"... and salt
without prescribing how much" (Ezra 7:22).
"Ye are the salt
of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for
nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of
men" (Matthew 5:13).
"Salt is
good: but if the salt have lost its saltness,
wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in
yourselves" (Mark 9:50).
We come back to the
book of Nehemiah, and in connection with the rebuilding
of the wall of Jerusalem under the inspired leadership of
Nehemiah, we want to look at one more inclusive factor
which this work represents. We are speaking about the
recovery of the Lord's testimony - what Nehemiah spoke of
as the "great work" which God hath put into his
heart to do - and when we come to consider this recovery
on the positive side, there is one great principle of
recovery which includes all the other work. It is the
principle of resurrection. It does not require very much
profound thought to recognize that the rebuilding of the
destroyed wall of Jerusalem comes into line with a
testimony of resurrection, and to see how 'all of a
piece' this is with Israel's history, because we are
seeing - I trust we can say that - that this wall is an
emblem of the spiritual history of the people. What is
true of the wall at this time is true of the people. The
wall only expresses the condition of the people -
spiritually broken down, with many gaps, nothing complete
or perfect, nothing to full satisfaction, and therefore
nothing to the glory of God.
We pointed out, earlier,
that Nehemiah was contemporary with Malachi, and
Malachi's prophecies give us a very clear, though very
terrible, account of the spiritual condition of the
people of God at that time. So this wall, representing
the state of the people, reveals very clearly the need
for a resurrection. Israel's history repeatedly called
for that, but in this very connection you will remember
that, in looking on beyond the captivity, the greater
prophets had spoken of their return as resurrection. For
instance, Ezekiel, with the captivity fully in view, had
cried to the people, as commanded by the Lord:
"Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to
come up out of your graves" (Ezek. 37:12); and
in that great picture-parable of this - the valley of dry
bones - we have undoubtedly the matter of resurrection in
relation to Israel after the captivity, after the exile.
So that their coming back a remnant from Babylon to
Jerusalem, and building or rebuilding the wall, answers
to the prophecies concerning resurrection, although in
the temporal and earthly aspect the fulfilment is very
imperfect. A much greater fulfilment is still in view.
But here is the point -
it is a matter of resurrection. The going into captivity
was first of all judgment, judgment for sin, and it is
therefore represented as followed by death: for death
follows in the wake of judgment, and Israel is
represented as having gone into death, into a grave;
their exile being in the nature of a spiritual grave. If
we ask what death is, it is being put away from God, it
is separation from God. And so it was with them. They
were out of the place where God had appointed to meet
them; they were away from the Lord. And if to be put away
from the Lord in judgment is anything, it certainly is
death.
The
Resurrections of the Earthly Jerusalem
Now whenever God has
moved again to recover His testimony in any part or in
greater fullness, such movement has always been marked by
that which is inherent in resurrection, namely, newness
of life - or, to put it in another form, victory over
death. It has always been like that, and it always is
like that. A movement of God in relation to His testimony
in greater fullness always has the character of a
resurrection, the nature of a new life.
The historical records
of Jerusalem show that the city has been again and again
the scene of sieges, overrunnings and destructions. The
very survival of Jerusalem just as an earthly city is
nothing short of a miracle. There are other great cities
which, so far as this world is concerned, have been far
greater and more glorious than Jerusalem. Babylon, for
instance, Ur of the Chaldees, and we might even say Rome,
with others. They were great and mighty cities, from the
standpoint of men greater and mightier than Jerusalem.
But, so far as their former glory is concerned, they have
gone down once and for all. Babylon - where is Babylon?
Ur - where is Ur? A year or two ago I flew over Ur of the
Chaldees - and what could be seen? Nothing but
excavations of centuries gone by. And Rome - what is Rome
now compared with the great and glorious imperial city of
past centuries? a shadow filled with monuments and ruins,
things which speak of the past glory. These cities have
gone down, to rise again no more as they were.
But Jerusalem - she has
come up, again and again she has come up after siege and
destruction, showing quite clearly that God - the God of
resurrection - is interested in Jerusalem. He is
maintaining, even in the world, in a temporal Jerusalem -
a poor thing from man's standpoint; I do not think any
one would really choose to live in Jerusalem apart from
sentiment - He is maintaining, in a Jerusalem that has
been raised as from the dead again and again, a parable
of the greater truth.
