Dealing With Trials and Failure: February 2015
Table of Contents
Dealing With Trials and Failure
No sooner does Mary know the sweetness of having this Babe than it is told her, while she might well count herself blessed, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.” No sooner was He born into the world than we hear of the slaughter of babes. And so, in our hearts, no sooner is Christ there than Satan, who does not like to give up his power, brings in conflict. Some old suppressed habit will, perhaps, break out with new power. Do not be surprised, if Christ has displaced Satan in you, that Satan should try to regain the mastery. The first thought with a newly-saved soul often is: Now I have God; I have Christ for my peace; now all will go on smoothly. Instead, we find that we have to do with a God who brings in death and resurrection on all that is in us, that we may learn that the excellency of the power is of God and not of us. Through the trials and failures in life, we learn little by little in a practical way what is in our hearts (no good thing) and what is in God’s heart (love, grace and mercy). On the one hand, we learn that “in me, (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing,” and, on the other hand, we learn for our eternal joy that nothing can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Food for the Flock (adapted)
Faith, Hope and Love
These three — faith, hope and love — are just what we need in passing through the world. We must go through it, and God means that we should find it a place of trial and difficulty, that it may test our hearts and teach us what He is to us under all.
Our redemption in Christ has delivered us from the world, sin and death, and it has brought us in Christ into the heavenly places. But as there was a wilderness for Israel to go through, so it is with us. God might have brought the Israelites into the land by a short way, but He led them around by the longer, “lest,” as He said, “peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt” (Ex. 13:17). He thinks of what is best for them in every circumstance. After forty years they find their clothes have not waxed old, neither have their feet swelled. They had not thought of this till the journey was over, but their God had thought of their clothing every day. He had never omitted to rain manna upon them. True, He suffered them to hunger and thirst, to humble them and prove them, but only that He might supply their bread and their water for them. Through their unbelief they were turned back to wander thirty-eight years longer in the desert, but God turned back with them and took not away from them His pillar of cloud by day, nor His pillar of fire by night.
The Trials of Life
It is true that God deals with us in all the trials and difficulties of life. He means us to have trouble and to feel the opposition of everything around to the life He has given us. What we want then is to have the heart living with God, and then we shall have His mind about all our circumstances. Do you suppose that if Israel had been thinking of God’s interest and care for them, they would have murmured as they did? Surely not.
It does not matter what our troubles are. One may have the care of God’s people pressing on him; another, the cares of the world; another, trouble in his family. There are countless varieties of exercises, no doubt appointed by Him for His people, but the answer to every trouble is having the heart living with God above the circumstances.
The Work of Faith
Now if we turn to the state of the Thessalonians, we shall see them bright and happy in the midst of most terrible persecutions. There is no epistle so happy as this. They are in what we call their first love. The springs of divine affections were bright in them. In the third verse Paul remembers their work of faith, their labor of love, and their patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ — that which constituted the full expression of grace active in the Christians.
How is it with ourselves? It is a great privilege to be allowed to have any service for Christ, but how far is it a work of faith? We may work for the Lord and earnestly desire His blessing, but is every word the expression of what our faith in Him is enjoying? Or do we say what we know to be blessed truth, while the secret spring that should link the work with our communion to Christ is gone? We may have faith in the work, and yet, in those inner springs of our spirit, our work may not be a work of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Labor of Love — Patience of Hope
Again, we may labor abundantly and love the labor, but is the labor so completely the result of our own personal love to Christ, that it is really a “labor of love”? But there was more than work and labor; there was also the condition of their hearts. They looked for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, not as a doctrine, but as the Object of their affections. We look for Him because we love Him, and we wait to see Him, and so we exercise the “patience of hope.” He is Himself waiting, and we wait with Him. We are companions in the patience of Jesus Christ. We know the reason of His delay. It is God’s long-suffering in saving sinners; therefore we are not left in ignorance. But we cannot give up His return; to do so would make us the most miserable of all men. We find the “patience of hope” in our blessed Lord when in this world. He served and labored in faith and love to His Father, but He also waited for the coming glory. His life was the patience of hope.
