I TURN to this chapter as showing us, not only the painstaking of God's interest in us and care for us, but also that that interest is taken in us by One who knows the path we are treading. He has trodden it Himself; and so it leads our hearts to quietly rest in Him and wait on Him, who has our interests so thoroughly at heart.
We were looking at John 13 There the dealing of the Lord with souls is restorative. Here it is more preventive, and in the shape of establishing our souls in the fact that there is a rest remaining for us, a rest that never can be broken in upon, and that He has made provision for carrying us on safely until we reach it.
When we know what we meet in this world, and what we are in ourselves, how fearful the heart becomes; and it only finds the answer to these fears in turning to Him whose grace has anticipated and fully met them. How blessed to know then that there is not only a rest, but a. rest that cannot be broken in upon, and that is reserved for us! And we rejoice too in the thought of God then having everything suited to Himself; it is not only our rest; it is the rest of God.
Now, through grace, we enjoy rest of conscience and rest of heart in Christ; He comes to us with both even here; but it is rest in Christ, not in anything that is around us. He does not promise to us rest in that. But the moment I look upward I say, I can rest entirely there. Here, with any loved earthly object, the thought forces itself in, something may come to take this away from me; my joy is a thing that I may lose to-morrow. But the painstaking of the grace of God is to establish the hearts of weak and feeble ones in the blessed fact, that there is a rest remaining there that cannot be broken in upon. He first removes any difficulties from their minds as to the rest having been given them already, and then spews that there is a rest that remained?, for the people of God.
One meets saints of God who have a thought: Well, things are not very straight here, hut it will be all right one day when we get up there. Though this may be in a certain sense true, it is not enough, at least not if it is used to bring in a thought of indifference as to the present moment. God would teach us the importance of the present time, and to appreciate the provision that He has made for us in it. There is the grace of the Lord which we are called to lay hold upon now. It is the tendency of our hearts to try to get out of the circumstances we are in; to hope for some change that will carry us into some path easier to nature than the one we are placed in, instead of making use of God's grace to enable us to walk where we are so as to please Him. Of course I am not speaking of wrong circumstances: if we are in such, the only thing is to look to God to deliver us out of them at once.
Now in the verses we have read, the Lord's interest in us is shown. He has not only established us in the sense of His favor as to the forgiveness of our sins, and the knowledge that a rest, God's rest, is remaining for us at the end of our course; but it is also not a matter of indifference to God how we go on until we get to that rest. So the apostle says: " The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
Directly we accept this truth what is the effect of it on our souls? The heart is inclined to answer, Who could maintain that standard in the midst of such circumstances as these? And then the tendency is to lower the standard as to what God expects of His people, because of the difficulties of the way. But I repeat, that the first thing is to get real hold of the greatness of this grace of God wherein we stand; and then I say, I so well understand His grace that I can welcome this statement that His word is " quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," and that " all things are naked and opened " unto His eyes. Do you think I can welcome such words unless I understand His grace? When I have the sense that God is watching every step of my path, the tendency is to say, " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? "
But God knows what my need, what my feebleness, is. And the next thing I get is the sense that there is One living at God's right hand for me, One who is interested in me, One whose strength meets my feebleness, so that I can welcome this dealing of God's which has everything out with me. He gives me God's thoughts about me, but I do not seek to get away from Him, because it is His grace that detains me in His presence, whilst He has it all out with me.
He knows exactly where we are, and what we are passing through; and He is not one who underrates the difficulties of the way. We know what it is in trial if any one comes to sympathize with us who cannot adequately enter into our feelings; but it is never thus with the Lord. He enters fully into the very depths of our sorrows. Our great High Priest is on "the throne of grace." How well He knows what suits me! How perfectly He enters into my need! Does not each one of our hearts say, as He ministers to us His sympathy and power: That comes from One who understands me-from One who knows all about me?
Have you not ever been struck by Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple? As you dwell upon it you get the sense, that here is a man who feels that the greatest good he can desire for his people is that they may find that God has an ear for them. And when you turn to Psa. 107 as you read it you acknowledge how right Solomon was; and that he estimated truly when he judged that when men were in difficulties their greatest boon would be to have God's ear; that when they should cry unto the Lord He would deliver them and save them out of their distresses. The subject of Solomon's prayer is this: that man's greatest blessing consists in being connected with the greatness of God; and that their greatest boon is for God to give them the assurance that they have His ear.
And to Solomon He even more than answers his prayer. He goes far beyond it. Solomon prays that God's " eyes may be open toward this house night and day." God answers: "Mine eyes and my heart shall be there continually." Is not that a wonderful answer? When in their difficulties, in their trials; when even in the consciousness that their own folly had brought them into the straits they were in; yet might they turn to Him whose eyes and whose heart would be there continually.
