Reading:
2 Kings 2:1–15.
"And
it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into
heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from
Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, "Tarry
here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to
Bethel." And Elisha said unto him, "As the
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee." So they went down to Bethel. And
the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth
to Elisha, and said unto him, "Knowest thou that the
Lord will take away thy master from thy head to
day?" And he said, "Yea, I know it; hold
ye your peace." And Elijah said unto him,
"Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord
hath sent me to Jericho." And he said, "As
the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee." So they came to Jericho. And the
sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha,
and said unto him, "Knowest thou that the Lord will
take away thy master from thy head to day?" And
he answered, "Yea, I know it; hold ye your
peace." And Elijah said unto him, "Tarry,
I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to
Jordan." And he said, "As the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee." And they two went on. And fifty men
of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar
off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took
his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the
waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that
they two went over on dry ground. And it came to
pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto
Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be
taken away from thee." And Elisha said, "I
pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon
me." And he said, "Thou hast asked a hard
thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from
thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not
be so." And it came to pass, as they still went
on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of
fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder;
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And
Elisha saw it, and he cried, "My father, my father,
the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof." And he saw him no more: and he took
hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He
took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and
went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; and he took
the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the
waters, and said, "Where is the Lord God of
Elijah?" and when he also had smitten the waters,
they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went
over. And when the sons of the prophets which were
to view at Jericho saw him, they said, "The spirit
of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." And they came
to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before
him."
In
this meditation we have before us Elijah's last
journey in company with Elisha, on the eve of
Elijah's being raptured to heaven. We have seen
that the keynote of Elijah's life is found in the
words with which he twice made reply to the Lord: "I
have been very jealous for the Lord..." His
whole life is packed into what is represented by those
words. We have also noted what jealousy for the Lord
means, and to what it leads.
Heavenly
fulness was reached personally by Elijah when he went up
by a whirlwind into heaven, and was the glorious crown of
a life poured out for the interests of the Lord, with the
one consuming purpose that God should have His full place
amongst His people, and have all His rights in them
secured to Him. Elijah was the man who set aside all
personal interests in order that this object might be
attained and the Lord's people might stand as a
testimony in the earth and the universe to the fact that
God has that in which He enjoys His full rights. To
that Elijah gave himself to the full, and that was the
fire which burned in his bones, the fire of a great
jealousy for God. That issued in his reaching
heavenly fulness.
The
Testimony To Be Established In This World
But,
as we have indicated, that testimony was to be carried on
in the world, and so Elisha was brought into relationship
with Elijah before the latter's translation, and was
to be the expression here of what Elijah was in heaven.
Elijah had gone into heavenly fulness on the ground of
having secured the Lord's rights amongst His
people. Thus there was in heaven a man who had
reached heavenly fulness on that ground, but there was to
be in the earth the expression, not of what Elijah was
before he went up, but of what Elijah was after he had
gone; an expression here of heavenly fulness on the
ground of the Lord having had His rights secured to Him
fully and utterly in the midst of His people, as is set
forth for us in the Carmel crisis of the life and
ministry of Elijah.
Accordingly
we find that Elisha was the instrument of that heavenly
fulness, and wherever he went, and in connection with
everything with which he had to do, heavenly fulness came
in. We are not engaged with the life of Elisha at
this time, though we make reference to it. We are
considering the basis of that heavenly fulness which is
but a type and an illustration of what obtains now in
this present dispensation. The Lord Jesus is the
counterpart or Anti-type of Elijah. He came to
secure the rights of God in His universe. He fought
the battle for the rights of God, and fought it through
to a final issue. As Elijah fought to an issue at
the altar of Carmel, so Christ fought this battle out to
an issue on the Cross of Calvary, and having thus settled
once for all the question of God's rights, having
brought that issue to perfection, He went up into
heavenly fulness, He was received up into glory.
Further,
there was also to be a counterpart of Elisha, and that
counterpart is seen, or was intended to be seen, here on
earth in the Body of Christ, the Church. The Church
is intended to be an expression of heavenly fulness on
earth. So many are looking for the day when we shall
get to heaven and enjoy heavenly fulness. The
Lord's thought is that we should know something of
it now, that it should be expressed here on the earth as
a testimony to the Man in the glory. That
constitutes His present manifestation in this
world. That is the Lord's desire. Heavenly
fulness can be known in measure, and in large measure,
here on this earth, but it can only be known and
expressed on the same ground as that upon which Elisha
stood, the ground where God has had all His rights
secured to Him through His interests being served, and
through His people giving Him His full place. In
this chapter, therefore, which embraces the period
between the end of Elijah's earthly life and the
beginning of Elisha's ministry, we are shown in a
typical or an illustrative way what is meant when we
speak of God having His rights secured, and how this
leads to heavenly fulness.
