Part 1 (1/2)
Elijah the Tishbite.
by C. (Charles) H. (Henry) Mackintosh.
G.o.d'S FULNESS FOR AN EMPTY VESSEL
(Read 1 Samuel 4 and 7.)
The two chapters given above furnish a most impressive ill.u.s.tration of a principle which runs all through the inspired volume, namely, that the moment man takes his right place, G.o.d can meet him in perfect grace--free, sovereign, unqualified grace: the fulness of G.o.d waits on an empty vessel. This great principle s.h.i.+nes everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. The word ”principle” hardly expresses what is meant; it is too cold. We would speak of it as a grand, living, divine fact, which s.h.i.+nes with heavenly l.u.s.tre in the gospel of the grace of G.o.d and in the history of G.o.d's people collectively and individually, both in the Old and New Testament times.
_But man must be in his right place._ This is absolutely essential. It is only there he can get a right view of G.o.d. When man as he is, meets G.o.d as He is, there is a perfect answer to every question, a divine solution of every difficulty. It is from the standpoint of utter and hopeless ruin that man gets a full, clear, delivering view and sense of G.o.d's salvation. It is when man gets to the end of himself in every shape and form--his bad self and his good self, his guilty self and his righteous self--that he begins with a Saviour-G.o.d. This is true at the starting-post, and true all along the way. The fulness of G.o.d ever waits on an empty vessel. The great difficulty is to get the vessel empty: when that is done, the whole matter is settled, because the fulness of G.o.d can then flow in.
This surely is a grand, fundamental truth; and in the chapters which stand at the head of this paper we see it in its application to the Lord's earthly people of old. Let us turn to them for a moment.
In the opening of chap. 4 we find Israel defeated by the Philistines; but instead of humbling themselves before the Lord, in true contrition and self-judgment because of their terrible condition, and accepting their defeat as the just judgment of G.o.d, there is utter insensibility and hardness of heart. ”And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to-day before the Philistines?” Now it is very evident from these words that the elders were not in their right place. The word ”wherefore” would never have dropped from their lips had they but realized their moral condition. They would have known too well why it was. There was shameful sin in their midst--the vile conduct of Hophni and Phinehas.
”Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of the Lord” (chap. 2:17).
But alas! the people had no true sense of their terrible condition, and, as a consequence, they had no true sense of the remedy. Hence they say, ”Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of s.h.i.+loh unto us, that, when _it_ cometh among us, _it_ may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” What a delusion! What utter blindness!
There is no self-judgment, no confession of the dishonor done to the name and wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d of Israel, no looking to Jehovah in true brokenness and contrition of heart. No; there is the vain notion that the ark would save them out of the hand of their enemies.
”So the people sent to s.h.i.+loh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of G.o.d.” What a fearful condition of things! The ark of G.o.d a.s.sociated with those unG.o.dly men whose wickedness was about to bring down upon the whole nation the just judgment of a holy and righteous G.o.d. Nothing can be more dreadful, nothing more offensive to G.o.d, than the daring attempt to connect His name, His truth, with wickedness. Moral evil, under any circ.u.mstances, is bad enough; but the attempt to combine moral evil with the name and service of Him who is holy and true, is the very highest and darkest form of wickedness, and can only bring down the heavy judgment of G.o.d.
Those unG.o.dly priests, the sons of Eli, had dared to defile the very precincts of the sanctuary with their abominations; and yet these were the men who accompanied the ark of G.o.d into the field of battle. What blindness and hardness of heart! That one sentence, ”Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of G.o.d,” embodies in its brief compa.s.s the terrible reflection of Israel's moral condition.
”And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, _all Israel shouted with a great shout_, so that the earth rang again.” How vain was the shout!--how hollow the boast!--how empty the pretension!
Alas, alas! it was followed, as must ever be the case, by humiliating defeat. ”The Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of G.o.d was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.”
What a condition of things! The priests slain; the ark taken; the glory departed. The ark in which they boasted, and on which they confidently built their hope of victory, was actually in the hands of the uncirc.u.mcised Philistines. All was gone. That one terrible fact--the ark of G.o.d in the house of Dagon--told the melancholy tale of Israel's complete failure and ruin. G.o.d must have reality, truth and holiness in those with whom He deigns to dwell. ”Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord, forever.” It was a privilege of the very highest order to have Jehovah dwelling in their midst; but it demanded holiness. He could not connect His name with unjudged sin.
