“At That Time Jesus Answered”
There is one, and only one, life that ever gave forth its unvarying answer to God.
David
If we think of a David, Jehovah’s anointed king over the hosts of Israel, we have in sorrow to read: “It came to pass ... at the time when kings go forth to battle ... David tarried still at Jerusalem.” That is to say, he gave up conflict; and, having so done, we have the record of the sad sequel.
Josiah
Later on, in the checkered history of that favored people, we read of another of their kings, Josiah by name, who, in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, began to seek after the God of David his father; in the twelfth, to purge Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry; and in the eighteenth, to repair the house of Jehovah his God, displaying great energy as to the keeping of the passover. But, turning to the next page of his history, what meets the eye? “After all this” (2 Chron. 35:20), the one who, at eight years of age, declined neither to the right hand nor to the left, who from that tender age was characterized as one that sought after the God of David his father, consequently setting his face against idolatry even to the purging of the land and the house; until, in the eighteenth year of his reign, having cared for the house of Jehovah his God, the Passover is kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, and there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the day of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the Kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem — “after all this,” of such an one it has to be recorded, that he goes out in a conflict unwarranted by Jehovah his God; and (as with David, so with Josiah) down he falls. David failing to maintain conflict at the time of conflict, “at the time when kings go forth to battle;” and Josiah becoming involved in a conflict that brought him into variance with God Himself (2 Chron. 35:21-22). And such is the blotted, besmeared history of the first man, look at it where we may.
Beloved! what volumes do those three words — “after all this,” speak to one’s heart! If perchance, through grace, a measure of steadiness may have marked our pathway hitherto, while many leaders have fallen, what sorrow, if after so much grace shown us, the Spirit of God should have to write an “after all this” in our history, to chronicle our declension of heart (for surely that is where declension has its start) as exhibited in our ways. Assuredly it is a time of “going forth to battle,” “earnestly to contend,” “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” And the conflict has to be maintained, until with a Paul we are given to say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth” — not conflict, but — “the crown.” But if on the other hand we are found meddling with the world in one way or another, even, it may be, with the view of setting it to rights (as Josiah got involved, as we have seen, with Egypt’s King); just as Josiah was brought down under the forces of Egypt, so will we succumb to the forces of the world, and its prince.
“After all this,” what a relief to the sorrowful heart to turn to the record of that one life which in all its minute details met the eye of God, and was well pleasing to Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ
A King truly, yea, the King of Israel (and never had such an one been presented to Israel before) but what glories come before our eyes in the perusal of the pages of His sojourn. And, look at His pathway where we may, it is only to discover the unvarying answer to God, not from His lips only, but, in every look of His eye, in His every footstep, yea, in every movement of His heart and hand.
View Him for a moment in Matthew 11 — a King truly, as we have said, but without a kingdom — despised and rejected of His subjects, His testimony and His mighty works unheeded. What then? “At that time, Jesus answered and said: I thank Thee, O Father.” “Answered” to what, beloved, or rather to whom, seeing there was no audible voice at the moment? Ah! but here as elsewhere, He recognizes, in circumstances in themselves most inconvenient, His Father’s voice and He answers to God in all.
Or if, with adoring reverence, we view Him hanging on the tree, what is it to find? That, while in all the bitterness of that moment, He owns Himself the forsaken One, forsaken of God; yet, in unswerving fidelity, He owns the One who had forsaken Him: “My God, My God.” And the very question He raises in the hour of the travail of His soul, He waits not for His God to give the answer, but, in all that sorrow, He Himself answers it, and in answering it, answers to God, and (blessed be His glorious name forever!) answers to God for us (Psa. 22:33But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3)).
Beloved saints of God, what a voice has all this for us! We each, in our individual pathway, have been encountering inconvenient circumstances, sorrows and trials; but has there been in all, from our hearts and lips, the answering to God?
The Easy Yoke
The Blessed One, who in revealing the Father to us has given us rest, has also graciously made known to us how these — in themselves — commonplace, every day, lives of ours, can yield to the Father the answer our hearts would delight to render; even by taking His yoke upon us and learning of Him, the One meek and lowly in heart, and thus finding rest unto our souls day by day under His easy yoke.
Ah! Beloved, have we thought of what it is to be under the yoke of Christ?
In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, we will find a yoke of a very different character described, upon which we will not at present dwell, but simply learn from these verses that a yoke involves: fellowship, communion, concord, part and agreement. So that if I am under the yoke of Christ, I actually enjoy ...
Fellowship with Christ,
Communion with Christ,
Concord with Christ,
Being with Christ,
Part with Christ,
Agreement with Christ.
And if so, will not a life, filled with what that gracious yoke brings with it, give forth its answer to God, be the surroundings of that life what they may? Notice! no sooner are we under His yoke than He turns the eye to Himself — “learn of Me.”
Exchange the Conflict for the Crown
Soon, beloved, we shall have done with the conflict and shall have received the crown; but, in that scene of glory, what is it that will cause us to fall down before the Lamb? Oh! not because we have answered to God throughout the pathway here, but listen ... a strong angel doing God’s commandment raises a question to which no one in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, can give answer. Ah! but while a strong angel proclaims the question, a ransomed sinner (“one of the elders”) it is that points to the only One who can answer it. And who is this only worthy One? Oh! who but the meek and lowly King of Matthew 11 — who “at that time” answered, and who now in all that blaze of glory alone can come forward — “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,” “a Lamb as it had been slain,” He it is who alone — even in heaven, as on earth — can ever give answer to God. He alone — who, as the slain Lamb, sustained the judgments of God — can take the book and execute those judgments.
Oh! “weep not” (Rev. 5:55And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Revelation 5:5)) then, over what God has to write upon man, whether on earth, or in heaven; but, in the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension, the present place and offices, and the coming glories of that Blessed One — trace with adoring heart the One, and one only unvarying answer to God.
View it yet again when millenial glories are filling the earth — God’s King swaying the scepter, and — forever, in the eternity that lies beyond, when all things shall have been brought into subjection to Him, and the Son also Himself subject unto Him that put all things under Him, thus giving His eternal answer to the Father, having as its eternal fruit: “God,” “all in all.”
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”