The
Path To Fulness
We
have summed it all up in one word,
"zeal". Elijah had been very jealous for
the Lord. It can at once be seen that this same zeal
is a mark of Elisha, when we look at 2 Kings 2. "And
Elijah said unto Elisha, "Tarry here, I pray thee;
for Jehovah hath sent me as far as Bethel." And
Elisha said, "As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul
liveth, I will not leave thee." So they went
down to Bethel" (verse 2). At Bethel,
Elijah said the same thing to Elisha in relation to
Jericho, and Elisha's reply was as before. They
went on together therefore to Jericho, and there the same
thing occurred again with reference to their proceeding
to Jordan.
But
we have not yet noted all, for as they went, Elijah said
to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I
be taken from thee" (verse 9). Elisha, as though he
had already calculated and preconsidered the matter,
promptly answered, "I pray thee, let a double
portion of thy spirit be upon me." To this
request Elijah in turn replied, "Thou hast asked a
hard thing; nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken
from thee, it shall be so unto thee..." (verse
10). So they went through Jordan to the other
side. Elijah was then caught up by the whirlwind
into heaven, and in order that Elijah should know that he
was there, Elisha cried, "My father, my father, the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen
thereof" (verse 12). I am here! I
want you to know that I am here! You tried to shake
me off, but I am here! You have tested me as to
whether I really meant business; you have tried me, to
see if I would go all the way, and I am here! Very
clearly do we there see the zeal of the Lord. There
is a man who really gave diligence to make his calling
and election sure. There was zeal to go on to
God's full thought; not merely to go so far and then
to stop; not to go but a third of the way, nor two thirds
of the way, but the whole way. "As the Lord
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave
thee." Those are the words of a man consumed by
the zeal of the Lord. That is a good foundation for
ministry, and on that ground Elisha entered into the
enlargement, the heavenly fulness.
That
is where we begin. We can put it in many ways. We
may speak about zeal to go on. We may speak about
utterness of devotion. We may speak of meaning
business with God. In whatever way we express it,
the thing itself is basic to God's heavenly fulness,
and it will only be such individuals and such assemblies
of God's people as are after this kind that will
truly represent here on the earth what Christ is in
heaven.
It
is not, in the first place, a case of how much we
see. We may be incapable of comprehending,
apprehending, or understanding all the truth that we
hear, all that is brought to us in the way of
teaching. If we have thought it to be necessary for
us to understand everything before we can come into the
Lord's fulness, we have made a mistake, because, in
the first instance, it is not how much we see that is
basic to heavenly fulness, it is how much we
mean. God knows our meaning. God knows how
utter we are. God knows exactly the measure of our
abandonment to go on, and He takes us up on that
ground. It is not the measure of our understanding
of truth but the measure of our utterness for God that
gives Him the opportunity of taking us on to increasing
fulness in Christ.
Let
us remember that God is toward us what we are toward
Him. "With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; and
with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself
froward" (Psa. 18:26). If we are utter
toward the Lord, the Lord will be utter toward
us. If we are half-hearted toward Him, we shall find
that the Lord Himself will be limited to our
measure. He cannot be other with us; He cannot
be more for us. He cannot show more to us, or lead
us into more than we are really purposing by His grace to
come into.
Thus
in the case of Elisha, though it is his later life that
represents heavenly fulness, he came to it as being a man
who had always meant business with God. Our first
glimpse of Elisha, before ever he came into association
with Elijah, shows him to be such a man. Elijah was
passing by, and he saw Elisha the son of Shaphat
ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. Here was a man
who had all his resources in the field. He had brought
out into action, into operation, all that he had at his
command. He was putting everything into his
business. Why should the Holy Spirit record
that? Surely He is not interested in merely
embellishing narratives with interesting
details. This man was ploughing, and he was
ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen. The Holy Spirit
takes account of what sort of a man he is, and of whether
he means business or not. Elisha was found to be such a
man, a man of purpose who put all that he had into
commission. God met him, and found that to be a
suitable avenue for His self-expression in that
man's life spiritually in service of another
kind. So we first find this man ploughing with
twelve yoke of oxen, and then later in another connection
refusing to be turned aside, but persisting right up to
the point where he could go no further. He was a man
who went as far as he possibly could.
