FOOD FOR RECOVERY
Peter S Barlow
1 Samuel 25: 12-14, 18, 21-24, 27-29; 30: 1, 5, 11-14, 16-18
I have read a fair portion of scripture, but the main impression that I have carried for a while is in relation to what Abigail brought by the way of provision, and how similar it is to what David used for the Egyptian, which led to the recovery of all from the Amalekite.
It is interesting that David speaks of “the enemies of David”, whereas Abigail speaks of David fighting in relation to “the battles of Jehovah”. David is coming down here, where we read in chapter 25, and in the way that shows that he has fallen far below what he was. We know that he is often a type of Christ; but we see David in a different character altogether here. However, my impression and exercise is, what provision is there in order to meet the attack of the Amalekite?
I read in the last portion that four hundred of the Amalekites escaped, and it is interesting to see that it was also four hundred men that had gone with David. I wonder whether that gives some indication that there is with each and every one of us the possibility - whether inadvertently or directly - of the Amalekite feature being found in us. It speaks to us of Satan working through the flesh, and being set against the people of God, using the fleshly features that mark the first order of man. I speak carefully because David was a great person, but I wonder whether these features were inadvertently coming into expression in David. His pride had been touched; his overtures had been rejected; his concern for his young men had been cast aside. He came down, and he was going to kill every man. Yet it was only one man who had insulted him.
It is interesting what Nabal’s young men did. They did not immediately set up barriers and arm themselves. What did they do? One of them took the matter to Abigail. Abigail speaks to us of the assembly. They took the matter to her, and asked her do what was best. She had the intelligence and wisdom to do what was best. What did she do; did she go out to negotiate or reason with David? No, she provided what was needed and she provided in abundance. We get the “five sheep ready dressed”. David was a shepherd and it may have affected him that here were five sheep that had to die to meet him and what he was set to do. Five speaks to us of man’s weakness, but Abigail had that intelligence; five sheep. I wonder whether that touched the heart of David, as a shepherd. Does it touch your heart, beloved, to know that one glorious One has had to die because of what you are, because of the features of what may come out in you? I feel challenged by that. What do I really appreciate of the death of Christ?
The parched corn and the loaves would also speak to us of Christ. The “parched corn”, the old corn of the land, the “loaves”, the bread that comes out of heaven. All these features would speak of Christ and the wine is that which cheers God and man, Judg 9: 13. Beloved brethren, what Abigail provided she provided in abundance.
Now she also had “a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes”; I have been pondering them. We had a reading here where we saw what the fig-cake meant. It is something very sweet and has numerous seeds which are bound tightly together, it is almost impossible to separate them. This would speak of what God would delight to find amongst us. Are we one? Are we bound together by what is sweet? There is one Man who holds us together, and one power, the blessed Holy Spirit. Abigail provides this: she provides fig-cakes. The raisin-cake is a bit different. They are all individual but they are bound together again. They are together, not the same as with the fig, but there is that which keeps them together. There is sweetness in the raisins and that which gives energy, that which sustains, and it is to be found in each one. Each one of us has that, the energy, the sweetness of the activity that sustains us all. Not just one of us, but all of us as we work together enjoying these things.
We know the fig-cake speaks of healing too. Abigail brought healing in by meeting David like this. I suppose he had a wounded heart, as his concern for his young men had been cast aside; Abigail brought in that which heals. We read of the “cake of figs” put on “the boil” of Hezekiah, Isa 38: 21. Beloved brethren, how precious it is to have our part in the local assembly, and to be that which represents the fig cake and that which represents the raisins, all centred in feeding on Christ and what He is.
David is not only recovered and brought back in some measure to what he was, but he makes use of what Abigail provides. He also makes use of the same things where we read in 1 Samuel 30. Here they are for an Egyptian. The Amalekite has a use for you in serving him until you are no good; then he casts you aside. The enemy does everything that he can to set himself against God and the children of God. The Amalekite refers to the nations that in arrogance set themselves in inveterate hatred against the nation that God had chosen, Israel. God has made the Lord Jesus available through wondrous grace; He is available for all nations, and that is why we have come into blessing. We see this feature typically coming out with David here; the Egyptian had no claim to a part with God’s chosen people; far otherwise, as we know from the bondage the children of Israel had in Egypt.