And do not our hearts confess that the greatest boon God can give us down here is the consciousness that, in all that we pass through, we have His ear'? God's thought is first to establish us in grace, and then to bring in that which should make all things naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. What a word for us! Have we the sense day by day and hour by hour that we have to do with God? How simple it makes things, and yet how serious!
Just notice in Heb. 12, the number of ways in which the grace of Christ comes into the heart. How it points out one thing after another! Notice the number of arguments that God brings to bear on the hearts of those who were ready to turn aside. What were their difficulties? Well, they had come out from Judaism with expectations savoring rather of the kingdom and glory than of the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. They expected to find in their present association with Christ a path on earth which they did not realize and so they were disappointed, discouraged, because 'of the way-hesitating in their steps, and questioning in their hearts, if the path they were treading was of God, and ready to turn back. God sees what a dangerous moment it is for them: the moment of hesitancy and of being cast down, and how the enemy watched for it. See how beautifully he brings in Esau; just at the very moment when his history would be a warning to them.
How does He warn them? Well, the question is: Under what circumstances was it that Esau sold his birthright? It was in a moment of pressure and weariness; he says, " I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" and he goes in for the present. A mess of pottage found him in these circumstances, and he takes it. Now remember Esau, says the apostle; look what happened then in a time of weakness and hesitancy, and take warning. And for your encouragement you have not come to mount Sinai, the place of law, but to mount Zion, the place where grace was brought in, And is grace brought in in a way that makes us indifferent as to our path here? Not at all. It is "We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire." Is this being indifferent or careless?
This is a test to many souls. They do not like the thought of God being a consuming fire, and they say, " Oh, that is God out of Christ." It is not at all; it is " our God." God is holy, and He will have His people " partakers of his holiness," In Lev. 9:24, the holiness of God accepts by fire what they had done; but in Lev. 10;2, the same holiness refuses by fire the presumption that disregards its claims. God is holy, and God ever remains the same; and thank God that He does. He never changes in His love for us, and it is also an immense mercy that He never changes in His holiness.
And He knows how to bring Himself before us maintaining both these scriptures. He separated Moses to His service when He sent him to be the deliverer of Israel from the burning bush. That was to be the aspect of God's holiness that was to be engraved upon his soul in his service. But if I am not established in grace, it is not a bit of comfort to me, but the reverse, that God has His eye upon me, and is winnowing my path as I go along down here. I shall be like Jonah: I shall seek to flee from God's presence. He knew that his prophetic character would go, and that he should be made small before the Ninevites. But you know his history, and how God had to have His own way with him to get him back to the true path, and to bring him to the point of saying, No one will do for me but God; "Salvation is of the Lord."
If we have to do with this wonderful grace of God we can welcome the fact that everything about us is open to the eye of God. When David hears God's words of grace he goes in and sits before the Lord, and that forms his prayer. God had revealed wonderful things to him and he says, " Therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee." Who taught him his prayer? It was as he heard God pour out His heart in blessing for David, that David's heart answered to God's. And that is what true prayer is.
God does not underrate our difficulties; and He does not overrate our strength; He does not take us to be what we are not. But as we face the gravity of what it is to be down here, we find the provision that God has made for us to go through it. I cannot do without drawing upon all this grace. There is no superfluous provision made. The question is: Are we willing to put ourselves in God's hands, and ask Him to have His own way with us? We are not called to anything that God does not give us grace to walk in. Are we ready to say with Peter, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water? " and are we prepared to hear Him say " Come"? The only "if " in the question was "if it be thou." Our poor hearts have fifty other ifs; but the only one for the true heart is " if it be thou." And He said, Come.
Any really seeking to follow the Lord must expect Him to say, Come. It hangs not on anything in ourselves; it is all on that one " if " and His word " Come." And it is not to take one or two steps, and then to sink. No; we are to go on. Why did Peter sink? Because evidently there was lurking in his heart the thought: Ah, Peter, here you are walking on the water! Can a man go quietly on walking on the water? quietly maintaining amid adverse surroundings what is for the Lord? Provision has been made for our doing so by One who knows all that is around us.
Now if these things are true, if this painstaking provision and love are true, what should be the effect upon us? That of leaving us without excuse. There is not an atom of excuse for us. Do you think there was any excuse for Peter sinking?
I was thankful for what was said this morning as to suggestive teaching; and I look at this subject in that suggestive way, desiring that God's grace may lead our hearts on into the consideration of his care for us by the way; into a deeper understanding of that grace which has made such full provision for our need and weakness, that we are able to go on unmoved through all the difficulties and trials of the way, counting upon His care and love to us in Christ.
(J. B.)