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"... reaching forth unto those things which are
before ...
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
"
(Philippians 3:13-14)
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Vol. 4, No. 3, May - June 1975 |
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster |
[ifc/41]
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EDITORIAL
RECENTLY I was preparing to give a Bible Reading on Peter when I found
my attention being drawn to the Lord's prophetic association of the
crowing of a cock with the apostle's denial of Christ. It is a striking
fact that this cock is mentioned in all four Gospels, which in itself
suggests that the matter is worthy of very special emphasis. What is
more, the record stresses the amazing accuracy of timing of the Lord's
words, for it was actually while Peter was completing his third
shameful denial that the cock began to crow.
At first sight it might appear that the Lord had simply used
'cock-crow' as a time indication, affirming in effect that in less than
twenty-four hours Peter would have been proved false. But such a
general time factor would hardly have received such detailed treatment
by all four Evangelists. I could have presumed that the crowing of the
cock was a kind of alarm, a warning signal which the apostle might have
heeded and so been saved from disaster; in fact I had previously done
so, but as I looked more carefully at the Scriptures, I found that the
Lord Jesus had predicted that the cock would crow after Peter's denial,
and not just before it. I was therefore left with this intriguing
question concerning the unsuspecting but far from insignificant cock
who had made history just by crowing. Why was he given so much
prominence in the Word of God?
I thought about this and prayed, but went to bed without an answer. In
the night, however, I had one of those flashbacks of memory which
sometimes come to us in our wakeful moments. I went back in my thoughts
to my early life as a missionary. Less than six months after I had
arrived in Brazil to work for Christ there, I was taken very seriously
ill. I was in an up-country farmhouse, far from any medical help, and I
hovered between life and death for several weeks. My Brazilian hosts
were very kind, but they were busy people, so that I was left alone for
many hours. The nights seemed long, almost endless, and I often lay and
longed for the dawn. There was one sound, however, which became sweeter
than music to my ears, and that was the crowing of a cock. As I lay in
the darkness, longing for a new day, there was a farmyard cock who
sensed the dawn well before any vestige of light shone into my
shuttered room. He always brought me relief by his confident crowing.
In the pitch darkness I was given comfort and hope. The cock had
crowed. A new day was about to break.
These were the memories which came to me across the years as I lay in
bed. Suddenly I realised their significance; indeed they seemed to be
the answer to my enquiring prayer. Cock-crow means -- hope of a new
day. However dark and trying my predicament in Brazil was to me, it was
as nothing compared with Peter's dark night of the soul. When he heard
the cock, he went out and wept bitterly. It seemed like the end: it
surely must have been the blackest moment of his life. Yet the Lord
Jesus, who had known that it was coming, had prophesied that at the
juncture when Peter would have reached the depths, at that very moment
the cock would crow; and sure enough that was exactly how it happened.
Immediately the words of hot denial had been spoken, the cock uttered
his hoarse cry.
Just what the sound conveyed to Peter I do not know. Certainly not
hope. To my waiting ears the clarion call had sounded like welcome
music. To the shocked ears of the apostle it must have sounded like the
final mocking cry of doom. But it was not so -- far from it. Jesus
never mocked anyone, least of all the loved disciple over whom He had
so earnestly prayed. No, the truth is, as we with hindsight can now see
so clearly, that the darkest moment of failure and distress was really
the beginning of a new day of blessing and fruitfulness. The same Lord
who had so confidently predicted that Peter would thrice deny Him had,
with equal assurance, informed him that then the cock would crow. Luke
tells us that this happened while Peter was actually speaking. Mark
(who is generally said to have written his Gospel under Peter's
direction) tells us that the cock crowed twice. No doubt it went on
crowing for a bit, as cocks usually do, but twice was enough for Peter.
He remembered no more. He broke down completely. But though he was in
no condition to realise it, this was to be the new day when Christ
would make full atonement for this and all his other sins and purchase
full and free pardon for him, and for us all.
The same Saviour watches lovingly over all our ways. He sees ahead
those black experiences which to us spell despair, but He also looks [41/42] beyond to the new day of resurrection. There
is a sense in which we never really know the full meaning of His title,
"the God of hope", until we have sunk to the lowest depths of personal
hopelessness. Let me put it the other way round. It is out of our
darkest moments that there comes a new realisation of the fact that
Jesus Christ is our Hope.
----------------
OUR HIGHEST SERVICE
J. Alec Motyer
Reading: Psalm 103
OF all spiritual activities, the one which most honours God is that of
blessing Him. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." More is involved in that
than just thanksgiving. To bless the Lord is certainly to speak His
praise with words, but it is also to take up an attitude toward Him.
The word translated 'bless' is somehow related to a word denoted 'to
kneel', so that the person who blesses the Lord is doing more than open
his mouth, he is bowing his knees to God. Blessing God gives Him the
honour due to Him because the lips are opened to praise Him and the
knees are bent to worship and adore Him.
When Elijah went up Carmel to give God the praise for the great victory
of the fire, the king could go off to feast but the prophet only wished
to worship. We do not read of any words which he spoke, but we are told
that he put his face between his knees. That is more than some of us
are able to do, for one reason or another, but he did it. Those who are
still young and supple should try it. They should sit down on their
heels and put their head between their knees, and they will then
appreciate just how low before God Elijah came. It was not just that he
wished to say: 'Thank You, Lord', but he wanted in the deepest sense to
bless the Lord. There is nothing that gives God the honour that is due
to Him more than that we should bless the Lord. This is more than just
thanksgiving; it also contains that all too rare activity, the adoring
of God, the appreciation of His true greatness, the worshipping of Him
not only for what He has done but for what He is.
When we read: "forgiveth ... healeth ... redeemeth ... crowneth ..." we
should know that as all these verbs are participles, they point to
something which is characteristic of His person, showing that these are
not merely things which from time to time He does, but they are
permanent features of His nature. He forgives because He is a Forgiver;
He heals because He is a Healer; He redeems because He is the great
Redeemer. Blessing the Lord dwells on the person of the Lord Himself in
all the fullness of His character as it has been revealed to us. There
is nothing in the spiritual life that more honours God and there is
nothing that is more beneficial to man.
Look what is involved in this activity: it is 'my soul'. This blessing
is something which comes out from the very heart of the believer. It is
not a superficial matter, something on the outside, but that which
expresses the fullness of one's whole being. "And all that is within me
..." implies what we often call wholeheartedness. The believer brings
all that is within him into contact with the holiness of God. This is
surely the way of sanctification. There is nothing more beneficial to
us, and yet there is nothing that we more rarely do. Why we seldom
extend ourselves in real thanksgiving, let alone in this far greater
exercise of blessing the Lord and adoring Him for what He is.
The Soul which Knows the Blessing of God is the Soul which Blesses God.
This heart worship of God Himself arises out of a personal experience
of His blessing. If God blesses us, then we can bless Him in return,
not in the sense of bestowing on Him something which He did not possess
before, but of appreciating His great mercies. "... and forget not all
his benefits." If the benefits and blessings which God has given us
have passed out of our memories and we no longer meditate on the
goodness of God, we will have no cause to bless Him. Forgetfulness of
the goodness of God deprives us of such opportunities. "For he that [42/43] lacketh these things is blind, seeing only
what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sin" (2 Peter
1:9).
Let us remember again these blessings: forgiveness, healing, redeeming,
crowning! I often think that we value God's material blessings higher
than these spiritual ones. You read, say, the story of George Muller
and find that in answer to prayer God bestowed on him millions of
pounds. You say: 'How, wonderful! What a marvellous God He is! Fancy,
millions of pounds!' And it is as though you had suddenly awakened to
the dimensions of God. What a great God He is! Fancy, millions of
pounds! But to God it was nothing to give millions of pounds compared
with what it was to give us His Son. It is the spiritual blessings
which He gives us in Christ which are the real index of His greatness.
Consequently when, in his exalted moment, David wishes to bless the
Lord, he does so in the light of God's spiritual mercies. In his case
God had granted him marvellous material benefits. He had raised him
from the pastures to the palace: He had delivered him from enemies on
every side: He had made him a wealthy ruler; but there was one thing
above all others which called for blessing, and that was the fact that
all his sins had been forgiven.
God deals with sin in its totality. In this psalm David refers to three
features of his sin:
1. Sins (verse 10)
This speaks of specific acts of wrong-doing. These are the actual
things which he should not have done. When David admitted to sins he
referred to precise acts of wrong which he had done and which could be
definitely identified.
2. Iniquities (verse 10)
This is the root from which the sins come. Why did David sin? Because
he was a sinner. This refers not to the outside features of his life
which others could see, but the inward infection of his heart and
nature. Men take note of sin from its fruits, but God has taken
knowledge of it in its roots and has dealt with it there.
