There is a very interesting allusion to "the valley of Achor" in Hos. 2, at which we may just glance for a moment in passing, though it does not connect itself with the special line of truth which we have had before us in this series of papers.
Jehovah, in speaking, by His prophet, of Israel, says, " Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." Verses 14, 15.
What touching grace shines in these words! " The valley of Achor',—the place of " trouble"—the place of deep sorrow and shame—the place of humiliation and judgment—the place where the fire of Jehovah's righteous wrath consumed the sin of His people—there shall be " a door of hope" for Israel by-and-by; there, too, she shall sing as in the days of her youth. How wonderful to hear of songs of praise in the valley of Achor! What glorious triumphs of grace! What a bright and blessed future for Israel!
"It shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband], and shalt call me no more Baali [my lord]. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord; I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God." Hos. 2:14-23.
However, this reference to " the valley of Achor," in the future, is a digression from our special theme, to Which we must now return; and in so doing, we shall ask the reader to turn with us, for a few moments, to the Opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Here we find the same grand results of the presence of God in the midst of His people as we have seen in the opening of the book of Joshua, only in a much more glorious manner, as we might expect.
On the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Ghost came down to form the assembly, and take up His abode therein. This great and glorious fact was grounded on the accomplishment of the work of atonement, as attested by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His glorification at the right hand of God.
We cannot attempt to unfold this truth, in all its bearings, in this brief article; we merely call the reader's attention to the two practical points which have been before us—namely, the privilege and responsibility connected, of necessity, with the Lord's presence in the midst of His people. If He was there to bless—as He most surely was—He was also, and quite as surely, there to judge. The two things go together, and we must not attempt to separate them.
And first, then, if we would know something of the privileges and blessings of the divine presence in the assembly, let us ponder such a passage as the following: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as every man had need." The blessed effect of the realized presence of the Holy Ghost was to bind their hearts together in a holy and loving fellowship; to cause them to let go earthly things, and lead them to merge their personal interests in the common good.
Precious fruits! Would that we saw more of them! No doubt times are changed; but God is not changed, and the effect of His realized presence is not changed. True, we are not in Acts 2 Pentecostal times have passed away; Christendom has proved a complete failure; the professing church has hopelessly fallen. All this, alas! is true; but Christ, our Head, abides, in all His living power and unchangeable grace. " The foundation of God standeth sure"—as sure, as safe, and as solid to-day, as it was on the day of Pentecost. No change here, blessed be God; and hence we may say, with all possible confidence, that where His presence is realized, even though it be only by "two or three" gathered in the name of Jesus, there the same lovely fruits will be found. Hearts will be knit together; earthly things will be surrendered; personal interests will be merged. It is not merely a question of throwing our goods into a common heap, but of the grace which once took that special form, and which, at all times, would lead us, not merely to surrender our possessions, but ourselves, for the good of others.
It is a very grave mistake indeed for anyone to say, or to think, that, because we are not in Pentecostal times, we cannot count on the presence of God with us in the path of holy obedience to His will. Such a thought should be judged as sheer unbelief. We are certainly shorn of many of the Pentecostal gifts, but we are not bereft of the Giver. The blessed Comforter abides with us; and it is our happy privilege to be in a position in which we can enjoy His presence and ministry.
The thing is to be in that position; not merely to say we are in it, to boast of being in it, but really to be in it. We may well apply here the pointed question of the blessed apostle," What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say" he is on divine ground, if he be not really there? Assuredly it profits nothing.
But let us not forget that, although we are not in Acts 2, but in the Second Epistle to Timothy—although we are not in the refreshing scenes of Pentecost, but in the " perilous times" of " the last days," yet the Lord is with those " who call on him out of a pure heart," and His presence is all we want. Let us only trust Him, use Him, lean upon Him. Let us see to it that we are in the position in which we can count on His presence—a position of entire separation from all that He judges to be " iniquity;" from the " dishonorable vessels" in " the great house/é and from all those who having a form of godliness, deny the power thereof.
These, we may rest assured, are the absolutely essential conditions on which the Divine Presence can be realized by any company of Christians. "We may come together, and form ourselves into an assembly; we may profess to be on divine ground; we may call ourselves the assembly of God; we may appropriate to ourselves all those passages of scripture which only apply to those who are really gathered by the Holy Ghost to the name of Jesus. But if the essential conditions are not there—if we are not " calling on the Lord out of a pure heart"—if we are mixed up with "iniquity"—if we are associated with "dishonorable vessels"—if we are walking, hand-in-hand, with lifeless professors, who deny in practice the power of godliness—what then? Can we expect to realize the Lord's presence? As well might Israel have expected it with an Achan in the camp. It cannot be. In order to reach divine results, there must be divine conditions. To look for the former without the latter is vanity, folly, and wicked presumption.
Let not the reader mistake our meaning. We are not now treating, or even touching, the great question of the soul's salvation. This, precious and important as it is to all whom it may concern, is not at all our subject in this series of papers on " Jericho and Achor." We are dealing with the solemn and weighty question of the privilege and responsibility of those who profess to be the Lord's people, gathered to His name; and we are specially anxious to impress upon the mind of the reader, that, notwithstanding the hopeless ruin of the professing church, its utter failure in its responsibility to Christ as His witness and light-bearer in the world, yet it is the happy privilege of "two or three" to be gathered in His name, apart from all the evil and error around, owning our common sin and failure, feeling our weakness, and looking to Him to be with us, and bless us, according to the unchangeable love of His heart.
