Sorrow and Joy: February 2022
Table of Contents
Sorrow and Joy
If trouble and care will try to force themselves upon us, we have nothing to do or say to them, but cast them all upon Him who “careth” for us and is the master of them. We should rejoice and be able to say, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Blow hot or blow cold, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” We are responsible to God to refresh and cheer each other and to comfort one another with the comfort we have of God; it is a work and a witness for Him in the midst of a joyless and thankless world. Instead of leaving all things in the keeping of our loving God, we darken the present with the shadows of the future and suffer the many sorrows of unbelief. We forget that the more we “joy in God,” the more cause for joy He will give us—that the more we praise Him, the more we glorify Him. A heart full of Christ is a heart full of joy, not my own, but His. “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Let His joy rule in your hearts and be “sunshine in the shady place.”
Excerpts from “As Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing,” Christian Truth, Vol. 8
Balance in Sorrow and Joy
In Philippians 2:26 we read, “He [Epaphroditus] longed after you all,” and this gives us the atmosphere of the epistle to the Philippians. They had heard Epaphroditus had been sick, and this drew out their affections — the affections of the divine nature.
You see how God used these circumstances: “Indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him” (vs. 27). Why did not the Apostle rejoice? Someone might have said, “What is the matter with you, Paul? In the previous part of the epistle you said, ‘To depart, and be with Christ, which is far better,’ and now you are talking about ‘sorrow upon sorrow.’” It is important to keep balance in that way.
There is sometimes a lack of entering into the actual circumstances of the saints. They think it is spiritual to say, “All things work together for good.” It is very easy to say that when it is someone else.
Divine Intended Results
God intends that these circumstances should produce certain results, certain exercises. God allowed this devoted servant, Epaphroditus, to be so exhausted with that journey that he was nigh unto death. Why did God allow it? It was a journey undertaken in love to Paul, his fellow-servant. This may have been allowed to happen so that the Philippians might exercise affection — might develop that grace. It had divinely intended results with the Apostle, Epaphroditus and the Philippians.
Some say that no tears should be shed at a funeral, but this is out of balance. When we go into the presence of death, there are both sides to it, and Ezra 3:11-13 should be found in all such occasions — singing and weeping mingling. There are both sides of it. There is often a lack of mingling divine and human sympathy with the people of God; they go together. When we were saved, we did not cease to be human. Human nature has its proper affections and its proper relationships.
Companionship
Philippians 2:25 gives us the relationships. First “brother,” then “companion”; that is the next best thing. Companionship is what the human heart values and cannot get along without. The heart that does not value human companionship in its proper place has something wrong with it. “My companion in labor,” servant, fellow-soldier in conflict ... “and he that ministered to my wants.” We get the Lord giving His aged, imprisoned servant cups of cold water now to cheer him. Look at 2 Timothy 1:15 as a contrast. There is not much cold water in that, is there? There is sorrow, not refreshment. Then look at the contrast in verse 16: “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.” That is very beautiful. I take it from that that he had some difficulty in finding him. Then in verse 18 we get the Apostle’s appreciation of that. “The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.”
Hebrews 6:10 gives a nice word in regard to love shown toward His name. There he uses a remarkable expression: “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love,” and he desires the keeping of it up. There he uses a bold expression: It would be unrighteous for God to forget.
It is good to see the value the Lord places on a cup of cold water. In a special way the day of Christ will manifest that. It is important how we find the Lord taking pleasure in the little things and not in big ones. He does not say much about the gifts of millionaires in things like libraries and universities. Such have their reward in this world, for it is this world and its benefits that such givers have before them; nothing about Christ.
Joseph of Arimathea
It is good to see Joseph of Arimathea. “Not many noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:26) — it does not say, not any. He was a disciple, but for fear of the Jews he did not confess Him. At the end two godly men, great ones (we suppose both were members of the Sanhedrin), had charge of the Lord’s burial. That brought them forward. We get nothing of Joseph until the Lord delivered up His spirit, but we knew of Nicodemus before. The truth as to the death of Christ will test whether a man is a disciple or not. That is one of the tests, and also the truth as to the atoning character of the death of Christ. Many will own that He died a martyr’s death, but when it comes to admitting that He died an atoning death, very likely those very ones will oppose and ridicule.
Joseph had to go and beg for the body. He had to get permission from Pilate. Pilate marveled if He were already dead, and he would not give the body until he knew from the centurion He was dead. There is dignity in those two men, masters in Israel, in charge of the body of Christ. Last week someone called attention to the fact that they came forward after the others had deserted Him. It was of God. Those other poor disciples had no new tomb! That makes it all the more striking. Here was one who had a tomb already prepared.
The Heart and the Intellect
There are times when the confession of Christ and the atoning work of Christ test the heart and tell who is real. You get poor, simple souls owning Christ as their Savior who do not know anything intelligently about His death, but when you bring it before them, they own it thankfully. Denial and ignorance are two different things. Many souls have been brought into peace by just resting on what God says, without knowing the value of atonement or anything of that kind, and that is very important in connection with the gospel. Just present that before souls as the truth of God, to be rested upon, because His Word is truth. It is a very happy experience to know the ground upon which God can save the poor sinner. The intellect may know all about the ground and never have rested on it.
