November
November / 187 Have I not commanded you: Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your
God is with you wherever you go. (Jos 1:9) The Lord commands us to go in and possess the land of our inheritance. God's commands are even more comforting than his promises; for if he commands me to do a thing, Iam sure he will give me the power of his Spirit to do it. His commands are not grievous, we are told, but surely they would be grievous, if we were utterly unable to obey them. It would have been a grievous thing indeed had he commanded the children of Israel to go in and possess the land of Canaan, knowing that they were utterly unable to do it, had he not himself intended to supply them with the power. In fact, he uses his very command as the reason why they should have no fear. "Have not I commanded you' he asks. He tells us that we need have no fear in doing what he has commanded us to do, for he is in every command he gives and will always bestow the necessary power to obey it.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon! have given to you, as I promised to Moses. (Jos 1:3)
Notice that the Lord says "I have given," not "I will give." It was all theirs in the purpose and mind of God, but unless the chosen people actually went and set their feet upon it, it did not become theirs practically and experimentally. This is necessarily true of any gift. The giver may give it with all the sincerity and goodwill possible, but it never really comes into the recipient's possession until he actually receives it, and appropriates it, and calls it his own. Even though a gift should be laid on the table, or put into the pocket of a friend, he will not possess it unless he closes his hand of acceptance over it and says mentally, "it is mine."
5 I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. (Jos 2:9)
188 / Daily He Leads Me The harlot Rahab of Jericho is a wonderful example of how acceptable faith is to the Lord, even when exercised in the midst of great ignorance and distance from himself. Her faith so strengthened the faith of the spies that they returned to Joshua with the triumphant news, "Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us." How different the report of these spies from that of the spies sent out forty years before. The giants were as mighty now as then, and the cities as great, and they themselves were as weak. But then they had left out the Lord and had measured their enemies with themselves; and now
Rahab had brought him in by saying, "I know that the Lord has given you the land." When God is brought into the scene and our enemies are measured with him, there can no longer be any doubt or fear remaining. I believe that if we could send out spies into the land of our possession, as Israel did, we would also find that our enemy faints because of us, and that he knows, whether we do or not, that the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands. He is an already-conquered foe, and the courage of faith will soon discover this, let him bluster as he may.
When those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water... the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off. (Jos 3:15-16)
It required a far stronger faith to cross the Jordan than tocross the Red Sea; and the faith which can trust for the forgiveness of sins needs to be greatly strengthened, in order to believe in victory over sin. To me, this stepping into a brimming river, when as yet there was no sign of a path, is one of the grandest pictures of faith on record. I can fancy the heathen nations around, if they witnessed the scene, sneering at the folly and presumption of a people who could act thus. They must have known only too well that they could not trust their gods to part the river. But I think their cry afterwards must have been,
November / 189 "Surely no people have a god like these people!" Could the world but see more of this sublime sort of faith among Christians now,
I feel sure they would be won to yield allegiance to a God who can thus be trusted and who never fails his people's confidence.
Sa How can we who died to sin still live in it! Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? (Rom 6:2-3) In experience this is an intensely practical thing. For nothing
SO gives victory over sin as to reckon one's self to be dead to it, and nothing so enables the soul to walk in righteousness as to realize its resurrection life in Christ. It may be difficult to explain this theologically or doctrinally; but to my mind the great point in studying the Bible is to get at its truths experimentally, and thousands of witnesses can testify to the blessed reality of being dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus
Christ. I have known lifelong sins conquered in this way, that had not yielded one iota to all the struggles and efforts of years. I knew a lady with such an irritable temper that she was almost intolerable to live with. She was a Christian, and she grieved over it with bitter sorrow, but seemed to find it impossible to get the victory by years of struggling and agonizing. Finally, when she was almost in despair, she was told by someone to reckon herself dead to sin. If she did, God would make it real by the power of his Spirit. In her despair she grasped at the hope, and kneeling before her open Bible, with her finger on Romans 6:2, she dared to obey the divine command and reckoned herself, on the authority of God's own word, to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. It seemed like taking a step off a fearful precipice into a sheer abyss. But, as always, the step of faith found the rock beneath, and according to her faith it was done to her. She met every temptation to irritability by saying, "I am dead to sin. I am crucified with Christ. I am alive in him."
