As I have already stated, the delegation of authority by God presupposes the activity of the evil nature in fallen man in its manifold forms of expression. Galatians 5:19-2119Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19‑21) gives us an appalling list of things which each of us not walking in the Spirit is capable of doing! “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, disputes, schools of opinion, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revels, and things like these; as to which I tell you beforehand, even as I also have said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit God’s kingdom” (JND). Therefore (even though we are a new creation in Christ and members in particular of the one body of Christ, vitally united by one Spirit to Him our living Head in heaven), the ever-present capability in us, individually and collectively, of giving way to the lusts of the flesh when out of communion with the Lord, makes it necessary for the Christ, as “Son over His own house” (Heb. 3:66But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)), to make the assembly responsible for its behavior as “the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:1515But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15)) here on earth. Accordingly He invested the assembly (in its local expression) with authority to deal with “whatsoever” it judged to be inconsistent with its position as representative of Christ in this world.
An immense responsibility was thus placed upon the assembly as a responsible body! Where, in the various forms of delegated authority previously considered, whether to the husband, father, civil authority or master, do we find so solemn and so sweeping an investiture of divinely constituted authority as the Lord enunciates here? Indeed, in the former cases, the authority is assumed to be operative, and those subject to it are addressed. Wives, children, saints, and servants are acquainted with, or reminded of, their respective places of subjection. But now there is to be a new thing on earth, a church, one with Christ its Head! And through the local expression of it, divine title is given to exercise authority.
The Lord, prefacing with His solemn “verily” this irrefutable grant to the assembly, defines its scope and character: “Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:1818Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18)). He that challenges the authority vested thus in the saints gathered together (be they only two or three) by the Spirit of God unto Christ’s name, challenges the LORD HIMSELF, for HE is in the midst of them!
Binding and Loosing
The objection has often been raised that to hold that the Lord binds in heaven an unrighteous act bound on earth is sheer popery. Such an objection arises, I believe, because the nature of authority is not understood. Delegated authority (in this case from the Lord to the local assembly) is confounded with infallibility. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Binding, or loosing, in heaven does not in itself mean approving. Had the blessed Lord meant “Whatsoever ye shall bind or loose shall be approved in heaven,” He would have said so, but He did not!
Let us look at a scripture which gives us the principle involved in the Lord’s binding of an unrighteous act (not approving it); it also shows us the profitable use to which He turns all in His divine sovereignty! “And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee...the Lord judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands....And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me” (Gen. 16:5-9, 135And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee. 6But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 7And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 8And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 9And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. (Genesis 16:5‑9)
13And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? (Genesis 16:13)). This is the first occurrence of the word “submit” in the Scriptures! Was Sarai’s act a righteous one? No. Did the Lord set her act aside and her authority with it? He did not; He bound it! Hagar is addressed by the Lord (for verse 13 shows us who the angel in reality was!) as “Sarai’s maid” at a time when she had disowned that claim under persecution. She is told to return to her mistress, and to submit herself under her hands, by the Lord Himself!
Was the Lord unrighteous in this? Of course not! But appearances are against Him, as they often are in this present evil world where the self-will of ungodly men and (sad to say) of saints themselves expresses itself. If we are walking according to man (1 Cor. 3:33For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? (1 Corinthians 3:3)), we might think thus: “How can the Lord be Himself, be righteous, be the God of light in whom is no darkness at all, and yet compel poor Hagar to submit to Sarai’s harsh actions?” But “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord” (Isa. 55:88For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)). As to Sarai, the Lord brings about a disciplinary action for the good of her soul (He ever acts in sovereign goodness!) by means of the submissive action of Hagar which placed her again in the presence of Sarai, thus daily affording Sarai a reminder that she had brought all the sorrow in this situation upon herself by her own act of unbelief in the first place (Gen. 16:33And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. (Genesis 16:3)). What a chastening of soul, certainly not joyous, this was for Sarai! Do we not plainly see in all this that the Lord knew how to discipline Sarai without for one moment setting aside her authority to “guide the house” (1 Tim. 5:1414I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. (1 Timothy 5:14)) as mistress there? But we naturally like (and are little aware how far the evil propensity is allowed in us) to set aside authority in order to gratify a course of self-will and insubjection.
