WHAT THE BELIEVER HAS
John S Speirs
Exodus 4: 1-5
2 Kings 4: 1-7
1 Samuel 21: 1-10
John 6: 5-13
Luke 24: 40-43
Sometimes we may get downcast because we think of the things that we do not have, and the things that we wished we did have; we may become a little disappointed or discouraged as a result. It is hardly surprising in one way because this whole world’s system depends on dissatisfaction for it to work. The whole advertising system is about making you realise that you do not have something and suggesting that you might want to have it; it works on that principle. I know what it is like; as a believer in the Lord Jesus, sometimes you feel that you are having to give a lot of things up, that you do not have certain things that other people around you have - maybe the people in your class at school or the people in the office, and maybe you become a little disappointed or discouraged.
Well, beloved, my simple exercise in this occasion is that God might draw your attention to what you do have. And He might ask you if you realise what it is that you have. He might also ask you what you are doing with it. He has given you something precious, and He expects you to use it. Mr C A Coates said, ‘if we want to please God we must appropriate boldly what He puts within our reach’, Notes of Readings on Matthew (vol 28) p83. God has given us much, beloved. You might say, ‘I do not have very much; I do not really know what God has given me’. Well, you can start with the basics. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus you can say, as we sang in our hymn,
… we have Thee, Jesus, still
(Hymn 229).
You can say, ’I have a Saviour!’. Perhaps some of the people at your work or at your school cannot say that. Whatever else they might have, you have a Saviour! What a wonderful fact to lay hold of: you have Jesus!
I read these scriptures because that kind of question comes in to each of them. ‘What do you have?’ God asks Moses, “What is that in thy hand?”. It was the thing that he had. Sometimes we do not realise fully what we have. How great the things are that we have, that God has given us. “What is that in thy hand?” God knew what it was, of course, but sometimes God asks us things to prove whether or not we realise what it is that we have. Moses says, “A staff”. It is quite simple, is it not? It is not anything complicated. Well, the staff would speak to us about our experience with God. A staff is something that you lean on. If you go walking in the hills and the ground is uneven, a staff or a stick or a pole is something good to lean on, and you prove that it is worthwhile. Maybe Moses used it in his work as a shepherd, for guiding the sheep, comforting them. This is no ordinary staff; you can see what it becomes. It becomes the staff of God, v 20. But, beloved, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus one of the things that you can say that you have is experience with God. It might not have been for very long; it may only be a few years, but value the experience that you have with God and reflect on it. Perhaps you are going through a time when you are feeling a little discouraged or dissatisfied; have a look back over your history and see where God has helped you. See the times when you have been able to lean on Him; see where He supported you like that staff.
So we have experience with God. Moses gets somewhat of a warning here also; it is good for us to have warnings from time to time. He cast the staff on the ground and it became a serpent. You see, if you take yourself away from God’s authority, if you choose not to be subject to the Lord Jesus, you are exposing yourself to the enemy and his influences. But Moses takes it up again; he “caught it, and it became a staff in his hand”. By the fall, God lost man to sin and Satan, but by Christ He has him again, and if He has him in Christ, he can never lose him again. God has Christ before Him forever, and those that have Christ have certainty in the realisation that the faith that you began with in your Christian pathway, when you first trusted in God, will never let you down throughout your whole life.
