Reading:
2 Kings 6:8-23.
When we reach this part
of the life of Elisha, we come to touch an ultimate
feature of the power of resurrection. It relates to the
Throne in heaven. That which comes out of the sixth and
seventh chapters of the second book of Kings is that
secret, mystic touch which Elisha had with the Throne
above. You are here getting away from the things which
are more of an incidental character, back behind things,
and you find that there is a secret, hidden communion
between Elisha and the Throne of God in heaven. The very
plans of the Syrian king, and his purposes, are divulged.
Elisha has secret information apart from men, apart from
all human observation. He knows within himself what is
taking place. He is in touch with the Fountain Head of
all knowledge, and it is by reason of the secret
spiritual touch with the Throne that he so acts, and so
moves, as to frustrate plans which would involve in death
and destruction.
In New Testament words,
Elisha comes to the place where he is not ignorant of the
enemy's devices, but is cognizant of them. It is
spiritual perception; it is spiritual knowledge. It is
knowledge which springs from a spiritual union with the
Throne of government in the heavens.
When the king of Syria
seeks to take him, two other things of the same character
come before us.
1.
The Opening of the Eyes of Elisha's Servant
The Lord opened the
eyes of Elisha's servant to see what his master was
already seeing, that of which he was already aware, the
spiritual hosts on the side of the Lord's servant.
Here again is union
with the Throne in a very real way, and with all the
Throne-resources.
2.
Blindness Brought to the Syrian Host
In the same way by that
union power is put forth to bring blindness upon the
great host sent by the Syrian king to take him. Because
of that touch with the Throne Elisha takes command of the
opposing forces, and becomes the governor, the ruler, or
one in command.
Here is a
foreshadowing, in a sense, of what happened with Paul on
his voyage to Rome. He began the voyage, humanly
speaking, by being a prisoner, and concluded it by being
both in command of the commander and of all under his
command - the ship, the crew, and everything else. It was
simply a case of spiritual ascendancy because of his
being in touch with the Throne.
Then again, the same
thing is embodied in the turning of the famine recorded
in chapter 7. There is a terrible and devastating famine,
with horrible and ghastly aspects: the next day there is
food obtainable for nearly nothing, and the hosts of the
besieging army turning off because of a rumor, but so
turned off as to leave all the provision of the hosts
behind as resources for God's people. It is by the Word
of the Lord at the mouth of Elisha that this is done.
In all these matters
you see two things, or two parts of one thing. There is
the power of life triumphant over death, but this as
representing a union with the Throne. And in recognizing
that, we should recognize that the supreme, the ultimate
issue and intention of knowing Him, and the power of His
resurrection, even here in this life, is union with the
Throne. It is heavenly union with the Lord.
This is where that
foundational thing in the life of Elisha comes out in its
fullest, its highest, and its deepest expression. That is
to say, Elisha commenced his life ministry upon the
establishment of a spiritual union with his master who
had gone into heaven. The spirit of Elijah having fallen
on Elisha made them one, and Elijah in heaven and Elisha
on earth are in oneness by reason of that spirit. All
that comes through in the life of Elisha is simply the
expression of what is implied by Elijah being in heaven.
In all this we can
quite distinctly see the type of the exaltation of the
Lord Jesus to the right hand of the Majesty on High. The
Church as His instrument, His vessel on earth, is united
with Him by the Holy Spirit, and is therefore in vital
union with the Throne where He is. The Church is here to
express the power, the dominion of that Throne of the
ascended Lord. Into that all believers, individually and
collectively, are called by the Lord.
Let us break that up,
and first of all simply observe:
1.
