2 Timothy 2: 3
Exodus 27: 1-8; 30: 22-29
I seek help to say a short word in regard to the matter of suffering. It was not my thought to say much on the character of sufferings that we have, but that it is a necessary matter; maybe it is not one that is the brightest subject we could speak of, but it is a very necessary one. God has great things in mind for us. We may be content with the salvation of our souls, our eternal salvation, but God has greater things in mind. He has in mind, dear brethren, that we will reign with Christ, that we will be with Him, a morally suitable counterpart to Him. God has foreseen the need before time was that He should be set forward in such a way by persons of moral worth. He does not have in mind that we should reign with Christ and not be suitable for that position, or not be able to fill out our place eternally with Christ in glory publicly. God does not have in mind to have us there with Him in some sort of sufferance, or some unsuitable way, but He has provided a way in which He is going to make us absolutely suitable for that; and that includes suffering. When we are younger and have exercises in Christian life - maybe we get married and maybe have children, and so on, we trust that things will go well with us, and that we will enjoy the meetings, and we will enjoy our Christian life; but God has another way in mind for every one of us. It is not that our Christian life it is not to be enjoyable. The Lord could say, “take me not away in the midst of my days”, Ps 102: 24. Think of the delight the Lord had in His life here. But God has a way: He is going to form us, and form us through suffering, because it is the only way that will make us suitable for His thoughts for us. It is not to be avoided, and we are not to be downcast when it happens. And what Paul says is that you should take your share in it, 2 Tim 2: 3. You do not look for it, but it will come, and when it does come take your share in it. God has that in mind, not to belittle you, not to bring you down, or to discourage you.
It says of Abraham that there came a time when "God tried Abraham”, Gen 22: 1. We can see the feelings of God in that matter, finding something in Abraham that showed a tremendous moral worth. There was moral weight and power that Abraham had, able to command his men, three hundred and eighteen servants, chap 14: 14. So God tried him to bring to light what was found in him. I think this touches on the line of faith. When man came in and took up matters in his own hands he established a system in Babel that was against God, chap 10: 10. God then established His own system, the faith system, and called persons out to it. It does not say much about the saints before the flood; it just says they lived and begot sons and daughters, and then they died, but God had worked something out in these men, chap 5. It says of Enoch that he "walked with God", v 24. It does not say much of what happened in his life, but turn to Jude and we can see what his prophecy was; and see how he must have suffered in the midst of an evil world. He must have suffered here as a result of the evil which he was passing through, and from the message which he had from God as to the ungodly, “the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all”, Jude 14-15. What a message to men! How they must have reproached him for that. Noah lived at the time when God repented that He had made man; how Noah suffered preaching for all these years, building the ark and preaching to men, and yet they would not heed him, 2 Pet 2: 5. Then you get Abraham called out from the Babylonian empire, from Nimrod’s empire; did he not suffer? It speaks of them in Hebrews 11, “All these died in faith, not having received the promises”, v 13. It says Abraham went out after the God of glory appeared to him, Acts 7: 2. What did they get? They got the promises. Did they get the actuality? No, it says, "having seen them from afar and embraced them". What they must have gone through. Job, no doubt concurrent with Abraham, went through much personally and in regard to his family. What happened at the end of Job was greater than the beginning. God reached His end in a man there. He was unerring. Jacob wrestled with God and becoming a prince, Gen 32: 28. What does that mean? It means there was a certain moral worth worked out in Jacob’s soul through these exercises. God worked something out in these men. Then you have the judges - what they suffered, Samson, Gideon, and others; how they suffered. None of them could avoid it. They were all brought in, called by God into His system, this line of faith. Did they lose anything? No, they lost