Weakness and Strength: October 2019
Table of Contents
Weakness and Strength
Christ “was crucified through weakness,” yet raised from the dead by the power of God. The instruments God then uses for preaching the gospel are only poor, weak, defenseless creatures without any carnal weapons to carry on their warfare. Yet the charge was given them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It is easy to see that for the carrying out of this charge some unseen strength was needed. We see, for example, a few fishermen preaching the gospel, and thousands bowing to the authority of that name which they preached, while the world power sought to silence them and stop their work. Yet undismayed, these poor, despised fishermen go on with their work. What was the secret? God was with them. The rulers lay their hands on them and put them in the common prison. The next morning they are found again standing in the temple and preaching to the people “all the words of this life.” The Apostle Paul was delivered out of the mouth of the lion (2 Tim. 4:17). Here was true strength and real courage, but it was strength in the midst of utter weakness, and courage when there was no hope in human resources. It was the power of God. It was all of God who wrought in them effectually for the carrying out of His purposes.
A. H. Rule (adapted)
Enduring and Entering Into Temptation
2 Cor. 12:1-10
Immediately upon redemption, weakness comes in: “He was crucified through weakness” (2 Cor. 13:4). “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Christ could have gone up to heaven as the Son of David, but then He would have had no one with Him.
If the Spirit were given where atonement was not known, it could only produce fearful conflict in the soul. There was no such thing as redemption, bringing back, except by the humiliation of His Son. If He had not become Man, He could not have gone into death; He could not have been the Head of the Gentiles; He could not have been the One among men meeting every need. He came down to measure out everything in His own personal presence in grace. He was not only crucified through weakness; the great point is, He was raised from the dead — Himself the Resurrection and the Life — and we can look into the grave and say, “I know Him as the resurrection and the life.” How does this power work in us? It is resurrection from the dead, and when known it brings the taste of death into everything connected with ourselves. Look at Saul of Tarsus; he had everything planned in his own mind for his service, and the Lord Jesus speaks to him from heaven. His first word, “Who art Thou, Lord?” shows that he was conscious of the entire end of everything connected with self. Then the next thing was, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” Until Christ really looks into you, you will not find that you will look at Him as the revelation of the glory of God. Then you say, “There is a Man up there in heaven raised from the dead, the One in whose face all the glory of God shines. If I want to know anything connected with God, I must learn it from that Man; the answer to every question, above, around, within, is found in the face of that One. God centralizes all in that Person!”
The Man in the Glory
We often think of 2 Corinthians 12 as the experience of the Apostle, but in it we get the principle of Christ’s dealing with a soul. God shows me the Man in the glory, but after that I look up and see that One bearing me on His heart before God and that He never forgets me. We get here the principle of God’s dealing with a man down here. There is more than one principle on which the Apostle was quite willing to be a pilgrim down here, but this is one: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” If it is a question of service, of suffering, of any power at all, where do I get it? In Christ.
We get another ground in Philippians 3. There his heart was so entranced with Christ that he wanted in everything to be like Him; because Christ suffered, he wants to bear the marks of suffering too — to be like Him in every possible way, in moral character, in suffering, even in “being made conformable unto His death.” Christ was down here as a pilgrim and stranger, and so Paul wanted to have the marks of one of His disciples, in being conformed to His sufferings, for the love he had to Christ.