The Fact of Union With the Lord
It would not take us
long in turning to the Word to establish the fact. We
should only have to take one part of the Scriptures alone
to establish that quite definitely, but there is a very
great deal more. If we were to take the Gospel by John,
we should find there that union with the Lord is one of
the great features of that Gospel. It is illustrated in
various ways right from the beginning - in the second
chapter, the third chapter, the fourth chapter, the fifth
chapter, the sixth chapter - right on it is one
many-sided presentation of the truth of union with the
Lord. And then there comes a point at which the Lord,
having illustrated it, emphasizes it. Having shown it to
be the deepest reality of the relationship between Him
and His disciples, and His disciples and Himself, He
begins to speak of going away, and says much about not
tarrying, of there being but a little while and He will
have gone. By such utterances He has provoked in them
considerable concern, so that they are much troubled.
Then, when that
anxiety, that fear, that dread, that concern has reached
a certain point of intensity in them, so that it is
approaching the point of overwhelming depression, He
changes the whole course of things with His Word of
exhortation, "Let not your heart be
troubled..." From that point He goes on to show that
all that He has been saying about union is to be a
spiritual thing of a deeper, stronger character than all
His earthly association with them. He shows that although
He is going, He is yet remaining; although He will be in
heaven, He will still be in them. The union is a
tremendous reality. He is saying quite clearly that this
is far more real than the association of people on the
earth.
You move from this
Gospel to John's first epistle, and you know how much the
same thing is emphasized there: "...our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son..." That is the
basis of the epistle. The nature of that is expanded in
the epistle, but we are not dealing with the nature, we
are observing the fact of union with the Lord in heaven.
This is not merely the
relationship between a god and his worshippers as in
heathenism. There is a relationship between the gods of
the heathen and their worshippers, but you can never call
it a union. This is not relationship between a Creator
and His creation. This is not a relationship as between a
master and his servants, neither is this the relationship
as of a workman and his tools. All these represent a
relationship, but they never represent a union. What the
Lord has designed is something very different from that
kind of relationship. We fear that there are not a few
people who know only that kind of relationship. God to
them is a Creator, and they are His creation. God to them
is God - perhaps the only true God - and they are
worshippers of the true God. But that is not union. God
has willed union. That is a great fact which is revealed
throughout the Scriptures.
2.
The Nature, Basis and Plan of This Union
(a)
The Nature
The nature is that
which carries it beyond such relationships as we have
just mentioned. The nature of this relationship is
essentially spiritual; that is, it is a union of spirit.
"He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."
"...they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit..." because "God is Spirit." The
union, then, is the union of spirit. That goes deeper
than any other kind of union. We cannot go deeper than
that. That defines the nature of man in the deepest, the
most real part of his being, that he is fundamentally in
the sight of God, spirit.
(b)
The Basis
The basis is life. That
is what John brings out so clearly, by way of
illustration, in his Gospel, and, by way of direct
statement, in his epistle - "...God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son." "He
that hath the Son hath the life." That is a
statement imposed upon the basic declaration that our
fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. The
fellowship is explained as being that of possessing His
very life. The basis of union with God is that God's own
life is given to us in new birth, and upon that God
builds everything, on that He counts for everything.
Where that is not, God can do nothing so far as union is
concerned.
In order to reach and
realize all God's thought, God must put Himself into man
in the very essence of His being, His very life. God
cannot realize spiritual, eternal, universal intentions
on the basis of natural life. The Scriptures make it very
clear that man's own natural life can never be the basis
of the realization of any of God's purposes, that God's
own life alone can be that. Thus for all His hopes God
first of all provides His own basis. God's hope is in His
own life, not in ours, and He puts the basis of His hope
within at new birth, and on that basis He proceeds to the
development of all His thought, and the realization of
all His intention.
That life brings light.
The light is the life. Without the life there can be no
light. Light is essential, because man is not a will-less
creature, but is destined to realize God's ends by
cooperating intelligently with God on the basis of one
life. Therefore, light is necessary; and if we walk in
the light, we have fellowship. The basis, then, of union
is life, and life issues in light, by which again
obedience comes.