The
Full Triumph of the Heavenly Jerusalem Over Death
And when we move from
the earthly to the heavenly: when we move from the old
dispensation - the dispensation of that Jerusalem, as
Paul puts it "that now is", here on the earth -
away to that other Jerusalem of which the Apostle speaks,
in heaven, the "Jerusalem which is above" (Gal.
4:25,26), or to that Jerusalem to which we are now come,
according to Hebrews 12:22, or to the Jerusalem which
appears at last in fullness of glory (Rev. 21:10): what
do we come to? We come to the full triumph over death,
because it is in that final heavenly Jerusalem that the
tree of life is found, and the river of water of life.
Everything speaks of death fully and finally conquered.
So that the wall in recovery is but a parable and a
picture of this great truth, substantiated in history,
but fully realized in glory in the spiritual realm. This
is a monument to the principle that when God is
associated, really associated, with anything or with
anyone, or when they are associated with God, the mark
will be resurrection - newness of life. It will be life.
A testimony in life is the testimony that is here
represented as being recovered, throwing its light right
on to our own time, which is marked by so many features
that characterized the days of Nehemiah spiritually. God
will move again - shall we not say God is moving again? -
to bring about in a new way, within a people, this great
testimony to the indestructibility of His own life;
something which declares that His life, though it may
seem oft-times to go into death, to be swallowed up, to
be overwhelmed, nevertheless comes up again; this life
cannot be fully and finally destroyed. A testimony in
life. It is a testimony to something that God does, that
is the point.
Resurrection:
The Unique Province of God
We have so often said
that resurrection is the unique province of God. We may
do a great deal at resuscitations artificial
respirations, but we can do nothing in resurrections.
Once death has taken place, that is the end of all man's
power and hope, and then it is for God to act, or it is
nothing. God is the God of resurrection - that is His
alone prerogative: so that anything that really is a work
of God bears this mark, that nothing can account for it
but an indestructible, imperishable life. There is
something there which is more than of man.
Sometimes man comes into
the things of God - we shall see that in this book as we
proceed - usurping the place of God in His Jerusalem, in
relation to His testimony; and then death begins and
destruction concludes the process; God hands the thing
over to death. It is a solemn thing to realize that there
comes a point where God has to stand back and hand over
to death, because man has taken hold and got in His way.
But when man does this the fires of judgment work. The
result of such interference with God will work itself
out; and then, when that work of fiery purification is
accomplished, God returns and raises from the dead. That
is the history of many things with which God has
commenced, but from which in the course of events He has
had to stand back, and then again He has come in. It is
like that.
And it is like that
sometimes in individual Christian lives. God finds that
He can go on no further; He has gone as far as He can.
Now He is obstructed; there is a will there that refuses
to yield to Him. There is something there that will not
let go to God. He stands back, and if it be through long,
long decades - witness Israel's forty years in the
wilderness, and seventy years of captivity; long years of
barrenness, emptying and desolation - the Lord does not
give up. He would recover, He would restore, He would
come again, He would have a testimony even there. But oh,
what a solemn warning not to lose life, to lose years to
lose the fruitfulness which might be, by resisting the
Lord, and knowing nothing but a barren death so far as
our usefulness to Him is concerned. Something that God
has done is the testimony that God would revive, not what
man has done for God, but what God Himself has done, and
more - a testimony not only in life, but a testimony of
life; not only what God has done but what God will do
through what He has done. He has raised an instrument, He
has brought it back to life, He has a vessel resurrected
- now see what He will do through it!
A testimony of life -
that surely is the glorious triumph of the ultimate
Jerusalem "coming down from God out of heaven".
What a chequered history that name Jerusalem has had! But
now at last there is triumph in connection with that very
name. No longer does it represent or symbolize defeat and
failure and tragedy. It is now the symbol of God's
triumph. Here at last death is swallowed up in victory.
And what happens? Out from that Jerusalem there flows a
river of water of life. The nations are deriving the
value. The tree is bearing its fruit, watered by that
river, and the leaves of the tree are for the health of
the nations. It is a testimony of life.
Everything
Permeated by Life
Now, there is a good
deal of difference between what is commonly called life
and what God means by life, and that is why I read those
fragments about salt. This life of which we are speaking
has in it an element. I only pass from one language to
another when I change from using the word 'life' to using
the word 'vitality'. It is the same word in two different
languages, but it is useful here. This life has a vital
element in it. There is something here that really
has got a sting in it. We sometimes speak of things
having a 'kick' in them. There is something there, a
positive element which, if we touch it, makes us realize
we are touching something mysterious, something vital. If
that touches a situation, it registers; the situation
knows that it has been touched by something. It is this
element that is represented by salt.
