THE HUSBANDMAN AND BUILDER

THE HUSBANDMAN AND BUILDER
Clifford Ogden

IN the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter three the latter part of verse 9, the Apostle Paul speaks of believers as being "God's husbandry; God's building". There is a dual metaphor here; what the purist might object to -- a mixed metaphor. Those who are able to study the original carefully tell us that the Apostle was not always correct in his syntax. He would begin a sentence and, carried away in spirit by the immensity of his subject, would fail to complete it. Well, thank God for his marvellous deviations!

Here we have a very helpful mixing of metaphors, not a unique instance with the Apostle. In the Ephesian and Colossian letters he has made use of this bringing together of two quite [10/11] distinct similes: Ephesians 3 verse 17 speaks of our being "rooted and grounded" (we root a tree and ground, or found, a building), and Colossians speaks of our being "rooted and built up in Him."

The Apostle Peter in his first letter makes use of the same double construction, slightly varying the allusion. He speaks of our being "living stones"; not stones separated by mortar, but stones integrated by a life that is not our own.

Let us consider the first part -- "Ye are God's husbandry" -- God's tilled field.

As a basis for our meditation, let us recall the content of the fifteenth chapter of John's Gospel -- "I am the true Vine, and my Father is the husbandman".

FRUIT, MORE FRUIT, MUCH FRUIT

The husbandman's sole occupation and objective is fruit. The wood of the vine, maybe alone among all trees, is useless for any other purpose than to bear fruit.

Three times in the chapter we have the reference to the fruit -- verse 2 "fruit"; verse 2 "more fruit"; verse 5 and again in verse 8 "much fruit".

To progress from "fruit" to "much fruit" demands the intervention of the Husbandman and His pruning knife, there is no other way. We should note that the heavenly Vinedresser does not spend His energy on fruitless branches, it is the branch that is already bearing fruit to which He directs His attention; the fruitless branch is discarded. "Every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it".

So let us take comfort. If we are in the hands of God; if we are suffering the discipline of God, or have suffered it in times past; if in some future day we are subjected to what Peter calls "the trial of our faith", let us remember that it is sons whom the Father chastens; and to be without chastening would be to bear the stigma of being bastards. The very fact that God has turned His hand upon us is the sign of His interest, and the earnest of the accomplishing of His purpose. He would have fruit and fruit in abundance.

"MY FATHER IS THE HUSBANDMAN"

Again, let us note that the heavenly husbandman is The Father: "My Father is the Husbandman". This is not some cold business concern, occupied only with profit, interested only in the proceeds, this is a family concern. The Father's interest is not in the procedure, but in the "afterward" -- the much fruit (Hebrews 12:10-11). So, when we are going through the mill, let us set our gaze where the Lord has His, on the "afterward" with its peaceable fruit of righteousness. Let us remember that He says that it is His Father with whom we have to do; and remember, too, that on the resurrection morning He gave us the assurance that He is not only His Father, but our Father.

If this be true, what will not this Husbandman lavish upon His vineyard, on this Vine upon which He has opened heaven and declared "This is my beloved Son in whom is my delight"? What loving care will be lavished upon this Vine and its branches. There is no limit to what the Father will do for us in our abiding in His Son.

Nevertheless, He is a Father, and no father is worthy of the name if he neglects his children in the matter of discipline -- child training. We live in an age when the word discipline is a dirty word. But the age is a sufficient commentary on the necessity of discipline.



"HE PURGETH IT"

Again, for our encouragement, let us notice that it is the Father who does the pruning. He never allows the purging knife to pass into any other hand than His own. "Every branch that beareth fruit, HE purgeth it". The pruning knife is for the removing of that excess of life, unproductive in itself, not necessarily bad, but unproductive. Left to themselves the branches would run to an excess of leaf and wood growth, beautiful in itself, but unproductive as to fruit, and therefore not justified.

In passing, let us be reminded that it is no part of any believer to discipline his fellow believers. We must, of course, except the case of the disciplining by elders, but here the responsibility is divinely bestowed, and must be the discipline of God; according to His Word.

Many years ago, I visited the Grapevine at Hampton Court. Looking up at that prolific fruit-bearing vine, I was impressed with the beautiful [11/12] green of its leaves. Translucent in the sunlight, they were a sight for an artist's eyes. But if they had been all, how disappointed would the keeper of the vine have been; how grieved that all that his labours had produced was beautiful green leaves. So the Father desires not merely beautiful leaves but bunches of luscious life-giving, life sustaining grapes -- He wants fruit, and He wants much fruit. What care He will lavish upon His people to this end.