“Ye Were Careful”
“Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me” (Phil. 2:29-30). They could not go to the post office and put the communication into the mail and send it to Paul in Rome; they had to have a messenger to carry it. I take it from Philippians 4:18 that it might have been quite a little package he had to take.
It sounds like a little reproach to the Philippians. In the former part of the chapter he says, “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity” (Phil. 4:10). He felt not having heard from them. It was not the gift, but he wanted the affection that the gift expressed. He takes the edge off by saying, “Ye lacked opportunity.” “Ye were careful” but needed someone to take it.
W. Potter (adapted)
Joy Mixed With Sorrow
When I was growing up, there were a number of times when a happy occasion was planned and then unexpectedly a sad event presented itself in close proximity. Our father told us that in the ways of God, He sometimes allows these two (that is, occasions of joy and sorrow) to be in juxtaposition to each other. At the time, I remember wondering why it should be so, as it seemed that it would keep one from entering fully into the joy as a result of its being tempered by the sorrow. Perhaps in the little book of Habakkuk we have an answer.
Habakkuk is somewhat unique as one of the minor prophets, in that he is not so much given a burden from the Lord to convey to a certain people, but rather he writes of a work that God did in his own soul as His servant. As the book opens, Habakkuk is crying out to the Lord, distressed by the violence, strife and contention that are mounting up among the people of God. The “law” (Scripture) seemed to carry no weight, and justice was not being executed, but rather the wicked were prevailing over the righteous. When a right judgment was sought, it was instead “perverted.” Isaiah 59:13-15 JND reads, “Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth stumbleth in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. And truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” Do we not live in a time when speaking the truth seems to have no value, and instead deceit and open lying seem to be the order of the day? If some cry out against this injustice, they become a target.
The “Terrible and Dreadful”
God responds to Habakkuk’s distress at the state of His people by informing him that He is going to work an incredible work. He would raise to power a bitter and unpredictable people that would confiscate that which was not theirs. He describes them as “terrible and dreadful” — a people who would act without any reference to God. Because of their success, as raised up by God, but having no fear of Him, their power becomes their god. Does that sound familiar? Upon learning this, Habakkuk blurts out to the Lord, “Art Thou not from everlasting Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. ... Wherefore lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a man more righteous than he?” (Hab. 1:12-13 JnD). When such injustice and ungodliness seem to prosper and go unchecked, the believer’s faith and profession is tested. Habakkuk wondered the same: “Thou makest men as the fishes of the sea ... that have no ruler over them. ... He catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag” (Hab. 1:14-15 JND).
Appointed for Correction
In contemplating this, Habakkuk comes to the realization that God has allowed this empowerment of evil to arrest His people in their course and gain their attention. “Jehovah, Thou hast ordained him for judgment; and Thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction” (Hab. 1:12 JnD). In response to this, Habakkuk says, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer as to my reproof” (Hab. 2:1 JnD). With the dramatic changes and developments that are occurring at present, it is easy to find ourselves searching the different news sources and being increasingly distraught by what we learn. Habakkuk realized the importance of being alone in solitude (“my watch”) as well as in an elevated vantage point of separation to the Lord (the tower), if he were going to learn the Lord’s specific message to him in what He was allowing. He also realized, as Job did, the importance of answering the Lord when receiving His reproof. “Then the Lord answered Job ... Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me” (Job 38:1,3). It was when Job, in brokenness, answered the Lord’s reproof that he gained the great blessing that God had for him.
The Lord instructs Habakkuk that his preservation will be to live by faith. Then He solemnly recounts the attitude and actions for which he is going to judge this world, each prefaced by the word “Woe.” They are as follows: (1) Going deeply into debt in order to obtain that which is beyond one’s means. (2) Acquiring wealth through unrighteous avenues in order to gain immunity from times of scarcity. (3) Sacrificing what is of real value in order to build up what is going to be burnt up. (4) Eating and drinking with the drunken. (5) Idolatry in all its subtle forms.
Intercession and Revival
In the seriousness of all this and knowing that the people of God had been affected by these very things, Habakkuk begins to intercede before God for His people (Hab. 3:1-2,13). Then a wonderful change comes about in Habakkuk’s soul, although nothing has changed in his circumstances. Having taken his sorrow to the Lord and, in quiet solitude, heard His voice and learned His heart and mind, he has found “rest in the day of distress.” The very working of God which had previously distressed him, he now requests that God would “revive,” knowing its glorious result. And while he awaits its sure completion (Hab. 2:3), he is emancipated from the fear of losing all that he habitually looked to for his sustenance. He finds his joy and rejoicing in the Lord and all that has been secured for him by the God of [his] salvation (Hab. 3:17-19).
Habakkuk begins with crying out in distress and ends with singing. Indeed, God does not place sorrow next to joy in order to detract from our joy, but rather that our naturally constricted hearts may be expanded to enter more into the “fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:23). Habakkuk’s portion is open to every believer!