You will notice that in
all these activities of God in bringing about spiritual
union with Himself, the Word is His instrument. Life
comes by the Word. Light comes by the Word. In the
beginning of the creation, in bringing the creation into
living union with Himself for His purposes, it was the
Word first of all which was the instrument. In the
re-creation, or regeneration, it is the Word again.
"In the beginning was the Word," and it
always is the Word. That is why the Lord Jesus said:
"...the words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit, and they are life." So that life and light
by the Living Word are the basis of union with God.
(c)
The Place
The place of union is
"the inner man of the heart," to use the New
Testament phrase. Paul was fond of using that phrase:
"...our inward man is renewed day by day,"
"...that He would grant you... that ye may be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward
man" (Eph. 3:16; A.S.V.). What is the inward man? It
is our spirit, the innermost place of our being. That is
the seat of union. Union is not first of all physical in
character. That needs no saying. Union between us and God
is not in its genesis of a mental kind, neither is it of
an emotional kind. Union between us and the Lord is not
in the realm of our soul at all in the first instance. It
is in our spirit. It is a thing which is deeper than our
soul; that is, deeper than our reason, deeper than the
powers of our natural mind either to analyze or
understand. It is deeper than our emotions, deeper than
our feelings. The fact of union with the Lord, when it is
established, abides when all our feelings contradict it,
and when all our power of reasoning is completely
confounded. When in the realm of the reason and in the
realm of the feelings there seems to be greatest evidence
that the union does not exist, it remains.
It is an important
thing for the Lord's people to get that well settled,
that union between us and the Lord has nothing whatever
to do with our feelings nor our reasoning. If we sit down
at times and allow our reasonings to carry us on, we
shall conclude that the union does not exist, because
there is so much which argues strongly and positively
against any such union. If we allow our feelings, or our
lack of feelings, to be the criterion, we shall give it
all up and declare the whole thing to be a myth. From
time to time feelings are altogether against the fact of
union with the Lord. It makes no difference; the union is
there if it has been brought about. People who take the
position that they must feel it or else they will not
believe, are going to have a bad time. The same applies
to people who demand that they shall be able to follow
this thing through with the completest mental argument.
The spiritual life is
something which goes altogether beyond the range of man's
mind. It is a very blessed thing to have that settled -
provided there has really taken place that new birth, and
there has been no positive, deliberate, conscious
violation of the law of the new life, by which that life
has been paralyzed, and shut up, and rendered for the
time being inoperative because of disobedience; providing
that we are going on in the light as we have it, and in
obedience to the Lord. There will be times when the SENSE
of the Lord will have disappeared from the realm of
our souls, and when everything in the realm of our minds
seems to be confusion and contradiction. Nevertheless the
fact abides, the union is there. He is more faithful than
our feelings.
It is a great comfort
to know that, when our feelings vary, and our sensations
change, when perhaps by reason of physical and mental
weariness those stronger spiritual sensations, as we
would call them, disappear, and for a time we seem to
drop down out of the realm of the higher ecstasies of the
spiritual life, and things get flat. But after a little
while it passes, and we find the Lord is still there and
we go on again. We come to understand that it was not the
Lord who changed, but we were just having a bad time, and
our bad time brought no basic change. We can cripple God
by disobedience; we can paralyze Divine life by sinning
against light; but even then "...if any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father..." John puts that
in his letter in connection with fellowship, and it is a
comfort. It simply says this: "...our fellowship is
with the Father, and with His Son..." We are to
"...walk in the light, as He is in the light."
As we do so "...the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanseth [Greek: keeps on cleansing] us from all
sin."
The union
is right deep down there in our spirit, deeper than the
soul life in its variations, deeper than thought, deeper
than feeling, yes, deeper than consciousness. In this
matter our consciousness may not reach to the depths of
God's work. You ask: "What do you mean by
that?" We mean exactly what the Book of Leviticus
means, when we find there a distinct provision for
someone who sins unconsciously. Is there such a thing as
sinning unconsciously? That means that you have no
consciousness about it, and yet it is sin. Consciousness
is not the final rule. The final rule is God's standard,
not our consciousness. Our consciousness, after all, is
limited. God's standard is unlimited. God has provided in
relation to His own standard, and not to the measure of
our consciousness. That ought to help us. God has made
provision right to the end of His demands, and not just
to the measure of how much we are awake to those demands.
