"But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel" (Phil. 1:12).
In the circumstances to which the apostle here alludes, we get the result of the overruling hand of God in His power and ways toward us in the Church. There is nothing so good for us as the hand of God coming in and leading us, as He did Paul, in a path altogether contrary to our will. But the flesh always tears away from the hand of God; and even the renewed will dislikes to be thus under it. There is nothing that we more shrink from than from the hand of God. When Paul wrote this epistle, it was exactly his case. For if the things which happened to him fell out for the furtherance of the Gospel (as he says), nothing at this time happened to him, according to his prayers; but there was the hand of God upon him, keeping him from his longed-for service. But this very thing is used of God to set the saint in Christ far above the service he is occupied in—precious in its place as that may be—and to give the greater blessedness of the enjoyment of Christ Himself. Paul, at Tarsus, for a while rested from service; afterward he labored more abundantly than they all. The early part of his course sent him into activity, and he " conferred not with flesh and blood"; but on he went in the power of the Spirit in him; but here we see him the subject of another process in his soul. In Romans we find him saying, " Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea" (Rom. 15:30,31). There he prayed to be delivered from ungodly men, yet they put his feet in the stocks. While there was service to be done, there was another matter with Paul. He was idle two whole years at Caesarea from service. He was a prisoner; but as a prisoner was able to teach them all. All this time the hand of God was upon him. The Lord was meeting the remainder of self-will in his servant. The value of being with the Lord alone is, that he himself gets more thoroughly into the presence of God; and then he knows what the saints are before God, from being in the presence of God Himself. Paul advances in the joy of being with the Lord, that he might know the difference of the joy of being with the Lord, and in service here. He uses the joy of being here or there, as, "far better"; and so dwelt in God's love, that when he saw service to the Church, he says, " I know I shall stay here." Though in a strait, yet he had no doubt -because he knew what was in God. It was " far better to depart and be with him"; but-in seeing the other principle of God's active love—-" to abide in the flesh is more needful for them." God is ever acting in love; therefore, we should never be disturbed at anything which can happen to us, as though some strange thing had happened to us. The things which happen to us, always happen of God, and are all perfect, being of God.
Never a time when God more deferred acting in Paul than the two years at Caesarea. Paul was entirely and painfully set aside by these circumstances. If your soul is in communion with God, you will know God's mind about the saints. But you are not to be content unless " changed into the same image." That which is well pleasing to God, SHOULD BE WROUGHT IN US.