If we study the actions in the lives of the saints which the Spirit has recorded for our instruction in Scripture, we are struck by the fact standing out in prominence wherever we turn, that whatever be their failures, God never leaves His people. Now, most believers will readily own that this is true, but will equally qualify it by the addition, “It is true if the saints are seeking to walk in obedience to Him.” But I suggest that it is also true when they are disobedient and self-willed. If we will not walk with Him, He will turn aside to walk with us. But this is to humble us and to teach us ourselves. It is when the saints are reduced to the greatest extremity through the exercise of will, and when forced to cry aloud to Him (as in Psa. 107), that He comes in for deliverance, proving that He has been watching us all the time. He has been very near, and steps in to make manifest His presence. He comes in when the cry is gone up proving that I prefer God to myself, and at His nod the storm becomes a calm, its winds and waves are lulled to rest, and self, on whom God in mercy has brought the storm, self, man’s prop, satan’s tool, and the ever antagonistic enemy of God, is withered up, and reduced to the proper silence or death before Him, while His child is taken to a Father’s bosom to rest in Him. And it is ever thus. The old nature turns to Him never, it must be brought to death. As long as we are active, there is no room for Him to lead, and then in mercy to us He keeps the storm up to its height, to bring all that is of the old nature to the silence of death before Him. Yet He is standing by. As the “refiner and purifier of silver” He waits to see His image prominent in us, and not the dross of self. He does not value this, and in mercy to us, for He will have us walk with Him. He does not spare it. He will consume it that we may fully enjoy Him; nor will He leave the work partially completed. He says, I will never leave thee “until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”
I desire to draw the attention of my brethren to an important difference (as it appears to me) in these two paths, and in the two parts of the question at the head of these few remarks, and I desire that its value may be tested by the balances of the Sanctuary in the light of Scripture. To me there appears to be an important and most instructive difference in these two paths—whether am I content to be walking with God, or (what I judge is a lower path) content to know that He is walking with me.
I allude to Enoch and Noah as special examples of saints, of whom the Spirit distinctly records that they “walked with God” (Gen. 5:2424And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24), and 6:9). Not but what others have done so also, but Scripture is clear as to them. This characterized their walk. I shall quote Jacob, as much a called saint of God as they, as an example on the other hand of a saint with whom God walked, looking at his history a little.
It is also to be remembered that as a saint I may be found walking with God at one portion of my history, but not at another. In illustration of this, I draw attention to the fact that Noah lived after the flood as well as before it, and yet that it is only of Noah before the flood that the word says he walked with God. It was after the deluge that he was found drunken and uncovered in his tent. And when the years of his life after the flood are named, we read only thus, “Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years, and all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.” Yet, though Scripture does not add the same commendation to his life after the flood as to that before it, I judge that God never left Noah—that He still walked with him.
Jacob was one in whom natural will, taking the shape of prudence, as men speak (this it often did with him), was most strong and characteristic. And it is to Jacob, when fairly started on the path of worldly wisdom or expediency, that God Himself comes and declares to him that His presence shall abide continuously with him. By deliberate falsehood and gross deception he had (just prior to this moment) obtained from his father Isaac the blessing of the first-born, which had so provoked the wrath of his brother Esau, that he must flee as an outcast from his family and the land of promise. To him, then, at that moment, and though even when leaving, continuing to deceive his father as to the real cause of his flight, God appears, and gives him this remarkable promise, “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Gen. 28:1515And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. (Genesis 28:15)). Mark the importance and grace of this promise as coming from God to him at such a moment as this. Now, does this promise sanction the late actions of Jacob, or encourage him to go on in the same? I judge not, for he presently says, “How dreadful is this place!” And yet many of us are quite content to quote this passage (Gen. 28:1515And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. (Genesis 28:15)) as the acme of our blessing! For God as truly says the same to every saint today as He did to Jacob in his day, even if natural will and energy are at work in us. Ah, it is a real place we are in, and God will accompany us to bring us to naught. Well may Jacob say, “How dreadful is this place!” Dreadful to nature. For God was there.
Now as to God’s path, what is it? Job 28 gives us the clue. “There is a path which no fowl knoweth, which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.” This is God’s path through a sin-stained earth. Would we walk in company with Him today? We, too, must tread it. As then, so now, it is ever one and the same. Let us look at it a moment in detail; we shall see who they are that discern it not.