3. Transgressions (verse 12)
This word means rebellion; sin as destroying peace between man and God,
making man an enemy of God and God the enemy of man. This was what
David meant when he cried out: "Against thee, and thee only, have I
sinned" (Psalm 51:4). He had committed a sin, a precise act of
wrong-doing. He recognised that he had done so because of his own
sinful nature; but more than that, he realised that sin has another
dimension, a dimension Godward. So he had to confess that what he had
done had been an outrage against God. Sin is rebellion, and it
constitutes man a rebel against the law and will of God.
But here David blesses the Lord because there had been a complete
coverage of all this -- "... all thine iniquities ...". The
marvel of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is that it deals
with sin in its totality. I cannot surprise God by my sins. I surprise
and shock myself at them, and you would be surprised and shocked if you
knew it all. But I cannot surprise God. He knew them all, and at
Calvary He laid them all on His Son. He also deals with sin in its
consequences -- "... healeth all thy diseases ...". I do not
believe that by diseases David refers to his body, for it would not
always be true to say that God heals physically. He can do so, and He
will when it is for His greater glory, but He does not always give
bodily healing. There are, however, diseases of the spirit, the awful
effects of sin in the life, and these God marvellously cancels out.
"Fools because of their iniquities ... are afflicted". And what does
God do? "He sendeth his word and healeth them" (Psalm 107:17 and 20).
What is more, God not only cancels the immediate effects of sin, but
deals with it in its ultimate effects -- "He redeemeth thy life from
destruction, from the pit". Sin's end product is death, the destruction
of the body and soul in hell which Jesus told us to fear. He redeems us
from that.
The word for redeemer was gael. He was the one who stepped in
and took over upon himself a situation of helpless and hopeless loss,
transforming it into one of prosperity, power and plenty. The redeemer
had the right to step in and save. With us sinners God, being the
offended party, is the only one who has the right to do this. We cannot
say that He has the duty to save, because that would imply that sinners
could put pressure on almighty God; but we can accept that He alone has
the right to redeem. God reverses the rewards of sin. What does sin
bring to the sinner? Destruction, for the wages of sin is death. What
does God do about this? He redeems our life from destruction and crowns
us [43/44] with loving kindness and tender
mercies. Not the pit but the crown: not destruction but the throne,
reigning in life with Christ. We live in a diseased world. People go
around thinking that they are all right, quite normal, when in fact
they are sin-sick. What are the manifestations of juvenile delinquency
and adult delinquency but sickness of the soul? How wonderful, then,
for the Christian to know God's remedy for sin, His renewing,
preserving, regenerating power, cancelling the rewards of sin and
bringing in the rewards of grace. How can we fail to be drawn out in
adoration and love?
The Soul which Knows what it is to Fear God, is the Soul which
Experiences the Fullness of Blessing.
This is another truth which is related to the previous one. Notice the
change at verse 6. Previously David spoke of 'thou' and 'thy',
addressing his own soul personally. Now he speaks of 'all' and 'us',
having broadened his platform in an inclusive way so that the section
ends: "His kingdom ruleth over all" (verse 19). Everything is under His
control. The God whom we worship does not run helplessly up and down
the touchline of human affairs, impotent to control them. "He is a
great King above all gods." We need to know, however, that within the
setting of this rule over all, there are certain people with whom God
deals particularly. These are His own -- "... to such as keep his
covenant ..." (verse 18). Then within that group of His own there is a
group of special people who know what it is to enjoy the full blessing
of God. You will find them mentioned three times: "them that fear Him"
(verses 11, 13 and 17). So first we have a world rule, then we have a
special concern for the people whom He calls to be His own and then we
have the blessing of God poured out upon those who fear Him. Notice the
blessings that are given:
1. His great mercy (verse 11)
'Great' is hardly the right word. If we wanted to use a term to
describe a soldier in his strength and courage we might use this word.
'So mighty, so strong in His mercy.' Those who fear Him are the people
who come to know the strength of God. So it was that Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego were able to defy the most fearsome expression of man's
power because they had complete confidence that God's power was
superior. 'How many men did we throw into the fire?' Nebuchadnezzar
asked, and when he was told that there were three he exclaimed: 'But I
see four! And the form of the fourth is like the son of God'. So strong
was God's power that the men were free, they were untouched by the
intense heat and they walked with the Lord in the fire. And His mercy
is just as great as His power, mercy being that undying love of His
which ensures that He will never let His people go.
"Fear Him, ye saints; and you will then
Have nothing else to fear;
Make you His service your delight,
Your wants shall be His care."
2. His Fatherly pity (verse 13)
There is the full value of parenthood in this pity of His, for it is
motherly as well as fatherly. In the story of the two unfortunate women
who appealed to Solomon we are told that the king said to them: 'All
right. If you can't make up your minds whose the child is, I will give
you half each'. The non-mother agreed with this solution but the real
mother rejected it because, "her bowels yearned upon her child". This
is the same word as is translated 'pity' in our psalm. God yearns over
His own. He has a mother's yearning over the life and welfare of His
Church. What an amazing picture this is of God in His fatherly-motherly
concern! As to His fatherly heart, we remember how David yearned over
his son, even as Absalom lay out in the woods under a heap of stones.
"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for
thee ...". All David could say was: "Would God I had died for thee",
but our Father says better than that, for He commends His love to us
that Christ did die for the ungodly. "God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself ..." (2 Corinthians 5:19). What
precious outpoured Father's love comes to those who fear Him!
3. His eternal faithfulness (verse 17)
God's undying love is from everlasting to everlasting for those who
fear Him. Those who fear Him enjoy the assurance which comes from the
knowledge that they were in Christ before the world began, and will
still be in Him though heaven and earth pass away. This, surely, is the
fullness of God's blessing, to know the unchanging love of God and to
be upheld by the everlasting arms.
So the soul which knows what it is to fear God is the soul who enjoys
the blessing of God in its fullness, but we need to look again at the
psalm [44/45] to discover what is meant by
fearing the Lord. "Them that fear him ... to such as remember his
commandments to do them" (verses 17 and 18). Simple as it may be, this
reminds us that God's commandments are meant to be obeyed. They are not
intended for our interest or entertainment: they are to be done. The
covenant love of God to His people is to be met by their covenant
obedience to Him. When God spoke to Moses of His compassion and grace,
and went on to declare: "Behold I make a covenant with you ...", He
followed this with a charge: "Observe thou that which I command thee
this day ..." (Exodus 34:6-11). He gave His people a revelation and
then demanded obedience. If we argue that this was the old covenant, we
must admit that the new covenant is no less demanding than the old. The
great difference between the two covenants is that under the new
covenant obedience becomes possible. "God forbid" that we should be
servants of sin, but "God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered to you" (Romans 6:15 and 17).
They that fear His name will think on His commandments to do them. This
psalm brings together two things which we would never have thought of
bringing together, blessing the Lord and obeying the Lord. It implies
that if you have never been drawn out to bless the Lord it may be
because you are not obeying Him. A person who is obeying God up to the
hilt is venturing everything upon Him and proving Him. Don't you think
that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego blessed the Lord when they came out
of the fire? We have not ventured far enough with God to know the full
reality of His blessedness, and so we fail to bless Him as we should.
The angels have wherewith to bless God because they hearken and obey
(verse 20). His hosts can bless Him because they minister to His
pleasure (verse 21). His works bless Him, for they are utterly under
His dominion, obedient and subservient to His will (verse 22). But what
about "my soul"? If my soul is not going out in this kind of adoration,
then there is something lacking in the worship ascending to the throne.
It is not enough for the angels, the hosts and His works to bless Him
if that final contribution which completes the full glorious harmony is
not forthcoming. "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" Since blessing and
obedience are inseparable, let me make sure that I, too, am so devoted
to God's will that I can truly bless Him.
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THE MINOR PROPHETS
3. JOEL
John H. Paterson
JOEL prophesied at a moment of time when the land of Israel seems to
have been hit by an unprecedented series of natural disasters. Plagues
of locusts have always been a threat to the farmers and food-producers
of the Middle East, but the attacks from which the land was now
suffering were total in their destructiveness, and appear to have
accompanied an equally devastating drought. Yet with their livelihood
gone and their livestock starving, the people of the land seem not to
have connected these events with a visitation from God; they were
wringing their hands -- or rending their garments -- over their
misfortunes, but it required a forceful reminder from Joel before they
would associate natural disasters with the hand of God, or go on to the
kind of self-examination that might yield a clue about the reason
for all their troubles.
It is interesting to find that the prophet brings few, if any, specific
charges against the people of God. His denunciations in Chapter 3 are
against Israel's neighbours, who have persecuted His people and carried
off the treasures of His house (3:5). But Israel and Judah themselves
are evidently to blame not so much for what they have been doing as for
their failure to appreciate that all their history has a spiritual
dimension; that since nothing ever happened by chance, they must look
for God's meaning in these latest events.