In the Sight of God Their Father
But if we had no more than the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, the character of Christian walk would be very imperfect. In Christ there was perfect obedience. All His work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope was in obedience to God His Father. As He says to John, “That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31). The Thessalonians did all “in the sight of God and our Father.” This obedience is most blessed, and yet it is a check upon us which we need, carrying about with us the evil we do. Their faith, hope, and love, sweet as they were in themselves, needed to be in the sight of God their Father and done in obedience to Him.
Paul could rejoice in these Thessalonians, as evidently chosen of God. They were so happy in what they believed, for they were waiting for the Son of God from heaven. No doubt their lips testified of this, but their lives spoke so that Paul had no need of saying what they were. Is it so with us? Are we thus waiting for God’s Son from heaven, having turned to God from idols? Whatever our circumstances and trials, are we living above them in communion with God? Or are we happy in the world, whether Christ comes or not?
J. N. Darby (adapted)
The Trials of Saints
The trials of saints, as they come from God, are generally if not always intimately connected with the position grace gives. God in His sovereignty calls His saints to fill various places of service; some to rule and authority, some to teaching or preaching, others the place of suffering and weeping. But all are for the carrying out of one great purpose — the accomplishment of God’s will, of which each saint has his part. God has a niche in His temple for each, a place assigned by grace. It is there each is tested. But if grace appoints the place, it is always there to maintain saints in it. Sometimes, through our lack of faith, the trial appears to hide the grace, and then we complain and murmur. “But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
Other Trials
There are other trials which have their root in our unfaithfulness. Although He does not directly send them, God permits them, and He surely controls and guides to a gracious result. Such trials become rods in His chastening hand, but when God sends trial to a faithful saint, it is for the purpose of proving faith, which is more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, and of giving further lessons in the school of faith. The fruitful branch is purged that it may bring forth more fruit. More fruit is God’s object. Things hidden and unknown may be in the heart of the faithful and therefore are unjudged. The trial is sent to disclose the hidden thing that it may be purged. Not all trials are chastisements. We should gravely err if we thought every suffering saint to be under discipline through failure. Where there is faithfulness, we often see what appears to be heaviest trials, but in truth it is for the display of the sustaining power of grace that others may see and learn.
Faith
Evidently such is the lesson taught as in Genesis 22. Faith was never put to a severer test, whether we look at the affection of the father or the obedience of the saint. God did test Abraham, not because of previous failure, but that he might be a witness of that faith which rises above death. Death has nothing to say to faith, except that death has been overcome. The natural man lives in the region of death. Faith enters this region and the scene is changed. Christ has overcome the power of death, and faith in Him gives us to share in His victory. We see the ravages of death around us, but as a penalty we are beyond its reach. The natural man bears the stamp of death; the believer, that of eternal life. No example in the Old Testament more shows the power of faith over death than that of Abraham. But this is also true Christian faith.
Victory Over Circumstances Through Faith
We take an instance of faith under trial from the New Testament; not the victory of faith over death, but over circumstances. The thorn in the flesh was a heavy trial to Paul. It was not sent because of failure, but because of the abundance of his revelation. There was danger lest the flesh should boast, and God gives him a thorn. He prayed thrice for its removal. God tells him that His grace is sufficient, that there is no need to remove it, and moreover that his infirmity was but an occasion for the power of Christ to rest upon him. Then he glories in that which he had prayed God to take away. Christ was exalted and Paul was content. Here is the “more fruit,” God’s object in sending the thorn; no failure and needed chastening here, but a lesson of grace to an honored servant of Christ.
