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 shines 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 shines 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 Shiloh 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 worship 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 Shiloh, 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?"
"And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel"--How little they knew whom they were coming against, or who was about to meet them!
"But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.... Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer (the stone of help), saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
What a contrast between Israel"s boastful shout in chap. 4 and Jehovah"s thunder in chap. 7! The former was human pretension; the latter, divine power. _That_ was instantly followed by humiliating defeat; _this_, by splendid triumph. The Philistines knew nothing of what had taken place--the water poured out, the penitential cry, the offering up of the lamb, the priestly intercession. What could uncirc.u.mcised Philistines know about these precious realities? Just nothing. When the earth rang with Israel"s pretentious shout, they could take cognizance of that. The men of the world can understand and appreciate self-a.s.sertion and self-confidence; but these are the very things that shut out G.o.d. On the other hand, a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a lowly mind, are His delight. When Israel took the low place, the place of self-judgment and confession, then Jehovah"s thunder was heard, and the host of the Philistines was scattered and confounded. The fulness of G.o.d ever waits on an empty vessel. Blessed, precious truth! May we enter more fully into its depth, fulness, power, and scope!
Ere closing this brief paper, I would just observe that 1 Sam. 4 and 7 remind us of the churches of Laodicea and Philadelphia, in Rev. 3. The former presents to us a condition which we should sedulously avoid; the latter, a condition which we should diligently and earnestly cultivate. In that, we see miserable self-complacency, and Christ left outside. In this, we see conscious weakness and nothingness, but Christ exalted, loved, and honored; His Word kept, and His Name prized.
And be it remembered that these things run on to the end. It is very instructive to see that the last four of the seven churches give us four phases of the Church"s history right on to the end. In Thyatira, we find Romanism; in Sardis, Protestantism. In Philadelphia, as we have said, we have that condition of soul, that att.i.tude of heart, which every true believer and every a.s.sembly of believers should diligently cultivate and faithfully exhibit. Laodicea, on the contrary, presents a condition of soul and an att.i.tude of heart from which we should shrink with G.o.dly fear. Philadelphia is as grateful as Laodicea is loathsome to the heart of Christ. The former, He will make a pillar in the temple of His G.o.d; the latter, He will spew out of His mouth, and Satan will take it up and make it a cage of every unclean and hateful bird--Babylon! An awful consideration for all whom it may concern. And let us never forget that for any to pretend to be Philadelphia is really the spirit of Laodicea. Wherever you find pretension, a.s.sumption, self-a.s.sertion or self-complacency, there you have, in spirit and principle, Laodicea--from which may the good Lord deliver all His people!
Beloved, let us be content to be nothing and n.o.body in this scene of self-exaltation. Let it be our aim to walk in the shade, as far as human thoughts are concerned, yet never be out of the sunshine of our Father"s countenance. In a word, let us ever bear in mind that "_the fulness of G.o.d ever waits on an empty vessel_."
C. H. M.
DIVINE t.i.tLES.
It is at once interesting, instructive and edifying to mark the various t.i.tles under which G.o.d appears in the Holy Scriptures. These t.i.tles are expressive of certain characters and relationships in which G.o.d has been pleased to reveal Himself to man; and we are persuaded that the Christian reader will find solid profit and real spiritual refreshment and blessing in the study of this subject. We can do little more in this brief paper than offer a suggestion or two, leaving the reader to search the Scriptures for himself, in order to a full understanding of the true meaning and proper application of the various t.i.tles.
In the first chapter of Genesis we have the first great t.i.tle--"G.o.d"
(Elohim): "In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth."
This presents G.o.d in unapproachable, incomprehensible Deity. "No man hath seen G.o.d at any time." We hear His voice and see His work in creation; but Himself no man hath seen or can see. He dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.
But in Gen. ii. we have another t.i.tle added to G.o.d, namely, "Lord"
(Jehovah). Why is this? Because man is now on the scene, and "Lord" is expressive of the divine relation with man. Precious truth! It is impossible to read these two chapters and not be struck with the difference of the t.i.tles "G.o.d" and "the Lord G.o.d"--"Elohim" and "Jehovah Elohim"; and the difference is at once beautiful and instructive.[1]
[1] We shall here give the various divine t.i.tles given in Scripture; and the reader can, if so led, examine for himself the pa.s.sages in which they occur, and see the way in which they are applied.