Impossible. It would be a denial of His nature, and G.o.d cannot deny Himself. He must have the place where He dwells suited to His nature and character. ”Be ye holy, for I am holy.” This is a grand, fundamental truth, which must be tenaciously held and reverently confessed. It must never be surrendered.
But let us glance for a moment at the history of the ark in the land of the Philistines. It is at once solemn and instructive. Israel had signally failed and shamefully sinned. They had proved themselves wholly unworthy of the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and the Philistines had laid their uncirc.u.mcised hands upon it, and actually presumed to bring it into the house of their false G.o.d, as if the Lord G.o.d of Israel and Dagon could be in the same house! Blasphemous presumption! But the glory which had departed from Israel was vindicated in the darkness and solitude of the temple of Dagon.
G.o.d will be G.o.d, however His people may fail; and hence we see that when Israel had utterly failed to guard the ark of His testimony, and allowed it to pa.s.s into the hands of the Philistines,--when all was lost in man's hand,--then the glory of G.o.d shone out in power and splendor: Dagon fell, and the whole land of the Philistines was made to tremble beneath the hand of Jehovah. His presence was intolerable to them, and they sought to get rid of it as soon as possible. It was proved beyond all question to be utterly impossible that Jehovah and the uncirc.u.mcised could go on together. Thus it was, thus it is, and thus it ever must be. ”What concord hath Christ with Belial?... And what agreement hath the temple of G.o.d with idols?” None whatever.
Let us now turn for a few moments to chap. 7. Here we find another condition of things altogether. Here we shall find something of the empty vessel, and, as is ever the case, the fulness of G.o.d waiting upon it. ”And it came to pa.s.s, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and _all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord_.” In chaps. 5 and 6 we see that the Philistines could not do _with_ Jehovah. In chap. 7 we see that Israel could not do _without_ Him. This is striking and instructive. The world cannot endure the very thought of the presence of G.o.d. We see this from the very moment of the fall, in Gen. 3. Man fled away from G.o.d ere G.o.d drove him out of Eden. He could not endure the divine presence. ”I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Thus it has ever been, from that moment to the present. As some one has said, ”If you could put an unconverted man into heaven, he would get out of it as soon as possible.” What a telling fact! How it stamps the whole human race, and accounts for any depth of moral pravity into which a member of that race may sink! If man cannot endure the presence of G.o.d, where is he fit for, and what is he capable of?
Weighty and solemn questions!
But ”all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” Twenty long, dreary years had rolled on without the blessed sense of His presence; ”And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord _with all your hearts_, then put away the strange G.o.ds, and Ashtaroth, from among you, and _prepare your hearts_ unto the Lord, and serve Him _only_, and HE”--not the ark--”will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord” (chap. 7:2-6.)
Here we have a different condition of things altogether from that presented in chap. 4. Here we see the empty vessel getting ready to receive the fulness of G.o.d. There is no hollow a.s.sumption, no looking to an outward form for salvation. All is reality, all heart-work here.
Instead of the boastful shout, there is the outpoured water--the striking and expressive symbol of utter weakness and good-for-nothingness.
In a word, man is taking his right place; and that, as we know, is the sure precursor of G.o.d taking His place. This great principle runs like a beauteous golden line all through the divine volume, all through the history of G.o.d's people, all through the history of souls. It is wrapped up in that brief but comprehensive clause, ”Repentance and remission of sins.” Repentance is man's true place. Remission of sins is G.o.d's response. The former is the empty vessel; the latter, the fulness of G.o.d. When these meet, all is settled.
This is very strikingly presented in the scene now before us. Israel having taken their true place, G.o.d is free to act on their behalf.
They had confessed themselves to be as water poured upon the ground--perfectly helpless, perfectly worthless. This was all they had to say for themselves, and this was enough. G.o.d can now enter the scene and make short work with the Philistines. ”If G.o.d be for us, who can be against us?”