From that hour, now many years ago, not even an inward ruffle has disturbed her peace.
190 / Daily He Leads Me Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mk 11:24)
I believe that the Christian is called to shout the shout of victory even at the very moment when his foes seem stronger than ever. I mean just this, that if we meet our enemy as an already-conquered foe and claim by faith our victory over him in Christ, we shall overcome far more quickly, than if we look upon him as an enemy who has yet to be conquered by our vigorous conflict against him. "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith" (1 Jn 5:4). I have found that the little words, "Jesus saves me, Jesus saves me now,' repeated over and over in any great stress of temptation will bring a far speedier victory than I can gain in any other way. For our Lord himself says, "Whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him" (Mk 11:23).
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; / as wax melts before fire. (Ps 68:2) The Lord commands us to drive out every enemy from our hearts and lives. If we refuse to utterly drive them out and seek merely to make them tributary to us, we shall find ourselves continually enslaved and oppressed by those very enemies whom we have allowed to remain. The Lord promises to deliver
| us from the hands of all our enemies and to enable us always to triumph. But if we refuse, as the Israelites did, to avail ourselves fully of this promised strength, we shall suffer the same results.
This accounts for the condition of so many Christians, who find themselves enslaved and oppressed continually by their inward enemies and whose victories, even when they cry to the Lord and are victorious, are yet followed by ever-recurring defeats.
They groan under it and cannot understand it. But the problem lies in this, that they have not utterly driven out their enemies.
They have thought perhaps that they could not. They may have
November / 191 said, "My circumstances are so peculiar, or my temperament is SO sensitive, or my temptations are so great" that they have excused themselves. They have not even expected to be entirely delivered from their irritable tempers, or their roots of bitterness, or their seasons of discouragement, or their sharp tongues, but have felt themselves very successful if they have been able f to make these things tributary, as it were, and have managed to keep them under by constant watchfulness and prayer. They compromise with the enemy, instead of utterly driving him out.
In this way many Christians compromise with doubt, or with the disobedience of timidity, or with anxiety, or with a hundred other forms of evil, against which God's commands of utter renunciation and death have plainly gone forth. As a consequence, he no longer drives out the enemies we have allowed to remain, and they are indeed snares and traps for us, and scourges in our sides, and thorns in our eyes.
I He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (Jn 12:25)
He alone who reckons himself dead, not simply to a few of his sins, but to every sin, can gain the continual victories and live the life of uniform triumph. | think it is just in this that the great difference arises in the experiences of those who enter into the land of promise now. With some, self seems to be swallowed up at once by the revelation of Christ and to lift up its head no more; while with others the death of self is accomplished only by slow degrees and through great conflicts. Through death to life is always God's way, and there is no other. If we would live, we must first die. We must lose our own life, if we would find the life that is hid with Christ in God. We must reckon ourselves dead before we can reckon ourselves to be alive. The more thorough and wide-reaching is the death, the more all-pervading and victorious will be the life. Is it not a grand proposal of the gospel, then, that we should put off at once and always the old man and put on forever the new man? And shall we hesitate to do it?
192 / Daily He Leads Me I I The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God, and serving the Baals and the Asheroth. (Jgs 3:7) This sin of idolatry is very much misunderstood. Many
Christians think it means only loving some human being too much, or being too fond of some earthly comfort or pleasure. But to my mind, idolatry is a far graver sin. Among the Israelites it meant worshipping a false god, and it means the same now among Christians. It matters little whether this god is one carved out of wood or stone, or carved out of our own imagination. If our thought or idea of God is different from the Lord whom the Bible reveals, we are really worshipping an idol.
Understood in this sense, idolatry is a far more common sin today than we have tended to think.
Let me illustrate. How many people say to their children all through their childhood, "God does not love naughty children"?