"Elohim"--G.o.d. "Jehovah"--Lord. "Adonai," also rendered Lord; see Ps.
xvi. 2. Adonai, or Adon, has been taken to mean _Ruler_, or _Sovereign_, from the root "Dan," to judge. In some English Bibles, Jehovah is rendered in capital letters, LORD; Adonai, Lord. Thus the distinction is easily seen. "O my soul, thou hast said, Jehovah, Thou art my Adonai" (Ps. xvi. 2). This is very striking, and most beautiful.
Then, in Gen. xiv. 22, we have "Elion"--the Most High G.o.d. This is His millennial t.i.tle. And in chapter xvii. 1 we have "Shaddai"--the Almighty. "I am the Almighty G.o.d: walk before Me, and be thou perfect." In Psalm xci. 1. 2, we have a very beautiful application: "He that dwelleth in the secret places of Elion shall abide under the shadow of Shaddai. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; my Elohim; in Him will I trust." All this is full of precious instruction; and we trust the reader may be led to pursue the study for himself. It is hardly needful to add that, for the ineffable t.i.tle and relationship of "Father," we must turn to the New Testament.
Gen. vii. 16 presents an interesting example, "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as _G.o.d_ had commanded him: and the _Lord_ shut him in." G.o.d, in His government, was about to destroy the human race, and every living thing. But Jehovah, in infinite grace, shut Noah in. Mark the distinction. If a mere man were writing the history, he might transpose the t.i.tles, not seeing what was involved. Not so the Holy Spirit. He brings out the lovely point of Jehovah"s relationship with Noah. Elohim was going to judge the world; but as Jehovah He had His eye upon His beloved servant Noah, and graciously sheltered him in the vessel of mercy. How perfect is Scripture! How edifying and refreshing to trace the moral glories of the divine volume!
Let us turn to a pa.s.sage in 1 Sam. xvii., where we have the record of David"s encounter with Goliath. He boldly tells the giant what he is about to do, both to him and to the host of the Philistines, in order "that all _the earth_ may know that there is a _G.o.d_ (Elohim) in Israel. And all this a.s.sembly shall know that the _Lord_ (Jehovah) saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is Jehovah"s, and He will give you into our hands" (vers. 46, 47).
"All the earth" was to know and own the presence of G.o.d in the midst of His people. They could know nothing of the precious relationship involved in the t.i.tle "Jehovah." This latter was for the a.s.sembly of Israel alone. They were to know not only His presence in their midst, but His blessed mode of acting. To the world He was Elohim, to His beloved people He was Jehovah.
Well may these exquisite touches command our hearts" admiration. Oh, the living depths, the moral glories, of that peerless Revelation which our Father has graciously penned for our comfort and edification! We must confess it gives us unspeakable delight to dwell on these things and point them out to the reader, in this infidel day when the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture is boldly called in question, in quarters where we should least expect it. But we have something better to do just now than replying to the contemptible a.s.saults of infidelity. We are thoroughly persuaded that the most effective safeguard against all such a.s.saults is to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, in all its living, formative power. To the heart thus filled and fortified, the most plausible and powerful arguments of all infidel writers are but as the pattering of rain on the window.
We shall give the reader only one more ill.u.s.tration of our subject from the Old Testament. It occurs in the interesting history of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xviii. 31). "And it came to pa.s.s, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they compa.s.sed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and _the Lord_ (Jehovah) helped _him_; and _G.o.d_ (Elohim) moved _them_ to depart from him."
This is deeply affecting. Jehoshaphat had put himself into an utterly false position. He had linked himself with the most unG.o.dly of Israel"s kings. He had even gone so far as to say to the wicked Ahab, "I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war." No marvel, therefore, if the Syrian captains mistook him for Ahab. It was only taking him at his word. But when brought down to the very lowest point--into the very shadow of death--"he cried out;" and that cry went up to the gracious and ever-attentive ear of Jehovah, who had said, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee." Precious grace!
But mark the lovely accuracy in the use and application of the divine t.i.tles--for this is our thesis. "He cried out, and Jehovah helped him;" and--what then? A mere human author would doubtless have put it thus: "Jehovah helped him, and moved them." But no; Jehovah had, as such, nothing to do with uncirc.u.mcised Syrians. His eye was upon his dear, though erring, servant; His heart was toward him, and His everlasting arms around him. There was no link between Jehovah and the Syrians; but Elohim, whom they knew not, moved them away.
Who can fail to see the beauty and perfection of all this? Is it not plain to the reader that the stamp of a divine hand is visible upon the three pa.s.sages which we have culled for his consideration? Yes, and so it is upon every clause, from cover to cover, of the divine volume. Let no one suppose for a moment that we want to occupy our readers with curious points, nice distinctions, or learned criticisms.