Bible Treasury (adapted)
The End of the Lord
There never could be any possibility of communion between God and man except on the ground of grace. This principle runs through everything, including God’s providential dealings with man; it is stamped upon all. Our hearts are never right with God unless we are standing on this ground of grace. Even in chastening us, it is the patience of God’s grace that is manifested in taking all possible pains with His children. It is easy for a parent to act in the way of love towards a pleasant child, but to go on patiently dealing with a disobedient and rebellious child is the proof of a great deal more love. If, in chastisement, in our desires after holiness, or in anything else, we do not realize our standing in grace, we get off the only ground of fellowship with God.
God Dealing in Grace
It may be difficult to see how God can deal in grace with a sinner, but in His dealings with Adam at the outset, this is brought out. There was no evidence of repentance in Adam when he was charging the fault on God and on the woman: “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen. 3:12). God immediately comes in on the ground of grace, saying, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” When no promise could be made to man, as man, grace comes in and sets us in fellowship with the “seed of the woman.”
Growing in Grace
Just as it is said of our blessed Lord that He “grew in wisdom and in stature,” so is the Christian expected to grow in grace and in the experience of God. Now the old man — that in us which Satan addresses and seeks to hinder — is therefore that with which the Lord deals. Through the evil of our sinful nature, external circumstances affect that which is within, causing conflict. At that point the secret working of God comes into play. Thus that which may be the exercises of our hearts in struggling against Satan may become identified with the chastening of God.
Our blessed Lord Himself learned obedience by the things which He suffered. But then He began at quite a different end from ourselves. Because we are disobedient, we have to learn this lesson, while He, in suffering, temptation and trial, practically learned obedience in a way in which He never could without His humbling Himself and taking the form of a servant.
Confidence in Christ
What we want to know more of is that faith which, having made proof of the Lord’s care, can fully confide in Him for all things, as the Apostle says, ”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). There is a great difference between knowing this as a principle in the beginning of our course and the being able to say, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content; I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound.” We know that we have not all experimentally “learned” this, though as an abstract truth we may know it. I repeat, there is a great difference between a young Christian saying, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me,” and such a one as “Paul the aged” saying, “I have learned.” He could say it in practical fellowship with Christ; he had passed through all these trials and had proved the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace in them.
What Hinders Holiness
What hinders the development and manifestation of holiness in the saints? The old nature remaining unmortified. Through chastening and discipline, God brings us practically into fellowship with “His holiness.” He deals with our hearts, causing us, by the very conflict which He puts us into, to own, in the full consciousness of our own evil, that only One is good, even God.
What was the effect of the striving against sin (Heb. 12:4) that the Hebrew Christians were called to? That of drawing out the evil of the flesh. The world called them to walk as the world. Satan found them as rebels in his kingdom; their temptation was to be frightened at his terrors. The Lord suffered all these trials and exercises to come upon them that the evil nature of their hearts might be discerned in its tendencies and that they might be matured into separation from evil, as well as matured in fellowship with God. What was it that produced this “striving against sin”? Conflict between Satan and man. But it tended to the discovery of that which was within themselves.
The Effect of Temptation to Jesus
The effect of presenting temptation to Jesus was to show that He was perfect in everything. In us it is the discovery of that in ourselves which would blunt the edge of our spiritual service and hinder our maturity in holiness. A person may walk a good while in the fullness of fellowship with God, and evil may have no actual power, or there may be the discovery of sin, and it may be struggled against, but where there are things indulged in, because we do not discern what their real tendency is, there comes in the Father’s chastening. We may look at it as the contradiction of sinners or as the power of Satan (and so it may be), but after all it is the constant exercise of the Father’s love, in order that we may be partakers of His holiness.
If man exalts himself, he will be humbled; when God exalts a man, there is no danger of this. Christ humbled Himself under the mighty hand of God in drinking the bitter cup which was given Him to drink; therefore God also highly exalted Him. If we would deliver ourselves and get out of this path of trial, it must be by some bypath, and we shall lose blessing. We must remember that in due time God will exalt us, and not a minute after the time. When He has wrought the whole purpose of His love, then He will exalt us.