This woman in Kings had something, but I am not sure that she fully realised the value of what she had. The question comes similarly, “what hast thou in the house?”. Beloved, what do you have in the way of resource to help you through, to meet responsibilities, to help you to not become indebted? Well, you have the Holy Spirit. I trust you do; I trust every believer here has the Holy Spirit. Have you asked God? He freely gives the Holy Spirit. If you put your trust in Jesus He will give you the Spirit. But perhaps we have neglected Him. I have often neglected the Holy Spirit, I say to my shame. That is when I begin to be in debt, demands are placed upon me that I cannot fulfil. It is because I am not relying on and using what God has given me; I am not relying on His resource. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful Person; He comes to the believer when he receives Him, and He never leaves him. He is the Caller’s Spring (Judg 15: 19, note) - He is always there. No matter how low you might be feeling or how difficult your circumstances may be, call on the Spirit. He will be there; He will refresh you; He will revive you; He will provide just what you need. He will tell you about Jesus: that is something you always need. The man of God says, in effect, ‘Well, you do have something’. She says, ‘I do not have anything at all except a pot of oil’. It is as if she had almost forgotten about it. Do not forget that you have the Holy Spirit. Rely on Him; make room for Him. That is effectively what she did here. She got lots of different vessels. I suppose there would be all different shapes and sizes of vessel, but every single one of them was filled. No matter what your exercise is, whatever kind of exercise it is, ask the Holy Spirit for help in it. He will be able to help you fulfil responsibility.
So she says, “Bring me yet a vessel”. There will never be a lack when you rely on what God gives you, and the Holy Spirit will never let you down. “Bring me yet a vessel”. And what is the result? Instead of death and debt there is life! “Sell the oil, and pay thy debt and live thou and thy sons on the rest”. There is surplus. God always gives you more than you expect, He is a God of abundance. He is a God who is rich in grace that will pour out more than merely enough to meet your need. Beloved, if you have the Holy Spirit do not forget that. He is within your reach. He is there, ready and willing; willing to serve in a way that will magnify Christ, a way that will help you through in your practical circumstances. A way, too, that will help you in your response to God because that is what God is looking for. “Live on the rest”. Life towards God, that is what we need to be marked by.
Now, where we read in Samuel, David comes to the priest; he was a man in need. What a sad situation it is. This is God’s anointed king, and yet he is fleeing for his life. What a situation, the rejection of God’s king. The person who was reigning, Saul, was seeking David’s life; he would have killed David. We have been reading 1 Samuel at home and noticed how unpredictable and unreliable Saul is. How unreliable my flesh is! One minute he is saying, ‘I will be friendly towards you, David’; the next minute he is trying to kill him. Do not rely on the flesh: you cannot rely on it; it is unreliable, and it will always oppose what speaks of Christ, just as Saul would have destroyed David. But now David comes to the house of God. The Lord Jesus speaks about this passage in the New Testament. It is interesting that the Lord refers to this as the section of Abiathar, not the section of Ahimelech. David comes, and he asks a similar question to what we have considered already: “what is under thy hand?”. David was hungry; he needed food. Beloved, we need spiritual nourishment. We need sustenance because the pathway of the believer through this world is not always an easy one, it can drain you and weary you with the demands that it places on you. You may well feel that more and more in working life, especially the younger people. There are great demands being placed on you. And you might be a little like David here and have a need and feel hungry spiritually. Beloved, what I just wanted to draw attention to is that there is food available for you. There is food available for you and it is holy food! The priest said, “There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread”. This is the shewbread, and these are the twelve loaves that were on the table in God’s presence. God had been taking account of them. God is taking account of all believers in the Lord Jesus, viewing them in their dignity, viewing them in their association with Christ. Think of the life of Christ seen in believers, how pleasing that is to God. Is the life of Christ seen in you? I find that a test for myself. But here it is, the food you might say that God had been appreciating. And it was really just for the priests to eat, but you know sadly the priestly system here in its official character had broken down. Mr F E Raven said as to David’s comment that "the bread is in a manner common" that it was because ‘things were all out of joint in Israel’ (vol 7, p411) - institutions that had been owned in their day when God was reverenced, lose their force or power when the anointed of the Lord is refused. So although this was priest’s food, David was not acting as an official priest, but one with true priestly feelings, and so he availed himself of this holy bread. Beloved, there is good spiritual food available to you. You have it; it is just at your hand: it is in the Scriptures. It is available in the local meetings. Come along to the meetings, get some of this kind of food, the food that God delights in, the food that He would delight to share with you. I feel limited about what I can say about it, but David gets the benefit of it. He does not demand all of it. What does it say? “What is under thy hand? give me five loaves in my hand, or what may be found”; think of that. Are you willing to avail yourselves of whatever it is you may find in the local meeting? Not to place demands on the brethren, just to make the most of what you find there. A young brother makes a remark in the reading; do not minimise that: make the most of it. A brother prays for the first time, preaches for the first time; make the most of it! It is holy food if he is speaking of Christ. God is delighting in it and we should delight in it too.
