THREE WORRIED MEN

THREE WORRIED MEN

Reading: Exodus 14:10-18; Joshua 7:1-11; 1 Kings 19:9-18

John H. Paterson


WHEN Christians encounter difficulties or dangers, they usually reassure themselves by recalling the many great promises of God in His Word, promises that He will be with them and help them. Most of these promises were, of course, originally given to great servants of God, whose stories encourage us as we read them. We are stirred by the words of God to Moses, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest", or His assurance to Joshua, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee", and which of us has not in some time of need read over God's promises to and by Elijah, and sought to make them our own: "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee"; "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail ..."? It is good to have this kind of reassurance in difficult times.

But if we read the sections of the life stories of these same three men of God, we see that there were some occasions on which God responded in a quite different way -- not with comforting reassurances but with a challenge. At a moment when each of these three men was facing a particular crisis, and one of them at least was having a nervous breakdown, God's reaction to their cries for help was 'What's all this fuss about?' Each of them in turn was challenged to account for their actions: "Wherefore criest thou unto me?" (Exodus 14:15); "Wherefore liest thou upon thy face?" (Joshua 7:10); "What doest thou here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9,13). Coming as they do from the God of hope, peace and reassurance, these words may well seem surprising. We must try to understand them.

Moses and His Rod

Moses and the children of Israel were in acute danger. They had left the inhabited part of Egypt, but were not yet safely across the Red Sea when Pharaoh's army recovered its poise after the ten plagues and came in pursuit of them. In no time at all, the unarmed ex-slaves were trapped between the enemy and the sea (ironically, in the same situation as the Egyptians at the end of the 1973 campaign, but with the roles reversed). Clearly, unless God intervened, it was only a matter of hours before Israel's bid for freedom was ended. Moses seems to have expected God to intervene; he tried to reassure the people (Exodus 14:13) and meanwhile he himself was evidently praying hard. It was at this moment, however, that God reacted surprisingly, by saying -- if we accept the Living Bible translation of verse 15 -- 'Quit praying and get moving'. With the sea in front and the enemy behind, God said to Moses, 'What's all the fuss about? You've got your rod, haven't you?'

A rod: what could be more ludicrously inadequate than one rod with which to combat all the king's horses and all the king's men? But God was very clear about it; this was not to be a time for praying -- it was a time for using the rod. And, of course, anyone who follows the career of Moses from his commissioning to his journey's end knows why. The rod had become, as it was to remain, the symbol of authority -- God's authority, exercised by Moses. This authority Moses already wielded, but because this particular situation was extra dangerous, and seemed even more impossible than the ones that had gone before it, Moses was evidently looking for something special in the way of a deliverance -- extra power for extra danger. And God had to remind him -- 'You already have all the power you need. Get on and use it. Quit praying and get moving.'

We shall all no doubt sympathise with Moses, for we know this same feeling: 'This obstacle confronting me is so great and so frightening [43/44] that I shall need a very special provision of grace from God to be able to survive, let alone surmount it.' But that is not true; we already have all we need for survival and success. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore ...". Sometimes, it is not a question of praying for more, but of using what we already have. 'Quit praying and get moving.'


Joshua and the Spoils of Jericho


The second of our three worried men was facing a very different situation. Joshua, the military leader of Israel, had just seen his forces defeated at Ai and, as a general, he realised the danger which defeat brought with it: Israel's aura of invincibility shattered, and the peoples of Canaan encouraged to form a great alliance to drive his nation back across the Jordan. Something clearly had to be done quickly and the worst of it was that, although Joshua knew that something must be wrong, he could not tell what it was.

Because we have the full story in Joshua 7, we know that the trouble was caused by Achan, who had taken some of the forbidden spoils of Jericho. But Joshua was in the dark. And confronted by this situation he seems to have asked himself, as well he might, 'What would Moses have done?' We can only guess, but we do know that Joshua had been with Moses, as his helper, at times when nobody else was present -- for instance, on Mount Sinai during the tumultuous days described in Exodus 32. And in those days, Israel had faced a disaster even more terrifying than the one that threatened after the first battle of Ai: it was the declared intention of God to wipe them out (Exodus 32:10).