God's work is deeper than anything that belongs to us.
3.
The Issue of Union Is Government
All those features
which we have mentioned are traceable in the sixth and
seventh chapters of 2 Kings. Note the place of darkness -
spiritual darkness as represented by the servant of
Elisha, who could not see spiritual things. How does he
come to apprehend spiritual things? Firstly, through his
union with Elisha, who is the power of resurrection life,
and then by reason of his union with Him Who is the life,
he comes into the light. But what is the means? It is the
Word. What is the result? Authority, ascendancy,
dominion! It is coming at once from the place of fear and
dread, as indicated in his words "Alas, my master!
how shall we do?" to a place where he knows the
truth - "...they that be with us are more than they
that be with them." We come into a place of great
spiritual strength by enlightenment through union in
life.
That opens a very wide
sphere of important and very valuable contemplation. It
would take us right out into the full range of God's
intention. You notice it, by way of illustration, in the
order of creation - first darkness, the Word of life,
light, order, and then man placed in dominion. That is an
illustration in creation of God's intention in the
spiritual relationship between Himself and the new
creation - chaos, darkness, the Word of life, light,
fellowship, dominion. Follow that right through, and you
will see that the purpose of God in Christ, as revealed
in the New Testament, is to bring man to the Throne. That
is illustrated in John's Gospel, or set forth in a
spiritual way: "...where I am, there ye may be
also." That as a spiritual fact is brought about at
Pentecost by the Holy Spirit. You find that spiritually
from that time onward the Lord's own were seen as in the
place of absolute spiritual ascendancy and dominion. You
see it very fully represented in the life of the Apostle
Paul himself right to the end. Whatever may be the
circumstances, the conditions of his life down here on
earth, he is spiritually in union with the Throne above,
so that even in a prison he never calls himself Caesar's
prisoner, never refers to himself as the prisoner of
Nero. He calls himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and
in his prison, despite the earthly limitations, he is
moving about in the limitless expanses of the heavenly
places: he is no prisoner. He knows spiritually the
meaning of union with his Lord above, and that is the
secret of his fruitfulness and effectiveness of life.
Definite statements are
made from time to time as to this thought of God.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me
in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down
with My Father in His throne." God's thought is
that. Now it is spiritual; then it will be literal. Now
it is inward union with Him in His Throne, with spiritual
power and ascendancy over all other forces; then it will
be manifested in its full, literal way - universal
dominion through the Church.
This is the very nature
of resurrection life. It is all bound up with our
apprehension of the death, resurrection and exaltation of
Christ. How do you apprehend the death of Christ? Do you
apprehend the death of Christ as the death and putting
away of a man who could never reign, who could never come
to the Throne? Adam, after sin, could never come to the
Throne; God could not put a man like that in dominion.
Adam lost his dominion. God will never bring fallen man
to dominion. The death of Christ puts away judicially the
man who could never reign, to make room for a Man Who can
reign. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus brings in the
Man Who can reign. Do we apprehend the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus as the bringing into being of another Man
Who can go on to the Throne? The very essence of our
resurrection-union with the Lord Jesus is the union of
one life between Him as there in the Throne and ourselves
as here. How do you apprehend the exaltation of the Lord
Jesus? Do you apprehend it as your exaltation
representatively? Do you apprehend that when He died, you
died, when He rose, you rose? It is a spiritual reality.