First—It is a path which no fowl knoweth. Here we have those who, rising highest in natural ability, will discern it if any can. It is a path totally unknown to them. Second—It is a path which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. Intelligence and intellect, here portrayed by the piercing eye of the vulture, these cannot discern it. Third——The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. Natural force and strength, and all the swiftness and might of nature, are here entirely at fault—they never use this way. Man, then, whether I look at him in his highest position, in his piercing intellect, or in his natural force and strength, never knows, sees, or takes this path. May we not ask why does he not take it? and answer, It is because it makes nothing of him. Was Job walking in this path? At first I should judge that Job was conscious that he was not. Earlier than this, in ch. 23, he has said of God, “He knoweth the way that I take: when I am tried I shall come forth as gold.” This is true. He does know the way that His saints take. But this way was Job’s path. And the furnace was kindled on him therein. There is a more blessed position even than God knowing our way, precious as this is, and this is, that we know and walk in His. And this is far harder to nature than the other. Job had learned it when he could say, “I abhor myself:” this is ever the great hindrance to our walking with God. The question is, are we content merely to know that He knows our way, or are we desirous of knowing and walking in His? He must bring to naught all that which hinders. This day of Job’s trial brought him into God’s path. To walk with Him—gold “tried in the fire.”
In the varied and checkered history of Jacob, God has shown us that for many years he chose and trod his own path. What remarkably characterized him was natural prudence and foresight, coupled with a strong force and energy of natural will. All these are seen in him, but they do not help us in God’s path, much as men are disposed to admire them—they are positive hindrances to us therein. To him, as to Job at first, it was an unknown, unseen, and untrodden way. If it be thought that in saying this we are speaking too strongly of the patriarch, let us listen to his own testimony. A testimony as simple as it is sad. On two remarkable occasions Jacob is called on to record his past experience in the path he has trodden. On the first occasion he does so when he is pursued and overtaken by Laban, at the close of his twenty years’ sojourn in Padan-aram. This is his judgment of his past life there, Gen. 31:40, 41, 4240Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. 41Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 42Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight. (Genesis 31:40‑42): — “In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me, away now empty.” Now it is most clear that Jacob distinctly recognized that God had been with him. But that he had not been with God is equally clear, for he is now on his way to Bethel, the house of God. But Jacob is on the eve of a fresh start in his history, so to speak. And after he leaves Laban, after he has planned and contrived in the best manner, how best, in his judgment, to meet and palliate the wrath of his brother, who, he hears, is coming to meet him, “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” Here Jacob became crippled, and went forth another man. No longer Jacob, but Israel. He has received his blessing and his new name when he clings in helpless dependence to his God, and when he measures himself with God in the light of His presence. Surely this was a new path to Jacob, who had hitherto so largely depended on himself? Yet, be it remembered, he was as much a called saint of God when at Padanaram as he was at Bethel. Padan-aram had seen the establishment of Jacob’s house, the patriarch is now on his way to God’s house. This path, untrodden by him for twenty years, involves the imperative, inspiring judgment of self, for it has been truly said that the character of things allowed at Padan-aram cannot for a moment be tolerated when at Bethel. But let it be remarked that there is no thorough self-judgment until we have accepted God’s path. It was so with Jacob, and it is so still. But when he is in God’s path mark the consequence. “They journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them,” Gen. 35:55And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. (Genesis 35:5). Notice this; surely it was not that they feared a helpless man with plenty of spoil? No, but there is a power felt by those around us when we are walking with God in His path which is unknown when God is walking with us in ours. Did they fear him in Padan-aram? Did the power of God so make itself felt around him there that all feared him? All, no; there, as we have heard from his own mouth, they had taken every mean advantage possible of him—all permitted of God; but now he who goes forth is a prince, a vanquished Jacob is an Israel with God. Oh, what a lesson is taught us here as to the secret of power with God and with men. It was because God was now leading him that the “terror of God” was upon those who could see nothing outwardly more to fear in Jacob today than when he dwelt in Padan-aram in servitude.
The other occasion on which Jacob reviews his life is when he is asked by King Pharaoh his age. Memory again flies back over the past days and scenes of his earthly pilgrimage, and again, in a most simple and touching way, the old man expresses his judgment of them. Gen. 47:99And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. (Genesis 47:9), “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years few and evil have the days of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” As to the number of days they were “few,” and as to the character of them they had been “evil.” Such is the past experience of this saint of God. Is there not a lesson in it? Is it the record of him who has walked with God? Yet in the midst of it all the aged believer is conscious of the unchangeable favor of God resting upon him, and in conscious dignity he can bliss Pharaoh, nor would he at that moment have changed positions with him who wore the crown of Egypt; for the apostle declares “the less is blessed of the better.” How precious is this moment, enhancing, as it does, the wondrous grace of God, notwithstanding all Jacob’s failure.
Besides drawing attention to the language of the Spirit of God, used only of the two saints Enoch and Noah, that they “walked with God,” I would ask attention to two remarkable examples of saints who, prominent in the history of Israel, at different times walked with God, and bring in, by way of contrast, contemporary saints with whom, doubtless, God walked. I offer them merely as suggestions for others to weigh.