Now, salt is a very
interesting thing in the Bible. You notice we quoted from
Ezra. Ezra, of course, precedes Nehemiah. Ezra and
Nehemiah are working together to the same end. They are
all part of the whole. Ezra had to do mainly with the
beautifying of the temple after it had been rebuilt, and
with certain reforms, and with the recovery of the Word
of God. But when God acted sovereignly - according to the
first words of the book of Ezra, "that the word of
the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,
so that he made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom" and gave liberty and every provision and
facility to those who voluntarily chose to go back to
Jerusalem, not by law or constraint, but of a willing
heart - in all this marvelous provision that the king
made, there was this added, this strange thing. 'Give
them this and that in abundance, silver and gold and all
the other things': and then this - "and salt without
prescribing how much". Limitless salt!
What was that for? Well,
you see, salt is a synonym for life; even outside of the
Jewish or Hebrew economy, salt was recognized almost
universally as the symbol of life. In some realms they
made a covenant in blood, by shedding one another's blood
and then mingling it. That was a covenant in blood
between two people or two communities. In other realms
they took salt and mingled it, making a covenant in salt;
but the two things meant the same thing. Blood and salt
meant life. Without salt no sacrifice was ever regarded
by God as acceptable. That meant, in the thought of those
times, that God would never accept a dead sacrifice.
Every sacrifice offered to God must be a living one. Yes,
the animal was slain, and to all intents and purposes it
was dead, but salt contradicted death, denied that it was
dead, gave it that something, that vital element, that
made it a living sacrifice. The Lord Jesus said, "Ye
are the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13), and Paul
said, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice"
(Rom. 12:1). "Salted with salt" was a phrase of
the Lord Jesus (Mark 9:49).
"Salt without
prescribing how much". This was in the recovery
testimony of Nehemiah. That is, life more abundant;
abundant life. That is the testimony that the Lord is
seeking, this vital element. "Ye are the salt of the
earth". In other words, you are the very life in
this dead world. With all the death that is here - and
everything as far as God is concerned is in death: only
Christians know it, but they do know it: if we are really
the Lord's, we know how dead this world is, it is death
all around - the Lord says 'In the midst of all that, you
are the life, you are very life, of this
death-encompassed world; you are the life of the world,
you are the salt of the earth'. "Be salted with
salt". "Have salt in yourselves". 'Be
alive'; to change the language again, 'be vital'.
Such is the testimony to
be recovered - something, a mysterious something, that is
not in the mineral: for there can be the mineral that has
the show, the appearance, of the real stuff, but it has
lost its vital quality. "If the salt have lost its
savour..." You can have all the pretence, all the
profession, all the outward appearance, but something has
gone, and that missing something says the testimony that
should be within is not there. To recover that something
is what the Lord is after: not an outward framework, not
so much material with a semblance - it was the charge
laid at the door of a church in the book of the
Revelation, that they 'had a name to live but were dead'
(Rev. 3:1) - not that, but this something, this
mysterious something, about the Lord's people which comes
from God Himself and which speaks of the presence of God
within them.
An
Old Testament Illustration
We have illustrations of
this in the Old Testament. We have Elisha and the men of
Jericho who one day went to him and said, "The
situation of this city is pleasant" - 'every
prospect pleases' - "but the water is bad, and the
land casteth its fruit" (II Kings 2:19) - the mark
of death. Of course you know where that came from. You
remember that when Jericho was destroyed, the curse was
pronounced upon it, and Joshua said, "Cursed be the
man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city
Jericho: with the loss of his firstborn shall he lay the
foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son
shall he set up the gates of it" (Josh. 6:26).
Death, the mark of the curse, was pronounced upon it, and
now these years afterwards the men of the city come and
say that in the very waters of this city, with all the
prospects that are fine and good, death resides; nothing
comes to perfection, "all is vanity and vexation of
spirit", all is disappointment. Elisha said,
"Bring me a new cruse and put salt therein".
They brought him the new cruse and put the salt in, and
he emptied cruse and salt into the waters and the waters
were healed. Death was destroyed by the salt, but it had
to be in a new vessel. This is resurrection - newness of
life in a new creation.