Now, to those thus gathered, there is no limit whatever to the measure of blessing which our ever gracious and faithful Lord can bestow. "He has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars"—the fullness of spiritual power, ministerial gift, and authority for His church. Such is His style and title in addressing the church at Sardis, which sets before us the history of Protestantism.
It is not said, as in the address to Ephesus, that He holds the seven stars in His right hand. There is a grave difference as to this; and it is our bounden duty to recognize both the difference and the cause. When the church began, on the day of Pentecost, and during the days of the apostles, Christ, the Head, not only possessed all spiritual gift, power, and authority for His church, but was owned as the actual Administrator thereof. He held the stars in His right hand. There was no such thing known or thought of as human authority in the assembly of God. Christ was owned as Head and Lord. He had received the gifts, and He dispensed them according to His sovereign will.
Thus it should ever be. But, alas! man has intruded upon the hallowed sphere of Christ's authority. He presumes to meddle in the appointment of ministry in the church of God; without so much as a single atom of divine authority, without any ability whatsoever to impart the necessary gift for ministry, he nevertheless takes upon himself the awful responsibility of calling, appointing, or ordaining to the ministry in the church of God. As well might the writer of these lines undertake to appoint a man as an admiral in Her Majesty's fleet, or a general in her army, as for any man, or body of men, to appoint a man to minister in the church of God. It is a daring usurpation of divine authority. None can impart ministerial gift, and none can appoint to any branch of ministry, but Christ, the church's Head and Lord; and all who undertake to do so, will have to account to Him for so doing.
It may be that many who thus act, and many more who sanction, or are identified with such acting, are not aware of what they are doing; and our God is gracious and merciful in bearing with our feebleness and ignorance. All this is blessedly true; but as to the principle of human authority in the church of God, it is utterly false, and should be rejected with holy decision by every one who loves, reverences, and adores the great Head of the church and Lord of the assembly, who, blessed be His name, still has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars. He has them now just as positively as in apostolic times; and all who take their true place, the place of self-judgment and humiliation—all who truly own our common sin and failure, on departure from first love, first principles—all who really, in true humility of mind, look to Christ alone for all they want—all who, in real earnestness of heart and godly sincerity, bow to His word and confess His name—all such will assuredly prove the reality of His presence—they will find Him amply sufficient for all their need. They can count on Him for the supply of all ministerial gift, and for the maintenance of all godly order in their public reunions.
True, they will feel—must feel—that they are not in the days of Acts 2, but in the days of 2 Timothy. Yet Christ is sufficient for these, as He was for those. The difficulties are great, but His resources are infinite. It were folly to deny that there are difficulties; but it is sinful unbelief to question the all-sufficiency of our ever gracious and faithful Lord. He has promised to be with His people right on to the end. But He cannot sanction hollow pretension, assumption, or affectation. He looks for reality, for truth in the inward parts. He will have us in our right place, owning our true condition. There He can meet us, according to His infinite fullness, and according to the eternal stability of that grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
But, oh! let us never forget that our God delights in uprightness of heart and integrity of purpose. He will never fail a trusting heart; but He must be trusted fully. It will not do to speak of trusting Him, while, in reality, we are leaning on our own appliances and arrangements. Here is precisely whore we so sadly fail. We do not leave room for Him to act in our midst. We do not leave the platform clear for Him. Thus we are robbed, and that to an extent of which we have little idea, of the blessed manifestation of His presence and grace in our assemblies. His Spirit is quenched and hindered, and we are left to feel our barrenness and poverty, when we might be rejoicing in the fullness of His love and in the power of His ministry. It is utterly impossible that He can ever fail those who, owning the truth of their condition, earnestly look to Him. He cannot deny Himself; and He can never say to His people that they have reckoned too largely on Him.
It is not that we are to look for any special display of power in our midst, anything that might attract public attention, or make a noise in the world. There are no tongues, no gifts of healing, no miracles, no extraordinary manifestations of angelic action on our behalf. Neither are we to look for anything similar to the case of Ananias and Sapphira—the sudden and awful execution of divine judgment, striking terror into the hearts of all, both inside and outside the assembly.
Such things are not to be looked for now. They would not comport with the present condition of things in the church of God. No doubt, our Lord Christ has all power in heaven and on earth, and He could display that power now, just as He did in Pentecostal times, if it so pleased Him.
But He does not so act, and we can readily understand the reason. It is our place to walk softly, humbly, tenderly. We have sinned, and failed, and departed from the holy authority of the word of God. We must ever bear this in mind, and be content with a very low and retired place. It would ill become us to seek a name or a position in the earth. We cannot possibly be too little in our own eyes.
But, at the same time, we can, if in our right place, and in a right spirit, fully count on the presence of Jesus with us; and we may rest assured that where He is—where His most gracious presence is felt—there we may look for the most precious results, both in the way of binding our hearts together in true brotherly love; in causing us to sit loose to all earthly possessions and earthly ties; in leading us forth in grace and kindness toward all men; and also in putting away from amongst us all who would defile the assembly by unsound doctrine or unholy morals.