THE MISSING DIMENSION
In the first of these studies it was suggested that each of the twelve
Minor Prophets was raised up by God to call attention to some aspect or
dimension of His character which had become lost to sight. With an
understanding of God distorted [45/46] by these
'missing dimensions', His people were doomed to fail Him, and bound to
incur His judgment. Only when all the missing parts of the picture were
filled in would a true understanding of God's character emerge. In the
second of our studies, on the prophet Hosea, it was suggested that it
was Hosea's role to remind his hearers that God is a God of love.
Now we come to the prophecy of Joel and the reminder that God is a
God of purpose.
On any reading of Joel's words, the key phrase emerges as "the day of
the Lord". It occurs five times (1:15; 2:1, 11 and 31; 3:14), and it
creates the sense of perspective necessary to an appreciation of all
human events; they are timed to culminate "in that day". Without this
perspective, life becomes a series of disconnected incidents: the
locusts attack here or there at random; the rains fail one year and
cause flooding the next; man is the victim of a capricious fate and
life is a sick joke. We have plenty of contemporary thinkers who take
this view.
No, says Joel, this is not the case. There is a movement of God in
history, and there is a purpose in and for His people. This purpose is
to mount to a climax of consummation, and God is at work through His
Spirit to attain it. Events are to be seen not as disconnected or
aimless, but rather as the actions of God, to which He expects a
response. If man will indeed respond, then God in His turn will react:
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered"
(2:32).
This was a perspective which the people of God had once had, but by
Joel's time had largely lost. There had been a time in Israel's history
when the consciousness of God's purpose was strong and real, when He
had declared his plan to bring them out of Egypt and into the promised
land: "They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my
King, in the sanctuary" (Psalm 68:24). But the trouble was that, with
Israel's arrival in the land, that purpose had apparently been
fulfilled. To the question, 'What next?' there was no obvious answer;
merely to 'live happily ever after', even if they had been able to
achieve such a state (which of course they were not ), would
afford no sense of purpose or give them any positive goals.
For by Joel's time 'What next?' could only be answered in New Testament
terms. And it was among the descendants of these same people that the
sense of purpose, of the onward movement of God, was recaptured. One of
the impressive things in the story which Luke tells of the coming of
John the Baptist and Jesus is the way in which those involved
immediately sensed the "goings of God" in the apparently trivial
circumstances of two babies being born: "the day-dawning from on high
has visited us" (Luke 1:78) -- the start of a new phase in the purpose.
In due course, it was Peter who quoted Joel to the crowd at Pentecost:
"This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come
to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon
all flesh" (Acts 2:16-17). And later on still Paul was looking ahead,
beyond the purpose of God for old Israel, or the events of Pentecost,
to the ultimate consummation: "That in the dispensation of the fulness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him" (Ephesians
1:10). There is a stir of excitement because God is on the move.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF MISUNDERSTANDING
To possess this perspective on God's purpose and progress is very
important. It is important, firstly, because without it we can scarcely
hope to build up a worthy picture of God in His creation and, secondly,
because to possess it is the basis of Christian assurance.
1. People in general do not believe that God is all-wise, all-powerful,
loving, or even interested in His creation. They base their beliefs on
what they see, and it is difficult to blame them. When babies are born
deformed, avalanches and earthquakes sweep whole towns away, and
drought strikes year after year in the same parts of Africa, all in a
world professedly under God's control, they feel entitled to doubt His
goodwill, even if not His existence. This is the effect of judging by
the individual event, in the particular moment of time. If God is to be
vindicated it can only be in the long term, but vindicated He must and
will be.
To an alarming extent, Israel had lost this perspective. They saw only
the disasters around them, and that produced in them a very low
estimation of their God. So Joel's first task was to try to rouse them
to confront the question, 'Do you really think that this is the best
that God [46/47] can do?' For there is another
side to life and to nature: "Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for
the Lord has done great things" (2:21). And one day God will gather all
the nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment. Jehoshaphat
means 'God judges', but it may also be translated 'God vindicates'. God
will by then have completed His purpose for His people and when it is
seen as a whole, rather than as number of separate, apparently
disjointed events, it will perfectly vindicate Him. It will, as Paul
expressed it (Ephesians 3:10), be a perfect exhibition of "the manifold
wisdom of God".
We all, as God's people, probably sometimes long for something to
happen to prove that He was right after all. (We must be careful that
what we want is His vindication, and not simply our own; that
we are not merely wanting to turn on those who oppose us and say, 'You
see, I was right after all). How much more must He Himself wish to set
the record straight -- to wind up His purpose once for all; to sweep
aside the calumnies heaped upon His name in the course of millennia of
human grievances; to present His Son in glory. Then why does He not do
so: what is preventing Him? Only, surely, His wish to extend for a
little longer the day of grace, before bringing it to an end in the day
of vindication.
2. Christian assurance, in turn, looks towards the day of the Lord. To
see this, we need only refer to the life of the great apostle, Paul.
When he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, he knew that life was
nearly over; for him, purpose had narrowed down to what could be
accomplished in a few more hours or days. And so he built his assurance
on the timescale of God's purpose; he looked ahead to the day of the
Lord: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day";
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ..."
This reflects a wonderful feeling of assurance, but it is not all. In
Joel's time, after all, Israel were on the verge of starvation; they
had no food and, even if they had possessed any, the chances are that
the neighbouring nations would have swept in and robbed them of it.
Cold comfort, then, to be told that in the day of the Lord all this
would be put right; what were they to eat for breakfast tomorrow?
If there is one verse more than another in Joel's prophecies which
makes them real to Christians in every century, it is surely this: "I
will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten" (2:25), for
it introduces us to God who is a God of restoration. Not only
do we have the assurance that everything will come right in the end; we
are also assured that, in the here and now, He can do what men have
always longed to be able to do, but cannot -- to make good past losses,
to recover wasted time, to catch up after falling behind.
It is a sore handicap and trial for mortals to have dealings with a God
who is eternal; they have only one life, they are always in a hurry and
always impatient with the apparently leisurely pace of His purpose. To
Him, after all, a thousand years are as a single day, and a day as a
thousand years: He is simply not bound by our timescale. But dealing
with Him brings one compensating advantage -- that when His time does
come, He can make good in a single movement the delays, the failures
and the mistakes of a lifetime. What is more, He can if He wishes do it
now. We should not too lightly esteem those words of
the Lord Jesus, "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or
sisters ... but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time,
houses and brethren and sisters ..." (Mark 10:29-30). If the Lord said
that, as He apparently did, about material things, how much more should
it be true of spiritual restoration. That is the prerogative of a God
of restoration.
There are Christians who go through much of their lives under the
shadow of past failures. They recognise, perhaps quite correctly, that
at a certain period in their spiritual history they took a wrong
turning, and nothing has been the same for them ever since. Therefore,
they conclude, nothing can ever be right in the future; they are, if
not irretrievably lost, at least irremediably committed to the wrong
road, a road from which there is no way back to the highway. We should
never make light of spiritual failure. But equally we should never
accept it as final, so long as we have a God of restoration. To do so
would be to do violence to the historic associations of this very
passage from Joel's prophecy. For the man who quoted it in the New
Testament, who said "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel
...", was Peter. And Peter had just failed, so totally and abysmally
that if ever [47/48] anybody deserved to be
written off for all future purposes, it was surely himself! But the God
of restoration not merely brought him back into service, but set him
back on the highway at Pentecost light years ahead of where he had left
it a few short weeks before.
So the God of purpose is working towards 'that day' and, in the
meantime, the God of restoration is watching over our progress. This
God has declared a purpose: that of making each of us like His Son. In
that final day, the purpose will be fulfilled: "when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). But
what about the in-between? It is one of the bitter lessons of
middle-age that, after a lifetime in the school of Christ, we find that
we have made very little progress towards being like Him. At this rate,
how shall we ever arrive? It is as if we were to set out from London
for Edinburgh and, after days of weary travel, find that we had only
reached Potters Bar. At this rate, we shall never reach our goal! But
that is to reckon without God who, from time to time, in single actions
and individual encounters, pours out His Spirit upon men (2:28). The
God of purpose will time it all perfectly. "My people shall never be
ashamed."
----------------
WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING?
T. Austin-Sparks
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look
straight before thee.
Make level the paths of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. (Proverbs 4:25-27)
"Looking unto Jesus ..." (Hebrews 12:2)
FOR the man in Christ life has a clear and definite objective. The
Spirit has seen good to fill the whole Bible with that truth,
continually urging the believer to realise that his life is set in the
context of divine purpose. The letter to the Hebrews not only appeals
to us to press on to this goal, but it portrays Christ as the great
example and proof that the goal can be reached. Jesus has gone this
way; He has gone the whole way, and He has arrived at the destination.