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
R. Klassen Jr.
Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy
In Psalm 126:5-6 we have some very precious thoughts expressed, but we must understand sowing and reaping in order to get the benefit from them. Here are the verses:
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psa. 126:5-6).
In the days when farmers looked after their own seed instead of buying it in bulk from seed dealers, they would use part of the harvest of the year for their food, and part would be reserved for seed, to sow next year’s crop. In the Mediterranean way of farming, in the land of Israel, they were accustomed to hot, dry summers and mild but wet winters. They would generally sow their wheat in the fall (what we would call “winter wheat”). It would spring up a little in the fall, but then be dormant throughout the winter. In the spring it would green up again, and a crop would normally be the result.
But sometimes things went wrong. Bad weather might come and spoil the new growth, or rains that were heavier than usual might drown it out. Or there might not be any rain, and then the wheat would not grow at all. Various plant diseases can also affect the growth of wheat, barley and other grains. Any of these things could result in a very poor crop, or maybe no crop at all.
The only solution was to take some of the grain they had reserved for food and to sow a second crop the following year. The farmer might well weep as he did this, for already the wheat he had previously sown was wasted. Would this second batch be wasted too? It was indeed “precious seed” that he was sowing. It was hard to venture out and sow again, with the uncertainty that this crop too might fail. But the Lord gives the assurance that he would surely “come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
The Second Crop Does Not Fail
No doubt this illustration has its main application to Israel in a coming day. God had sown a first crop with Israel and it had failed, because the natural man cannot do anything acceptable to God. All His efforts with them had failed to produce any useful harvest. At the end He had to say, “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” (Isa. 5:4).
But then Christ came, and in many tears He sowed again. The plural is used in verse 5, but the singular in verse 6, for it is Christ who is in view. For a time He is turning away from Israel today and bringing the church into blessing. They are the sheaves He brings with Him when He takes up Israel again and brings them into millennial blessing here on earth. The second crop does not fail, because it is founded on Christ and His work, and not on the natural man!
Expectations That Fail
There is a beautiful and encouraging application to us too, in our Christian lives. We may have had aspirations and desires when we were young, and perhaps they were right desires before the Lord too. Yet over the years our sowing may not have brought forth a good crop, or perhaps it may almost seem like no crop at all. Things may not have worked out well for our families, or our careers may have been a disappointment to us. Perhaps our assembly life has not been what we had hoped, and the collective blessing we expected has just not materialized.
I believe that the Lord would encourage us to “sow again,” perhaps with tears. No, we cannot turn back the clock and have our family or our career over again, but we can get on our knees and pray. The Lord is gracious, and perhaps the first “crop failure” has been allowed so that, as will be the case with Israel in a coming day, all will clearly be of grace. We know that everything good in our lives is due to the grace of God and that we cannot take any credit ourselves for any blessing in our lives, in our families, or in the assembly. If everything went well the first time, we might be inclined to do that. When we sow in tears the second time, perhaps in fear and trembling, He delights to bless “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). In a coming day the Lord will come again, bringing us with Him as the sheaves. He wants us also, even in this life, to come again, bringing our sheaves with us, after we sow the second time.
Years Without Fruit
Let me close with a true story from the past, when Communism had spread across Eastern Europe. A devout Christian man preached the gospel for many years during that difficult time. Many dear believers suffered greatly, and especially those who preached publicly, but this man was never arrested. He preached faithfully all his life, and eventually he went to be with the Lord. He had six sons, and while they respected their father, none of them ever got saved. It was a terrible grief to that faithful man that although many others accepted Christ because of his preaching, none of his boys were interested. He died without seeing even one of them come to know the Lord as Savior.
At the funeral, another faithful Christian preached a good gospel, and the man who told me this story, one of the man’s sons, was suddenly convicted. He felt that he had to get saved. However, in his simple understanding at that time, he thought he had to kneel down to accept Christ as His Savior. He was thinking, How can I do that? Then he remembered that it was customary for the coffin to remain open until just before it was lowered into the grave. Then the sons (or nephews or grandsons) of the deceased person get on their knees and actually screw the lid on the coffin. He thought, That is when I will get saved, and he did accept Christ, right there in the cemetery, while he was putting the lid on his father’s coffin.
Later, after the family had some refreshments back at the house, he and his brothers had to retire to a back room for some business concerning their father’s estate. The one brother who told me the story felt he needed to tell his brothers what he had done, so as they sat together he blurted it out to them: “Today I got saved while screwing the lid on father’s coffin.” Another brother across the room looked at him and his eyes got big. “You too?” he said. “I got saved today too.” Then another brother spoke up and said, “I got saved too, at father’s graveside.” Round the group it went, and it turned out that all six of them had gotten saved that day. All are going on well for the Lord now. Let us not hesitate to sow again, for He who does so “shall doubtless come again with rejoicing.”