Zeal
for the Lord, devotion, is a great
factor. Elisha's reality was tested. The
Lord always puts our declarations to the test. He
subjects them to test after test, tries us by what we
say, to see if we are really in earnest. Another
rebuff comes, another set back, another check, another
discouragement, another experience which seems to say
that the Lord does not want us. It may be a strange
way of putting things, but I believe that the Lord
sometimes brings us to the place where we have to take
the attitude that we will not be put off by
Him. Perhaps you do not understand that
language. I can put it in another way. We
sometimes have to come to the position where we say,
Well, we are going on, whatever the appearances may be;
and it may even seem that the Lord is discouraging us and
working against us. The enemy may interpret things
in that way, and, were we to yield to things as we find
them, to the circumstances, to the experiences, we should
simply give up and cease to go on. At such times we
have to say in cold deliberateness, without anything to
encourage, without any inspiration, without anything at
all to support us, We are going on! God
allows us to come to positions like that, and tests us in
that way. When the Lord gets men and women who,
despite every kind of discouragement, every lack of
encouragement, even from the Lord Himself for the time
being, say, Well, in spite of all, we are going on, He
has something there that gives Him an opportunity, and
such lives will come into His greater fulnesses.
We
mark then these things which lead to fulness. It is
most interesting to note the inner history of the
spiritual life that this story reveals, and the lessons
are not difficult to read. When Elisha had been
subjected to testing as to his reality, as to whether he
were really in earnest, and had shown himself approved,
then we are able to see that these occasions of his
testing themselves represent the advancing stages of
fulness toward final fulness. The very places
mentioned in this journey indicate heavenly
fulness. We look at them briefly, to get the main
thought connected with them.
The
Meaning Of Gilgal
You
notice, in the first place, that they started from
Gilgal. We are not told that they came to Gilgal,
but it appears rather that they had their residence
there. Then, further, it is stated that Elijah went
with Elisha, not that Elisha went with Elijah. It is
a good thing to remember that the initiative is with the
Lord. From the Lord's side the position as a start
is made may be thus expressed: Now, you come with
Me! Thereafter it is a following of the Lord, a
going on with Him. It is always a means of great strength
to be able to point to the fact that it was the Lord Who
initiated the work—"...He which began a good
work in you will perfect it..." (Phil. 1:6),
"For it is God Which worketh in you both to will and
to work..." (Phil. 2:13). What He works in
us we have to work out; there comes the Elisha side, the
following.
Elijah
went with Elisha from Gilgal. That was their
starting point, and perhaps their place of
residence. Maybe you know the meaning of
Gilgal. Gilgal has two aspects. Firstly, it stands
for the setting aside of the flesh. Turning again to
the Book of Joshua, we see that at Gilgal the new
generation which had grown up in the wilderness was
circumcised. There, in a typical way, the flesh was
set aside, in order that they might come into the land
and possess its fulness. The very first step toward
heavenly fulness is the setting aside of the
flesh. This speaks of the separating work of the
Cross, the cutting off of the whole body of the flesh,
the self-life.
I
prefer the use of the term "the self-life,"
because when we talk about the flesh, many people have no
other thought but of all that wicked, evil, base sort of
thing that everyone is glad to get rid of, that is
recognized by everyone as evil, and cannot be
tolerated. Those ideas are associated with the term
"the flesh." But what is the
flesh? The comprehensive definition of the flesh is
the self-life, and if you know all the aspects of the
self-life, you know a great deal! Who can comprehend
the self-life? It comprises self-will, self-energy,
self-glory; there is no end to the catalogue once we
attempt to define.
The
will of the flesh, which is the will of ourselves as a
part of the old creation, stands in the way of heavenly
fulness. The more serious aspect of this, in the light of
what the Lord is saying to us about His rights and His
interests, is that self-life in any form destroys the
testimony to what Christ is in heaven. Christ is in
heaven because of what He is, because of the utter
repudiation of the self-life in every way. He
emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death. He repudiated every suggestion to act from
His own human life apart from the Father. Every evil
offer made to Him, every temptation presented to Him
which had in it the thought of serving Himself, His
own interests, was immediately quenched. "All
these things will I give thee..." said the Devil
pointing to the kingdoms of this world (Matt.
4:9). To have heeded the appeal at such a time, and
from such a source, would have been a serving of Himself.