Faced with the threat of imminent destruction, Moses had spoken to God and said, in so many words, 'You can't do that!' But what Joshua evidently remembered in particular was the argument Moses had used on that occasion, an argument so dramatically successful that the Old Testament records, simply and laconically, "And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people" (32: 14). Moses argued that, if God did as He had said He was going to, His reputation would suffer: "Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out ...?" There would be such a 'credibility gap' that the name of God would be brought into disrepute.

It was precisely this argument that Joshua, in his crisis, decided to employ -- the argument which had worked for Moses and might serve again: "O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies ... and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?'. Poor Joshua! The Lord responded immediately. "Get thee up: wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?" The very same prayer produced this totally, bewilderingly different response.

What are we to make of this? Once again, we have the benefit of hindsight. "Israel hath sinned": that was all the explanation necessary. God was saying to Joshua, in effect, 'Don't come here and talk to me about my reputation being in danger, just because you lost to the men of Ai. My reputation is in far greater danger from the sin among my people! Go and deal with that.'

We must not draw from this incident the wrong lessons. It cannot be, as some groups have from time to time taken it to be, an invitation to the people of God to launch a witch-hunt to find the Achan among them: the result has almost invariably been disastrous to the Church of God and its testimony. Nor does it encourage the individual believer to torture himself with worry lest he be the Achan who is responsible for defeat among God's people (although some have thought that, too); that way neurosis lies. Let us simply ask ourselves what light this story throws on the Christian response to crisis and say that, when we confront difficult or dangerous situations, there is always something we can do; one element in the situation which we can get rid of, and that is the element of sin. Doing so may not remove the difficulty or the danger, but at least now what we confront is a genuine difficulty, not one complicated by the admixture of our own disobedience, failure or mixed motives. There is no justification for delay in eliminating whatever part of the crisis is caused by sin, not even if that delay is caused by stopping to worry about the damage to God's reputation!

The late Ruth Paxson, that wise saint of God, was once talking to a younger Christian and asked her, 'Well Jane, how are things?' Jane replied, 'O, I don't know: there seem to be a lot of things wrong.' 'No' replied Ruth Paxson. 'For a Christian there is only one thing that is ever wrong -- sin.' She was being very precise: for a Christian, 'things' may be difficult, or trying, or obscure, [44/45] but that does not mean that they are wrong. It is quite likely the will of God which has arranged them in that way, so that through the difficulty of the obscurity the believer may learn the lessons of faith or obedience. But that is never the case with sin; it is never God's will or plan. Sin is always wrong. And the thing to do is to deal with it, without delay.

Elijah and the Still, Small Voice

The third of our three men may well have been the most worried of all, but to appreciate the story we must try to discover why. Admittedly, Elijah had been having a difficult time. He was fighting, apparently single-handed, against the onset of idolatry in Israel, an idolatry that emanated from the royal palace itself. But he had just gained the most spectacular victory of his whole career when, on Mount Carmel, he had maintained the reputation of Jehovah against 400 of the prophets of Baal. At that moment, we should expect him to be delighted: he may well have felt that the tide had turned, and that his one-man fight against Baal was won.

If so, he was soon disillusioned: Jezebel was out for his blood (1 Kings 19: 2). And at this point it does not seem too unkind to say that Elijah's nerve cracked. He ran for his life and we should all have done the same. But for Elijah this was out of character. It happened at -- we cannot help thinking -- the wrong moment, and it happened to the wrong man. Elijah was less of a coward than any man in Israel: over and over again, he had boldly confronted the king himself and denounced his sin. So why should a mere message from the queen have stampeded him?

Every Bible student must answer the question for himself, but here is a possible solution: Elijah was unnerved by the unexpectedness of what happened. Anyone familiar with the history of Israel's idolatry would have expected that the triumph of Carmel would be followed by a great national revival -- by the overthrow of the idolatrous regime. It had always happened in the past. To put no finer point on it, the incident on the mountain top should, according to all that Elijah knew, have been closely followed by Jezebel having her head cut off.

Quite the reverse: not only was Jezebel very much alive, but she was hot on Elijah's track. So now he was scared, disillusioned and bewildered. If even the miracle of Carmel could not topple the regime, what could? What, indeed? This was the point and, to make it clear to Elijah, God took His servant deeper into the wilderness, where they would be alone together. There Elijah experienced the earthquake, the wind and the fire, but the Lord was not in any of them -- not even in the fire, as He had been on Carmel. Instead, He was in the still, small voice -- and there He has been from that day to this.

