Oneness with God in the Heavenly Nature of Everything (continued)
Hebrews 11:39; 12:2)
The Bible teaches us that people of the Old Testament went through experiences of which they never understood the full meaning. The real meaning was hidden from their eyes. All that they knew was that they were under the hand of God, and that there was something more in their experiences of His dealings with them than they knew.
The Bible also teaches that that meaning, which was hidden from them, has been revealed to us in this present dispensation. We have the light on their experiences which they did not possess. The things which happened to them, and the ways in which they were led, had a spiritual meaning which waited for our time for its unveiling, so that we know the meaning of them while they did not. In the light which has now come to us we are able to see the meaning of their lives and to read the Old Testament in a new way.
So in our consideration of the life of Abraham we are able to see that the events in his life represent something for us. "These all, having had witness born to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided (or foreseen) some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made complete." There was something incomplete about their experience, and we have got that something.
Thus we come back to consider these steps in the life of Abraham, steps in a spiritual pilgrimage which begins in the world and ends in the heart of God. In our last meditation we began to consider the third step, that is, oneness with God in the heavenly nature of things, and we considered it from the positive standpoint, how that God had done a deep thing in Abraham which made it impossible for him to be satisfied with anything in this world. As the writer of Hebrews says: "They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly" (Hebrews 11:16).
Now we are going to look at this from what we may call the negative standpoint, though that is only a way of speaking, for there is nothing negative about God's dealings with His people. What I mean is this: that this great reality of the heavenly nature of things was made known to Abraham by his mistakes, and this is one of the necessary methods of God with us. God would not let us make mistakes if we were different people from what we are, but He knows quite well that most of His children will never learn anything except by making mistakes. You may tell a little child a hundred times that it will get burned if it puts its finger in the fire, but most children will not believe that until they have tried it, and then they know by experience what they cannot know by theory - they know in life what they could not learn by doctrine.
Some years ago I went to a great engineering factory, and there I saw some melting steel. I watched them pouring the molten steel into vessels, and we all had to stand well away. Even the hot air round about was cold to that steel, so that as it came out into the air it just flew out all over the place. I said to one of the men who was pouring out the steel: "Do you know that it is said that if you put your arm into cold water and then put it into that steel, you would not feel it?" He replied: "I have been doing that for years, but if you like to try it you can." Theory or no theory, I know all about molten steel, and I am not engaging in any experiments!
The Lord knows quite well that you and I will never really learn unless we make mistakes. We do not enjoy pointing out the mistakes of great servants of God, but it is impressive that He has had these things written in His Word, and the Scripture says: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Romans 15:4), and the mistakes are included in the "things written aforetime". Thus they were written for our learning.
Great as this man Abraham was, he made three big mistakes in his life, and we only take note of them in order that we may learn not to make those mistakes.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 12)
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