Now that which was born
of the flesh has gone; in resurrection it is that which
is born of the Spirit, the spiritual man. That is you in
resurrection with the Lord Jesus! And what is true of the
death and resurrection, is true of the exaltation, that
when He was exalted YOU WERE EXALTED in
Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Have we
grasped that Christ's being there is our being there in
representation? That is not just some objective truth,
but is made real by reason of His ascended life being now
within us, and the Holy Spirit having created the living
link between Him in heaven and ourselves as here. The
fact that He is above all says that we in Him are also
above all.
You say: "That may
be true theoretically, doctrinally true, and I do not
dispute what is said, but that is not true in my
case." That is not the Lord's fault! It is because
we have not learned to live on the basis of His
resurrection life. We have still tried to live a
Christian life on the basis of our own life, and that can
never come to the Throne. People who are trying to be
Christians by effort, by endeavor of their own, are
always far from reaching the Throne. They are the
playthings of all the forces which are antagonistic to
Christ. But when we know the secret of living on His life
by the Holy Spirit, we know in a growing, a progressive
way, that it is true that He is not there apart from us,
but that there is a union between Him in dominion and
ourselves in the power of His Own life. Resurrection life
is in itself the very life of Christ in dominion.
Whenever resurrection life in us has its way, it brings
us into dominion. Whenever there is a working of His life
freely in us, it puts us in a place of ascendancy, it
lifts us above, it is spiritual power and dominion.
4.
The Law of Union Is Faith
Here faith in the Lord
Jesus becomes something more than perhaps we have
hitherto realized. What is faith in Christ? It is the
recognition of what He is at God's right hand for us and
as us. There is a Humanity, a Man Who has passed right
through and realized in every detail all God's thought
for us, and God's thought for us is reached, fully and
finally, in a Man. That Man has everything - not for
Himself but for us - that is necessary to bring us to
God's end. Christ is our Victory; Christ is our Life;
Christ is our Wisdom; Christ is our Sanctification. There
is nothing in all the catalogue of needs, in order to
bring us to God's full thought, but what Christ is made THAT
unto us, and faith makes that living by taking it and
acting upon it.
Is the enemy raging?
Christ has conquered, and is the Victor over the enemy.
Faith brings Him in, and puts Christ over against the
situation in which the enemy is so active. Whatever it
may be that threatens to limit our coming to God's
thought, Christ is the provision to meet that. But He
only does so along the line of our faith. Faith in Christ
is a wonderful thing. What you and I have to learn more
and more is to bring Christ into the situation on our
behalf, whatever the need may be, so that we live by
Christ. There will always be a whole list of "I
cannots," so far as we are concerned, but are we
going to stop with "I cannot"? Or are we going
to recognize once and for all that we cannot? That is
settled! We need not say any more! But that is just where
His "can" begins, and we do not stop short at a
negative, we start at the positive - "I can do all
things through Christ..." It is a challenge to us as
to faith in Christ. It is bringing Christ into every
situation. That is government, dominion. That is the
Throne, because He is the exalted, reigning Christ.
We are glad that He is
there in that position: "And He put all things in
subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over
all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness
of Him That filleth all in all." Faith recognizes
that; faith sees that; faith applies that. It is what
Christ is in heaven.
The course of things is
that at the beginning we have union IN Christ WITH
the Father; at the end we have union WITH Christ
IN the Father. That is what the Word teaches.
Firstly, our union is in Christ with the Father; then the
Word shows that the end of the process is eventually
union with Christ in the Father.
Union is a progressive
thing. Faith at present operates in the direction of our
union in Christ with the Father. Faith works out
eventually to bring us in union with Christ in the
Father. This does not mean - is it necessary to say? -
absorption in the Godhead, or participation in Deity.
The main point of our
consideration is that resurrection life, the power of His
resurrection, is essentially in its nature a Throne union
with the Lord, and that that is to have a practical
outworking in a spiritual way now. Ultimately it will
have a literal outworking universally. Our business at
present is to learn how to reign in life by the One Man,
Jesus Christ.
The Lord teach us
what it means to reign in life.