It seems as if God was serving notice that a new phase of His working had begun; that, from now on, the man of God in the world of evil would always be nothing but a voice in the wilderness; that the image of the work of God in this era of His purpose would always be the small voice rather than the thunder or the fire. So, at least, it has proved to be: no more evil regimes have fallen at the word of the prophet. It is not that God's power had grown weaker: Elijah himself was to experience it on several future occasions. But God had chosen to work in this way. Centuries later, a man came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1: 17) -- and the evil regime caught him and cut off his head. Centuries after Elijah, too, God's own Son came, and Him they crucified. And so it has continued to be, and the servants of God, beginning with Elijah, have had the problem of adapting to this, God's way of dealing with evil.

Let us pass immediately on to the lesson, as it comes down over the centuries to us. Elijah was going to have to accept that he would never be more than a voice crying in the wilderness and, at that, he might well be quite alone. But these were to be -- these are -- the conditions of service for God's men and women and what we must do is to accept them, not try to get them changed. If God did not change them for His own Son, He has no reason to change them for us! He certainly did not change them for Elijah; once again, as to Moses, He just said, 'Get moving!' -- "Go, return ..." (1 Kings 19: 15). And, of course, Elijah was not really alone as he imagined; there were 7,000 others who had remained faithful to God.

So let us not lose our nerve because we are standing for God alone, or because nobody appears to be paying the slightest attention to our small voices, or because evil flourishes all around. That is not an emergency situation; that is normal. That is precisely how God has arranged for it to be, for the present. But only for the present. For[45/46] Elijah there did indeed come the day of the whirlwind, when the chariots came from heaven and caught him away. And for us there exists the same hope and promise -- the end of the day of small voices and loneliness; the gathering hosts which no man can number, and the great voice filling the heavens, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."
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THE TIME IS SHORTENED

THE TIME IS SHORTENED


T. Austin-Sparks

"But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both those that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it ..." 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.

IT is necessary that we should not misunderstand Paul's words, for he would never contradict himself. He who wrote: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church ..." would never write anything that set aside or lessened the force of such a grand description of marriage relationship. Clearly he did not wish to minimise the importance of marriage; nor did he mean that weeping or rejoicing or other human activities should be obliterated; his remarks are set over against the existing situation in Corinth and they are introduced by the word 'But'. "But this I say, brethren, the time is shortened" (RV).

In his letter the apostle had been forced to deal with many unhappy features of current experience in the Corinthian church. There were so many inconsistencies, even contradictions, and so much which denied the Lord, that it was as though he became utterly wearied of it all and felt obliged to cry out in protest against using so much time and energy on the quibblings and carnality of God's people. He felt that he could not afford the time which he was having to give to the negative task of admonishing, correcting and remonstrating. He wanted to get busy with the positive matters of life in the Spirit, and groaned at the sheer waste of time produced by the internal conditions at Corinth.

FOR this man, who ever had his eyes on a wider horizon, there was still so much to be done. Paul was so aware of the tremendous forces at work against Christ and against His testimony that he felt that they were in an emergency situation. In his day there were signs of a great crisis in which Christian testimony might be curtailed; he sensed in the very atmosphere the tension which eventually brought him to martyrdom. Being conscious of the emergency state in which public witness, the work of the Lord, would be severely suppressed and the antagonistic forces would overflow the world in their attempt to destroy the testimony of Christ, he could not refrain from crying out about it to his brethren: "But ... the time is short! " He wanted them to get clear of their internal problems and difficulties so that they could buy up all possible opportunities for Christ. We need to be freed from self-preoccupation, so that we can redeem what time there is, for at best it is all too short.

Look Again And Think

By Oswald Chambers


'Take no thought for your life.'
Matthew 6:25

A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood.

"Take no thought for your life." "Be careful about one thing only," says our Lord - "your relationship to Me." Common sense shouts loud and says - "That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." How much evil has begun to threaten you to-day? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying - Now what are you going to do next month - this summer? "Be anxious for nothing," Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the "much more" of your heavenly Father.

The Blessedness of Longing

Silent Times: Chapter 9 - The Blessedness of Longing
By J.R. Miller


At first thought, a condition of longing would seem to be undesirable, and far from blessedness. Longing suggests unhappiness, discontent, the absence of that peace which seems to us to represent the loftiest state of blessedness, and the highest ideal of the life of faith. To have all our longings satisfied, we are apt to regard as the most desirable human condition. Yet, when we think more deeply of it--we know that there is a blessedness in longing.