A Thorn in the Flesh
But in this chapter (2 Corinthians 12) it is another thing. Christ means to conform us, as His disciples, to that principle of death and resurrection that was made good in Him before we got any blessing from it, that in everyday life we may have His strength. Look at the bearing of this on a person down here, the light it casts on his face. It was not only a question of the danger Christ saw, but He used Satan, for Satan gave Paul the thorn in the flesh. Christ’s purpose is to perfect His strength in His servant’s weakness. The whole scene down here is under His hand, and not only are the difficulties here for us to get through, but they are arranged by Christ that He may glorify Himself by taking you through them. Who made the wilderness? God. And had He any special purpose in making it as it was? Why did He not make it like Canaan? Because He wanted a place for His people where He would have to supply their need every day. The secret of quietness and peace of heart is not to look at things and say, I have got to face them; rather, Christ has prepared the things as they are that I may not be able to get along a single day without Himself. Have I no bread? No work? Am I sick? Where is Christ? All the things are not only overruled, but used by Him that we may learn His strength of love that cripples us that He may be able to say, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
As I go along and see in my path a large rock, what do I think? How can I ever get over it? No; Christ has allowed it. He has put it in my path to try my faith, and He will get me over it. You cannot say in ease and prosperity, “There is Christ,” but as soon as the storm begins, the weakness is felt, the sickness comes, and we can certainly count on Christ. An extremity never takes Him by surprise, though often it may be an extremity entirely opposed to His moral character. If He leaves a person to himself, it is not that He gives him up, but to prove his heart. If He sees a man full of himself, even though his face may be beaming with the glory, He must leave him to himself a little. If the heart will not bow to Christ, it must be left to itself. If we do not learn in the quiet of the sanctuary, we shall find ourselves outside to learn what poor things we are. Christ would rather have His name dishonored and Peter brought low than keep him in the ranks of the church, “making a fair show in the flesh” (Gal. 6:12).
A Sense of Weakness
John, an exile in Patmos, might have thought his apostleship had ended, but Christ comes and gives him a book to write, unfolding things of deep importance to the church in all ages. We get another instance in Romans 8. I do not know what to ask, but the Spirit makes intercession with groanings, and He that searches the heart knows it. Do I know what I want? No, but we present our desires before Him, often unable to form them into sentences. Christ is up there; He knows what the Spirit wants for us. Redemption, working through almighty power, connects God, Christ in heaven, with me, a little insignificant individual down here. God is so occupied with me that He brings me into desires after spiritual things connected with the glory of Christ. I present the desire, Christ understands, and I am brought to a sense of weakness by this character of communion, by His “strength made perfect in weakness.” A great deal of the defective Christianity nowadays is owing to the Lord’s people coming short in seeing that. Do we understand that the whole wilderness is to be a book of death and resurrection to us? Here it is my lifetime all developed by Christ, and His acting upon all to develop the principle of death and resurrection, and that to let me know “My grace is sufficient.” If we look at Satan as one of the powers by which God works, at the wilderness as the place prepared by Christ, where the tokens of His love are shown out, and at ourselves, crippled by Christ in order that we may have no strength but His to act on, we will find sweetness and refreshing of soul.
G. V. Wigram (adapted)
Jacob Have I Loved
In tracing the history of Jacob, we are again and again reminded of the grace expressed in those words, “Jacob have I loved.” The question why God should love such a one can only be answered in the sovereign grace of Him who sets His love upon objects possessing nothing within them, “that no flesh should glory in His presence.” Jacob’s natural character was not amiable; his name indeed said what he was — “a supplanter.” He commenced his life in the development of this and pursued a course of bargain-making.
On leaving his father’s house, Jacob makes a bargain with God. “If God,” says he, “will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee” (Gen. 28:20-22). Here we find him making a bargain with God Himself; then again, during his sojourn with Laban, we see his deep-laid schemes to promote his own ends. How plainly it is seen that self was the grand object before his mind, in all that he put his hand to. So it is in the course of Genesis 32; he is deeply engaged in plans to turn away the dreaded wrath of his brother Esau.
A Bad Conscience
But there is one circumstance in this chapter which deserves attention. Jacob has a bad conscience with regard to his brother, and he is therefore ill at ease at the prospect of meeting him. But God had a controversy with Jacob. He had to lead him through a course of education that was to teach him that “all flesh is grass.” Jacob thought only of appeasing Esau by a present. True, he turns aside in this chapter to offer up confession, and he prays; yet it is manifest that his heart was engaged about his own arrangements for appeasing Esau, more than anything else. But God was preparing a restorative course of discipline for him, in order to teach him what was in his heart. For this purpose was Jacob left alone. All his company, arranged according to his own plan, had passed on, and he himself was awaiting this much-dreaded interview with Esau.
There is peculiar force in the words, “Jacob was left alone.” Thus it is with all who have been trained in the school of God; they have been brought into the solitude of the divine presence, there to view themselves and their ways where alone they can be rightly viewed. There is no part of a man’s history so important as when he is thus led into the solitude of the divine presence! It is there he understands things which were before dark and inexplicable. There he can judge of men and things in their proper light; there too he can judge of self and see its proper nothingness and vileness.