Christian Friend (adapted)
How the Lord Accepted Job
We see in Job’s history the workings of God in the soul in bringing it to Himself and the exercises the heart passes through when learning itself in the presence of Satan and in the presence of God Himself.
“The Lord also accepted Job” (Job 42:9). It does not say that the Lord accepted his acts or his works or anything connected with him; He accepted Job himself. And that is just what we want. The moment our souls are really awakened to a sense of what God is and of what we are, we then want to know that we are accepted of God. Till that is known, we may try to bring our acts and our works to clothe ourselves with them, but when we have really come into God’s presence, we clothe ourselves with nothing, and then we get the sense of divine favor.
Unholy
The converse of this is also true. We know that our works are unholy. When our souls are truly awakened, we look at ourselves as being the spring of these unholy works, and thus we learn that in heart and spirit and nature we are far from God. Then I am grieved, not only for my sins, but because it is I who committed them. And this is a present thing. If I am looking at my works, I may put them off till the day of judgment, but for myself, personally, I cannot be satisfied without the sense of the present and immediate acceptance of God. I must know that I am at this moment standing in His favor.
God’s Character
It is not said that God accepted Job till the end of his trials. And what had his friends done for him during the sifting through which he was passing? Well might he say, “Miserable comforters are ye all.” They had no true apprehension of God’s character, and so they were unable to understand His dealings with a soul. They had no proper sense of sin and therefore knew not that, if God would deal in blessing with man, it must be entirely on the ground of grace. They did not know how to meet his case, and though they had said many true things, yet they had not said one single right thing in its application to Job, for they did not understand him.
God’s Presence
Job had never really been brought into the presence of God. There had been a certain work in his soul, which produced fruits. But in chapter 29 we evidently see that he had been walking in the sense of blessings from God, and in a measure in the sense of the fruits of grace produced in his heart. He was resting in what he was to others, and not in the favor of God Himself. He owned God, it is true, and bowed under His hand, but notwithstanding he had never been truly in His presence, and consequently his heart had never been searched out. It was not a question of fruits, but a question of what he was. So God goes on dealing with Job, till in the very thing in which Job was most famous he is brought to nothing. Job, the most patient man, curses the day of his birth.
What We Are
Why is this? Because we must be broken down; we must be brought to the sense of what we are, as well as of what we have done, and then God can deal with us out of His own heart. Thus God’s dealings with us are intended to bring out really what we are before our own eyes in His presence, in the presence of that eye which looks on while we see what sinners we are. Thus God went on dealing with Job till Job was brought to say, “I am vile, I abhor myself.”
Confidence in God
In chapter 23, we see Job’s confidence in God and his desire for God, although the stroke was bitter. He said, “Oh! that I knew where I might find Him!” He did not attempt to keep away from God. He had that kind of sense of what God was that he wanted to get to Him, “even to His seat.” It is true he speaks of “ordering his cause before Him,” but in chapter 9 where he is speaking of man being justified before God, he says, “If He contend with me, I cannot answer Him one of a thousand,” and again, “If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me.” Here we find that Job was thinking of being in God’s sight. There was not the wretched hypocritical attempt to keep away from God; there was the consciousness of having to do with God, and in heart he desired to get to Him, though his conscience kept him away. Thus there was much more truth in Job than in the seesaw truths of his friends, for conscience was in full exercise in him, and not at all in them.
There was also more grace in Job’s heart now than when he was floating along in prosperous circumstances. It was trying and miserable work, but still he was finding out what was in him. And what grace it is in God that He should take up a heart and thus wring it out that the soul might be brought, such as it is, into immediate dependence on Himself!
Sin Brought to Light
The sinfulness of Job was brought out, so that he could not say it was not there. The sinfulness of his heart was brought upon his conscience; it had come fully out, and a terrible thing that was. We know what it is to the unconverted man; it makes him reckless in iniquity. Let a man think that he has lost his character, and he will then run loose in wickedness. But when Job had lost his character, when it was entirely gone, then God came in.