More-over He has done it all for us, and by His accomplishment has
given us the ground of confidence that the goal can be attained and the
prize received. He took upon Himself our humanity, accepted the
challenge of our circumstances and experiences, never faltering until
the divine end was reached. We are reminded that He has triumphantly
fulfilled God's purpose, and that by His present position He offers us
the assurance that we too can share in His triumph. We must keep
looking unto Jesus. More correctly this should be stated as: 'looking
off unto Jesus'. This matter of the direction of our spiritual gaze is
of the utmost importance. The wise man equated a straight and
established path with the straight look ahead and with no turning aside
to the right or to the left. The Word of God gives clear warning about
getting off the road of His will, for God knows the hazards involved in
so doing and wishes to save us from the hindrance to progress which can
result when we look or face in the wrong direction. In this article we
shall consider some of these looks which must be avoided by those who
wish to make spiritual progress.
The Backward Look
The Lord Jesus was most emphatic about this matter when He stated that
the one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for
the kingdom of God. This backward look can lead to grave tragedies. In
the wilderness this is what Israel did. Egypt lay behind them and
should always have been turned away from, but in the difficulties of
the way they called one another to look back. "They turned again and
tempted God, and provoked the holy one of Israel" (Psalm 78:41). They
spoiled their whole course by this action, and for many years they made
no progress at all but went round and round in circles; and all because
of the backward look. That generation failed to enter into what God had
prepared for them, simply because they yielded to the temptation to
look back, which was -- and always is -- the wrong direction. [48/49]
Similar perils beset God's people in New Testament times. The Galatian
believers were unsettled by the voice of the Judaizers, calling them to
look back, not to the world with its ungodliness, not altogether to
forsake Christ, but to face towards a religious procedure which was not
the spiritual life to which they had been called in Christ. They had
already half looked back, and had come to a standstill because of this.
Previously they had been making good progress, as we always do when we
keep our eyes on Christ, but now they had stopped and were raising the
question as to whether they would in fact go on any more, or whether
they would go back to the beggarly elements which should have been left
behind. The letter was meant to warn them of the dangers of the
backward look. The letter to the Hebrews was written for the same
purpose. Those concerned could easily be made to feel the emotional
nostalgia of the system from which they had been delivered, so they had
to be reminded that they would forfeit God's pleasure if they drew
back, and urged rather to press on, looking away from the past and
focussing their gaze on the exalted Christ. However advanced we may be
in our Christian experience, there seems to be no point when we can
afford to take our eyes off the goal set before us and indulge in the
follies of the backward look.
The Look Around
When the spies brought back the wrong report concerning the promised
land, they did so because they had only looked around them, and never
measured what they saw with the reality of an all-powerful God. They
did not just imagine the difficulties; they did not need to do so for
the cities and giants were real enough. But they kept their gaze down
to the things around them, never lifting up their eyes to the one from
whom help comes, and so they were discouraged themselves and they
discouraged God's people with what was called an evil report. The
trouble was that they only looked on their visible surroundings and
took their eyes off the Lord. There were only two of them who kept
their gaze in the right direction, and they were the ones who
eventually went through to the end. Their eyes looked right on, and so
their ways were established.
In the New Testament Peter is the great example of the peril which
comes to those who look around. So long as he kept his eyes on Christ
he could actually walk on the water, but he began to sink as soon as he
turned them away, changed the direction of his attention and began to
look at circumstances -- "When he saw the wind ..." (Matthew 14:30).
Once again let it be said that he had plenty of reason for his fear.
Indeed there are ancient manuscripts which read, 'the strong wind'.
However it was his foolishness in letting outward circumstances
distract his attention from his Lord which earned him a wetting, even
though the hand of Jesus so graciously rescued him from anything worse.
At all costs we must beware of looking around in unbelief when we
should be looking off and up in faith.
The Short-sighted Look
Paul had to blame the Corinthians for limiting their vision to the
things immediately before their eyes: "You look at the things which are
before your face" (2 Corinthians 10:7). To be spiritually
short-sighted, focussing only on what is near at hand, is to become too
easily satisfied and contented in the realm of things spiritual; to
have a small and narrow horizon and to fail to appreciate the much more
which God has in mind. It is so easy to settle into a limited and very
circumscribed area, thinking only of the spiritual things with which we
are familiar and which seem so important to us, while we fail to take
note of the much more which lies beyond us and to which we are being
called. There are few things more stultifying in the Christian life
than an assumption that there is nothing beyond the small sphere of our
experience. It is possible to get so shut-in, so near-sighted, that we
go round and round in circles, never looking out to the new dimensions
of spiritual experience to which God is calling us, and almost
imagining that we know all there is to know about God's Word and His
purposes in Christ. The Corinthians seem to have done this, so to have
focussed down on their own affairs, even their own spiritual gifts,
that they were almost at a standstill spiritually. They were looking at
themselves, full of concern for their own assembly, which was right
enough, but apparently not able to appreciate the large purposes of God
as represented by Paul's ministry. Even the matters which have been
clearly shown of God and blessed by Him can become a hindrance when
they arrest and hold the attention as things in themselves. These are
the things before our face, but we were intended always to look beyond
them to the Lord, and always beyond the immediate factors to the
eternal values in Christ. [49/50] We can be
short-sighted even with the Word of God, if we concentrate only on what
we have already known of Christ and fail to appreciate that God has
much more light and truth to break forth from His Word.
The Downward Look
To the Philippians Paul wrote: "... not looking each of you to his own
things ..." (Philippians 2:4). He was urging them not always to be
governed by how things affected them personally, not to measure every
matter as to whether they stood to gain or lose by what was happening.
Self-forgetfulness is one of the secrets of spiritual progress. When,
in His talk with the needy Samaritan woman at Sychar's well, Jesus had
demonstrated this gracious turning aside from personal concerns to care
for others, He followed up His example by exhorting His disciples to
lift up their eyes and look upon the fields. A selfish look is a
downward look, and as such is to be avoided by those who wish to make
level the paths of their feet. Paul's concern was not only with the
spiritual good of the individual believers but with the onward march of
the fellowship of God's people, and he knew that this would be
seriously impaired if each one became preoccupied with his own affairs,
even though it was in the realm of spiritual things.
The Inward Look
The last of these mis-directed looks is perhaps the commonest in the
case of those who wish to follow the Lord. How much of the Scriptures
seems to be concerned with getting God's people to stop looking
inwards. Perhaps there is nothing more calculated to arrest spiritual
progress than the inward look. What are we looking for? Something good
in ourselves? We will never find that, as Paul makes quite clear when
he affirms: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing" (Romans 7:18). Introspection is the very opposite of faith, for
it searches for some evidence of God's holiness and power in ourselves,
instead of rejoicing in the perfection of the Saviour. It has a
spurious appearance of humility and piety, but in fact it leads to
self-preoccupation, instead of preoccupation with Christ. We need to be
sensitive so that the Holy Spirit can lead us ever continuingly to the
appropriation of the cleansing power of Christ's blood, but we must
never keep gazing inwards when we should be looking off and up to our
Substitute and Saviour. It is not a healthy person but a sick one who
is always feeling his own pulse and taking his own temperature.
Salvation is health; the health of those who know that their
righteousness is in heaven. We do right to let the Lord search us, but
we will have nothing but trouble if we persist in looking within. If we
think that it is necessary to keep looking in to avoid falling into
Satan's snares, the psalmist will assure us that the Lord will watch
our feet if we keep our eyes on Him: "My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for He will pluck my feet out of the net" (Psalm 25:15). This is one
more argument for the upward look.
The Upward Look
It is becoming apparent that a great deal depends on our looking, so we
are not surprised that towards the end of the letter to the Hebrews
which reminds us that we are called to partnership with Christ and
urges us to press on towards fullness in Him, there should be this call
to look off unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We are to
look off from what is behind, from what is round about, from what is
near at hand and what is essentially selfish; to look off from
ourselves to Jesus. Abraham, the great man of faith, looked for a
heavenly city and a heavenly country, and so was saved from looking
back or settling down. Much was bound up with this sustained look of
his. So often he was tempted to seek more immediate benefits, some
middle ground which was less than God's best, and the Lord had
constantly to call him to take his eyes off earth's distractions and
rewards so that he could look away to the essentially spiritual and
heavenly goal of his calling.
The passage in Proverbs stresses the close relationship between looking
straight ahead and having a clear and direct path of progress. Abraham
found that this looking away from the things of earth kept him
constantly on the move. From time to time he could have settled down in
satisfaction with his own position, but "he looked for a city", and he
was saved from stagnation by keeping his eyes on God's promised goal. A
very relevant passage in this connection is: "Our light affliction,
which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an
eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are
seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2
Corinthians 4:17-18). It is the eternal [50/51]
which is in view, and this calls for adjustment in many respects of our
affairs, so that our lives can be directed towards the permanent glory
of God's purpose for us. Our procedure should always have eternity in
view. When we are considering a relationship, we should see it in the
light of God's end. If we have to decide where to live or what work to
take up, we should let our eyes look right on, not choosing what seems
good just at the moment, but making sure that eternal values are also
considered. Just as Satan tempted Christ by offering Him the kingdoms
of this world and their glory, so he will try to distract our attention
from the will of God by offering seeming advantages now. We shall
always be saved by the upward look.