On
that principle, self, in every form, and shape, and
suggestion, was set aside in the interests of the
Father. It was not mere asceticism, as of one who
was denying himself and being an ascetic on the basis
of other worldliness. No! He was positively living
unto the interests of His Father—"...make not
My Father's house a house of
merchandise" (John 2:16). It was then that
the disciples remembered that it was written, "The
zeal of Thine house shall eat me up" (verse
17). On the ground of His complete triumph in thus
setting aside all that could have been the expression of
His own life, as apart from the Father, He is what He is
in glory.
That
is to have an expression here in the Church which is His
Body, and in its individual members. But that
testimony to what Christ is in glory is eclipsed, is
hidden, is marred, when you or I are actuated by anything
of the self-life. It is a searching thought. When we
consult ourselves, what we would like or what we would
not like, what we want or do not want; when in any matter
we refer to our own feelings and consult our own
inclinations in the presence of something that is of the
Lord the testimony is spoiled in us personally, spoiled
in our homes, and in any other direction where we are
living with a self-interest of any kind. And it is
only as we are brought to the place where we ourselves
are ruled out that we perceive in what measure the Lord
was seeking to work, whilst we were holding fast the
ground in our own interests; consulting our own will, our
own preference. In that realm heavenly fulness can
never be ours. We shall be as the children of Israel
were, limping from one side to the other; crippled,
unsettled, restless; never coming to an established
position, because this question of the Lord's
interests has not been fully settled.
Gilgal
is the place where that question is settled. The
Cross has cut off the whole body of the
flesh. Perhaps we do not know how selfish we
are. We can only discover that at the
Cross. Most of us have a blind spot about ourselves,
but at the Cross we shall discover our own hearts.
Gilgal
And The World
But
there is another side to Gilgal. It says that at
Gilgal the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. What
was the reproach of Egypt? If Egypt is the world, in
type, what is the reproach of the world? For what
are the people of God reproached by the world? The
most common thing that the world is ready to pounce upon,
and to cast back at any child of God, is
inconsistency. The world has a very shrewd idea of
what things ought to be. It has a good conception of
consistency. It knows when anyone professes to be
something, and is not what he professes to be. The
world knows. Israel came under reproach for
contradiction, inconsistency, denial of their own God,
their own testimony. That is very true. They became
a reproach; they are a reproach today. Ah, but not
Israel only. Is it not true of many, and to some
extent of the whole Church? The reproach is that it
is not what it claims to be, is not what God meant it to
be, nor what God has made possible it should be. It
is something other, a contradiction; and that is its
reproach. How has this reproach and contradiction
come about? Because of the flesh, the personal
interests, the personal elements! Look at it where
you will, it largely speaks of that. Our
inconsistency finds its cause there, that God wants one
thing and we want another; that God means one thing and
we do not mean that; that God has called us by a certain
name and we are not coming up to it. He has called
us by the name of His Son and we do not bear that name
with honour. We are a reproach simply because of
these personal, fleshly elements.
Gilgal
must get rid of that, that the reproach should be rolled
away, and the glory of the Lord should be seen in the
place of the reproach.
We
are dealing with very solemn things. It is so easy
for us to speak of being very zealous for the Lord, of
wanting to be out and out, wholly consecrated. We
can use this language so easily, and no doubt if it were
put as a personal question, the response would be, Yes, I
mean to be out and out for the Lord. How are you giving
expression to your zeal for the Lord? Is it by a
multitude of religious activities? That is not the
root of things. We may be in such activities for our
own pleasure, for our own satisfaction. It may
greatly gratify us to be in that realm of
things. The question is a deeper one than
that. It is our jealousy for God that
counts. Does our jealousy for God really mean that
we are setting ourselves aside, what we want or do not
want, what we like or do not like? Do we come
into the matter in any connection whatever? Are we
found not accepting God's will for us on any point
because we have made ourselves believe that it is not
God's will? Because we do not like it, do not
want it, therefore it is not God's will for
us! Let us be honest. To be jealous for God
means that we have set aside ourselves altogether to give
God a full place. In any situation can we say, Now,
Lord, this thing may be the last thing in the world that
I want and that I like, but dost Thou want it? Is
Thy will in that direction? If so, there is no
argument, no controversy, I gladly accept Thy
will. That is being zealous for the Lord; that is
giving the Lord His rights. Oh, how zeal for the Lord has
been misinterpreted and made an external thing. The
people who think they are very zealous for the Lord may
be the most self-willed with regard to things which are
bound up with the Lord's testimony in their lives,
in their homes, in their families, in their
businesses. To give God a full, clear way, not
merely in a resigned manner that says, Oh, well, the Lord
can have His way! but in one which comes in with the Lord
to cooperate, that is zeal for God. Gilgal brings us
there.