Nothing more directly contrary to the Bible or more untrue of the God of the Bible could be taught; for there we are told that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" to die for it. To teach innocent little children such a sad untruth as this is to set up an idol for them to worship. When they grow older and are compelled to learn that the God of the Bible is much different than the god they have learned about, that he hates only the sin but loves the sinner, is it to be wondered at that they are so wedded to their false idea of him that they find it very difficult to believe that he can really be what the Bible declares him to be? My heart aches at the thought of the idols being fashioned in the hearts of so many young children at this very day. I believe that many people have been so burdened by such false ideas of God that they are never able in this life to shake off the doubts and discouragements they have caused. I am convinced that the amount of this sort of idolatry in the church today would be appalling, if we could but see it in all its magnitude and deformity.
November / 193 iy Ds Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work which the Lord did for Israel. (Jos 24:31)
The children of Israel served the true God as long as any were alive who remembered the wonderful deliverance out of Egypt.
But when Joshua died and all the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, then they soon forgot him and served other gods. I think this is an example of one form of idolatry which may be peculiar to the higher stages of Christian experience. The soul, becoming absorbed in the deeper truths of our religion, is apt to lose sight of the fundamental doctrine of coming out of Egypt, or of justification by faith, and to speak and to think so exclusively of the fruits of the Spirit and the life and walk of the believer, as almost to forget the necessity of pressing the foundational truths of salvation, and the way of entrance into the spiritual life. This leads to a one-sided statement of truth that may become very dangerous, especially to the soul which has had no clear teaching on the other side, and may end in very false views of God. May the lessons of warning contained in our book save us from such mistakes.
I Barak said to her [Deborah], "If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go."
(Jgs 4:8) Deborah sets forth most strikingly the lesson of God's strength made perfect in our weakness. A woman here leads the armies of the Lord against a captain who had nine hundred chariots of iron and who for twenty years mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Even Barak, whose name means "thunder," the strong captain in Israel, dared not go without her. This is a picture, it seems to me, of Paul's teaching in 2 Corinthians
12:7-10: "When I am weak then I am strong." It is a striking illustration of the truth that God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty that no flesh might glory in
194 / Daily He Leads Me his presence. For Deborah said to Barak, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." it As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. (1 Pt 1:14)
No position in grace, no height of Christian attainment can keep the soul from failing. Only the present power of an indwelling Holy Spirit can do this, and nothing but continual faithfulness to the Lord can secure his abiding presence. We never, at any stage of our experience, reach a place where we may relax in our obedience or become indifferent in our trust.
Obedience must keep pace with knowledge, and our trust must be daily and hourly fixed on our Savior, or all will go wrong.
Sanctification is not a state so much as a walk, and every moment of that walk we need the Spirit's power and the Spirit's presence as much as we did at first. Not even after dwelling in the land of promise for many years are we strong enough to do without this. Always, from the beginning to the end of our
Christian life, obedience and trust are the two essential conditions of our triumph. We must make no more compromise with evil at the end than at the beginning. If failure comes, it will always arise from one or the other of these two causes: either want of consecration or want of trust. It is never the strength of our enemies, nor our own weakness that causes us to fall. While the Lord continues to be with us, no man can stand before us all the days of our life; and if we will only steadfastly abide in him, we need not be in the least discouraged at the thought of the temptations that surround us on every hand.
| Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my maidens." (Ru 2:8)
November / 195 Those who turn their backs on the world to seek the Lord, even though very ignorant of all the blessings in store for them,
_ find themselves soon gleaning in the field of Christ, who is our _ near kinsman, and who, as Boaz did, causes his servants to leave behind grain for us to glean. Ruth had come to trust under the wings of the God of Israel; and no one ever yet trusted in him and was confounded.
This it seems to me is the first experience of the returning sinner. Figuratively speaking, he leaves his father and his mother and the land of his nativity, as Ruth did, and comes to a people he has not known before. Then he begins to glean and gathers in from the Lord's harvest fields spiritual food to supply his daily needs. For a while, the soul is satisfied with this.
But a time comes when a deeper want is felt. "Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, 'My daughter, should I not seek a home for you that it may be well with you?" Naomi knew that Ruth needed a married life, a home, and a care-taker, and all the joys of wedded union. In a similar way, the soul of the believer begins sooner or later to hunger and thirst after this rest in a realized union with Christ, of which the marriage union is so precious a type.
