T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

The Way of God's Greater Fulness

Reading: 1 Kings 17:8-24.

"Jesus Christ our Lord... declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:3-4).

Romans 1:3-4 is basic to our present meditation and the portion in the book of Kings will be the means of illustrating the truth in Romans 1:3-4.

The last cry of the widow of Zarephath, as you notice, was "Now I know". The declaration of Romans 1:4 is "determined, declared... the Son of God in power... by the resurrection of the dead".

If we turn back to things as they were in the days when this of which we have read took place, we remember that they were days of real spiritual declension. The conditions on the earth were but an illustration of how things were spiritually. There was a sore famine through drought, rain was long withheld, and all fruitfulness therefore was in a state of suspense, because (as we learn later in the great crisis which was already on the horizon, the great Carmel crisis) there was that state of indefiniteness; what the prophet called "limping between two opinions", a state of spiritual maimedness, haltedness, the heart divided. And because of that, there could be no spiritual fulness, there could be nothing of the real fulness of the Lord amongst His people. And what He sent into the natural world of drought and famine, speaking of a spiritual condition, was but the counterpart of what obtained in the spiritual realm - a divided heart, a heart not wholly for the Lord, a heart largely set upon its own blessing, this world - therefore spiritual famine. Days, we have said, of spiritual declension.

Elijah represented the Lord's testimony, the ministry of the Divine, the heavenly, things as here on the earth. And as we see, he was in a state of retirement from the public scene, he was not before the public eye. The Lord hid him, or commanded him, "Go, hide thyself", so that the real testimony of the Lord was not the thing which was the public thing, the recognised thing, the accepted thing. It was something which the Lord was keeping in secret, keeping hidden, but nevertheless was very active, very energetic, but energetic along one line, as we shall see.

God, while He was working in a hidden, in a secret way, while He was hiding that which represented His full thought, was nevertheless caring for His testimony. In the first place, He supported it by the ministry of ravens, and then by the ministry of the widow of Zarephath. The Lord was looking after His testimony in a hidden way, was caring for that which was most precious to Himself.

Now, that brings us immediately to the place where the Lord's message at this time comes up quite definitely. In going by the commandment of the Lord to Zarephath, and being brought to the gate of the city, this woman, this widow and her son, were brought into touch with the prophet, with the testimony of the Lord, with the full thought of the Lord along the line of their own need, along the line of their own conscious need. They were brought into relationship with God's testimony, and their need was met in relation to God's need.

God had a need; that need was represented by Elijah. It was bound up with Elijah, bound up with that instrument of testimony; there was a need there. If we may speak in spiritual language, the testimony had a need, as well as the woman and the son. The Lord, as represented by Elijah, had a need. He was after something, He was working toward something. The sovereignty of God is very clear in these happenings. It was some distance for Elijah to go. When the brook Cherith dried up the word of the Lord came to go to Zarephath in the land of Zidon, which was a journey. It was outside of Israel altogether. You remember what the Lord said about this very matter. He said there were many widows in Zarephath in the days of Elijah the prophet, but to none of them was he sent, but to the widow in the land of Zidon, outside of Israel. But this is the Lord's strange, wonderful way. He sent His servant on a long journey outside of Israel, acting in sovereignty, because He has deeper thoughts, larger thoughts.

Of course, there is a dispensational line of truth running right through this, which perhaps we need not stay to show in any fulness, just touching upon the significance of the words of the Lord Jesus about this very incident. You will remember it was in the day when He, who was the embodiment of God's fulness, He who was the testimony of God amongst men, had no place amongst them, but by God was a hidden one because of their spiritual state. Did He not cry, "The world knows Me not"? He came unto His own, and they that were His own people received Him not - like Elijah. It was then that God looked beyond Israel, beyond the confines of the earthly Israel, out to the Gentile nations, because He had a need, a need in His own heart. That need was centred in His Son, and the letter to the Ephesians is the background of all that we are saying.

The great phrase in that letter, and one which has caused us all so much perplexity, is: "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints". Mark you, that word was being written, spoken, especially beyond Israel to that church which is greater than the bounds and the confines of earthly Israel, for the letter to the Ephesians is all on that - the greater thing which God has ever had in mind, the greater thing than Israel. Then you notice, immediately the apostle has used those words, "What the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints", he goes on, "what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead". Now you have come back to Zarephath. You get the thought? It is all of a piece: this testimony established along the line of resurrection and established in the church which is a bigger thing than Israel, which is beyond Israel.

So the Lord had a need as represented in Elijah, and the others found their need met by answering to the Lord's need. That is a principle always underlying God's dealing with people, and that explains this strange and seemingly inconsiderate and selfish behaviour of Elijah. "I have a little meal, I am gathering two sticks. I only want a couple of sticks, the portion is so small, to bake a little cake for me and my son", no, it is not a death knell, though it sounds like it, "that we may eat and die". My heart leaps with joy when I read that - "and die" - because of that to which it is basic, to which it is essential: "We may eat and die".

And then this seemingly inconsiderate procedure of the prophet, "Me first! Bake a little cake and bring it to me first and then you and your son". It is a testing thing, a principle always pressed home by God when He is after something very rich. You and I will never come into God's fulness by having as our first consideration our own blessing, our own good, our own fulness. God's way is always to test us as to whether we have first of all His interests at heart, whether we discern and recognise that He has an inheritance, and whether our hearts are set upon His inheritance. Oh, there is so much that is constituted for the blessing of God's people, and there is so much activity, feverish quest for blessing, an immense amount of work that is for the blessing of the Lord's people.

Now, let us challenge our own hearts. Do you go to meetings usually to get a blessing? Well, that may be all right, I am not going to say that that is all wrong, but I'll tell you the way to get blessing. Suspend your anxiety to get a blessing and put in its place a desire that the Lord may get something, get what He is after, and you will get a blessing. But don't do it for that! You will be tested; the Lord will take away even that which you have got, to prove whether this is genuine, this faith, this obedience, whether really your heart is set upon Him or something for yourself. He will just take away all that you have. He will say, "Me first. My testimony first, My interests first, what I am after first". He will apply that in a very practical way, and He is applying it with most of us in a very practical way. He is bringing us more and more utterly to the place where, if the Lord's interests are not supreme with us, then we have nothing, better just give it all up.

That was the way in which this woman and her son came into fulness. The challenge was accepted, the obedience of faith was given, that which represented the Lord's interests was put first, and their blessing, their fulness, followed. Remember that is always the way of the Lord.

I am going to pause there just for a moment to press that home. It is the explanation of so much. You may have been on the line of blessing, and then the Lord brings you into touch with something which represents a great fulness for Himself, something which is very much more important with Him than that line of blessing. It has bound up with it His own satisfaction, the purpose upon which His heart has been set from before times eternal. You get a touch with that, and when you get a touch with it, immediately your line of blessing is affected, and that line of things begins to dry up, begins to be taken away from you. The Lord seems to withdraw that which you had, seems to require that you let that go, and you can see yourself gradually moving into a place where you have nothing left. All the blessing that you had is gone, God has taken it away.

Now you have come into a place where there is only one question. It all resolves itself into one issue: is this the Lord, am I persuaded that this is of God? What other course can I take? What alternative have I? Am I compelled to believe that the Lord has met me at this point, in this way? If so, what can I do but say "Yes" to the Lord? In saying "Yes" to the Lord, we let go all that line of blessing that we have been in, and pass into a time of complete barrenness when we let go even what we had. The Lord has taken that, and during that time (and for some it is drawn out, not just five minutes) this testing is pressed to finality.