All through Scripture we may trace a people of mixed principles, as we say, who wear garments of woolen and linen (Deut. 22:1111Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. (Deuteronomy 22:11)), contrary to the call of God and the pure ordinances of His house. Lot, for example, was associated with the call of God. Like Abram, he left Mesopotamia, came with Abram into Canaan, and was a righteous man. Abram betrayed the way of nature, again and again recovering himself, but if Abram’s garment was soiled now and again, it was not “a garment of divers sorts.” Lot’s garment, however, was “woolen and linen,” for he was untrue to the call of God. He became a citizen when he ought to have been only a sojourner, and he was a man of mixed principles all his days, while Abram all his days was true to the call of God. And, what is full of meaning, we observe, that after he had become a man of mixed principles, he and Abraham had no communion. Abraham will run to his help in the day when his principles were bringing him into jeopardy, but there is no communion between them. And this is no uncommon case to this day.
David and Jonathan
It was so with David. Nature prevailed in him at times, but he was never a man of mixed principles. He was true to the call of God, but it was not so with his friend Jonathan; he acted nobly and graciously at times, but still he was not the separated man. He was a man of faith, but he was not where the call of God would have had him, for Saul’s court was a defiled place then. Jonathan was lovely individually, and he never personally gave David anything but joy, but still his position was not true to the call of God in that day.
In this our day there is, like Jonathan, many a saint, dear to one’s heart and outshining in personal graces, who is found apart from the place where the energy of the Spirit, according to the rule of the dispensation, works. Noble and generous deeds are done by them individually, but their connection is their dishonor, as it was Jonathan’s. His presence did not make Saul’s camp or court other than it was. Likewise, the only impression we have of Lot in Sodom is that of a tainted Lot, not of a sanctified Sodom.
A Soiled Garment
There are, however, “things that differ,” and the soul exercised of God is to distinguish them. There is a soiled garment, which is, however, at the same time, not a mixed garment, a garment of “divers sorts,” of “woolen and linen.” Our way under the Spirit is to keep our garments undefiled, but a garment with a thread now and again of another sort is not to be mistaken for one whose texture is made on the very principle of “woolen and linen.” The garments upon Lot and Jonathan were made of divers sorts, of woolen and linen. But look at Jacob, in contrast. It is true that his schemes and calculations greatly disfigure several periods of his life, while his building of a house at Succoth and his buying of a piece of ground at Shechem were things untrue to the pilgrim life. But Jacob is not to be put with Lot; his life was not formed by Succoth and Shechem, though we thus see him there; rather, he was a stranger with God, in the earth. And at the end of his pilgrimage, when he was in Egypt, we have many a beautiful witness of the recovered state of his soul.
Mixtures
Likewise, the days of Ahab king of Israel were fruitful in illustrations of this kind. There were in those days an Elijah, a Micaiah, a Jehoshaphat and an Obadiah, and all these in the midst of the foulest departure from the ways of God. But all these are not to be classed together. To use the language of “woolen and linen” or “garments of divers sorts,” I might say, there was no mistaking the cloth of Elijah and Micaiah. The leathern girdle of the one and the prison bands of the other tell us what men they were and show their complete separation. But Obadiah was not Elijah, and again, neither was Jehoshaphat a Micaiah.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, was a separate man, but a man who, at times, is found in defiling connection. He was of Jacob’s generation, though he may be more faulty than Jacob. Vanity betrayed him again and again, as worldly policy betrayed Jacob. Jehoshaphat joined affinity with Ahab and acted there in terrible inconsistency with the sanctity and separation of the house of David. But though all this is so, his life was not one of mixed principles. Very noble deeds were done by his hands, very dear affections were breathed by his spirit, and the Lord owned him. But, like Jacob, and to a more painful extent, he was betrayed into connections which make his testimony an imperfect thing. It was not merely a soiled garment, but a garment the texture of which was scarcely discernible, so shamefully do the “divers sorts” appear in it at times.
Obadiah’s Garment
But the garment which Obadiah wore cannot be mistaken; the “divers sorts,” of woolen and linen, are to be seen in it from head to foot. It was not merely that he was betrayed at times; his whole life evinces a man of mixed principles. He had respect to the afflictions of the prophets, hiding them in caves from the persecution, and feeding them there, but all the while he was the adviser, the companion, and the minister of Ahab, in whose kingdom the iniquity was practiced. His was not the leathern girdle of Elijah, and when they come together, this difference is expressed most strikingly. Obadiah seeks to conciliate the mind of Elijah. He reminds him of what he had done for the persecuted prophets of God in the day of their trouble and tells him that he fears the Lord, but Elijah moves slowly and coldly towards him. All this is painful between two saints of God, but it is a common thing, and much more commonly felt than expressed.
Abraham and Lot
There could be no blending of the spirits of Abraham and Lot after Lot went the way of Sodom. Abraham rescued Lot from king Chedorlaomer, but this was no meeting of saints; they could not blend. So was it, in a far more vivid expression, in Elijah and Obadiah. They meet in an evil day, Obadiah searching for water in the day when the Lord, through Elijah, was giving the land neither rain nor dew. There is effort on the part of Obadiah, and reserve with Elijah. Obadiah calls Elijah his lord, but Elijah reminds him that Ahab is his lord. We are not to be serving the world behind another’s back and then, when we come together, assume that we meet as saints. But Elijah acted in character, faithful to his brother now as he had been to his Lord before.
We may well ask ourselves whether we have been in the heavenlies or in Ahab’s court? Have we been making provision for the flesh or desiring the things of Christ? Obadiah was governor over Ahab’s house; how could such a one as Elijah be comfortable or at ease with him? The garment of divers sorts, of woolen and of linen, ill-matched the leathern girdle of a separated, suffering witness of Christ. In contrast, the poor widow of Zarephath enjoyed the full flow of Elijah’s sympathies, and that humble homestead presented a scene which had its spring and its reward with God.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)