Please bear with me while I refer again to other familiar scriptures which also give the principle of the Lord’s binding an overbearing act, not approving it, also using it in His ways with His people as a judgment of their state; all of this too is in connection with the preservation of a testimony by the Lord Himself to that which He had set up, and as to which He said through the prophet Ahijah, “That David My servant may have a light alway before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen Me to put My name there” (1 Kings 11:3636And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there. (1 Kings 11:36)). “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine,
for reproof,
for correction,
for instruction in righteousness:
The Lord’s Dealings With Failure
In the history of the Lord’s dealings with His earthly people (and surely we are agreed that God’s moral principles never change), while sovereignly maintaining “a light alway before [Him] in Jerusalem,” I believe that we should discern that the Lord acted on the principle of Matthew 18:1818Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18) long before He ever enunciated it for the maintenance of a heavenly testimony in this dispensation. Let us look at this history briefly. In 1 Kings 11:1-101But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 4For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. 7Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. 8And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. 9And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, 10And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. (1 Kings 11:1‑10), we have the saddening account of the departure of heart of the wisest man on earth, King Solomon, from the Lord. In verse 33, the apostasy of the tribes of Israel is also disclosed. The Church, too, has long since left its first love (Rev. 2:44Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4)). Furthermore, those whom God mercifully delivered from spiritual Babylon a few generations back, and to whom He recovered “all the counsel of God,” have alas! also left their first love. The Lord personally tells Solomon (vv. 11-13) that his kingdom is to be divided, only one tribe being spared for David His servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which He had chosen. The Lord, through Paul, has warned the Church most solemnly that His discriminating judgments would sift the saints on the earth: “For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:18-1918For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Corinthians 11:18‑19)). But in Revelation 3:7-137And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 12Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. 13He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:7‑13), He marks out a spared remnant, for it is Himself that keeps the door opened! For the sake of David, the man after God’s own heart, and for the sake of Jerusalem which He had chosen as His divine, earthly center, the Lord spared a tribe in Israel. For Jesus’ sake, for the sake of Him who has bought the Church with His own blood, and for the sake of a little corporate testimony to and expression of the one body (of which He is the Head) on earth, the Lord will sovereignly spare twos and threes gathered to His name. In either case, it is sovereign grace acting for itself and for the glory of Christ (Jehovah of the Old Testament). It is not on the ground of human merit, for on that basis all was lost in Israel and has been in the Church.
The Lord then told Jeroboam, by the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings 11:29-3829And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field: 30And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: 31And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: 32(But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) 33Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father. 34Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes: 35But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes. 36And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there. 37And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. 38And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. (1 Kings 11:29‑38)) that he was to get ten tribes; He told him why, “Because that they have forsaken Me” (v. 33). Nevertheless, in His sovereignty He preserved a tribe, twice repeating what in substance He had already told King Solomon, namely, that Rehoboam should have one tribe for David His servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which He had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. The Lord plainly informed all parties concerned that He was about to bring a judgment of scattering upon Israel and upon its king, but that He would sovereignly maintain a testimony for Himself nevertheless!
How was the Lord’s judgment executed? But more important still, on what principle does the tribe act which is sovereignly preserved? We have the account in 1 Kings 12:1-241And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. 2And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;) 3That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, 4Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee. 5And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. 6And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? 7And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. 8But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him: 9And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter? 10And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. 11And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. 13And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him; 14And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 15Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord, that he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 16So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents. 17But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. 18Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. 19So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. 20And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. 21And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. 22But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 23Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, 24Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the Lord, and returned to depart, according to the word of the Lord. (1 Kings 12:1‑24). Rehoboam rashly wielded his newly acquired authority as “the power,” as the king of all Israel, and boasted before the people of the oppressions he would impose. His abuse of his divinely constituted authority directly resulted in the rebellion of the ten tribes. But this manifested (what God knew beforehand, namely) the state of their hearts! They had not valued David! This state was not a new one; it was there in the bud when David returned to Jerusalem after the death of Absalom. See 2 Samuel 19:4141And, behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan? (2 Samuel 19:41) to 20:2. The person of him who was a man after God’s own heart was nothing to them. Notice that the ten tribes said nothing about Rehoboam, but this: “What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David” (1 Kings 12:1616So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents. (1 Kings 12:16)).
Why have saints gone into division in every generation (for God sifts His people) since the truth was recovered to them and acted upon over a century ago? They have not rightly valued the true David! They have not had the person of Christ, the Head of the Church, which is His body, in power before their souls! They have not held the Head (Col. 2:1919And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. (Colossians 2:19)). In consequence (as with the ten tribes of Israel) the Lord in His discipline has His instrument ready, and when He allows that which crosses their will to develop into a trial of testing, these saints have found a man ready to lead them away, and to keep them away, from the true Center which they have left, Christ in the midst of those gathered unto His name; a Man whom God has marked out beforehand to those who really own the Lord in the midst and bow to His authority.
Did the Lord set aside the authority of Rehoboam now that he had abused it? No! 1 Kings 12:2323Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, (1 Kings 12:23), makes that plain. “Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people.”
On what principle was Judah (and little Benjamin reckoned with it) preserved from abandonment of the divine center in Jerusalem, where the Lord’s name had been placed? On the simple principle, or principles, of obedience and submission. They saw through Rehoboam the king and beyond to Jehovah the God of Israel! In obedience to Him they submitted to the unrighteous act of the king. “But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them” (v. 17). “There was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only” (v. 20). By bowing under Rehoboam’s unrighteous exercise of his authority, they remained on divine ground. They cherished the place which the Lord had chosen to put His name there, the place where the ark was and where He dwelt between the cherubim! “There am I in the midst of them.” The principle on which Judah acted, then, was the principle of submission to an unrighteous act committed by the man invested with regal authority by God at His true center on earth.