First, —Abraham, the father of the faithful, is generally found walking with God through his life, as a pilgrim and stranger in the earth. Of such the Spirit of God declares that “the world was not worthy.” But was it thus with Lot? He experiences a most remarkable deliverance for himself and family, in Gen. 14, but does he walk in God’s way, so clearly pointed out to him in this merciful interposition? His path leads him again down to Sodom, where he is presently seen, in Gen. 19, “sitting in the gate,” the place of honor among the dwellers of earth. Peter, notwithstanding, without any hesitation, calls him a “righteous man,” and Psa. 34 declares that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.” Surely God is faithful; yet I judge that there were these two paths clearly taken in the days of Abraham and Lot—the pathway pleasing to God, and that satisfying to nature or self.
Second, —On many occasions, may we not say generally, Moses walked with God. (See Psa. 8:77All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; (Psalm 8:7)). “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” Here Moses is seen in contrast with Israel. Israel had to receive His acts, because they were not in the secret of his ways. So in Judg. 2:2222That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. (Judges 2:22), the Lord does not drive out those nations which Joshua left, “that through them I may prove Israel, whither they will keep THE WAY OF THE LORD to walk therein.”
One more incident in the New Testament occurs to me in connection with this subject, as recorded in Matt. 14. The Lord having gone away to pray, had given his disciples instructions to cross the sea. In obedience they launch forth, but encounter much trouble, —a frequent attendant on the path of obedience. The ship is in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. Here, doubtless, we should say that their unswerving confidence should have been in Him whose directions they were following. Doubtless it should, for obedience can not only always count on His presence, and can trust Him whose heart and whose eye ever survey us, but can also say, “I know that just at the right time He will manifest His presence to me.” We can say, “I know not how He will come in, but I am sure that at the right moment He will come in.” And He came. In the fourth watch they saw Him, walking on the sea, and they cried out for fear. Now, why did they cry out for fear? I believe that it was because they did not expect to see Him come and manifest Himself in that way. And are we not often just the same? Had He come and spoken, and quieted the wind and waves, they would have understood who He was. But to walk thereon as a spirit, to keep the storm up to its height till death apparently stared them in the face, yes, this was His purpose, and then He will make Himself known to them. When the wind and waves are still at their highest, He bids Peter come to Him on the water. To walk with Him in this path apparently of certain death. Is Peter able to do it, and are we? Scripture says that he walked on the water, though apparently it was but for a moment. Now, what caused him to sink? It was self most assuredly. Self cannot walk in this path, but when this is so, the Lord’s presence and never failing care are manifested. Does He leave Peter because he sinks in the path He has called him into? No. He lets him into the waves and gives him thus to taste death, but He never lets him go. He sustains him, and takes Peter’s eye off everything of self by referring him to faith, which never deals with the seen but with the unseen. He would have us to walk with Him, but we must refuse self if we are to take the path here indicated. The storm is kept up in order to sink SELF, not to sink PETER.
Now, I believe that to see clearly the difference in these two paths is of immense importance, and that there are at the present moment thousands of God’s dear children who do not discern it. Let it be remembered that Jacob could have assured any enquirer that God was with him all the while he dwelt in Padan-aram, and none could have denied it. Yet we read of no altar erected by Jacob in Padan-aram, while on the other hand we are sure there was the allowance in his own household of idolatry!
Gen. 35:2,42Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: (Genesis 35:2)
4And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. (Genesis 35:4). How often are we met by such remarks as “What harm is there in this or that?” and this not spoken by the world, or we might not be so surprised to hear such language, but by undoubted children of God. I reply that your question itself seeks to limit me to sight and seeks to induce me to walk in a certain path, because I cannot see why not. This is not faith. Again we are told “God is with us and converts souls, and yet you cannot have fellowship with us in the work,” &c., &c. I readily own that God does walk with us, notwithstanding all out waywardness, but I do submit the difference between my walking with God and His walking with me to the godly consideration of my brethren. In the first, self is allowed no place, save its own true place of death; in the second I am persuaded self has a place and existence, though it may be an infinitesimal one. And I suggest again that it appears to me there is a higher thing than being able to say God is with us, blessed as this is, and that the higher thing is to be able in humility to say, I cannot do this, go here or go there, because I desire to walk with God who has given me no word to go. To go here or there, to do this or that, merely on the ground that I have no word from God against it, is to allow self to act.
May the Lord give us a distinct perception and apprehension of what a path it is – both individually and in service – wherein self is kept in the place of death, and to which the Lord calls us in this day.