W. J. Prost
Human and Divine Circumstances
The contrast between Paul’s circumstances in 2 Corinthians 1 and 2 Corinthians 12 is very striking. In chapter 1 he is in human circumstances, surrounded by straits, difficulties and dangers, which came upon him from without. But in chapter 12 he is seen altogether in God’s circumstances, taken up into the third heaven, into Paradise, and then, as a consequence, crippled by a thorn in the flesh and sent back into this world to go through it as a poor, broken, shattered vessel. Yet he was never so efficient for God’s purpose as when in this weakness, so much so that when his first thoughts are set aside by communion, he bows to the stroke and says, “Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). It is marvelous to see clearly how this alters everything with us; even a Paul is changed from beseeching the Lord thrice that it might depart from him, to not only accepting it, but glorying in it!
The Source
In the beginning of chapter 1, it is striking how Paul begins in the opposite way to that which marks us generally. It is natural to us to start with our own troubles, and then to go on to tell of the comfort ministered by God to us, but the Apostle begins with the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,” thus beginning, not at the stream, but the blessed fountainhead Himself. Then he comes down to the stream, “that we may be able to comfort.” It makes an immense difference at what end we begin. The human need, however great, is no measure of His comfort.
It is blessed, amid all that we meet with in the wilderness, to know there was One, but only One, who tasted unmeasured trouble and sorrow; in our case it is all measured, and with skill and care too. He does not place on the vessel any weight beyond what it can bear: He knows exactly its capacity, and He gives also His power, His strength, to sustain. All goes on under His hands; no amount even of God-given consolation in the midst of the troubles here could ever be the measure of His heart.
Paul starts from the source of all, even from the blessed God Himself, in whom is perfect fullness and divine sufficiency. Then he comes down to what is ministered from this source through vessels of sovereign choice; that which he himself had passed through was the needed preparation for this ministry through him. What a ministry! Exercises of heart within, pressure and difficulty without, all made tributary to its discharge.
The Servant Is Afflicted
But, further, see how the Corinthians were in the mind of the blessed God, hence the servant is afflicted, is passed through heights and depths of trial, through every variety of circumstance (2 Cor. 11:22-33), in order that in him there might be displayed the power of Christ, and that the very same power might go out through him and reach them.
Thus, too, the servant himself learns what God is to him in such moments, both what the Lord can be and do. So the Apostle says, “At my first answer no man stood with me.” He was forsaken by all, yet not a hard thought rested in his breast. “I pray God it may not be laid to their charge.” But then, mark well what follows: “Nevertheless the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” His presence comes first — “The Lord stood with me” — afterwards what the Lord did for His servant — “and strengthened me” (2 Tim. 4:16-17).
The “Needs Be”
Then, besides, there is a reason, a “needs be” for all these afflictions and conflicts. First, on our side, it is “that we should not trust in ourselves”; this is a great point. Those who know their own heart know the deep-seated confidence in self which lies rooted there. We must go into the darkness of the grave, as it were, and pass into the tomb, that we may come forth in the bloom of resurrection. Thus we sow in tears to reap in joy. Heaviness endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Then, further, there is a “needs be” on God’s side for all these siftings and trials: They are His opportunities to display Himself in the love that never forgets His own. He draws near at such moments and makes Himself known as “the God of all comfort” — these are His own gracious words in a past day, and they are not less true today. Thus He turns the sorrows and afflictions of these poor scenes to His own account, displaying in them a tenderness and a compassion that overlooks none. He delights to show how He can heal a broken heart, as well as sustain a weak body. The first is not beyond Him; the second is not beneath Him.
Thus it is that we are educated and trained in God’s school, in order that as servants and vessels of His own, we may be fit for His use. Everything must be fully tested and proved. If we are walking with God in the secret life of our souls within, we must be conscious how little we are able to help one another. It is painful to observe how well able we are at finding out the weak points in one another, but the ability through grace to remove these is another thing. How blessed the service which has such an object and is rendered in such a spirit! Whatever the call or demand, whether comfort or consolation, all alike flows in the grace of Christ, from him who has learned it in God’s school. One who has, as it were, walked around in the great hospital of suffering which this present world is and, having tasted the balm of consolation himself which the Father of mercies and God of all comfort has ministered to him, is able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith he himself is comforted of God. May our hearts, by His Spirit’s power, be divinely receptive of such blessed ways of our Father God, for Christ’s sake.
W. T. Turpin (adapted)
Joseph and Benjamin
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psa. 30:5). So it will be for Israel when existing shadows yield to the reality; Christ’s appearing will usher in the glory of God. So it was for the dawn of heavenly light and blessing in Christ for the Christian, and so it will be when this age ends and a new one begins for Israel and the nations of the earth.
“The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin, and they rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. ... And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house, and slay, and make ready; for the men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house. And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bond-men, and our asses. And they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they spoke to him at the door of the house, and said, O my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food; and it came to pass, when we came to the lodging place, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, [every] man’s money [was] in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight; and we have brought it again in our hand. And other money have we brought down in our hand to buy food: we know not who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Peace [be] to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out to them. And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave [them] water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon; for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which [was] in their hand into the house, and bowed down themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of [their] welfare, and said, [Is] your father well, the old man of whom ye spoke? [Is] he yet alive? And they said, Thy servant our father [is] well, he [is] yet alive. And they bowed the head and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, [Is] this your youngest brother of whom ye spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels yearned upon his brother; and he sought [where] to weep; and he entered into [his] chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and came out; and he restrained himself, and said, Set on bread. ... And they drank and drank largely with him” (Gen. 43:15-34 WK).