We could say that David had in some measure kept what Abigail had given him, and he used it here for the revival of the Egyptian. The Amalekite would not do what David did. We read in Deuteronomy that he attacks the stragglers, and those that were falling behind, chap 25: 18. I feel the burden of this upon my own heart and soul for we must take account of the stragglers. We need to be bound together to hold fast and to work together, to go on, to be maintained in this by feeding on Christ. This is important as the enemy will never let up, for he is ever set against the people of God. Oh that I may not be one that is used of him to allow those Amalekite features to come in and set me against the people of God. It is so easy if there is a straggler for the Amalekite to get in in that way, to attack one who is being left behind; the Amalekite gets in through the straggler. I feel the burden and urgency in my own heart in relation to this. Here David uses only a piece of a fig-cake. Does that matter? It is representative of the whole: we live in a broken day, but we can enjoy the fulness of these things. It is no less; part of a fig would still represent what is bound together - to try and separate those seeds is very difficult - we are to be bound together in this way. It may be a broken day, but if we are bound together in the enjoyment of these things, the features of the fig apply. The result was that the Egyptian - the straggler - was revived and he did not need the whole fig-cake; part was sufficient - he fed on what David had fed on as given by Abigail.
The enjoyment of things together and being held together is sufficient to meet the need. He ate two raisin cakes and “his spirit came again to him”. What joy that is as we see the spirit come again in one who may have become cold in their affections. What joy that is. Oh that I knew how to bring it in, as feeding on Christ. They “gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink”; bread would speak of providing what is of the Lord Jesus, and the water would speak of the Spirit. You think of all these things working together, for those two things are essential for the binding together; feeding on Christ and the power of the blessed Holy Spirit. Here David with the four hundred men went down and “smote them from twilight even to the evening of the next day”; he smote the Amalekites: it is a continual daily exercise. We have to be wary of these Amalekite features coming into our hearts, and must constantly guard against them; that is made possible by the power of the blessed Spirit and feeding on Christ.
There will come a time when there will be no more remembrance of the Amalekite. That is all in God’s hands; that is God’s doing, but He looks to us to answer to that now. I raise this question with my own heart; are there any inroads for Satan, allowing him entrance into me, that means I am set against the people of God? I may not mean it, but if he gets any inroad, he will use whatever opportunity he can to set me against the people of God. There were four hundred of these young men - Amalekites, who fled on camels. The young men are strong, they have the energy, but these were Amalekites. John cautions young men in his epistle in relation to the world: “ye are strong … and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things in the world”, 1 John 2: 14. May we be strengthened in this, to be strong and marked by energy, but free of the Amalekite features.
Another interesting thing with the Amalekites was that they were the first nation to set themselves against the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. “And it came to pass when Moses raised his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. And Moses’ hands were heavy; then they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on this side, and one on that side”, Exod 17: 11, 12. I find peculiar interest in the meaning of the names of these three persons. Moses is, ‘drawn out’ from the water which would give us an impression of baptism, the death of Christ which sets me free from this world. Drawn out of the water; set in relation to Him in another life and another order of things altogether. Aaron speaks of lights or ‘light-bringer’. We are so privileged to be brought up in an area where I believe the light and the truth is known - may we be encouraged to be maintained in it. Hur’s name means ‘purity’. Being pure, being unspotted from the world, kept from the scene around; our eyes centred on Christ.
These are features that will sustain us in this day and maintain us until Christ comes; feeding on Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, set together as expressed in the fig, and bound together in what we are as individuals in energy and activity as seen in the raisins. All this in relation to the importance of being true to our baptism, seeing that everything has gone in the death of Christ, such that we are to be maintained in purity and holding fast to the light and the truth to which we have been recovered. I speak these things to encourage us, not in any way to cast us down, but purely because I feel the challenge in my own heart and soul.
May each one of us be encouraged in it for His Name’s sake.
Word in a ministry meeting in Sunbury
13th May 2019