Now here, as you might say lurking in the brackets in verse 7, is “Doeg, the Edomite”. He is an enemy; why is he in God’s house? Perhaps he had got in there because the official priesthood was not working as it should, not availing itself of the things that were to hand, the sword of Goliath, for example. Why was it wrapped up? The ephod - why was it not being worn? Beloved, these things have been given to us. What does a sword speak of? One of the interpretations would be that it is the word of God used in the power of the Spirit. Paul speaks about that to the Ephesians. “The sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word”, 6: 17. Paul also says to the Corinthians, “… or life, or death … all are yours”, 1 Cor 3: 22. Let us realise that the word of God in its penetrating character, like we get in Hebrews chapter 4, is available to you. It is just at your hand; do not wrap it up and put it away. Do not say, ‘I know I have a Bible - somewhere’. Do not be like that: go to the Scriptures regularly; see what they mean; ask the Spirit to help you understand them. Ask Him to see how they apply to your life here and now. Do not be afraid to apply that sword to yourself. It will expose what is really there. And beloved, how gracious God is; He does not only expose. What comes immediately after the sword in Hebrews 4? The High Priest! What a wonderful combination of God’s grace that while His word will in a clear way expose what may be there that needs to be corrected, the High Priest is ready to support and sympathise.
So the ephod is there. Later on David says, “Bring near to me … the ephod”, 1 Sam 30: 7. He knew that there was a need to have communication from God, confirmation from God. Beloved, that is available to you. Every believer here today is really a priest. You are fully entitled to be a priest. There is not an official system any more. We have a great High Priest in our Lord Jesus, and we belong to a priestly family. Let us all endeavour to act in a priestly way. The means by which we can do so is available to us. What does a priest do? He serves God. Are you serving God? Are you praising Him? Are you having your part in worship and praise to God? If not, why not? Beloved, everything has been made available for you. There is priestly clothing. The Lord Jesus would supply everything that we need; the word of God, that we might be kept in self-judgment, that we might keep out wrong influences. What a terrible thing it was that such a person as Doeg should be in the house of God. We were reading in Galatians recently about those who were spying out their liberty, chap 2: 4. I think this man was like that, spying out liberty. David was at liberty; free to eat the priestly bread, free to take the great sword that had fallen into disuse, and free later to ask for the ephod. God desires that the things that He gives us should be freely used; He desires that we should avail ourselves of them for our benefit, but for His glory too.
I read in John’s gospel because there we see what the Lord Jesus makes of what is at hand. There was a lack of food for the company which had gathered, and as the brethren gather there is a need for them to be fed. As we had in the reading there is an exercise for each one of us to bring something. The Lord Jesus tests them. He asks them another similar question: “Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat”? I love what it says in verse 6: “But this he said trying him, for he knew what he was going to do”. Beloved, the Lord Jesus always knows what He is going to do! Just trust Him in relation to that. Andrew says, “There is a little boy here”. It is interesting the language he uses. “A little boy” and “small fishes; ... what is it for so many?”. He seems to be running things down all the time. But what does the Lord Jesus say? “Make the men sit down”. The Lord Jesus will show you what He is capable of doing with whatever small impression of Him that you may bring, whatever you have. You might say, ‘I do not have much’. Well, bring it anyway, and see what He is able to make of it. He will be able to bring in something that will satisfy the whole company, and there will even be something left over! You may say, ‘It was just a small thing I brought’. Beloved, it is not your estimation that counts, it is Christ’s estimation and His power that counts; it is not your power. We are only weak, but He is powerful, and He is able to make much of a real impression of Himself. The size of the impression does not affect its reality. If you have a real impression of Christ, bring it! Bring it into the meeting. Speak about it to other believers, and Christ will make much of it; everyone can be satisfied, and there will be something left over. What a wonderful system of supply and grace that the Lord Jesus causes to abound. It is interesting that this miracle is mentioned in all four gospels, suggesting there must be some importance to it. The Lord Jesus would draw our attention to the fact that even if it is a little boy, even if that is how you feel - and I often feel like that - and even if you have only five barley loaves and two fishes, an apparently small impression of Christ, He would encourage you to bring it. It is at your hand; it is available; Christ in His grace has given it to you. Bring it into the company where He is loved and honoured. Bring it into circulation and the people will be satisfied.