I She answered, "I am Ruth, your maidservant; spread your skirt over your maidservant, for you are next of kin." And he [Boaz] said, "May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; you have made this last kindness greater than the first." (Ru 3:9-10) Ruth's claim looked like presumption, but Boaz called it
"kindness." Our Lord, too, delights in every claim we make upon him for this realized oneness with himself, however bold it may seem to us. It is indeed his own prayer forus, "That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."
Far dearer to him than the greatest activities of service, is the longing of the heart to know this oneness and the claim of faith that comes boldly to his feet to receive it.
196 / Daily He Leads Me I Vie Be still, and know that I am God. (Ps 46:10) I cannot but feel that we need more of this "being still" in our
Christian experience. There is too much restless anxiety about our prayers, too much the feeling that unless we wrestle and agonize over things, they will not turn out well. I witnessed an illustration of this not long ago. I was visiting a mother whose little boy was playing in the room. We were talking about prayer and asking each other what sort of praying was right—the trusting kind, or the agonizing kind. Suddenly we were interrupted by the child, who asked for a cookie. His mother said yes at once and went to the cupboard for them, but found the cookie jar empty. She explained things to the child, but said she would send his older sister for some. The child saw his sister go out. A good child would have gone on playing again, and would have waited quietly and trustingly until the girl returned. But this child stood at his mother's elbow, saying over and over, "Mother, give me a cookie. I want a cookie. Please, let me have a cookie!"
Finally, our conversation was drowned in the noise of his wailing, and we could do nothing but sit still in the best patience we could muster.
My question about prayer was answered. Since then, I have never dared agonize over any request I have made to the Lord. I do not mean, however, that we are to forget our prayers or be indifferent about their results, but simply that, having made our
| request known, we must then wait in quiet and patient faith, sure that our Lord will not rest until he has finished the matter we have put into his hands. We are not always prepared ourselves to receive an immediate answer to our prayers. We do not give the best things in our possession to our youngest children, even though they ask, lest they should hurt themselves, or spoil the things. We wait until they grow old enough to take the proper care of them and to understand their use. Our
Father is too wise to give us what we are not yet prepared to receive. But when we ask him, he will first make us ready for the gift, and will then bestow it when we can receive and use it.
November / 197 I That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and | in thee, that they also may be in us. (Jn 17:21)
Seek after this oneness with all your heart. Your Lord intends it for you and will grant it, as soon as he has prepared your soul to enter into it. Let nothing discourage you. Though he tarry, wait for him, for he will surely come; and if you will but persevere, the blessed day must and will come, sooner or later, when your soul shall be satisfied with the fullness of his love, and you shall abide continually in his conscious presence. He will come and take up his abode with you, and, like Ruth, you shall "find rest" at last in the heart of your Heavenly Bridegroom.
I 9 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. {Jn 15:10) There are but few joys like the joy of entire surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. The soul that has tried it knows this, and to the soul that has not, I can only say that the control of unselfish love is always lovely, even when that love is earthly, because in the nature of things love can choose only the best for its beloved one and must pour out itself to the last drop to help and to bless that one. Therefore, the control of God, who is love, who is not merely loving, but is Love itself, must be and can be nothing but infinite and fathomless blessing.
7) 0 David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah." (1 Sm 23:2)
It appears that David led his people on to continuous victory.
The secret of it was his childlike dependence upon the Lord.
Every step of the way he testified continually to his own weakness and to God's strength. Over and over we have the expression used concerning him, "and the Lord was with him."
198 / Daily He Leads Me When confronted with the giant Goliath, he said to Saul, who told him he was not able to fight the Philistine, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." In everything, David saw that God was present in the situation.
Unlike Saul, of whom it was said that he "inquired not of the Lord," we find David continually, in every time of need, going to the Lord for advice and guidance. And the Lord always answered these inquiries as simply as they were asked. The simplicity and directness of this intercourse and communion between David and the Lord his God is very striking and reveals a most blessed oneness. In a faint way it prefigures the human life of dependence and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ and teaches us our own privileges of a direct and personal intercourse with our
Father, who has told us "in everything to make our requests known to him", and who surely must mean to grant us as sure a response as he did to David. Let us then in everything "inquire of the Lord" with childlike confidence, believing that he hears us and will certainly reply.