----------------
MAN OF GOD (5)
Alan L. Barrow
"Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you
made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the
presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus who
in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession ..."
(1 Timothy 6:12-13)
WE now come to the matter of the good confession. In his charge to
Timothy as a man of God, Paul found it helpful to remind his younger
brother not only of his calling to victory and eternal life but also of
a definite incident in his Christian life. "You made the good
confession in the presence of many witnesses," he said, seeming to
imply that he himself was present on the occasion when Timothy gave
this good, or beautiful testimony.
Most commentators seem to be of the opinion that he was referring to
Timothy's baptism, and this is particularly likely in view of the close
association of the incident with taking hold of eternal life. Other
occasions mentioned in the letter may refer to his ordination, or
setting apart for the work of the gospel, but this one, stressing both
the call to eternal life and also the presence of many witnesses, most
probably alluded to the great time in his life when he confessed his
union with Christ by believers' baptism. That must have been a great
moment in this young man's life. He let the world know that he was on
the Lord's side and intended to follow Jesus in a hostile world. There
is a sense in which Timothy's world was much more hostile to Christ
than ours is today, though many of us may be discovering that it is in
fact the same world which has always hated and always will hate God's
Son.
In Timothy's day, though, Christians were very, very few and in his
area they were having a bad time. He, however, was prepared to make no
secret of the fact that Christ was everything to him, and so this was
rightly called "the good confession". At this later stage of his life
the apostle encouraged him to remember that grand occasion when Christ
meant so much to him. Perhaps it would be salutary to reflect on
whether the Lord was any less important now or less worthy of
wholehearted devotion. This is a healthy exercise. It is not enough for
us to have made a good confession in the past: we need to ask ourselves
if now we are less keen in our following of Him. And it is not only at
our baptism that we make a good confession, for the Lord's Table
provides a constant opportunity for renewing our stand of living only
for Him and exercising dependance on Him. Years ago, when I first came
to Honor Oak, I was given a kind of briefing session by John Paterson.
I had never before shared in the Breaking of Bread, so John gave me a
quick run-down on the procedure and then added: 'Well, if you want to
go on with the Lord, this is what you do'. I remember vividly the jolt
which it gave me when he said: 'If you want to go on with the
Lord ...' IF! As if there could be any doubt about it. Christ was the
mainspring of my life. For me, the first thing in the morning till the
last thing at night was to follow the Lord. That anyone should even
hint that there was any 'if' about it was shocking. Yet how right my
brother was. Every time we come to the Lord's Table we are challenged
as to whether we still wish to make the good confession.
The actual charge to Timothy provides an interesting parallelism.
Timothy gave his good confession in the presence of many witnesses, and
[51/52] he is now urged to maintain
it in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. His life is being lived:
"in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus
who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession". It is no
chance that the Scripture lays emphasis on both the Father and the Son,
and it may be helpful for us to be freed from a certain blurring of
identities which can confuse our thinking. Does it really matter? Well,
if we are thinking of making an issue with others and criticising their
rather vague confusing of the Father and the Son in their prayers, the
answer is, No. When we pray to Christ we are praying to God. But since
the Word of God usually makes very clear the distinction between the
Father and the Son, and since this charge to the man of God refers to
both so definitely, we do well to pay attention to the distinctive
features involved. If identities within the Godhead become indistinct
and blurred in our minds, then to that extent we will fail to get the
full values intended. If, for instance, we think vaguely, we will not
appreciate what it means to have at God's right hand in heaven a Man, a
true Man, tempted, triumphant and sympathetic.
THE immediate point of emphasis is that our testimony or confession is
set in the context of everything being said and done in the sight of
God. When I was young, the moral law was simplified to me as being
concerned with what I would do if Mother were watching. Perhaps that
would not apply so well today, and in many homes it would have little
validity, but the principle of openness is a good one, especially when
we think of openness in the sight of God. We live our lives and present
our witness in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus.
Now the particular qualifications applied to the Father and then to the
Son are quite unusual and worthy of our closest attention. Firstly it
is said of God that He is the one "who gives life to all". Life is
God's prerogative. Scientists can analyse the mechanism of the transfer
of life and much more, but they know that in the end they are no nearer
to discovering where life comes from and why life came. In this, as in
every other matter, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Those who are not prepared to come to God to find the answer to their
questions about life will certainly never find that answer in the
laboratory.
Why must the man of God know Him as the giver of life? Because just to
give a true testimony for God exposes a man to the power of death. How
many have given "the good confession" by laying down their lives? And
if the actual suffering of physical death is not involved it is still
true that the good confession always demands the principle of death,
the laying down of the life in accordance with 2 Corinthians 4:11. In
experiences of this kind. when you have to face death to man's
approval, to your personal preferences and even to your own efforts to
serve God, you simply must know God as the one who answers death by new
life. Nothing less will do. Unless you know the God who gives life,
then there is no point in running into a situation of certain death.
So death is the price of the good confession. There is no alternative
to this. There is no other way; no short cut, no crash course, no easy
method of becoming a man of God. The only way in which men of God can
be produced is by their running into circumstances where they know that
it will be the end, unless God gives them new life. But if they give
their good confession in the sight of God then it will be all right,
for He is the one who gives life -- even to them. And it is the secret
of the good confession that those who give it, do so in the presence of
God.
IN the second place, we are in presence of Christ Jesus. And here, too,
we find a very unexpected description for, of all things which could be
said about Jesus, the one thing singled out is that He first witnessed
the good confession, and did it before Pontius Pilate. This immediately
stresses the historicity of the occasion, for nobody disputes the
authenticity of the Roman ruler. It would also remind Timothy that the
charge was not just a vague general principle, but one which called for
definite action on specific occasions. There was a point in time in
which the Man, Jesus, stood in the presence of the man, Pontius Pilate,
and witnessed the good or beautiful confession.
Now there is not much that one can say about that particular moment of
testimony. It witnessed no miracles, there was nothing sensational,
nothing emotional about it. Jesus did not display any striking wit or
brilliant repartee to impress His hearer; He just stood firmly for the
truth. 'Yes,' He said, 'I am king, though not in the sense that you
mean. And I am here in this world to bear a true testimony to My
Father.' So His good confession meant that He quietly stood for the
truth. This is something which we must all [52/53]
do. In the case of the Lord Jesus, He witnessed in the face of death,
for Pontius Pilate had -- and used -- his human authority to have
Christ crucified. Thus we link up again with this matter of confessing
in the presence of God who gives life, who answers death with
resurrection life. In a marvellous way this was proved as resurrection
life was given to the Son as the fruit of His good confession.
FOR us the whole matter may be revolved into a question of being
faithful to the truth when it would be quite easy to dodge the issue.
It may be in some conversation in staff-room or works canteen; it may
be in our business dealings with others; or it may even be in some
situation which arises among professed Christians. If we wish to do so
we can, perhaps, avoid action without actually denying our Lord, but if
we wish to be true to Him we must stand for what is right. We may have
no power to produce miracles, which is just as well since they might
only confuse the issue. We may have no capacity for brilliant flights
of intellect, which again might well bring in confusion and encourage
hostility on an intellectual basis. No, like our Saviour before Pilate,
we are not to provide cleverness but simply to stand for the truth.
This is the good confession. And like Him, we may well have to be ready
for death even as we make it. It will certainly mean death to our self
esteem, as our complete dependence on God is exposed to public view.
Unlike those who can get on well enough without God, we readily
acknowledge our deep dependence, for this is part of our confession.
And so the principle of death continues to work, and we are exposed as
being weak in ourselves and having nothing apart from Christ. But
remember, we are in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. He who
Himself made that beautiful confession before Pontius Pilate now
supports us as we face hostility for His sake.
Stephen gives us a striking example of a witness being conscious of the
presence of the Father and the Son as he faced a hostile and murderous
crowd. We are told that by the Spirit he saw: "the glory of God, and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7 .55). This is hardly
surprising, for he lived as in Their presence and was therefore
especially made aware of Them in this moment of supreme need. And so he
died. He who had spoken with such eloquence and who had worked many
miracles was now reduced to the good confession which brought upon him
a violent death. But in it all he had the presence of God who gives
life and of Christ Jesus, the Faithful Witness, and in due course it is
evident that his good confession had a tremendous impact on the history
of the Church. He had no lengthy ministry, no striking deliverance, no
sensational write-up. But He had God's presence as he made his good
confession and he proved himself to be a man of God. And this is the
charge now committed to us.