Beloved, the Lord Jesus also asks what we have for Himself. In Luke’s gospel chapter 24 He says, “Have ye anything here to eat?”. What a wonderful question that is. This question is to the company now, like a company of persons who have proved faith in God to work in their lives, who have proved that the Holy Spirit is able to fulfil their every need, and give them something to live on. Perhaps they have known what it is to make use of the sword of the Spirit, to have put to death the deeds of the body, and as a result are living to God. Maybe they have eaten holy bread which speaks of Christ. Maybe they have enquired of God with the ephod, and have been given divine direction. Maybe they have been acting in a priestly way. What is the result in such a company? Where such persons as that come together, there will be a good result. “They gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”. It was something that was already there. You might say it was a measure of the state in the place. They did not have to go and prepare it: it was already there. Beloved, in our local meetings, if the Lord Jesus comes, He is entitled to something, is He not? In this case, too, there was the aspect where in His grace He was just drawing near to them and showing the reality of His presence. But there is what is due to Him as He comes in; I think He loves to come in and see what is there. Remember the time in Judges when it is said of Samson, about the carcase of the lion, “he turned aside to see”, chap 14: 8. Think of that, the Lord Jesus looking to see. He desires to know what the result of His death has been. ‘What has the result been in those that love me?’ He comes into the local meeting, and asks, “Have ye anything here to eat?”. Well, what have we? Have we got something? He would enjoy what the saints have produced as a result of what they have enjoyed themselves, what is mutual. The honeycomb would speak of that, what is sweet to His taste, resulting from the working of what is mutual. Beloved, realise that what you have, even if you may think it is small, as you bring it into the local meeting it is something that can delight the Lord Jesus Himself. He comes in, and He is looking for something from His own. He loves them. He is not placing demands on them; He is just asking gently, ‘What do you have here? What are you enjoying here at the moment?’. Well, are you someone who has contributed to it? Have you had your mutual part in contributing to the honeycomb? All the bees have to work together to produce what is sweet in the honeycomb. I cannot say much about the broiled fish, but it is part of it. Maybe they had already enjoyed another part of it. So there is what is mutual there, what is shared. The Lord Jesus promises elsewhere that He will, “sup with him and he with me”, Rev. 3: 20. Think of the Lord Jesus willing to do that, to enjoy things in a mutual way with us. What a Lord and Saviour we have! What a glorious Object. What a Head we have.
Beloved, do not be downcast because you think you do not have much. You have much more that you maybe realise. As a believer of any age, you have experience with God. You have the Holy Spirit, if you have received Him; you have the priestly garments, and the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word. You have fellow believers: look at the company you have, what a privilege, what a blessing. You have the Lord Jesus as the One who is able to make much of whatever you might bring into the local company. And you have Him as your Object whom you can minister to when He does come in. What a system of supply and grace that God has brought us into. Let us not be discouraged by what we feel do not have, but lay hold of and make use of what we do have for our satisfaction and for God’s glory.
May the Lord bless the word.
Dundee
1st June 2019