IN Proverbs 31 we have the description of “a virtuous woman” (or, “a woman of worth”). Her doings are recorded, not those of her husband; yet those doings are to his credit He is “known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.” The Spirit of God has given us a figure which is more than realized in Christianity.
The blessed Lord came here, “not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He has gone into heavenly glory, having finished the work given Him to do by His Father. On departing, He entrusted “His goods” to His own servants. He gave to them according to their ability. Perhaps we may say that the most precious part of the “goods” He left in their hands was the Gospel of the grace of God. The grace of God is “salvation-bringing to all men,” and it teaches saints. God by the Gospel is also known in love through our Lord Jesus Christ. By means, then, of His servants, the storehouse of the precious Saviour is being filled with treasure. He is not personally engaged in the work, though, without question, all effective service is by His direction, so that whatever is rightly done, is after all done by Him. He told His disciples, when leaving them, that they should do greater works than He had done; and yet He adds, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” They pray as to their service, and what is done, the Lord does it.
But the Lord is not seen in the service down here; it is apparently left entirely in the hands and responsibility of His own servants. “After a long time” the day of account comes. Whatever has been rightly and faithfully done, has been done for Him.
Leaving the parable for a moment, look with me at the holy city, Jerusalem on high! It is the workmanship of God; built up of saints, apostles, indeed of all the glorified church in heaven, yet the grace of God, which results in glory, was the means by which all was wrought out according to the righteousness and glory of God; and that grace had been put by Christ into the hands of His own servants that they might proclaim it far and wide.
We may hardly hear the sound of the ax or the hammer in the field or in the quarry, yet silently and surely does the work go on; souls are converted, and then, as saints, educated in the knowledge of the blessed God of all grace. The Lord Jesus is the One in whom it is all told out, and for Him the joy of the marriage feast is prepared. The giving account by the good and faithful servants will be a happy thing, for it will be to their Master’s joy. If we think of the thousands who have been blessed by the tale of grace, though often told with stammering lips, what joy awaits the Lord! Yet each will give in his account, and have his part in His Lord’s joy.
There is “joy in heaven... joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth.”
“It is meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.”
“Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame.”
So we sing: ―
…“There love divine
Fills the bright courts with cloudless joy;
But ’tis the love that made us Thine
Fills all that house without alloy.”
Dear reader! the day is coming, when the heralds of the Gospel, be it by preaching, by a Gospel tract, or by a letter, or by quiet and earnest conversation, will enter into the joy of their Lord. He and they will rejoice together, through infinite grace. May you know its joy in the reception of the Saviour’s love, and then in telling some other needy one of the love you know. T. H. R.