We could stay long with
that, but you see the point. If Elisha is the prophet of
life, as undoubtedly he is, for everything about him and
all his works speaks of life conquering death, here is
the testimony. The salt is the emblem of life which
destroys the power of death and of barrenness,
unfruitfulness and disappointment. A wonderful life is
this. 'Ye are the life of the earth.'
We have other
illustrations, but I am not going to stay to give them.
We said in a previous study that the book of Ezra
represents the sovereignty of God, while the book of
Nehemiah represents the co-operation of man with that
sovereignty. Going back to Ezra: if that book is the
embodiment of the sovereign activity of God, God acting
from heaven on His own, right out from Himself, what is
He doing? If He stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia, and if Cyrus made this decree, and if the decree
was the result of a work of the Spirit of God in Cyrus,
then, when Cyrus said, "And salt without prescribing
how much", it was a provocation of the sovereignty
of God that made him say it. Cyrus was undoubtedly an
instrument of Divine sovereignty. You know how Isaiah
speaks about him. "Thus saith the Lord to his
anointed, to Cyrus... I will gird thee, though thou hast
not known me" (Isa. 45:1,5). An instrument in the
sovereignty of God. And now this man, in the hand of
God's sovereignty, is saying: "and salt without
prescribing how much". All these other things may
mean very little if there is no salt, no vitality. This
element must so to speak pervade the whole.
God is after this
something which is more than the framework of things. It
is an indefinable something. Sometimes you may hear hymns
- some of the good beautiful hymns - rendered on
gramophone records. These hymns may be sung by two
different kinds of people. Some of them may he sung by a
very capable, a very artistic choir, sung with perfect
technique, with beautiful artistry, and with fine voices
and harmony. Others, on the other hand. may not be sung
with all that professional skill, with all that artistry,
or with all that standard and quality of voice - but you
can tell the difference between the saved and the unsaved
every time. You know that on this one side it is a church
choir of unconverted people. I mean this - perhaps that
is harsh judgment - there is something lacking. It is
wonderful, it is beautiful, but there is something not
there that you miss. On the other hand, you know these
people are saved people, they are singing because they
love the Lord, they have a relationship with the Lord.
Now of course it takes a
Christian to discern the difference; but there is a
difference. You know it, you have heard it yourself. It
is just salt - this indefinable something that makes all
the difference between those who are in vital
relationship with the Lord and those who are doing the
same thing without that relationship. They have got all
the semblance, all the appearance. all the bulk, of the
salt - yes, but there is something not there. The salt is
without savour. We do not want just a technique,
accurate, correct doctrine, proper Christian practice,
forms, liturgies and all the rest. What is necessary,
whether these are present or not, is that there should be
this vital something that causes people to realize:
'Well, they may not be artists, they may not be
tremendously capable people, there may not be all the
marks of wonderful efficiency about them; but you meet
the Lord, you register some indefinable thing that
answers to your heart, and that is the thing that
matters'. The recovery of that testimony counts for more
than all the words, the phraseology, the form, the
technique. It is quite possible to have a New Testament
technique and New Testament churches, Christian doctrine
and practice, but still be without that something that
registers, and that is the testimony to be recovered.
So we see that the issue
is one of life. Now, in order to get that, God often has
to take very stringent measures. He will never be
satisfied with anything less than that. However much else
there may be, He will not be satisfied with less than
that, and so He will be prepared to put the thing through
the fire, even to seem to part with it for a time, if
peradventure He might recover that which has been lost.
He is the God of resurrection. Maybe the Lord is dealing
with some of us on this line. There was more salt at one
time than there is now. There was more sting in our
testimony than there is now. The Lord may be leading us
through a hard way. Or perhaps there never was that sting
that the Lord wanted, and the Lord is trying to teach us
that He is the God of resurrection - that we are
helpless, useless, worthless, until God Himself acts and
we cry out for that something which only He can give.
Whatever it may be, this is what the Lord is after, and
He will deal with us all the time, in this way and in the
other way, with that in view. His dealings will be in
order that at the end there shall be a testimony to His
absolute triumph over the power of death - that which
only the Lord can do; and if you feel today that you are
there, that only the Lord can do it, believe me you are
in a very hopeful position. Mr. Spurgeon once said that
if ever you feel that it requires a miracle to accomplish
a certain thing, you are in the right position to ask God
for it!