The
Vital Reality And Meaning Of The House Of God
When
Gilgal has set aside the body of the flesh, and rolled
away the reproach, and put us on ground consistent with
our testimony, and with what Christ is, we can move
on. That opens the way for heavenly fulness, and we
can then move from Gilgal to Bethel. Gilgal leads to
Bethel.
You
must remember that the Word of God is written by a
non-progressive mind. The mind of God is not a
progressive mind. The mind of God is full and final
at one instant. It has comprehended
everything. There is no room for improving the mind
of God. In the mind of God, Bethel is one with
Gilgal; that is, the House of God is intimately
associated with the Cross. If we go on with God, the
Cross leads us immediately to the House of God. The
Cross opens the way to the House of God, to Bethel, and
the House of God depends for its full meaning upon
whether the Cross has done its work. A great many
people think that the Church, the House of God, or
whatever you may term it, is a doctrine, a part of a
system of Christian truth. Have you thought
that? Well, let me say that you are wrong. What
is the House of God? We may first name a number of
things which it is not. The House of God is not a
part of a system of Christian truth or teaching. It
is not a congregation with religious services. It is
not a Christian society with a membership. It is not
a religious association for religious purposes. Yet
these are the ideas that are in so many minds when we
speak of the House of God. People think of it as a
place where religious observances are carried on, or as a
society set up for religious purposes. The House of
God is the spiritual relatedness of believers.
"For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body..."
(1 Cor. 12:13). That is the House of God, a
spiritual relatedness. But it is more. The
House of God is the recognized and active relatedness of
believers. It is not a nebulous thing. It is
not an abstract idea. The spiritual relatedness of
believers is very wonderful, but there must be a
recognition of it, and that relatedness must be made an
active thing. That is the House of God.
Then
the House of God represents a greater measure of Christ
than is possible to any number of separate
individuals. Separate individuals can never come to
the Lord's fulness. It will necessitate all the
believers for the Lord's fulness to be entered into,
but to come to it believers must needs be in a
relatedness, and that an active relatedness. That is
very practical. Any life that is a free lance,
independent, detached, will be limited, even though there
may be belief in the spiritual relatedness of all
believers. This thing has to become practical, an
actual working thing. Fellowship is essential to fulness.
We
know that is why the enemy has never ceased trying to
scatter the Lord's people; to divide, subdivide, and
divide again. He is always after that, because he
knows that actual relatedness is the way to the fulness
of Christ, the way in which what Christ is in heaven
becomes expressed here on the earth. Fellowship,
relatedness after a practical sort is an important thing
on the earth, and it cannot be repudiated. We
cannot, without robbing the Lord of something, pass it
off as something which has irreparably broken down and
can never again find an expression. Not at
all. The Lord has not taken that attitude. That
represents surrender to the Devil, the Devil's
triumph amongst the Lord's people. Actual
relatedness, persistent fellowship is the way of heavenly
fulness. That is Bethel, the House of God, the
heavenly fellowship of born-anew children of God here on
this earth.
You
see that a feature of the House of God is fellowship,
actual fellowship. Given that, another feature arises and
becomes manifest, and that is life. Oh, what life there
is in fellowship, the life of the Lord, His risen life,
is manifested in fellowship, and that is a feature of the
House of God. And is not the House of God, the Body
of Christ, intended to be the expression in a corporate
way of the fact that Christ is alive, is risen?
Then
life leads to light, and in the fellowship of the
Lord's people there is a ground for the Lord to
communicate the knowledge of Himself, in a way that He
cannot do to isolated individuals; that is, if they are
isolated by their own fault. We are not talking just
now about that geographical isolation which cannot be
avoided, but we are dealing with spiritual isolation,
separateness. The Lord reveals Himself in the midst
of His people in His greater fulnesses.
Thus
the House of God is a very practical thing, bringing us
on the way to heavenly fulness, and we have to recognize
that we are under a great responsibility for what the
House of God represents in the matter of spiritual
fellowship. There is no Bethel until there has been
a Gilgal, the place where the personal is put out and we
no longer live unto ourselves but unto one another, unto
Christ, for Christ, in order that there may be an
increase of Christ.