We remember that one of our Lord's beatitudes was for those who long. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Longing is, then, a healthful state; one that has an upward look--and has the promise of spiritual enriching. Satisfaction with one's attainments or achievements in any line--but especially in spiritual life and in personal holiness--is an unhealthy condition--and may be a mark of incipient spiritual decay.

In all of life, this law applies. In the physical realm, hunger is a mark of health--and the lack of appetite proclaims disease. So the mind grows through longing. The doors of knowledge are opened to the student's eye, giving a glimpse of the boundless fields that stretch in all directions, and producing a craving, a hunger to know, which leads him to seek with eagerness for the rich treasures of wisdom. So long as this mind-hunger continues, the quest for knowledge will continue, and ever new stores will be discovered. But, whenever the hunger ceases, mental growth is at an end, and the mind has gained and passed its best achievements.

In spiritual life the same is true. There is no mood so hopeful as longing. The highest state is one of hunger and thirst--intense desire for more life, more holiness, more power, closer communion with God, more of the divine likeness in the soul. The gospel promises rest to those who come to Christ. Peace was one of the benedictions the Savior left for his people. Contentment is one of the graces and duties enjoined upon the Christian--but spiritual hunger is not incompatible with either peace or contentment. It is not unrest; it is not anxiety or worry; it is not murmuring discontent. It is deep longing for more and ever more of all blessings--calmer rest, sweeter peace, more perfect contentment, with richer heart-fullness of Christ, and more and more of all the graces of the Spirit.

This longing is depicted in the Psalms, as an intense thirst for God; not the bitter cry of an unforgiven soul for mercy--but the deep, passionate yearning of a loving spirit for closer, fuller, richer, more satisfying communion with God himself. We find it in the life of the greatest of the apostles, who, wherever we see him, on whatever radiant height, is still pressing on, with unsatisfied longing and quenchless ardor--toward loftier summits and more radiant peaks, crying ever for more intimate knowledge of Christ, and more and more of the fullness of God. The ideal Christian life is one of insatiable thirst, never pausing in any arbor of spiritual contentment--but ever wooed on by visions of new joys and attainments.

Defining Sin

By A.W. Tozer


For an act to be sinful the quality of voluntariness must also be present. Sin is the voluntary commission of an act known to be contrary to the will of God. Where there is no moral knowledge or where there is no voluntary choice, the act is not sinful; it cannot be, for sin is the transgression of the law and transgression must be voluntary. Lucifer became Satan when he made his fateful choice: "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:14). 

Clearly here was a choice made against light. Both knowledge and will were present in the act. Conversely, Christ revealed His holiness when He cried in His agony, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). Here was a deliberate choice made with the full knowledge of the consequences. Here two wills were in temporary conflict, the lower will of the Man who was God and the higher will of the God who was Man, and the higher will prevailed. 

Here also was seen in glaring contrast the enormous difference between Christ and Satan; and that difference divides saint from sinner and heaven from hell. But someone may ask, "When we pray 'Not my will, but Thine be done,' are we not voiding our will and refusing to exercise the very power of choice which is part of the image of God in us?" The answer to that question is a flat No, but the whole thing deserves further explanation.

Hearing the Voice of God

By A.W. Tozer


. . . There are two questions before us. The first question is: How many of us are willing to hear the voice of God? Jesus said, Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate (Matthew 23:34, 37-38). Were these people willing to hear the voice of God? 

Thousands of years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, the Holy Spirit said, Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you" (Proverbs 1:20-26).

Theology Alive

By Oswald Chambers

      'Walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you.'
      John 12:35

      Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse.

      The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it is shown in the life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.

      

Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees . . ." said Our Lord, i.e., you must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life? Every bit of your life, physical, moral and spiritual, is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement.

King of Righteousness

By Bible Names of God


"First being by interpretation, King of righteousness." Hebrews 7:2

The picture is taken from the story of Melchisedec, the strange king to whom Abram paid tithes (Genesis 14). Christ if King of righteousness, for He is the King of kings. He is the Righteous One and the only Righteous One. We have no righteousness. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags, but "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." We believe in Him, and it is counted unto us for righteousness. His righteousness is put to our account and we are associated with the Righteous King forever. Hallelujah!

Lord, we confess our unworthiness, but we rejoice in Thy finished work and in the gift of Thy righteousness to us. Amen.