How, then, did the Lord in His governmental ways deal with Rehoboam? Did he reap what he had sown? Indeed he did! A very casual reading of his history shows that he was in continual trouble, from within and from without.
“And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days” (1 Kings 14:3030And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. (1 Kings 14:30)). “And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord” (2 Chron. 12:22And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, (2 Chronicles 12:2)). Does not this show that the Lord knows how to discipline a king without for one moment setting aside his authority? Moreover, since the divinely chosen center of worship was at the same place as the king’s seat of government, is it not highly significant that the Lord’s determined maintenance of the place which He had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there is carefully mentioned right in the middle of the summary of Rehoboam’s history? “Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign...in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess” (1 Kings 14:2121And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. (1 Kings 14:21)). (See also 2 Chron. 12:1313So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. (2 Chronicles 12:13).)
The Lord does not abrogate or negate divinely constituted authority because of abuse, and that in the very place which He has chosen to place His name there (to use Old Testament language), “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (to use New Testament language). Questions like these bring matters to a focal point. The Lord’s “whatsoever” of Matthew 18:1818Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18) is no new principle with Him, but the very one He has always acted upon (both as the bestower and maintainer of authority, and also as subject to authority in the “days of His flesh”).
The blessed Lord of all (Acts 10:3636The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) (Acts 10:36)), “both theirs and ours” (1 Cor. 1:22Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: (1 Corinthians 1:2)), submitted when one of His creatures who possessed divinely constituted authority as a ruler in this world wickedly wielded that very power against Him, the “Lord of glory”! (1 Cor. 2:88Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8)). Please read John 19:10-1110Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. (John 19:10‑11). While telling Pilate where his grant of authority originated, that its origin was from above, the Lord Jesus submits to its wrong use, committing His cause to Him that judgeth righteously! Are we not told in 1 Peter 2:22As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1 Peter 2:2)1 That Christ has left us an example, that we should follow His steps? What better opportunity than when under discipline from our brethren? It has often been quoted: “The Lord uses our brethren to heat the furnace in which He tries our faith.”
Submission and Restoration
As to restoration of some individuals, however, to the divine Center of gathering, we notice the following in the history of the ten tribes: “And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel” (not of Judah merely, note!) “came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers” (2 Chron. 11:1616And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 11:16)). This is restoration after a divine sort, as also a later one in Hezekiah’s day, long after the division had taken place in Israel; Hezekiah “sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel....So the posts passed from city to city, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem....So there was great joy in Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 30). Thus the Lord graciously used Hezekiah’s faithful letters of entreaty, words of “grace, seasoned with salt,” to recover individuals to His true and only center of worship at Jerusalem, where Jehovah Himself dwelt between the cherubim. May the Lord graciously grant a like recovery with individuals in this our day of weakness!
By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown,
Trod all our foes beneath His feet
By being trodden down.
Bless, bless the Conqueror slain,
Slain in His victory;
Who lived, who died, who lives again—
For thee, His church, for thee!
While we chafe under the flesh intruding into the disciplinary acts of an assembly which has divine authority, do we forget that the flesh may also act in an individual, who does not have authority?
In the wisdom of God He deigns to use our very failures as a means of chastening (which for the present does not seem joyous, but grievous) to some of His dear children who are the objects of assembly discipline. And is not this one of the ways in which He makes manifest the hidden state of our hearts? Here in the wilderness He brings out, for both ourselves and others to discover, whether we are really “meek and lowly in heart,” or unbroken in will. Submission, and obedience to God in it, are what He looks for. Another has written as follows:
“Circumstances would not trouble if they did not find something in us contrary to God; they would rustle by as the wind.
“Until the will has been crushed in the presence of the majesty of God, there cannot be a right state before God.”
I believe that at the bottom there is always a measure of unbelief along with in-subjection. We do not believe the grand truth that “God is for us,” ready and able, if He sees fit, to vindicate us Himself, if we have been in any way wronged by individuals or assemblies. In general, however, instead of ordering circumstances to vindicate us, He lets us suffer wrongfully. Later on, when we have grasped the lesson He is teaching, we discover that He has vindicated Himself, though through the instrumentality of the very ones who wronged us!
“Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight” was the heart-language of the Lord Jesus when everything was going against Him here. He was content to commit His cause to Him that judgeth righteously, never lifting a finger to vindicate Himself! Are we?
The Lord pledges His keeping power (Rev. 3:1010Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)) to those who keep the word of His patience. To seek to hold fast to divine principles when they are being given up all around puts patience to the test. To be content to have His approval alone, though but few are found to walk with, is the fruit of God’s work in the soul.
The Lord holds forth wonderful encouragement to His tried saints: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” They have something which the Lord values. “Hold it,” He says, “until I come!” Furthermore, these despised ones here are to have the preeminent place there in the glory: made “a pillar” in the temple of His God! (Rev. 3:1212Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12)). James H. Smith