nothing: they gained God. You get the children of Israel; think of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. It says Moses esteemed "the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt", Heb 11: 26. They were no sooner out of Egypt, than it appeared they might stone Moses, Exod 17: 4. He suffered at the hands of the children of Israel, as well as suffering with them. He went out, outside the camp, suffering, bearing the reproach, chap 33: 7. Think of what these persons went through, what was established. God “spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend”, Exod 33: 11. What God reached in that man through it all; something substantial, something real. Then you get the kings, and David sets out that matter in a full way. He was anointed at the very beginning, anointed to be king, but he was not made king immediately, 1 Sam 16: 12. God said, as it were, ’I am going to make you suitable for this position’. Was there anyone suitable for the position like David was? Was there anyone who suffered like David did in the path of the testimony: from Saul, and from Jonathan who loved him but turned away from him back to the house of Saul? Think of when he got Goliath’s sword from Ahimelech, when Doeg the Edomite told Saul, and slew all the priests, chap 22: 9 - 19. Did he not feel that? Then Ziklag, when the city was taken, the wives and the children, and all the goods were taken and they thought to stone him, chap 30: 5, 6. David was a feeling man. One of the reasons God took up David was that he was a feeling man; he felt these matters. What did he do? He said, "Bring near to me ... the ephod", v 7. He learned to trust in God; he learned to turn to God in extremity. Did that not serve him well when he got to reign? Did he not learn absolute obedience and dependence on God? Did he not learn, as Moses had had to when he put his hand in his bosom (Exod 4: 6), that turning to the flesh was of no use? Did he not learn that? He learned. They said of David, "even aforetime ... thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel", 2 Sam 5: 2. That is, he was a royal personage before he became king. He was suitable to the position which God gave him. We can see the wisdom and the greatness of God in working with these men. What a great cloud of witnesses we have. Think of the prophets. Peter speaks of them, “Concerning which salvation prophets, who have prophesied of the grace towards you, sought out and searched out; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these”, 1 Pet 1: 10, 11. They did not learn the sufferings of Christ in an external way: “the Spirit of Christ which was in them” testified of the sufferings of Christ. There was something in these prophets, some feeling, some suffering that went on in these prophets which testified to the greatness of the One who was to come. What a matter! These men were formed by suffering. God is working out substantial matters. Think of the feelings of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel at the time of the recovery, going back to the ruin of Jerusalem. Think of Jeremiah and Ezekiel seeing it, one remaining with the children of Israel in Jerusalem and one taken into captivity, feeling the captivity and feeling the breakdown. How these persons felt these matters. Then we have Daniel and others; think also of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, “see if here be any sorrow like unto my sorrow”, Lam 1: 12. Finally, we have those in Malachi at the end of the dispensation: God speaks of them, "he will ... purge them as gold and silver", chap 3: 3.
Then we come to our dispensation. Is this dispensation to be any different? Are persons to be formed by some miraculous means in this dispensation? No, this is the greatest dispensation of all. Think of the pearl, and formation of the assembly through suffering, that which is a perfect whole. Paul presents himself as marking out something of a delineation of the sufferings, things set out in a man. "I will show to him how much he must suffer for my name", Acts 9: 16. Things are not to be any less in this time. Dear brother and sister, God has marked out the way in which we should walk, and that way involves that we are formed in these matters, to be feeling persons. When we reign with Christ we are going to reign with a certain moral weight and moral glory, and a certain sympathy that has been worked out in these things, and a certain power. These things are real. Look round the room and see what has been worked out in brethren, and is being worked out. We need to value that, to value the brethren, and to value what has been worked out in them.