2] He has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the Lord and his people. (1 Chr 22:18) The kingdom of David is a type of that stage in the soul's history, when only conflict is known, and when Christ is apprehended only in his character as our conquering Captain, leading us on to battle. Many souls know no other Christian life but this and live therefore in perpetual conflict. But David's battles were for the purpose of conquering Israel's enemies.
When he had accomplished this purpose, he handed over into Solomon's control a kingdom which had "rest from its enemies."
Christ as our Captain also meets and conquers our enemies for us, in order that he may hand over the inward kingdom, thus made peaceful and at rest. Never to pass beyond the experience of conflict into the experience of peace would seem to prove
November / 199 that the soul had not apprehended Christ as a victorious Captain, before whom the land should be subdued, and into whose hand all its enemies should be delivered. Many Christians stumble here and never pass beyond the reign of David.
They cannot believe in the accomplished victories of our Lord Jesus Christ but think they must fight and conquer the foe for themselves. They lift up, not the shield of faith, but the shield of doubt and are consequently smitten by the fiery darts of the enemy. We must know the Lord Jesus Christ as our conquering
King and Captain, so that we will put all our battles into his hand to fight and leave all our enemies to him to vanquish. He has overcome the world by actual conflict. We overcome by faith (1 Jn 5:4). The fiery darts of the enemy spent their strength on him. He has furnished us with a shield of faith with which we can quench them all (Eph 6:16). By faith we can say in truth, "The land is subdued before the Lord and before his people," and can enter into the kingdom of rest and peace, which he has obtained for us.
» Lh When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon... She said to the king... "Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report which I heard." (1 Kgs 10:4, 6-7)
The whole world was attracted by the report of the riches and glory of Solomon's kingdom, and the Queen of Sheba came from her far country to Jerusalem to see if all that had been told her could indeed be true. In the same way, we may be sure the world will be attracted by the report of Christian lives that are filled with spiritual riches and power and wisdom, and will gather from far and near to see if the story they have heard can indeed be a true one. When they have seen it and have witnessed the peace in the midst of trial, and the inward joy overpowering the outward sorrow, and the victory over temptation, and the overflowing wealth of grace, they will be forced to acknowledge that it is indeed true, that "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, / nor the heart of man conceived, / what God has prepared for those
200 / Daily He Leads Me who love him." Thus the saying of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount will be fulfilled, that our light shall so "shine before men," that they, seeing our good works, may "glorify," not us, but "our Father who is in heaven." wy Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (Jn 14:27)
Is the outside world so attracted by the report of your riches and spiritual power, that it asks you about your secret? Do your children see in you such patience that they are won over to love and serve your God? Do your friends have cause to know from the outward peace of your daily life, that the God of peace reigns within, and are their hearts attracted to his service?
Alas! 1 am afraid that the reverse is too often the case and that one great cause of the small number of conversions in a church or a community is to be found in the poor and meager sort of Christianity that exists there. How can a husband think it desirable to be a Christian when he sees his wife with a sort of Christianity that seems only to make her uncomfortable and gloomy; or how can children be attracted to a religion which is professed by a cross or unreasonable father?
Once an unbeliever said something to me that I have never forgotten. We were talking together about Christianity, and I was urging its claims upon him, when he said, with marked emphasis and yet sadness, "If you Christians want the outside world to believe in your religion, you must have a better kind.
Most of you seem to carry your religion as a man carries a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but he is forced to confess that it causes him a great deal of discomfort and suffering. You would not I suppose want to give up your religion, but you must acknowledge it often makes you mightily uncomfortable." Let us, then, seek to realize in our own individual experience all the fullness of our glorious salvation, that we may attract the world around us, by the beauty and
November / 201 blessedness of our lives, so that they may taste and see that the Lord is good and that he does indeed fulfill his promises.
May you be strengthened with all power, according to DO) his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. (Col 1:11) We have need of patience with ourselves and with others: with those below and those above us, and with our equals: with those who love us and those who love us not: for the greatest things and the least: against sudden inroads of trouble and under our daily burden: disappointments as to the weather or the breaking of the heart: in the weariness of body or mind: in everyday wants or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age: in disappointment, losses, bereavement, injuries, reproaches: in heaviness of the heart, or its sickness amid delayed hopes.