----------------
THE SONG OF SONGS
Roger T. Forster
OUR only concern in turning to the Song of Solomon is to draw out some
of the principles which it gives in the matter of the development of
our love relationship with the Lord Jesus. We consider a familiar
three-fold reference to the relationship between the bride and her
Beloved. First she says: "My beloved is mine and I am his" (2:16), but
later changes to: "I am my beloved's and he is mine" (6:3), and finally
asserts: "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me" (7:10), this
time saying nothing about her claim on Him.
At the beginning of the book she is delighted to express this claim:
"My beloved is mine". It is a good thing to have such confidence. It
gives a new dimension to life to be able to say that He is mine, even
though it is only as a sort of rider that I add: 'Oh, and I am His'. As
we go on, however, in the life of a love relationship, it becomes more
and more important to recognise His claim on me, and now to say: 'I
belong to Him', adding only as a sort of afterthought that He belongs
to me. It is very important to grow in this way. It is a great moment
when you can sing:
'Mine, mine, mine; I know Thou art mine.
Jesus my Saviour, I know Thou art mine.'
but perhaps it represents a real advance spiritually if we change it,
and sing:
'Thine, Thine, Thine; I know I am Thine.
Jesus my Saviour, I know I am Thine.' [53/54]
This is not just playing with words, but represents a real progression
of experience when we want to emphasise the fact that we belong to
Christ rather than just to make our claim that He is ours.
It is still more important, though, to reach the place where we forget
all about our own claim on the Lord and are content simply to assert
that we are His, we belong to Him, and His desire is toward us. Isn't
it really wonderful! The Lord joys over His people as they gather
together, searching their hearts, looking down deep to appreciate their
worship. His desire is toward them; this is what really matters, that
He should feel satisfaction in His people's love.
WE notice three different emphases in the matter of location. In the
first place, when the bride is talking of her own claims on her
Beloved, she does it when she is inside her house, in the privacy of
her room. She speaks of Him standing behind their wall and looking in
(not 'forth' as in A.V.) at the windows. Then the Beloved calls her to
rise up and come away into the glorious experiences of Spring, giving
some beautiful pictures of resurrection and inviting her to rise up and
come away. Her response, however, is still from inside the house and is
rather disappointing, for she replies: "Until the day breaks and the
shadows flee away ...", in other words, 'Yes, but tomorrow. Yes, go on
being like a roe and a young hart. I enjoy seeing you like that.' In
effect she is saying: 'Yes, it is a good thing my loved one is full of
energy and that He wants me to share His resurrection joys, but let Him
be out on the mountains, but I will stay here for another day'. As we
move into chapter 3 we find her lying on her bed with an unhappy sense
of the distance between them. In actual fact, of course, the Lord never
leaves us, but in our consciousness He can seem to be far away. So she
sought Him unsuccessfully within her room and had to rise, go out into
the streets and look for Him.
When we get to our second statement, she is no longer in the house but
out in the garden, and it is there that she passes to speak of putting
Him first. "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine" -- the first and
greatest thing is that I belong to Him. This is in the garden, and
suggests to us that while there is an indoor experience which is
precious, there should also be a garden experience which is even more
wonderful. But there is more to come; there is the further and deeper
expression of love's devotion. They move out now, reach the gate and
pass out into the fields and villages. "Let us get up early to the
vineyards ... there will I give thee my loves" (7:12). This is an
interesting series of movements; the bride moves out from the secrecy
and privacy of her own room into the garden, where her experience of
love grows even more, and then into the fields and villages where the
relationship becomes even less selfish and more akin to His great love.
NOW I am not suggesting that this is a picture of the Christian life in
the sense of beginning by loving the Lord inside our house and then
leaving this position until we finally finish up with Him in the
fields, for that is not true. It is no use going out into the fields
unless we have the intimate experience of His love in the secret place.
So although we are considering development as we move on through the
book, this never means that we are to leave the first experience
behind. No, this aloneness with Him is essential and basic to all else
that follows.
As we review the three stages we think first of the personal experience
in the home. This means that we are building a relationship with the
Lord in the privacy of our own hearts. It is something very personal.
But we must remember that our most sacred moments can also be our most
dangerous moments, times when -- like the Pharisee in the temple -- we
thank God that we are so different from others. Our Lord is so
wonderful, so full of energy, running to and fro in the earth and
working in heights and realms that are quite beyond us, and we can be
snug and content in some enjoyment of communion which is largely
self-centred and self-seeking. So, precious and vital as the secret
place is, it should never be a thing in itself. There is a real
possibility that we may not press beyond this stage of relationship
with Christ and never move out into active life with Him. Thank God for
the sweet joys of secret fellowship, but we must also listen to the
voice of our Beloved when He calls us out to where He is gathering
lilies in the garden.
The garden suggests church life, the corporate fellowship where there
are many lilies. A garden is ordered; it provides variety in harmonious
blending. When Adam was brought into this world he was placed in a
garden. It was God's gift to him, needing only to be tended. If he [54/55] looked out from that garden he saw the
wilderness of the world, and God told him that it would be his task to
subdue that world. He was to take the God-provided Paradise, or
parkland of Eden, and extend it into the rest of the world. He must
bring it into order, subdue it, so that the wilderness of nature might
be changed into the beauty of God's garden. This illustrates the
calling of the Church. Just as Eden was the beginning of what God had
intended should spread through the whole of the earth, so we are a kind
of first fruits of all creation: we are the beginning of what God means
to extend throughout His whole universe. The Church is the area where
He is expressing the beauty of His order. We are already under the
headship of Christ, but one day all things will be brought under that
headship. We already express to some degree His order, the culture and
loveliness of His garden. One day the whole of the creation will
express it through the manifestation of the sons of God. So the Church,
the garden, is the beginning of God's bringing everything into that
beautiful harmony which is called glory. The Church is meant by its
spiritual order to express the glory of God -- "The glory which thou
gavest me I have given them".
And it is within this Church order that we develop our love for Christ.
If we do not make use of this means which the Lord has given us, then
naturally we will grow stale and dry and our love will start to shrivel
up. It may be difficult to define what we mean by Church order, but we
note that it was in a garden that the Lord met Mary and said to her:
"Go to my brethren and say ...". "My brethren" -- that is what the
garden is all about. 'Go and share with My brethren, go and talk to My
brethren. Tell them that I ascend to My Father and to their Father ...'
I am sure that one of the ways by which we begin to move from our petty
selfish claims on the Lord and move into the realm where He has the
first place is by the recognition of the importance of our brethren.
The strange thing is that this brings us more assurance. When we see
that there are others who belong to us because we all belong to the
Lord, we get fresh and stronger assurance of His love toward us. It is
in this garden that we pass from wrongly emphasising our own rights (My
Beloved is mine) to the fuller understanding of His rights (I am my
Beloved's). It is as we share our brotherhood that we find more and
more that the Lord has the foremost place in all things.
I was recently at a college where a relative trained, and I took
pleasure in talking about him to the present students. He has had a
good career, so I was proud to discuss him. I did not have a bad word
to say about him. After all he is my relative. Now there might be an
occasion when someone would come and tell me something about him that
was not nice. What would I do then? I would leave the place, even if it
meant travelling overnight, arriving at his home in the early hours of
the morning, and we would talk the matter out like men and get it
straight. I would not speak about him, not even to the man who gave me
the bad report. Why ever not? Because he is of my family! I was glad to
talk about how well he had done in his profession, but I am not
prepared to discuss anything derogatory. In a loyal family you don't
listen to or discuss your brother's faults, though you gladly join in
appreciating his virtues. You will notice, too, that in this fellowship
garden the Beloved also showed deeper appreciation of His bride: "Thou
art beautiful, o my love ... comely as Jerusalem ... Turn thine eyes
away from me, for they have overcome me" (6:4-5). It is within the
realm of loving fellowship that we will make new discoveries of how
much we mean personally to the Lord.
THIRDLY our love finds even deeper realisation as we call on the Lord
to lead us out into the world around. "Come, my beloved, let us go
forth into the fields; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up
early to the vineyards" (7:11-12). Four times she called to the Beloved
to move out with her. She did not sit down and say that it would be a
good thing if the villages were visited or the fields worked, but said:
'Come on, Lord. Let's go!' This almost sounds as if she were taking
liberties in desiring to have the initiative, but it is not quite that
but just the matter of having the right balance for life in the Spirit.