Exodus 27 speaks of the altar, “thou shalt make the altar of acacia-wood, five cubits the length, and five cubits the breadth; the altar shall be square; and the height thereof three cubits”. The first article the children of Israel would come to in approaching the tabernacle system, approaching God, was the altar, and it speaks of the person of Christ in a particular way. It was made of the same material as the ark, acacia-wood: durable, dense, suitable wood for the wilderness, one that would not wane or rot. It could go through the wilderness, and you could have confidence in that. It points to the kind of manhood that was there in Christ that was incorruptible, could never be overcome. The altar was covered in copper; that is a metal, which can endure intense heat, and we can see that in the Lord’s manhood, particularly at Gethsemane, and moving on to the cross, and these first three hours on the cross. We can see One here who went on in power and was able to endure suffering at the hands of men. It says, “thou shalt make for it a grating of network of copper; and on the net shalt thou make four copper rings … the net shall be to the very middle of the altar”. Think of the copper right into the middle of the altar, the very inwards of the Lord, all that He was was absolutely durable, indestructible. We see perfect manhood in Him, and enduring not in an unfeeling way or a stoic sort of way but enduring in a feeling way. Think of Him there at Gethsemane saying, “Abba, Father”, Mark 14: 36. How He felt that, the cup which He would have to take moving into death. He felt matters as to Israel, but He was entirely cognisant of and intelligent about all He was taking up, and suffered in His mind as to all He was taking up in going into death. He would not be turned aside. So it says it was “five cubits the length, and five cubits the breadth”, four square, universal, that is it is available to all. We have to see and accept that the basis has been laid in the death and suffering of Christ. “And thou shalt make its horns at the four corners thereof” what power there was in Christ. Think of the psalmist saying, "bind up the sacrifice with cords, - up to the horns of the altar", Ps 118: 27. Think of the Lord being bound there, speaking reverently, in His love, to the Father’s will, the will of God. The sacrifice and the altar, one, bound together. He would not give up anything, not one iota. He went on in preparedness and willingness to suffer for the will of God. What a blessed Man for our affections. So when we speak of the matter of suffering we have to see that the Lord Jesus is pre-eminent and a model in all these matters. "No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends", John 15: 13. We will never arrive at anything greater than Christ. Paul says to the Philippians that he was exercised to “know him”, chap 3: 10. I do not think Paul could ever fully understand all that was in Christ; Paul did not think so. Paul acknowledged that he would just love to know Christ more. It says in Hebrews that God has made perfect the Leader of our salvation through suffering in bringing many sons to glory: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”, Heb 2: 10. I understand that to mean that, if He is bringing many sons to glory, then the Leader is the One who has set the matter out; He is in glory, and made suitable to His office in glory through suffering. Now if He is a leader in it, then we all must be followers. So if we are going to glory and be made suitable for glory with Christ it must be through suffering. The saints of the old and new dispensations are going to be taken up together. How great the aggregate of all that God has in moral worth in the saints of these dispensations, "what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints", Eph 1: 18. It is inward; it is in them, not something outward; it is something that is worked out in the hearts and souls of the believers.
I just want to touch lastly on this matter in Exodus 30, “And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, And thou, take best spices - of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon the half - two hundred and fifty, and of sweet myrtle two hundred and fifty, and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin; and make of it an oil of holy ointment, a perfume of perfumery after the work of the perfumer”. We see something of the Lord’s own operations and work in view of sustaining us in suffering. In a previous chapter, we have the clothing in which the high priest goes in sympathetically to God with the saints on his shoulders and on the breastplate, Exod 28. But here we get something that is for God, and it is “a perfume of perfumery after the work of the perfumer”. There is skill involved in the work of the perfumer. I think the Spirit is operating now in view of the adornment of what is for God; skilful work. Things are mixed, blended together; there is something very fine intimated in this, I think. It says, “And thou shalt anoint the tent of meeting with it, and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all its utensils, and the lamp-stand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering and all its utensils, and the laver and its stand”. Everything was to be anointed with this oil. It tells us in Hebrews that "almost all things are purified with blood", Heb 9: 22. That means that the value of the blood was on the whole system. Young believer, the system now is seen in the people of God. It consists of the people of God and their approach to God through Christ. What I understand this to mean is that everything in this system, this whole system of which we are part, is to have the savour of this holy anointing oil. We come to the meetings, or come among the brethren, and we should smell this oil: something of the savour of the Spirit of Christ in the saints, something worked out by the Spirit, "the work of the perfumer" in the spirits of the saints. They are dignified persons. In Philippians Paul speaks of that, “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”, Phil 1: 19. If we are going to be here in a suffering path, be here true and faithful to Christ, we need something of the Spirit of that Man, the character of that Man. God is not working in an outward way to establish some hollow outward edifice. There is something inward; He is working to establish the character of Christ in the saints. “The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” means we will walk here animated and characterised by the same Spirit which characterised Christ when here. Is that not wonderful!