The family is full of opportunities for the practice of this virtue, for we may be called upon at any moment for the almost heroic exercise of good temper and self-sacrifice. Parents must have patience with their children—patience with their tempers, patience with their understandings, patience with their progress. In all these things, from childhood's little troubles to the martyr's sufferings, we shall be ready to acknowledge that the one who has attained patience is master of himself. i Open to me, my sister, my love, / my dove, my perfect one. (Sg 5:2) The Lord has always sought for a dwelling place in his people's midst. He loves them with sucha yearning love, that he cannot keep away from them; and at almost the very first moment of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, his word came to Moses, saying, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." They had not asked him to come, but he asked them to let him. He wanted a home among them. He might have made this home for himself by coming in power and taking
202 / Daily He Leads Me forcible possession of one of their tents. But this would not have satisfied the love that wanted to be a welcomed guest. Similarly, he will not take forcible possession of any heart now, but knocks for admittance. "Open to me," he says to each one of us. oy:
You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.
(Acts 2:38-39)} This promise is surely intended for you, for, without it, the Christian life is but poor and dwarfed. Do not be satisfied without it for even so much as another day. The steps to reach it are very simple. First, convince yourself from the scriptures that the baptism of the Spirit is a gift intended for you. Then come to the Lord in simple faith to ask for it. Having put your case into his hands, leave it there in childlike trust, knowing that he will attend to your request, and that he is even more willing to give you the Holy Spirit than parents are to give good gifts to their children.
Take 1 John 5:14 and act on it: "This is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us." You are asking for that which is according to his will, therefore, you know that he hears you, and knowing this, you must know still more, and must believe that you have the petitions you desired of him. By faith, claim it as your present possession. Begin to praise him for his wondrous gift. And it will come to pass, just as it did to Israel, that "the glory of the Lord will fill the house of the Lord," and your hungry soul will be filled and satisfied with his presence.
No one can serve two masters; ... You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mt 6:24} The latter part of Solomon's reign and the divided rule which followed seem to me typical of the special dangers that are likely to beset the Christian at a later stage in the journey. No
November / 203 height of spiritual blessing or spiritual power can for a moment absolve us from the need for obedience and watchfulness. The temptation to antinomianism has often overwhelmed the church or the individual after seasons of peculiar blessing, and it needs to be especially guarded against. We can never forsake the written law of the Lord with impunity, no matter how advanced our spiritual life may be. We need to watch, lest, when seated in heavenly places in Christ, we should feel so far lifted above the usual temptations of life, that we are tempted to be less careful of our steps, that we walk continually in the law of our God.
All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
(2 Chr 36:18) Babylon was not Egypt. Egypt, I believe, is a type of the state of nature out of which the church is brought, while Babylon is the state of worldliness and corruption into which unfaithfulness brings her. Babylon seems to be always used in scripture to set forth Satan's counterfeit of that which the Lord has made. If the Lord provides any good thing for his children, Satan provides a counterfeit of it, transforming himself even into an angel of light, if only he may deceive the elect. We do not hear of Babylon while Israel was in Egypt, nor during the early freshness of their joy in escaping from Egypt. Babylon was an enemy who came to light only in the advanced period of Israel's history. The church knew nothing of the danger which Babylon typifies during the early years of its existence, nor are Christians assailed by it right after their conversion. It is only when churches or individual believers have been drawn away from their faithful allegiance to the law of the Lord, when they have substituted the commandments and traditions of men for the commandments of God, and have begun to "mock the true messengers of the Lord, and despise his words and misuse his prophets," that the danger comes in. A false and corrupt rule takes possession of the heart and carries it captive. The precious truths, which were part of
204 / Daily He Leads Me the worship of the true God typified by the "vessels of the house of God," are taken for the service of the false religion. oy Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. (2 Pt 3:11-12) I am well aware that this is a subject which does not interest all Christians and which is considered fanciful and unprofitable by many. But consider what the angel declared to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, while they looked toward the heavens where a cloud had just received their Lord out of their sight:
"This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." It must certainly be important for us to know it, and to enter into the mind of God about it. I believe myself that there is hardly any truth which has so great an effect in making Christians unworldly as this.