Goodness Leads to Repentance
The inspired narrative in its own beautiful simplicity shows us God’s working in the conscience of the sons of Israel. How little they yet understood that His goodness was leading them to repentance and that the brother they had so deeply wronged and bitterly hated was but accomplishing their best good by the exercises they passed through! That they were invited into the governor’s house filled them with uneasiness. “The men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses.” Hence their eagerness to tell the story of their mysterious discovery and to repay the money that was not theirs. But the steward assured them that all was right on that score without further explanation. God would work more deeply yet.
Affection for Benjamin
Meanwhile Simeon rejoins them; and all are treated with the kind attention due to guests, and their beasts of burden too. They made ready the gift for presentation to Joseph when he should appear. Very graphic is the meeting, and the inquiries on his part out of the love which he felt, as they bowed down again and again in obeisance. “He lifted up his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, [Is] this your youngest brother of whom ye spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels yearned upon his brother, and he sought [where] to weep; and he entered into [his] chamber and wept there.”
Who can fail to realize it as a scene of human feeling? But it has also a far deeper character to him who reads in faith and knows the blessed import of grace to be held out by a far greater than Joseph in His restoring His guilty and long alienated brethren to the knowledge of Himself and of themselves! What glorious consequences when the blessing shall be on the head of Jesus “in that day” which is coming, and on the crown of the head of Him that was separate from His brethren!
Christ is not only the key to, but the fullness of, the truth, which here so nearly concerns, not the church of the heavenlies, but the earthly people of God, who must be inwardly fitted for the place to which they are destined before all the nations of the earth, “the glory of Thy people Israel.” For figuratively Benjamin, the son of his father’s right hand, must be joined to Joseph, the one “separated from his brethren,” in order for the accomplishment of their glory which awaits to be fulfilled in its own time.
W. Kelly (adapted)
Love That Suffered All the Sorrow
The more deeply we know the love of Jesus, the more unknowable we find it to be: the more we consider the way of it, the more amazed we stand at its wisdom and its warmth. It is not a blind love that may awaken to find flaws and faults in its objects that it knew not of, for it knew from the beginning with omniscient certainty all about the loved ones. It knew also, with the unerring knowledge of God, the whole way of sorrow that must needs be trodden in order to obtain its desire. It is a love that cannot be disappointed or alarmed, and when the great tests came it neither faltered nor fled. We need not fear that it will break down or change now: it has been fully proved.
Let These Go Their way
Consider that great crisis in the life of the Lord when Judas came with “a band of men and officers ... with lanterns and torches and weapons” (John 18:3). How hideous did the treachery and hatred of the human heart appear in that torchlight glare! Yet that band was but an advance guard, a flying column sent out to reconnoiter: behind them lay the hosts of darkness, waiting to crush and overwhelm Him. They were but as the spray of a stormy ocean cast up upon the strand: behind them surged the seas of sorrow, frightful and unfathomed. But how did He meet the crisis? He met it by saying, “Let these go their way.” He might have escaped what lay before, from one point of view, for two words of His were enough to paralyze His foes. But He would not use His divine might to save Himself, for had He done so He must have lost His loved ones. In their fervid devotion His disciples might well have put that band to flight, but He would not let them fight. Of what use would their feeble arms have been against all that lay behind that band of men, with Judas as their leader, who came to take Him? He saw what lay behind them — the awful sorrow — the malignity of Satan, the judgment of God, and He said, “Let these go their way.” He saw the wolf preparing to devour the sheep. He saw the righteous sword, also, that had awakened against His people’s sins, and He said, “Let these go their way: that the saying might be fulfilled, which He spake, Of them which Thou gavest Me, have I lost none” (John 18:8-9).
He Gave Himself for Me
He would bear all the sorrow alone. Not one pang must they feel of all those pangs that He would endure for them: not one stroke of all that judgment that He would bear must fall upon them. Not one drop of that bitter cup must cross their lips: He would drink it to the dregs and drink it alone for them. He would shield them from the suffering: stand between them and the threatening foe: become their Substitute under the judgment, and sacrifice Himself for them. That was the only way, and His love led Him that way, with steadfastness and deliberation, that He might keep forever for Himself those that the Father had given Him. And we were represented there in those of whom He said, “Let these go their way.” And we can say, each for himself, “He loved me and gave Himself for me.”
J. T. Mawson
Men's Hearts Failing Them for Fear
Recently a new book came out in Canada entitled, “On Decline,” written by a man named Andrew Potter. In the book he takes up the question of why, since 2016, every year seems to have been getting worse for this world. Here is a sample of what he wrote:
“And so a pattern seemed to be set: a stable international order collapsing amid renewed Great Power machinations, populist retrenchment and decay among the established democracies fueled by fake news and Russian manipulation, terror attacks abroad and mass shootings at home, and the constant menace of looming environmental catastrophe. Behind it all, marking time like a drummer in a death march, was the steady beat ... reminding us that the old, familiar world was being replaced by something new and uncertain.”
