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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Into the Heart of God # 11

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 borne 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 the Letter to the 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 in life what they could not learn by doctrine.

Some years ago I went to a great engineering factory, and there I saw them melting steel. I watched them pouring the molten steel into vessels, and we all had to stand well away. Even the hot air around 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 this 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 this 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.

The first one is recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Abraham had been commanded by God to leave his own country and go to another country which God would show him. He obeyed and went into the into the land of Canaan where he lived for some time. Then there arose a famine in that land, and that meant quite a serious crisis for Abraham. Naturally the question would arise: 'Did God send me here to let me starve to death? This looks like an absolute contradiction on His part. All that he has commanded and promised now seems to be a big question. I am in the place where He has put me, and circumstances say that it is impossible for a man to live here.' It certainly was a big test of faith! We shall come to the explanation later on, but it is here that Abraham made his first great mistake. He took his journey down into Egypt. Now, it must have been something that was very carefully thought about. You will remember that later on Israel took that journey in the opposite direction, and it says then that it is eleven days' journey from Egypt just to the border of Canaan, but Abraham was not just on the border. He was right in the land, so that he had to contemplate an eleven days' journey across the desert at least, and you do not do that sort of thing without serious thought. I only say that to indicate how serious this thing was.

Abraham went down into Egypt, for he thought that that was the way to save his life. But do you know, when we do things like that we only - as we say - jump out of the frying pan into the fire!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12)

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