If we expect one who is absent from us to return at any moment, we shall surely make ourselves ready for his coming and will take care to arrange matters so that when he comes he shall not find us engaged in anything of which we think he will not approve. It is striking to notice that the Lord's exhortations to holiness of life are always based, not on the fear of death, but on the hope of his return and its unexpectedness.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.... You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour. (Lk 12:37, 40)
I am convinced that such passages as this teach us that the thought of the unexpectedness of our Lord's return is a far more powerful incentive to holiness than the thought of death; and I believe the church has suffered great loss from having overlooked this. It all depends upon how much we love him, whether we are longing to see him back. Our present walk and life will
November / 205 surely be greatly changed by a firm belief on our part that at any moment we may see him and hear the voice of the trumpet that calls us to his side. Let us ask ourselves a few solemn questions here. Are we, like the early Christians, waiting for him to come?
Are we ready for his coming? We cannot wait until we are ready.
What would we think of a housekeeper, who was expecting a visit from a very distinguished guest, and whose house should be turned upside down with repairs, and painting, and cleaning, but who would say tous, "Oh, yes, Iam waiting longingly for my friend to arrive, and am expecting him at any moment"?I am sure we would be amazed by such waiting as that and would say, "But how can you wait for him until you are ready? Wouldn't his coming be very inconvenient and ill-timed? Wouldn't you prefer that he delay his coming, until you have prepared a comfortable place in which to receive him?"
We may well pause and think, therefore, whether we are ready for our Lord's coming. Are our houses, and our lives, and our churches prepared to receive him? Would his coming just at this present moment seem inconvenient or ill-timed to us? If we knew that he were coming next week, would we go on with our lives as they are and carry out our present plans and purposes for our few remaining days?
Iremember being impressed by John Wesley's reply to a friend who asked him how he would spend the day if he knew he were to die that night. After a solemn pause, Wesley replied, "I should do just the things I have already planned to do. I should attend to the business I have laid out. I should see the friends I have expected to see. I should go to the places I have arranged for. I should read the books I have prepared. I should eat my meals, and take my usual rest, and should quietly await the hour of my death without one anxious thought." How wonderful to be so ready. Our Lord says to us, "You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour."
December Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.
(Ezr 1:3) In Ezra we have the rebuilding of the temple, and in Nehemiah the walls of the city are rebuilt. The inward restoration must come first. The building of the temple in the first place, seems to me to be a type of the soul consciously surrendering itself to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. The rebuilding of this temple, typifies, I think, the restoration of the soul from backsliding or wandering, and a fresh surrender of the heart to the Lord, to be possessed and indwelt by him. It is what is happening, I believe, in many instances in the present day.
Believers are being brought to a sense of their distance from the Lord, and are groaning under their captivity to their enemies.
The song has issued from their hearts in the language used by the exiled Israelites to describe their own sad condition: "By the waters of Babylon, / there we sat down and wept, / when we
208 / Daily He Leads Me remembered Zion" (Ps 137:1). These Christians have heard, as plainly as Israel of old, the call to go up to Jerusalem to build the house of the Lord and have obeyed this call. To such, this book of Ezra will be full of wonderful teaching.
Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity.... The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty. (Ezr 2:1, 64)
Sometimes we have been inclined to wonder why there should occur now and then in the Bible these long lists of names. But if we think of them as sample pages out of the divine book of records, they assume a deep and precious interest. Just so, doubtless, is our Father keeping record of those now, who, in these days of half-heartedness and degeneracy, are offering themselves to him in glad surrender, to be his temple, and to be filled with his abiding presence!
Make confession to the Lord the God of your fathers, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives. (Ezr 10:11)
To be holy involves being set apart for God, to be separated from everything that is evil. Therefore, when the soul has surrendered itself to the Lord to be his dwelling place, the searching power of his Holy Spirit begins to reveal the evil and calls for an entire separation from it.
This matter of the "foreign wives" seems to me to be a type of that wandering of the heart from the Lord, which is called
"setting our affections on earthly things." The New Testament speaks of it as the "friendship of the world," and in James 4:4, we are told that this friendship is "enmity with God." The life of separation to the Lord must be real. Everything that could be considered union with "foreign wives" must be put away. The Lord must have our whole hearts, for our love is precious to him, and anything which entices our hearts from our allegiance to