December wrap-ups by the newspapers widely agreed that “2016 was the worst year ever. And yet every year since has also felt like the worst year ever, to the point where claiming the current year is worse than the previous one has become something of a social media cliché.”
He goes on to say further:
“The economic, political, demographic, environmental, and cultural foundations of our civilization are all under enormous stress, and our long-standing fail-safe — the essentially rational character of our problem-solving and decision-making — is in crisis.”
He then talks about some of the problems facing the world — wars, wildfires, volcanoes, locust plagues, climate change, droughts, floods, hurricanes, and finally COVID-19, with all the chaos and fear that it has brought into the world. He ends up by saying, “It’s time we accepted that we’re in a state of decline.”
The Reaction
Probably very few would argue that we are in a state of decline; it is the reaction to this alarming fact that varies. Some would say that we have had situations like this before, referring back to events like the so-called Spanish flu pandemic 100 years ago or the Great Depression of the 1930s. They would assert that the world survived, straightened itself out, and even got better. Others are drifting into despair or resorting to violence, as evidenced by the increasing number of suicides, brutal crimes and mass shootings in the world. Still others are taking the attitude, brought out by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:32: “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” The future looks terrible, they say, so let us enjoy life to the full while we can.
The problem with the optimistic outlook, in the words of another, is that “one of the more salient features of our current moment is that everything seems to be going wrong at the same time.” The world has certainly coped with large-scale disasters in the past, including two world wars in the last century, but the present situation seems to be that of a relentless series of events, seemingly unrelated, and yet all combining to drag us inexorably downhill. There seems no end in sight, and the general cry is, “When are things going to get back to normal?”
The Warning
The title of this issue of The Christian is “Sorrow and Joy,” and what we see around us, as believers, merges these two thoughts together. At the moment God is, no doubt, allowing man to have a small taste (very small!) of what this world will face after the church is called home and the tribulation week begins. It will culminate in the Great Tribulation, the final 3½ years, when this world will experience trouble such as it has never seen before. What we are seeing now is God’s warning for those who will listen. In a coming day, during that tribulation period, the godly Jews will recognize the appearance of the Antichrist and will flee from Jerusalem to save themselves. Likewise today, those who are willing to listen to God’s warning, whether Gentiles or Jews, may come to Christ and be saved before the judgment falls.
For those of us who are believers, yes, we too experience the sorrow through which this world is passing, and we too suffer from it. We are not immune to these difficulties. Even among believers, lives have been disrupted, young people have had their educations and careers cut short, Christian fellowship has been restricted by COVID regulations, and travel has been greatly curtailed. Questions about the safety or otherwise of the COVID vaccines have divided believers, as well as uncertainties about how far to go in applying the scripture, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). All this is allowed by our Lord to exercise our hearts and to draw us closer to Him.
The Sorrow and the Joy
I remember reading a letter written more than 100 years ago by a godly brother, long since with the Lord. In signing off the letter he said, “Your brother in the sorrows as well as the joys of these last days.” We share in the sorrows of these last days, and yet, are we to be discouraged? No, absolutely not! We share in the joys too! Truly, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psa. 30:5). This is the world’s day, but the believer’s night. But “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:12). We are “the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thess. 5:5). Yes, we may have to pass through some difficult and even uncertain times, but we know where it will all end! It will end in glory, a glory that will immediately eclipse all the sorrow and difficulties of the way.
More than this, we also wait for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, “which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall show, the King of those that reign, and the Lord of those that exercise lordship ... to whom be honor and eternal might. Amen” (1 Tim. 6:15-16 JND). Today men are working hard to make themselves important in this world, and nations are striving together with one another, each one wanting to be the richest, the most powerful, and the most influential. But God has His plans too, and His purposes will never fail; what God has decided will always come to pass. God has purposed to honor and glorify His beloved Son, and at the end of that awful tribulation period, the Lord Jesus will come back to judge this world. At the end of it all, “the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:11). Well may our hearts say, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
W. J. Prost
As Sorrowful, Yet Alway Rejoicing
As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10)
If trouble and care will try to force themselves upon us, we have nothing to do or say to them, but cast them all upon Him who “careth” for us, and is the master of them. Our only business here, for God, is to glorify Him in every step of the path His grace has marked out for us. Christ is for us in heaven (Heb. 9:24), and we are for Him down here (John 17:18); so that come what may, we should rejoice, and be able to say, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:26).
Awake, O North Wind
“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out” (S. of Sol. 4:16). Blow hot or blow cold, “I am my beloved ‘s, and my beloved is mine “
“Clouds may seem to pass between us,
There’s no change in Him above.”
Why, then, art thou cast down,
O afflicted and tried one? “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” Luke 24:38. Jesus knows and feels your smallest woe. So very precious are you to Him that even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. What affects you, affects Him, for you are bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.
“Sorrow overmuch is suicide of the heart, and buries a man with his head downward.” Over anxiety about one trouble is as the grave to bury hundreds of mercies. Rise up then, O dearly beloved, from your despondency, emerge from the dark shadow, do no more dishonor to your Lord, and let your heart be as the glad welling fount in the midst of the desert, that the weary traveler may be refreshed even at the sight of you. We are responsible to God to refresh and cheer each other, and to comfort one another with the comfort we have of God; it is a work and a witness for Him in the midst of a joyless and thankless world.