For instance, to pray in the Spirit does not mean to wait until you
feel some emotional urge, but to take the initiative in praying and so
prove the Spirit's support. There is an initiative that should come
from us as we talk to the Lord about the needs of the fields and the
villages. We will probably not do all that we talk about, and may well
find the Lord checking us, but as we talk to Him and press the issue,
we will find that He will channel us into the areas of opportunity and
work which are His will. And in it all we will be making new
discoveries of His love. "I am [55/56] my
Beloved's, and his desire is toward me." It was something of this which
happened to Isaiah when he heard the Lord questioning: "who will go for
us?" As he listened, Isaiah asked: 'What about me? Why not send me? So
it was that he went, and he certainly made many discoveries of the
greatness of God's love. If we press the Lord to move out we may find
that He will not be persuaded, but will turn us in another direction.
He could never have done this work of checking and re-directing,
though, if we had not first approached Him and opened up the simple
subject of outreach. He cannot lead unless we begin to talk with Him.
We say: "Let us go into the fields", and as we do so we are more
overwhelmed with the wonder of His love toward us.
These, then, are three areas of development of our love relationship
with Christ; our secret life, our fellowship life, and our service
life. All are important: all lead to the satisfaction of the heart of
the great Lover of our souls.
----------------
PREPARATIONS FOR THE KINGDOM
(Studies in 1 Samuel)
3. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD (Chapters 4 - 6)
Harry Foster
WE come now to the third great factor in God's preparations for His
kingdom. It is divine sovereignty. Literally the word just means
'ruling', but when we use it in relation to God we generally have a
special emphasis of its absoluteness. Some people use the term
'sovereign grace' when they wish to express the fact that God's grace
has no human explanation or cause. This helps us to appreciate the
matter which we are to consider, namely God's activities which depend
on nobody and nothing but Himself alone. These are things which nobody
else thought of, which nobody contributed to and which nobody deserved.
So when I use the word 'sovereignty' I do so to stress the thought of
God acting to get His own will done without consultation with or
co-operation from anyone else. This will become clearer as we study the
three chapters before us, especially as Samuel is not seen to play any
part at all in the events described. It may be that he was praying in
secret, but from the statement that "The word of Samuel came to all
Israel" (4:1) to the day when he recalled the house of Israel to return
to the Lord (7:3), no mention is made of this prophet whom God had
raised up. So this study will not deal with Samuel at all. I am sure
that he was watching in the shadows, but even this is not mentioned,
for the whole emphasis of these three chapters seems to be that God was
looking after His own interests. Even when we, His servants, feel
painfully powerless to affect a situation at all, we can always count
on God to do this.
Eli, that rather pathetic character, is described as "trembling for the
ark of the Lord". Considered superficially this sounds pious and highly
commendable, but in truth it betrays a complete breakdown of faith.
Trembling for the ark, indeed! Can the Lord not look after His own
interests? Tremble for yourself, Eli! Tremble for those wicked sons of
yours! But you need never tremble about God's ability to defend His
name. Samuel did not tremble. He was helpless, apart from prayer, and
he had to wait. And as the period which we are about to describe was
for seven months and then twenty years, we may well feel that his was
an amazing triumph of sorely tested faith. Some of us, when we have to
wait a few days, begin to doubt and panic because we cannot see that
the Lord is working. For seven months the ark was actually with the
Philistines. Just as Hannah did not worry when she left her small boy
in the Eli household, so in his turn Samuel did not worry about the ark
being in Philistine custody. And even after that, another twenty years
passed. But the years found Samuel as full of confidence in the Lord as
ever, and he was able to assure the people that if they would return to
the Lord and prepare their hearts unto Him He would certainly deliver
them (7:3).
And if he so rested in the assurance of God's sovereignty how right he
was. On another occasion God said to Israel: "I do not this for their
sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake". "Not for your
sakes do I this, saith the Lord [56/57] God. Be
it known unto you ..." (Ezekiel 36:22 and 32). It was as though God
said: 'You are a lot of failures who have let Me down and shamed My
name, but I am not defeated. There is no need to worry about Me. I can
look after My own name!' We don't have to tremble for the ark; nor do
we have to put out our hand to steady it, as somebody mistakenly did
later on in Israel's history. There are times when we can do nothing;
times when even our prayers seem powerless; but it is then that we can
affirm with absolute certainty that God cannot fail. God is faithful to
Himself. God is God!
THE GLORY DEPARTED (Chapter Four)
We first look at chapter four which tells us how God's people lost the
glory of His presence with them. The last word of this chapter is
Ichabod -- "the glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is
taken". I am so glad that the saints in heaven do not know what is
going on down here on the earth, for that day would have been a tragic
one for Moses. Imagine, knowing the circumstances under which that ark
was made and the majestic glory of God's presence above it in the
tabernacle, and then being informed that it had fallen into the hands
of the Philistines. It would have spoiled heaven for him, but for the
fact that he would there know, as we are going to see, that God cannot
be defeated. God is God: He did know all about it, and yet He was quite
unmoved. And what about Joshua? He took the ark right through Jordan at
full flood and then made the walls of Jericho collapse as it was
carried round that city. If some angel had whispered to Joshua: 'The
ark has gone. It has been captured', that would have seemed an
unthinkable tragedy to him, for even at Ai that had not happened.
Samuel was not in heaven. He was still on the earth. He knew the worst,
and may well have been alone in his sorrow when the news came. I cannot
imagine what agonies he must have suffered when the information reached
him. Well, perhaps I do know something of what he must have felt, for I
know how painful it is to see the Lord thoroughly let down in a life or
in a fellowship.
If we have seen assemblies which have counted for God and, although not
perfect representations of His presence as the ark was, yet
sufficiently glorified by that presence so as to provoke real praise to
Him; and have then seen their spiritual values sacrificed by men's
folly, then we may be able to sympathise with Samuel in his sorrow.
Everything seems lost. It is not so much a question of men's behaviour
or reputations, but only that the divine glory is obscured and the
Lord's testimony shamed in the eyes of men and devils. The glory has
gone. In our helplessness we can hardly pray. We don't know what to
pray, and can only ache with sorrow. But even at such a time there is
an inner conviction that God will not allow His name to be dragged in
the mud. He will care for His own interests; and lead us in a new way
to appreciate what I regard as one of the main features of the faith
life, namely confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God. Perhaps
this was the lesson which Samuel learned in those gloomy days.
As the chapter opens we notice the presumption of God's people. They
were not attending to the Word; they were despising His offerings; and
yet they had the effrontery to embark on a campaign in His name. It was
Israel who went out to battle, not the Philistines, and they did so
because they relied on their slogans and traditions, wrongly assuming
that God was with them. The result of such a procedure was -- and
always is -- a ghastly defeat. Afterwards they discussed what had
happened in the pious language which seemed appropriate, admitting that
it was the Lord who had smitten them. There are few more pathetic
experiences than to hear talking, preaching and praying which seek to
cover spiritual irresponsibility and deviation with religious
phraseology.
They still used the name of the Lord, but they had been defeated and
disgraced because in heart they were out of touch with Him. They then
passed from presumption to superstition, agreeing together that if they
could bring the ark on to the battlefield then 'it' would save them. It
is true that there is some difference of opinion as to their actual
words, and it might possibly have been that they said that with the
coming of the ark, 'He', that is the Lord, would come among them and
save them. This does not alter my contention that they were now
trusting in an 'it' rather than in the living God Himself. Before we
blame them too much for this, let us pause and consider how often God's
people centre their confidence on a thing, even a spiritual thing,
rather than on their living Lord. There are so many possible things
which become a ground of confidence, Church procedure, sacraments,
doctrines, spiritual gifts, even the Bible itself as we interpret it;
and the moment we are trusting in an 'it', the [57/58]
effect is division and spiritual defeat. It does not seem to matter how
true or important the thing may be; if our spiritual position depends
on it rather than on the person of Christ, the enemy will gain ground
and God's name will cease to be hallowed. We notice that the
Philistines shared this superstitious approach, imagining that the ark
was the Israelitish God just in the same way as their images were their
gods. It is true that they were frightened, but they still hoped to get
the better of this 'god'. In a sense they did so, for after all it was
only a thing. But in another sense they met more than their match, for
the living God took up the matter for His own name's sake.
More than presumption or superstition, though, they were guilty of
wilful disobedience for, though Samuel was now their prophet, they did
not consult him at all. They dare not. He would have applied the Word
of God to their situation and refused to support them. So they referred
the matter to Hophni and Phinehas who could be counted on to agree with
them. It is true to my experience that self-willed Christians only ask
advice in order to get confirmation of the course which they wish to
adopt. If they think that a man's advice will not tally with their
ideas they either do not consult him or else go from him to seek a
second opinion more congenial to them. In this case the Israelites had
no difficulties with Hophni and Phinehas who were ready enough, with
unholy hands, to take this symbol of God's holiness into the conflict,
with disastrous consequences to themselves and to God's people. Without
the ark 4,000 were killed, but with it the casualty list rose to 30,000
(v.10). If we glance ahead to Israel's experience when they did humble
themselves and pay heed to God's Word through Samuel, we shall find a
very different story, this time one of miraculous victory. If we
enquire further into the event we discover that this victory proceeded
from the offering of a lamb (7:9-11). The ark without the lamb was a
symbol with no power, and so was captured; the priests involved were
men with a holy calling but with unholy lives, and so they died; the
mass of the people were trying to meet God's enemies without God's
Word, and so were doomed to defeat and disaster.