Faith
That Overcomes
From
Bethel we move to Jericho. It almost looks as if there is
a going backward as we note the order in the Book of
Joshua; but we are in the spiritual course of things now,
and are going onward. It is onward from Bethel to
Jericho, not backward. What is the meaning of
Jericho? Jericho stands for the faith which
overcomes. When you really come into the spiritual
meaning of the Church, the House of God, the Body of
Christ, it is not long before you find that you are
verily in touch with principalities and powers. It
is a costly thing to stand on the ground of the Church,
which is His Body. You cannot accept that merely as
teaching. If you really accept that in your heart
you will meet something before long, and you will find
you come to the endless "I," and can only get
through by being stripped of everything that is not
Christ. When you get on to that ground you find you
are in touch with the naked forces of evil,
principalities and powers, world rulers of this darkness
and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenlies. That is the realm of the Church, as we
know from the Letter to the Ephesians. You have come
to Bethel, the Church, and now to Jericho. What is
represented by Jericho? Jericho is the faith which
overcomes the principalities and powers, and is the
outcome of Gilgal and Bethel.
"The
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof!" What is the meaning of this? So
many have thought that the chariot had come to fetch
Elijah, but it had not; he went up to heaven by a
whirlwind. You will find that the chariot of Israel
and the horsemen come upon the scene in connection with
Elisha. They appeared three times in the life of
Elisha. They were the symbols of heavenly supremacy.
Whenever the chariot of Israel and the horsemen appeared
to Elisha there was victory in view; it was triumph every
time. The Lord opened the young man's eyes when the
city was besieged. He could only see the earthly
forces before his eyes were opened, and then he saw that
the mountain was full of chariots, a fact which told of
forces superior to those that were besieging and hemming
in on the earth. The last view of the chariot was at
Elisha's deathbed. The king came in, and there
was the question of Assyria and victory. As the king
came in to the deathbed of Elisha he cried: "...the
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof." Then you remember the story of the
bow and the arrows, and the smiting. Victory was in
view.
Jericho
is the faith which overcomes in the spiritual
realm. You come to that when you come to Bethel; you
come to the heavenlies and to the heavenly victory in
Christ. Heavenly fulness by faith is represented by
Jericho.
If
you are contemplating the forces of evil, and wondering
what is the secret of victory, let me suggest to you
never to launch yourself against the enemy until you have
been to Gilgal and come to Bethel, or you will be
smashed, you will be broken. Get the flesh out of
the way. That is the ground of the enemy to beat
you. Get the self-life put away, or else he will
have the advantage over you: come to the place where you
can say, "...the prince of this world cometh, and
hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30). It is
only when the Cross has dealt with the self-life that we
are in the way of advantage, of ascendency over the
enemy. But that is not all. It requires
fellowship, it requires the corporate action of the
Lord's people to deal with spiritual forces. We
have to come to Bethel, the House of God. We shall
never, as isolated individuals, bring down the forces of
evil. If we try we shall have a bitter
experience. We must act on the principle of the
Church, which is His Body: "...I will build My
church; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against
it" (Matt. 16:18). Get out of fellowship
and the enemy will worst you; come into fellowship and
you stand and withstand, and having done all you stand.
The
Conquest Of Death
Finally
we look at Jordan. This is not going backward,
although it may look like it. It is onward
still. What is the lesson of Jordan? Jordan
stands for victory over death. Is that a step
backward? No, it speaks of moving onward. Elijah and
Elisha came to Jordan together, and at Jordan, death in
type, in representation was overcome; its power was
broken, and two men went through. One man went up to
glory, triumphant over death, and the other took up that
victory and went round quenching death wherever he went.
Elisha retraced his steps over this way back to Jericho,
encountered death and turned death to life.
We
are called to that. That is a fulness of Christ; not
just victory over physical death, but victory in physical
death it may be; and victory over death itself, whatever
its form may be, spiritual or physical. Death is
conquered in Christ. That Man in the glory has
entered into the fulness which speaks of victory over
death; He has vanquished it, He has swallowed up
death victoriously. The Apostle writes,
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the
Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58). Wherefore? Because
He has swallowed up death victoriously. That is for
present experience. That is heavenly fulness for the
Church now.
You
see the issue; heavenly fulness. You see the way;
utterness for the Lord. You see what that means;
Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, Jordan. The Lord teach us
what it means and keep it alive in our hearts.