As one has said, “If the east wind will blow, put up another button on your coat”; brave the wave of trial as one who, in the strength of the Lord, is more than a match for it. “Be strong, yea, be strong.” God is for you, with you, and in you. You may be in the furnace, and the only loss you will sustain will be your bands, and in company with you will be the “Son of God.” You may not be able to say, much less do, anything. Weakness has a special claim upon God, and God has a special blessing for it. “Them that honor Me I will honor.” We honor God by patiently enduring. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God.” Give place to care, and it will soon prove to be your master, and you its slave.
The Gloomy Saint – an Anomaly in Grace
It has been remarked that “like the disagreeable saint, the gloomy saint is an anomaly in grace.” What a sad spectacle, a child of God, who makes the young feel old, the old feel older, and the sad feel sadder. Some hearts are full of false sentiment and morbid feeling; they appear to shrink from being happy, and prefer being miserable; others are afraid of being happy, as if God grudged His children happiness. Instead of leaving all things in the keeping of their loving God, they darken the present with the shadows of the future, and suffer the many sorrows of unbelief. They forget that the more they “joy in God,” the more cause for joy He will give them; that the more they praise Him, the more they glorify Him.
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).
While we retain God in our hearts, there is room for nothing else but His peace. A heart full of Christ is a heart full of joy, not my own, but His. “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11. Let His joy rule in your hearts, and be
“A sunshine in the shady place.”
Our Bodies – The Place of His Treasure
A wise man has said, “Be we what we may, and we cannot be worse than we are, nothing in or about us ought to be allowed to interrupt the calmness of conscious victory, or to hinder our power of enjoyment of what Christ is made of God unto us (1 Cor. 1:30), and of what God has made us to be in Him” (Colossians 2:10; Eph. 1:6). The enemy may accuse, and conscience charge, but nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God: we are what we are as created in Christ Jesus, so “that neither death, nor life” need cause one moment ‘s dismay (read Rom. 8:31-39). Everything may appear to be against us, but God is for us, and we are here for Him. “Ye are of God, little children” (1 John 4:4), and He has created and filled our hearts to beat for and to Himself, that His own joy might flow into and out of them. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God ‘s.” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. God has created our bodies to place His treasure in, to show to men and angels what His power in, as well as for, us is. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. And His only pleasure is to see us occupied with and enjoying the Son of His love. If we suffer, it is for Him; if we rejoice, it is for Him; if we bear pain, it is for Him; all we do and say is for Him, because we are for Him, as well as of Him, and He is for us. Christ in you, you in Christ, and Christ in God; so that come what may, we can afford to lift up the head as those who have a right to be happy, and sing:
“My Shepherd is the Lamb,
The living Lord who died;
With all things good I ever am
By Him supplied.
He richly feeds my soul
With blessings from above,
And leads me where the rivers roll
Of endless love.
Christian Truth, Volume 8 and Volume 38
Sympathy in Your Sorrow
The following is adapted from a letter of J. N. Darby written to a husband whose wife had gone to be with the Lord, leaving him with four children.
“I feel what a world of sorrow it is, and how real a share you have in that sorrow, but a world where, if sin and sorrow have entered in, grace has come in after them. Now love has risen above all the sin and sorrow, and, having entered into the worst of all it could bring on us, has given us a place out of it all. Into the place from which it flowed, the spirit of your dear wife has entered, and she is with Him who entered into all that sorrow here, that He might deliver us from it all. If you remain in the scenes of it down here, that very love has revealed itself by coming down into those scenes, that we might have it here. Jesus was a man of sorrows, and indeed none had sorrow like His. And His love is perfect sympathy as well as deliverance.
“Look to this, dear brother, and you will find sympathy in your sorrow, and raising you out of it, not by destroying the feeling, but by coming into it, taking all human will out of that which causes regret and bitterness, and bringing His will into it, and Himself in love with us in it. His grace is sure, and in its path does not fail; nothing escapes or happens without it. This is a great comfort; first our will, subtle as it is, and meddling with the best affections, is broken and there is submission; then comes the sense of positive love. Any sense of failure even on our part, if such there be, is lost in the sense of the perfect love and ordering of God. He takes the place of the reasoning of our minds and all is peace. This is a wonderful thing, for after all, even as to our ways, we cannot answer Him nor account for one of a thousand. He does use all to set our hearts right, and gives softened peace like a river.”
No Sorrow There
A scoffer, an infidel, was hurrying along to catch a street car when his attention was arrested by a little boy who was sitting on a doorstep singing,
“There’ll be no sorrow there;
There’ll be no sorrow there.”
“Where?” inquired the skeptic, who was impressed by the words. “Where is it that there will be no sorrow?” The little boy answered in the lines of the little hymn:
“In heaven above
Where all is love,
There’ll be no sorrow there.”