The ark was taken, a disaster so great that it brought God's high
priest, Eli, into the dust of death and destroyed his family with the
one exception of a new-born baby who was named Ichabod by his dying
mother. This chapter is a vivid illustration of the text that "the
wages of sin is death". It ends with this name Ichabod -- the glory has
departed. This would not only have been the end of a chapter but the
end of God's purposes for Israel had it not been for sovereign grace.
So we can pass on to another chapter, finding there that the hand of
God which was so clearly withheld from Israel, was active enough and
strong enough when it came to the defence of His holy name. And in yet
another chapter we shall find that sovereign grace brought the glory
back, even to an erring and unworthy people.
THE GLORY PRESERVED (Chapter Five)
We now have more than a new chapter of the book; we have a new page of
history in which we read of the steps which God took to preserve His
glory. At first the Philistines were thrilled at their apparent success
and wished to give the glory to their own god, Dagon, so they took the
ark to his temple. But if the Philistines were pleased, Satan was much
more so, for all false worship means glory for him. So when the symbol
of God's glory was brought into the house of Dagon, it represented one
more phase of that age-long conflict over worship, and looked for the
moment as though Satan had got the better of God. He is out to rob God
of that worship which He so rightly deserves, and grasps eagerly at
every departure from faith which can add to his own evil purposes.
God's enemies therefore gloated and God's true people mourned. But not
for long, for while men slept God acted. Next morning, when the
Philistines got up early and hurried off to their temple to do some
more gloating, they found their Dagon lying flat on his face in
helplessness before the ark. This ark was the ark of the covenant, the
pledge of God's faithfulness. It is true that His people had lamentably
failed Him and had therefore been defeated, but God cannot fail and God
is never defeated. So for His own name's sake He upset this false god
and brought him down into the dust. The Philistines did not wish to
accept the significance of what had happened, so they set the image up
and went away hoping for the best. Next morning they discovered that
such hopes had been in vain, for they had hardly begun to open the door
when they found a confusion of trunk, head and hands littering the
threshold. Dagon was broken in pieces. The first calamity had been
inside the house and could be hushed up. This time it was a public
disgrace, open for [58/59] everyone to see. In a
sense it was a permanent disgrace, for after this they never again trod
on that threshold.
And this was only the commencement. God was going to press this matter
until the Philistines would be as glad to get rid of the ark as, long
ago, Pharaoh had been to send Moses and the people out of Egypt. The
next word is 'But' -- one of God's great 'buts' -- which reminds us
that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Again and again in chapters five and six we have mention made of the
hand of the Lord. They moved the ark from place to place, trying to
out-manoeuvre God, but discovering that whatever they did and wherever
they took the ark, His hand was heavy upon them. At length that hand
grew "very heavy" (5:11), which made them decide that they had had
enough, and must get rid of this troublesome reminder of the holiness
of God.
I would like to think that during those historic seven months Samuel
was in Mizpah (the watch-tower), praising God in the quiet confidence
of faith. He undoubtedly would be praying, for we must always pray; but
praying from a position of strength and triumphant peace. We do not
know. What we do know, though, is what should be our own heart's
attitude in the face of Satan's fury. We are told to bless the Lord at
all times. We are in a world of Philistines. For one reason or another
God's testimony (not an ark now, but a people) is beset by evil powers
which are daily becoming more antagonistic to all that is holy and
true. In every realm of every land there is such a show of satanic
strength that we are tempted to fear for the testimony of Christ. Like
Samuel, we feel so small and so helpless. Like him, however, we shall
prove that God will be jealous for His own name and preserve His glory.
His people may fail Him, but He will never fail Himself. It is
therefore our privilege in this evil day to sound the high praises of
God, rejoicing as we pray and praying the more as we rejoice. As we
shall now see, the glory returned to Israel.
THE GLORY RETURNED (Chapter Six)
The pressure of God's hand was so great upon His enemies that they were
impelled to send the ark back to where it belonged, the land of Israel.
The Philistines betray by their words and actions that they knew that
they were not dealing with God's people but with God Himself, and for
this reason they tried to get Him to remove His hand from them by their
offerings of golden tumours and mice, which were representative of the
nature and the carriers of the bubonic plague from which they were
suffering. And it is interesting that although at that time the
testimony of the Israelites was feeble in the extreme, the facts of
their redemption from Egypt were never far from the Philistines' minds.
They despised the people but they feared their God.
Even so, they devised a plan which would prove whether their calamities
had been connected with the ark, for they chose the most unlikely means
of conveyance and then waited to see what would happen. Having put the
ark with their offerings, on a new cart, they then harnessed not oxen
but a couple of milking cows who had never been yoked together before
and never drawn a cart. The Philistines wanted to find out if this
miraculous presence of God was a real thing. What is more, they chose
cows who were actually in milk and kept their calves shut up.
Apparently they then did nothing more than to release the cows and
watch events. God was quite ready to take up the challenge. If a
miracle is something contrary to nature, it was certainly a miracle
which happened. It needs a miracle to keep two cows walking together.
It needs a greater miracle to have them walk straight along a road
without turning to right or left. And the greatest miracle was that
although their calves called to them and they lowed back, they did not
turn back but took the straight way over the border to Beth-shemesh. No
man had a hand in this: it was the hand of God. He did not do this to
help the Philistines, for they were never converted. He did not do it
because His people deserved it, for they had failed Him. He did it for
His own name's sake, reversing the very order of nature. So first His
sovereignty preserved the glory and now it worked in grace to show
mercy to His unworthy but chosen people.
I find tremendous encouragement in these divine activities, for they
show me that when I am involved in the testimony of Christ among His
people, however much human failure there may have been and however many
evil powers seem to have the victory, we can still expect the miracles
of sovereign grace.
What a thrill came over the men of Judah who left off their harvesting
to watch in amazement [59/60] the cart which
with no urging or guidance from man finally came to a halt in the field
of a man called Joshua -- God is Saviour (v.14). He is indeed Saviour,
and the harvesters were quick to offer their whole-hearted praises.
When the ark was carried off it seemed unlikely that it would ever
return. When it was placed on the new cart it seemed impossible that
direct and prompt delivery could be made. But our God is the God of the
impossible. And that is precisely what I mean when I talk of divine
sovereignty. The ark of God came from the heart of the enemies' camp to
the field of a man called Joshua without the single touch of a human
hand. Dear friends, God is not wanting us to tremble for His testimony.
Nor is He asking us to agitate and manipulate for its recovery. He
wants us rather to take up the challenge of the impossible, to glorify
His name in faith and to prove Him by prayer.
But we must beware of the wrong kind of familiarity with holy things,
and so we are given a solemn warning as we read more of these favoured
people of Beth-shemesh. Whether it was that they questioned if the
tables of the law were still intact, or whether it was just their
over-excited jubilation at God's miracles, we do not know, but they
failed to respect the holiness of God. They decided to have a look into
this wonderful ark. And God smote them. He smote the men who had been
so loud in His praises. He smote the men who had joined in making a
burnt offering. They could have argued that God might smite the
Philistines but He would never smite them. But He did! Clearly He was
not prepared to let His testimony be mis-handled by carnal enthusiasts.
It was unnecessary to tremble for the ark, but it was much worse to
meddle with it. So at considerable cost they learned what it means to
stand before a holy God. It is an important lesson for us all to learn.
Familiarity with God's mercies and miracles can make us careless about
His holiness; we are to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoice with
trembling.
The citizens of Beth-shemesh decided to invite the men of Kiriathjearim
to relieve them of this sacred testimony. I do not think that this was
an unfriendly attempt to pass on troubles to others but rather a
conviction that the men concerned, and especially Abinadab, were more
able to live with the holiness of God. They were right. For the next
twenty years the ark was safe and was cared for with devotion and
reverence. All through Saul's reign it remained in that house on the
hill, making it possible for Samuel to go out from his Mizpah
watch-tower and challenge Israel to get right with God. So sovereignty
came to Israel in terms of grace. It comes to us in the same way. How
else would we dare to use Samuel's well-known word, Eben-ezer --
Hitherto hath the Lord helped us? (7:12).
(To be continued)
----------------
OAK GLEN PINES CAMP
Mr. H. Foster will (D.V.) be ministering in California during August.
Applications for the above Camp (August 11-16) to: Whittier Fellowship,
P.O. Box 5271, Hacienda Heights, CALIFORNIA 91745 [60/ibc]
----------------
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[Back cover]
"BUT THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW THEIR GOD
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Daniel 11:32
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