer to the manna, as if Moses had given them the manna.
  • The Lord says, "I am the bread of life", verse 35.

• Bread had rained down from heaven – the manna – day by day, unfailingly it had come down. I think alongside the wastage of the flesh learned in the wilderness, there would be correlatively the appreciation of the manna that had fallen from heaven morning by morning.

• Oh, how ugly the flesh is in the sight of the manna, how repulsive, how obnoxious! As I see the manna come down from heaven, how repulsive the flesh is!

• I think those are the two great lessons of the wilderness,

1. that we learn to refuse the flesh as being repulsive and ugly,

2. and we learn to appreciate Jesus as the Christ once humbled here.

• The Lord goes on to say "I am the bread of life" – and He exhorts that we should eat that bread now. Now so long as I am only on the line of receiving, I shall never develop a constitution. Receiving is a poor thing if I continue in it, but if I am on the line of appropriating the bread of life which comes down from heaven I develop a spiritual constitution.

• My heart is strengthened – bread which strengtheneth man's heart. May we say like Peter in this chapter,
  • "Lord, to whom shall we go?", verse 68.

• Difficult times are upon us, increasing lawlessness, one thing and another all tending to distract and divert the saints of God, and we need to bring into evidence as before men that what we have is a state of the most blessed satisfaction.
  • "The trees of Jehovah are satisfied".

Now I will just make one or two brief remarks about Paul. We never tire – and rightly so – of referring to Paul.

• He is the great model for the believer, and I want to show, in conclusion, how what we have been speaking of operated in Paul. I again remind you of the epistle to the Philippians, where the apostle, speaking from prison, says,
  • "I am full", Philippians 4: 18, and he says, "I have learnt" – it was not a gift, he had learned it – "in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself".

• Oh, what a marvellous thing! The lusts of Egypt, the lusts of the world, had no place with him, the pride of life, as in Babylon, never entered into his mind – he had judged those things as filth, and he had done with them.

• What had he? He had wine to cheer his heart, he had oil to make his face to shine, and he had bread to strengthen his heart. His words to the Philippians from the dungeon at Rome indicate a state of profound satisfaction.

• Do you not think they would say, 'We do not wonder at it. This is the servant, this is the man, who manifested even in Philippi, a state of such satisfaction that, though his feet were fast in the stocks, though it was midnight, though he was smarting under cruel scourging, he was with another satisfied 'tree' of the Lord, praising God with singing'. What a tree!

• Once a cedar of man's planting, once a great religious colossus, fascinating and attracting men by the force of his own personality, he is now a tree of the Lord full of sap – satisfied. He is a cedar of Lebanon which the Lord has planted.

• Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi are trees of the Lord's planting, and as we read this letter we are reminded of how satisfied Paul had been in earlier days, and he is no less satisfied at this juncture. He is writing under the most uncongenial circumstances, and from the most cramped surroundings, yet he says, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.

What is he doing? He is serving the Lord's people, not only cheering God and man, but he is serving in bringing before the Lord's people from the prison in those four epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, the highest level of spiritual ministry.

• Was he obsessed with his circumstances? Was he complaining about his environment? Was he not like the olive, content in his lot, honouring God and honouring man? Was he not like the fig-tree, exuding sweetness all around? And was he not like the vine, as in the prison at Philippi, cheering God and cheering man?

• For the prisoners listened, and, as the prisoners listened, I have not the slightest doubt that they were cheered, for every one's bands were loosed, and the jailer was converted. That is how it works.

• Oh, if we were only set more diligently and devotedly for God and His precious interest, how much might be wrought!

I only want to touch on the last scripture in closing as suggesting how this state of satisfaction amongst the people of God might take effect amongst men.

• We are reminded in Luke's graphic account of this journey, of the most precious details, and he tells us that at this juncture Paul took a loaf; although he says there were two hundred and seventy-six souls in the boat, he took a loaf.

• This, obviously, was not the breaking of bread, yet I believe it is intended to remind us of what has been recovered in these last days, for the apostle Paul did here what Jesus did as the disciples were around Him.

• He did here what he did at Corinth, he took a loaf and he gave thanks – in this case to God – and then he broke it and then he ate. As he ate and was satisfied, others ate and were satisfied. Then the word says,
  • "And having satisfied themselves with food, they lightened the ship, casting out the wheat into the sea".

• I do not think that was wrong, the ship was about to be broken up, the journey was to come to its conclusion, but they cast out the wheat into the sea.

And now in conclusion, I want to say a word as to activity in gospel preaching.

• There is one feature that men will never be able to gainsay; they may complain about our grammar, they may speak against our dialect, as they did with Peter and John. They may bring to nothing our theology. They may ask us the most pertinent questions;
  • but there is one thing they will never be able to gainsay, and I plead for this one thing, that is, that we are trees of the Lord and are satisfied.

• If we are satisfied, and full, our words may be feeble, but men will never be able to deny the fact that we have something, we have a source of satisfaction about which they know nothing.