Confession and Acceptance
After all the sifting, Job is brought into God’s presence, and then “Jehovah accepted Job.” In God’s presence his mouth is stopped; then he said, “I am vile”; “I will lay my hand on my mouth.” But Job must be brought farther, because God is to bring him to Himself; he must be brought to confess not only that there is no good in him, but that there is a great deal of evil. And this he does, as in Job 42:3, “I have uttered that I understood not.” For now it is not a question of condemnation but of sin. When the sinner has judged himself, the fear of condemnation has passed away. “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Thus Job takes God’s side against himself. He laid himself before God and abhorred himself; then he repents in dust and ashes, for it is only in the presence of God that we learn repentance. In its fullest sense true repentance is when our sin is so thoroughly brought out that we are taking God’s side of the question in judging ourselves and in justifying Him. Then it is that He justifies us and makes us accepted in the Beloved. Then it was that “Jehovah accepted Job.” And blessed is the man whom the Lord accepts. May we indeed feel the need of Him and not rest in the hypocritical quiet of keeping out of His presence.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
We Are Not Ignorant of His Devices
The part of the verse quoted in the title of this article is from 2 Corinthians 2:11 and concerns a situation that had developed in the assembly in Corinth. Among many other wrongs that existed in that assembly, there was a man who had been guilty of very serious immorality. In the first epistle, Paul had told the assembly to “put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Cor. 5:13). Thankfully, the assembly (at least for the most part) had listened to Paul’s instruction, had humbled themselves, and had dealt with the evil by putting away the man in question.
Also, the man himself had evidently been humbled in view of his sin and had repented. (Paul himself had not witnessed this, as he had not visited Corinth since he wrote the first epistle. However, Titus had gone there and doubtless had brought back a report to Paul.) In view of this, Paul now counseled the assembly to receive the man back, as there was a danger of his being “swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” (2 Cor. 2:7). In giving this instruction, he assures them that if they forgave the man, he too forgave, “lest Satan should get an advantage of us” (2 Cor. 2:11).
In speaking of Satan’s devices, Paul likely foresaw that Satan would try to drive a wedge between him and the Corinthian assembly, for he knew that there were those in that assembly who discounted him and would be only too glad to see this happen. However, we notice that he refers to Satan’s devices in the plural, for surely Satan has many of them. I would like to look at another of his devices that is used all too often in connection with failure in the saints of God.
Another Device
When we fail as believers, we have gotten away from the Lord. As a result, we say and do things that are of the devil and are the product of our old sinful nature. After some time, the Lord in His faithfulness brings this to our attention, working by His Spirit in our consciences to make us realize our failure. He may sometimes use another believer to speak faithfully to us, to bring us to repentance and confession. Then time is needed for us to realize the full import of the sin in the sight of God and the seriousness of our having sinned in the presence of His grace. After this, when we have fully judged the sin in God’s presence, we need time for God to remind us of His grace. He well knew that we would commit that sin and has already laid it on our blessed Saviour on Calvary’s cross. Then our hearts, encouraged by His grace and love, are left with the enjoyment of the magnitude of God’s grace in spite of our sin.
It is during the time of judging the sin in God’s presence that Satan often attacks us in a special way. He has already gotten one advantage over us, in persuading us to commit the sin, but now his tactics go in another direction. In keeping with his character as “the accuser of our brethren” (Rev. 12:10), he now reminds us of our sin, of how seriously we have dishonored the Lord, and of what a mess we have made of our life. Of course, all this is tailored to the seriousness of the sin; the more significant our failure, the fiercer his attack. As it were, he whispers in our ear that since we have dishonored the Lord, we can never be restored, nor walk in a right path as a Christian again. We might as well give it all up and live as the world does.
The Lie of Leaving
Sad to say, more than one believer has listened to this lie and succumbed to it. Satan brings before us the shame of having to confess the sin and of having others know about it. He persuades us that it would be far better to leave the fellowship of faithful believers, rather than face the humiliation and disgrace of owning up to the sin. Or, if he does not persuade us to leave the fellowship of all believers, at least he may try to convince us to seek the company of less faithful believers, who will take a more lenient view of what we have done.
