In the Book of Ezra we find a remnant of the people extricating themselves from Babylon and returning to a divine position before the Lord. Care marked these faithful men, lest any but those whose title was distinctly of Israel should be mixed up with the work of the Lord. They did not disown them as of Israel, but they could not recognize their claim. God might discern them as His; they could not pretend to divine discernment when they had not the Urim and the Thummim (see Ezra 2:59-6359And these were they which went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer: but they could not show their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel: 60The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two. 61And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name: 62These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. 63And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim. (Ezra 2:59‑63)). In this we have an instructive lesson for our own day.
When the church was in divine order, each took his place, like the priesthood of Israel, without question as to title to be there. But meanwhile Israel had become mixed up in the corruptions of Babylon, and disorder reigned. When Paul contemplates the total disorder of things in the church which never could be remedied, he instructs the remnant who had departed from iniquity and purged themselves from the vessels to dishonor in the Babylon of the professing church (2 Tim. 2:19-2219Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 20But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. 21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. 22Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:19‑22)) to “follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord, out of a pure heart.” They did not deny that those who were still in the corruption were children of God, but they had not extricated themselves from the evils there, and if, knowing the corruption, they had not departed from it, the conscience was defiled and the heart impure. The remnant are careful then only to walk with those who call on the Lord “out of a pure heart.”
The Feast of Trumpets
But the seventh month came (Ezra 3), the moment for the gathering of the people (the feast of trumpets). The remnant gathered themselves “as one man” in the only divine city in the world of that day—the only platform where they could take down, so to say, those long-silent, unstrung harps from the willows and worship Israel’s God! They might pray with the window open toward Jerusalem and confess their sins in Babylon, but they could not worship Him there. It was impossible to reconstruct the order of things as they had been in Solomon’s day; that day had passed away! The glory had departed from Israel, and the sword was in the Gentile hand. Yet, outside all these things, which belonged to a day of order, the Lord had not forgotten those faithful men, and His Word and Spirit remained. “They built an altar to the God of Israel,” though all Israel was not there. They did not pretend to be “Israel,” yet they could contemplate all Israel, and in Israel’s city worship Israel’s God, in the way that Israel’s God had written.
The Praise of Jehovah
As a remnant who had escaped, they occupied this divine platform and sang the praise of Jehovah: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good, for His mercy endureth forever” (Psa. 106:11Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalm 106:1)). When the glory of former days had passed away and the failure and ruin of Israel was complete, the returned remnant could raise the very same old note of praise: “Because He is good, for His mercy endureth forever” (Ezra 3:1111And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. (Ezra 3:11)). They had been faithless, but He was faithful. The fathers of Israel, who had seen the house of the Lord before the captivity, could weep when they thought of the unfaithfulness of the people. The younger ones could sing with joy when they celebrated the faithfulness of the Lord. The weeping and the rejoicing were both good; to weep was right, when they thought of the failure of the people to Jehovah, but to rejoice was right, when they thought of the faithfulness of God!
The One Body
All this has its instructive lesson for us. The unity of the church remains, being maintained by the Spirit of God. Tongues have gone, apostolic power has gone, miraculous signs have passed away, such as healings and other gifts which would call the attention of the world. Still the Word of God and the faithfulness of God abide, and to it God has directed us in the last days. The remnant extricated themselves from Babylon, as it were, and gathered together to the name of the Lord. So today the people of God can gather on the basis of Matthew 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20) and on the never-failing principle of the church’s existence—“one body and one Spirit” (Eph. 4:44There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; (Ephesians 4:4)). In this, they do not pretend to be “the church of God”; that would be to forget that there are children of God still scattered in the Babylon around. They can set up nothing, reconstruct nothing. But they can remember that “He that is holy, He that is true; He that shutteth and no man openeth, and openeth and no man shutteth” (Rev. 3:77And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (Revelation 3:7)) is with them. He is ever to be trusted and counted upon. If He sends a help or gift among them, they can thank God and accept it as a token of His favor and grace, but they can appoint none. To do so would be to forget the total ruin which never can be restored, and to presume to do that for which they had no warrant in the Word of God.
Others That Return
If a fresh action of the Spirit of God causes a Nehemiah-like company to follow from Babylon, they are glad to welcome them to the divine ground they occupy themselves. If the Nehemiah-like company comes, they find before them a remnant who had previously, through grace, occupied the divine position. They must gladly and cheerfully fall in with what God had wrought. They dare not set up another; it would be but schism. It was the same Spirit who had wrought, and who, if followed, could not but guide them to the same divine position to which He had guided others. How completely this sets aside independency and the will of man!
If led of “one Spirit,” they cannot but link themselves practically, in the unity of the Spirit, with those who had pre-occupied the divine platform, cheerfully and thankfully owning what God had wrought, and following where “one Spirit” had led their brethren before them, to the name of the Lord, as “one body,” to break “one loaf” in remembrance of Him!
F. G. Patterson (adapted)