The Apostle, enlightened by heavenly wisdom and with long experience was able to say "We glory in tribulation ... it worketh for us". May we, too, be enabled to say 'Thank God for the pruning knife'.

The saintly Samuel Rutherford, in one of his letters, at a time when he was undergoing trial such as few of us are called upon to know, said "Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that cutteth deep furrows in my soul; I know He is no idle Husbandman. HE PURPOSETH A CROP".

Let us pass on to the second of the Apostle's similes;

"YE ARE GOD'S BUILDING"

Now the first part -- the husbandry, has to do with us individually; it is the fruit borne upon each branch which is primarily in view. The tree is something in itself, and is rooted for itself. But now we are told that we are a building, and this refers to our life together. A building is a corporate concept. A brick is not a building, a building is not a brick, but composed of bricks. We are being built, says the New Testament, together .

As illustrating this feature, I want to turn to the first book of Kings, the 5th and 6th chapters. Here we read that Solomon purposed to build a house for the Lord, and since it was to be for the Lord it must be exceedingly magnificent. He realised that with the best of his endeavours, the temple he built would be inadequate, since "the heaven of heavens" could not contain Him.

GREAT STONES, COSTLY STONES, HEWN STONES

We are told that the house was built of great stones, costly stones, hewn stones (Chapter 5:17). Their greatness (reflecting the wisdom of the heavenly Architect in their selection), their costliness (reflecting their pricelessness because of their redemption) we will leave for the moment, and consider that they were hewn stones.

In Chapter 6, verse 7 we read "the house when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building".

I used to read that J. N. Darby was criticised strongly for what was referred to as 'his counsel of despair' when he stated that he had ceased to expect the perfect church on earth. I begin to wonder whether he had not ground for his decision.

Does not this picture of the House of God in the Book of Kings lead us to the conviction that here and now is the preparation ground of the material for the Church; that Church in its final perfection and glory is in the future.

The Book of the Revelation (Chapter 21:10-11) reveals the city descending out of heaven, and may we not conclude therefore that where we are now -- in our present situation -- is the quarry. The material is prepared, formed, hewn in the quarry, the completion of the building will be in the near future.

IN THE QUARRY

In our life together, more particularly perhaps, in our life together in our assemblies, the stones are being wrought for that great day of assembly, when, as silently as the breaking of the dawn, the glory of God in His church will break upon a wondering universe.

But for the moment we are in the quarry. We are being fitly framed together (Ephesians 2:21). I, with some exuberance of nature, am brought into contact with another brother with his own particular exuberance, and we are being fitly framed together. In the Colossian letter the Apostle speaks of being "knit together"; that involves being entangled with one another, for knitting is the entangling of the woollen yarn (more or less orderly). In our assembling together, we have our times of joy and encouraging of one another, but there is also this factor of being fashioned after His image. [12/13]

"WHOSE BUILDER IS GOD"

In the second metaphor used by the Apostle, I would again stress the fact that, as in His presentation of the Husbandman, so as the Builder, there lies in the background this feature of His care.

The great Architect may put the hammer into other hands -- so often the hand of our arch-enemy -- but never, never does He entrust the cutting instrument, the iron tool or axe, into any other hand. Not even to His servants will He entrust the responsibility of shaping and fashioning after the image of His Son.

Take the instance of the discipline of Job. The blows came all too swiftly, one after the other, seemingly directed against him by Satan. But God determined the direction of the blow, and placed the cutting instrument, so that the final result would be the accomplishing of His purpose. Truly the hedge had been placed around Job's faith. The enemy's objective was destruction; God's end was constructive.

We are His husbandry; we are His building; we are His workmanship. He has not given us up. We may be bearing but a little fruit, but He has not despaired of us.

Finally, both in the case of the Vine, and of the House, the ultimate end is the manifestation of the life of Christ.

In the case of the Vine, it is self-evident that the life is that of the Vine stock, though the evidence of that life is on the branches. In the case of the Temple we read that it was constructed of great, costly, hewn stones, but at the end we read, when the house was finished (Chapter 6:18), "there was no stone seen". Overlaying the stone was the cedar wood, (type of the perfect humanity of Christ); and overlaying the cedar wood was the pure gold, speaking of the glory of God manifested in Christ.

So the Lord would have us, individually and corporately, so hidden in Christ that only He is seen. Thus shall the whole house, the limit thereof round about be most holy, and all within it say Glory. In that great, most magnifical House, the Lamb will be all the glory!

My beloved brothers, and sisters, that is what God is doing with us. He is working at it. May we be found workers together with Him, in fullest submission, until the House is built.

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