Grace Misunderstood
All this is Satan’s lie and a misunderstanding of the grace of God. To give in to this lie is true failure and worse than the original sin. It has been most aptly said that true failure is not falling down, but rather failing to get up again. In order to get up again, we must remember what a brother many years ago remarked: “Let us always remember that whenever we have to do with God in this day of His grace, we have always to do with love.” Of course, there is government in the house of God. Serious sin may carry long-term consequences, even for the rest of our lives, nor does God’s grace abrogate His government. But even in government, God delights to show grace. And even if there are governmental consequences to our sin, there is no limit or qualification on God’s restoring grace, for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Let us always remember that the Lord knew all about us when He saved us; He knew how we would turn out, what all our failures would be, and how faithful or unfaithful we would be. And He saved us in spite of it all! We never need hesitate to approach Him, if we realize where we are. It is when we pretend to be what we are not that He must continue His work in our souls, until we come to the end of ourselves. But if we are willing to admit where we are, God will always meet us there, and His desire for us is always blessing.
W. J. Prost
Failure in the Place of Honor
Man being in honor abides not. Such is the divine testimony. Failure is inherent in man. In innocence, under law, or under grace, no matter what the position or the privilege, he has never abode therein. Failure may first be secret, in the heart, and sometimes even the act is hidden, but if unjudged is sure to appear in its consequences. One would naturally suppose the greater the honor, the greater would be the jealous care to abide therein; this as a rule holds good in worldly honors, but in the things of God the contrary is constantly seen. Through the evil nature of man, favor has led to unwatchfulness, and in many instances with ruinous results, always, in the case of a believer, bringing grievous chastening.
The First Blot
To forget God even while enjoying the blessings is the history of man from Adam down to this day. The first blot upon the honor both in the church and in Israel in the land was visited with death. The pristine vigor and glory of the church had not departed before failure came in, and it was even more ruinous as regards public testimony than that of Israel. To them the special testimony was the truth of the one God. To the church it is God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). As Israel failed in testifying to the unity of the Godhead and rushed into idolatry, so Christendom has failed to bear witness that life is only in the Son and has placed it partially, if not wholly, in works. The grace which nevertheless maintained Israel in the land (for a time, and not without judgment) now acts more prominently in and for the church, which in a far higher and different way is the habitation of God, not in a temple made with hands but by the Spirit (Eph. 2:22). In Israel it was in such a way as the natural man could apprehend. God through the Spirit dwelling in the church is not discernible by the natural man, but only by faith which alone realizes His presence.
Members Together
It is because of the Spirit’s indwelling that all in the church of God, that is, all true believers, are members one of another. Therefore necessarily if one member fails or suffers, the whole body is affected, and far more intimately than the congregation of Israel could be. This close intimacy of suffering and equally so of rejoicing is through the unity of the Spirit which was not possible before Christ had ascended as the risen Man and had taken His place on the throne of God. Thence He sent the Comforter to abide with us. Thus one Spirit abiding in each, in all, constitutes the one body.
The effect of the sin of one member is not confined to himself. There is what may be called its corporate consequence. If the Spirit is grieved, the whole assembly — the local representative of the body — suffers; corporate blessing is hindered, and the presence of the Lord not realized in the meetings. There is no remedy for this but humiliation and united prayer. The Holy Spirit may, through the intercession of the assembly, lead the failing member to judge himself, and the resultant restoration in the soul allows the hindrance to corporate blessing to be removed. But if not, the Lord will surely make bare the wrong which the assembly is bound to judge; it may be by public rebuke or require excision, but the Lord’s name must be vindicated and the purity of the assembly maintained. When the failing one judges himself before the secret becomes known and is restored in soul, it remains a matter between himself and the Lord. “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31). This scripture embodies the principle that if sin is discerned and therefore judged by the individual himself, he will not be judged. And this judgment is not the judgment of the world, which no believer can come under, but the chastening of the Lord. The chastening of the Lord is that which is administered through the assembly — not the same as the Father’s chastening in Hebrews 12.