So it says, “of liquid myrrh five hundred shekels”. Think of the suffering love of Christ, the One who was prepared to suffer and endure. He loved us and He suffered for us, He delivered Himself up for us. It came to the point in John’s gospel when He was being taken into the hands of man and He said, “let these go away”, John 18: 8. He would suffer for them; He would go on. What a suffering love was Christ’s! Smyrna, I suppose, gives us one answer to this. Smyrna means ’myrrh’, and there is not an assembly like them; they are not upbraided at all, there is no correction, “I know thy tribulation and thy poverty; but thou art rich”, Rev 2: 9. They were prepared to suffer, and that suffering love of Christ was worked into them - what riches. The Perfumer had been operative there, and the Lord says, “I know … the railing of those who say that they themselves are Jews, and are not, but a synagogue of Satan”. I know what you have been through. He says, “Fear nothing of what thou art about to suffer”, v 10. The Lord would say, ’I am with you in the suffering; you are going to know Me in a way you have never known Me before, but I will be with you in it all that you might be formed like Me’; that is the myrrh.
Then the cassia and these other spices; I do not know that I could say much about them. Cassia, I understand, is a fragrant root, something that would involve depth of feeling, deep feeling which is so pleasing to God. Joseph dreamt of the cluster of grapes pressed into the cup, Gen 40: 11. It speaks to us of the depth of feeling that was there in Christ and the appreciation of God as these grapes are pressed; the pressure of death coming upon Christ; what a delight to God, what a joy to God, in the Lord as suffering in that way. Well, God is going to work out depth with us, that we may be deep persons. I feel the need not to go on with things in a formal outward appearance of things. God is going to work out something deeper; and, more to the point, we have to leave ourselves open for that. You have to feel things yourself, to go before God about them. If there is some difficulty you have in your soul, have you been before God about it? Have you been into His sanctuary, such as Asaph was, Ps 73? Have you been before God about the matter? Is there trouble in your work, trouble locally? Have you seen what God sees about the matter? Have you seen things from His side? Have you seen and felt the way God feels about things? You say, ’There is something not right in my locality’. Well, who of us could say there is not? How does God feel about that matter? I believe “the work of the perfumer” means that the Spirit would bring in feelings. The Spirit would enter into these things with “groanings which cannot be uttered”, Rom 8: 26. What a blessed service the service of the Spirit is. And then there are these other spices; the cinnamon came from the bark of a tree. It has been said it speaks of something outward that can be seen. Much of this matter belongs to inward exercises but in measure there is that which may be taken account of even by the brethren.
For the myrtle, the place that comes to mind is in Zechariah, where a man "stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the low valley", Zech 1: 8. It seems to be somewhere where they would come, down in a low place, to get God’s mind in regard to the world. God had sent the horseman out to see how things were, and everything was at rest. I suppose we would have God’s mind and God’s interest even in regard to things that are outside; we would feel matters in the world and in Christendom. God feels that His creature is getting more and more entwined in Satan’s wiles. Modern technology is bringing man further and further into Satan’s grasp. How thankful we are for the gospel, it is God’s power to extricate men from Satan’s power.
And there is the "olive oil a hin". It must be the Spirit Himself as He enters into these matters. The older brethren no doubt often feel matters in a more spiritual way, and we should respect that, and see the feelings that come out in the older brethren. They have been brought up in an age, no doubt, when this was a more godly country, and immorality was less prevalent than now; and I have noticed older brothers suffering in ways that maybe we do not realise. They may feel a wrong state while I may not be so sensitive; or when a wrong line is taken, or the wrong man is promoted in a way to which maybe I would not be quite so sensitive. Dear brethren, let us appreciate these brethren whom the Spirit has had a long work with, and that have a spiritual sensitivity.
Well, I just leave these things with us. May we leave ourselves open to the work of the Perfumer. What a blessed work has been worked out through this line of suffering. What a beautiful savour God is going to get through all the ages, through the blessed work of Christ, and through His operations involving the sufferings of the saints. These things are very precious and they are for God. It says, “Upon man’s flesh it shall not be poured, neither shall ye make any like it”. It is not to ingratiate, or make anything of, man after the flesh; there is nothing else like it. You cannot imitate it. Christendom has tried to imitate in a certain sense, but there is nothing quite like this, “the work of the perfumer”, it is holy, “holy shall it be unto you”, v 32. There is something holy and precious about the work of God in the saints. We can see it in Christ, but we also should take account of it in each other. May we do so, for His Name’s sake.
East Finchley
29th May 2010