The man climbed on the car, but the simple words of that chorus had found a lodging in his mind. He could not drive them from his thoughts; they were fixed. He had known much sorrow in his life, and was there a world where there is no sorrow? This was the great idea that filled his mind.
He dwelt upon it and went over and over in his thoughts till a longing to know about that place took possession of him. This was used by the Spirit of God to lead him to the Savior who died for the lost, the guilty, the ruined—whose precious blood cleanses from every stain of sin and fits them for that world where sin and suffering are unknown.
Will you be there, dear friend? Not unless you come to that Savior whom the infidel found ready and willing to receive him. Would you like to have such a prospect before you when you leave this world of sin, sorrow, suffering and death? Well, it may be yours as you read this. In one moment you may pass from death to life, from Satan’s power, which has held you captive, to belong to the Lord Jesus who died to redeem you and wants to bless you.
The Man of Sorrows, Patience and Joy
Christ is at God’s right hand, now the Man of patience, once the Man of sorrows, and hereafter to be the Man of joy — three very different displays of Christ. In Christ down here — the Babe in the manger — despised and rejected and acquainted with grief, we see the Man of sorrows, and yet nowhere do we get such divine glory as at the cross. As a sinner, what was I taken out of and whither am I brought by that cross? Where is the Christ now, whose death did it all? He is at the right hand of God, where as the Man of patience He has been waiting nearly 2000 years for the glory and the people — His own, as the recompense of such service. And what is He doing? Why, turning to us and saying, I am occupied with you in the glory; I have an entrance into all your sorrows; turn your eyes up here; open your hearts to Me; let me see everything. As a shepherd, I am occupied with each sheep, binding up each wound, making right each rent and tear in the fleece.
But hereafter most blessed is the thought of seeing the One who was emphatically the Man of sorrows down here as the Man of joy, “anointed with the oil of gladness” (joy) above His fellows! But it is well to think often of Him as the Man of sorrows, in connection with what we are passing through. Heap up all your sorrows, till you can heap no more; then turn to Him, whose heart broke in woe, and talk of your sorrows and of all that has worn you down. If you can do this, then in His presence you may hear Him say to you, “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger” (Lam. 1:12). Yet He shall be the Man of joy.
Is the thought of Christ’s joy sweet to our hearts? Do you love to think that there will be no face so beautiful, no heart so bright and perfect in its joy as His? Nothing like His beauty! All the glory then and there will only be like the setting of that gem.
And that new name of His shall be written on you! Surely that ought to give a little patience as you pass along the wilderness, tried by the roughness of the way, as though He said, Cheer up! Only a little while more, and I will write on you my name of joy. Christ’s heart is not fed with the externals of glory, but with the joy of serving God; it will be the joy of all the children being brought home, whom God has given Him — the new name written on them. That will be Christ’s joy.
G. V. Wigram (adapted)
What Is Important
You must not attach too much importance to your joy ... nor to your distress. ... You can add nothing by joy or sorrow to the perfect work of Christ. ... If someone has paid my debts, my sorrow at the folly that contracted them or my joy at their being discharged adds nothing whatever to the payment of the debt, though both be natural and just.
J. N. Darby
Trusting in our Strength
If I trust to my own strength in the hour of temptation, I break down: but if I have learned, through grace, to cast myself on Christ, I find all in Him to help me, and to go through the temptation unscathed. I must learn the lesson. If I learn it with the Lord, I am spared the sifting; but if not, I must be sifted. If not in communion with the Lord, it must be with Satan. “Nevertheless,” saith the Lord, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.” It is blessed to believe that God loves us, notwithstanding all our failure. It is worth (not any sin but) any sorrow to learn this.
J. N. D.
Mindful of thy Tears
The Apostle Paul had fervent affection for his beloved child in the faith; it is revealed in the expression he wrote to Timothy: “Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4). Recalling Timothy’s affection inflames his own, and while expressing it, consolation is doubtless ministered to his own heart. It was no common tie that knit together the hearts of these two servants of the Lord. The occasion of Timothy’s tears is not revealed, but it was probably at the time of some separation, when bidding Paul farewell. It may have been when leaving him in captivity, as Timothy departed to his own service. Whenever it might have been, it plainly shows that the affection of Paul was fully reciprocated. It was the recollection of this parting, combined with his own ardent love, that led him to desire to see Timothy, that he might be filled with joy, for to him the Apostle could unburden his heart and be refreshed in the enjoyment of Timothy’s love and fellowship. Many a servant, in times of declension, has thus learned the sweetness and encouragement of real heart fellowship concerning the work of the Lord.
E. Dennett
Now and Afterward
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psa. 126:5).
Now, the sowing and the weeping,
Working hard and waiting long;
Afterward, the golden reaping,
Harvest home and grateful song.
Now, the pruning, sharp, unsparing,
Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot!
Afterward, the plenteous bearing
Of the Master’s pleasant fruit.
Now, the long and toilsome duty
Stone by stone to carve and bring;
Afterward, the perfect beauty
Of the palace of the King.
Now, the tuning and the tension,
Wailing minors, discord strong;
Afterward, the grand ascension
Of the Alleluia song.
F. R. Havergal