Lessons to Be Learned
When Israel entered the land of Canaan with the joy of their first victory, the first failure occurred. Its effects soon appeared. One man sins — the whole congregation suffers. New circumstances bring the sin to light. Israel left to their own resources find they cannot stand before their enemies. Confident in their own strength and elated with the ease with which Jericho was taken — as if it had been by their own arm — they decide as to Ai. The defiling power of Achan’s sin was already working. Joshua and the priests — all forgot God and attempted to do without Him. Had they asked counsel of God, the sin of the guilty man would have been at once disclosed and the shameful flight from Ai prevented. Israel failed through vain confidence, which was the result of Achan’s sin. Yet all was overruled that they might know the necessity of holiness and of the power of Jehovah for victory. The deeper truth of being members one of another is intimately connected with the church of God, and the call to us to be watchful, to be holy, comes with far more solemn importance to us than it did to Israel, for we are knit together with a closer tie; we are called to a higher inward holiness, to contend with more dangerous foes, and to hear the name of the risen Lord in the midst. It is the church which has the special opportunity of learning from this failure of Israel. But the church is the body of Christ; therefore really it is Christ the Head whose glory is before the mind of God.
Religious Love of the World
The things that Achan coveted pointed also to the evils that have crept into the professing church and have tainted the character of real believers. The wedge of gold and the silver, under the Babylonish garment, are the symbols of the love of the world and of that which gives power in the world — gold under the pretense of religion, that is, the world’s religion which is to God most offensive. Observe the words “and the silver under it,” wrapped in the Babylonish garment. It is covetousness — which is idolatry — covered over and hidden under the semblance of piety which has marked the history of the world-church. And soon every evil will be found in the cup of the scarlet-clothed harlot whose name is “mystery, Babylon the great.” Thus at the very beginning of Israel’s possession of the land are shadowed the evils which have brought ruin upon the professing church. The judgment upon Achan and his house declares how abhorrent this world-religiousness is to God, as well as His holy resentment against the one who had interposed his sin. It was a barrier to the continual display of the glory of Jehovah in His mighty power leading Israel into the possession of the inheritance. God resents nothing so much as interference with His ways of grace.
Further Fighting
At Jericho we see the exhibition of the glory and power of Jehovah and how He would subdue and drive out the Canaanite before His chosen people. At Ai is displayed His manner to those who dim the luster of the glory of their leader, the “Captain of the Lord’s host.” At the beginning they could boast of the great power of their “Captain.” Now it is mingled with a sense of failure and dishonor. And for all among them who cared for the glory of Jehovah, there was the feeling that they had tarnished His glory before the Canaanites. God would continue to display His grace and faithfulness, though Israel had put an obstacle to the visible manifestation of His Godhead to the Gentile as had been seen at Jericho, for there was overwhelming testimony that the glorious conquest might have brought every nation to submit without daring to fight, but Israel’s discomfiture at their first attempt against Ai gave the nations courage to resist Israel’s further advance. It gave them the thought that perhaps they might overcome the dreaded people and that the God of Israel was not so greatly to be feared. Hence Israel had to contest every step of the way. Only the ground on which they stood could they call their own. Was not this the consequence of their own sin? And so the word is fulfilled (Josh. 1:3), not yet according to the fullness of the original promise, but now modified according to their failure in the matter of Achan.
The Appreciation of Restoration
But Israel’s failure is used of God to teach us now how imperative holiness is in the church of God. Without such teaching, how much we should have lost! Could the holiness which God demands and the revenging of ourselves against all defilement (2 Cor. 6:11) be more solemnly impressed upon the conscience of the assembly than in the judgment of Achan? And without this, we should not have known how grace acts in wisdom, restoring in such a way as to make the restored people remember their folly. Marvelous are the ways of grace. The process of discovering sin in the assembly may be most painful and is always humiliating, but it is in order that the presence of the Lord might again be realized. Achan did not judge his sin, for he valued the things he stole. His own conscience unpurged, he defiled the whole congregation, and Jehovah must step in to purge out the leaven that was leavening the whole lump. The end of discipline is to restore, not perhaps exactly to the same position as before, for the failure will ever remain as a fact, but the restoration of any saint always deepens the power of godliness in his soul and is always to the praise of His grace.
Bible Treasury
Present Wealth and Future Glory
In the last letter that I received from a valued friend, now with the Lord, he wrote, “A running hound never looks at his tail.” He was referring to Philippians 3:13-14: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The “reaching forth” in the verse describes a hound at full stretch. But the Christian who is continually looking back, brooding over the past and mourning over his failure, is like a hound that has ceased to run and is feeding on its own tail, if such a thing can be imagined. It does not matter whether it is his sins or his sorrows that he broods over; the brooding itself is fatal to all spiritual growth and strength. Both are dishonoring to God, for if a man broods over his sins, he doubts the grace that abounds over them all; if he broods over his sorrows, it is probably because he is at war with the will of God. Both sin and sorrow should humble us and make us walk in lowliness of heart before God, and not proudly or boastfully. But there is grace for the sin, and there is sympathy for the sorrow, so that while we feel them, and feel them deeply, we are not to be overwhelmed by them, but rather find our God and His resources in Christ Jesus greater than both. Finding this, we can press onward to the place from whence the grace and sympathy come.
We would not have a man think lightly of his sins, but we would urge upon him that if he has felt them deeply and confessed them truly, he should have the comfort of knowing that he has been forgiven fully. He should then cast off the hindrance of occupation with them, as Peter did when, on the day of Pentecost, he charged the Jews with denying the Holy and Just One. They might have said, “You did it yourself, Simon.” “Yes,” he could have replied, “I did, and He forgave me and blotted it all out forever, and I am not denying Him now, anyhow.” Nor would we think lightly of the sorrows and losses of others, nor speak harshly of them if they seem to be overwhelmed by them. We would, however, warn them that brooding over them may grow into self-pity and rob them of the comfort from on high that would enrich them through the sorrow. More than this, it will most surely hinder them in the race to the glory where every sorrow will have its answer and where the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus awaits those who run.
J. T. Mawson (adapted)
Blessing in Chastening
The Lord gives our souls “rest from the days of adversity” by communion with Himself, not only communion in joy, but in holiness. Circumstances are only used to break down the door and let in God. God is near to the soul when He, in the certainty of love, comes within the circumstances and is known as better than any circumstance. The Lord never chastens without occasion for it, and yet, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord.” There is not a more wonderful word than that! If the soul is judging itself, there will often be anxiety and sorrow, but the effects are blessed. What we exceedingly need is intimacy of soul with God, resting in quietness in Him, though all be confusion and tumult around us. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul.” Our portion is not only to know the riches of God’s grace, but the secret of the Lord — to have intimacy of communion with Him in His holiness. Then, however adverse the circumstances, the soul rests quietly and steadfastly in Him.
Christian Truth (adapted)
Perfect Peace
I look not back; God knows the fruitless effort,
The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets;
I leave them all with Him who blots the
record,
And graciously forgives, and then forgets.
I look not forward; God sees all the future,
The road that, short or long, will lead me
home;
And He will face with me its every trial,
And bear for me the burdens that may come.
I look not round me; then would fears assail
me,
So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas;
So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,
So fain the hope of comfort and of ease.
I look not inward; that would make me
wretched,
For I have naught on which to stay my trust;
Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings,
And weak endeavors, crumbling into dust.
But I look up, into the face of Jesus,
For there my heart can rest; my fears are
stilled;
And there in joy, in love, and light for
darkness,
And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.
Author unknown