The Sanctuary
In Psalm 73 we find a soul looking abroad upon the world and reasoning upon what he saw there — reasoning to such an extent that he was almost tempted to say it was vain to serve the Lord at all. In Psalm 77 we find a soul looking inward and reasoning upon what he saw within —reasoning to such an extent as to question the continuance of God’s grace. What was the remedy in both cases? “The sanctuary.” I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood. So it was with Jacob; his “sanctuary” was the lonely spot where God wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. If read carefully, this passage does not support the popular idea, namely, that it is an instance of Jacob’s power in prayer. Note that it says, “There wrestled a man with him”; it is not said that he wrestled with the man. I believe that, so far from its proving Jacob’s power in prayer, it rather proves the tenacity with which he grasped the things of the flesh. So firmly did he hold fast his “confidence in the flesh” that all night long the struggle continued. “The supplanter” held out, nor did he yield until the very seat of his strength was touched, and he was made to feel indeed that “all flesh is grass.” Instead of Jacob’s patience and perseverance in prayer, we have God’s patience in dealing with one who needed to have his “old man” crushed before God could make anything of him.
“Except THOU Bless Me”
This momentous scene is the grand turning-point in the life of this extraordinary man. And we may ask what the expression means, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.” Surely it is the utterance of one that had made the discovery that he was “without strength.” Jacob was let into the secret of human weakness; therefore he thinks no more of his own plans and arrangements and his presents to appease “my lord Esau.” No; he stands withered and trembling before the One who had humbled him, and he cries, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.” Surely this is the gate of heaven! Jacob had arrived at the end of flesh; it is no longer “me,” but “Thee.” All self-confidence is gone; all his bargains availed him nothing at all. How miserable must everything that he did have seemed to him, when thus laid in the dust of self-abasement and conscious weakness!
The mighty Wrestler says, “Let Me go, for the day breaketh.” He was determined to make manifest the condition of Jacob’s soul. If Jacob had without delay let go his grasp, it would have proved that his heart was still wrapped up in his worldly plans and schemes. On the contrary, when he cries out, “I will not let Thee go,” he declares that God alone was the spring of all his soul’s joy and strength. Such will ever be the happy effect of a thorough acquaintance with our own hearts. Jacob now gets his name changed; he must not be any longer known as “the supplanter,” but as “a prince,” having power with God through the very knowledge of his weakness, for “when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). We are never so strong as when we feel ourselves weak, and, on the contrary, we are never so weak as when we fancy ourselves strong. Peter never displayed more lamentable weakness than when he fancied he had uncommon strength. Had he felt somewhat of Jacob’s happy condition when his sinew shrank, he would have thought, acted and spoken differently.
Power With God
We should not turn from this passage without at least seeing distinctly what it was that gave Jacob “power with God and with man”: It was the full consciousness of his own nothingness. There is nothing here of Jacob’s power in prayer. No; all we see is, first, Jacob’s strength in the flesh and God weakening him; then, his weakness in the flesh and God strengthening him. This is indeed the great moral of the scene. Jacob was satisfied to go “halting” on his journey, seeing he had learned the secret of true strength. He was able to move along in the spirit of the words afterward uttered by the Apostle Paul: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). Yes, “my infirmities” on the one hand and “the power of Christ” on the other will be found to constitute the sum total of the life of a Christian.
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
King Uzziah Strengthened, and Strong
From 2 Chronicles 26:5-16, we learn that king Uzziah “sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.” He went forth and warred, and “God helped him.” “He strengthened himself exceedingly.” He built towers in Jerusalem and fortified them, and towers in the desert, and digged many wells. He had husbandmen also, and vine-dressers in the mountains and in Carmel. Moreover, he had a host of fighting men that went out to war by bands. “The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were two thousand and six hundred. And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal.” We need not dwell upon the description of the numerous army of King Uzziah; we will turn to God’s instruction for ourselves about it. “And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” Of all the words we find put together, there are few more remarkable than these.
One would have thought that the very object to be gained by Uzziah was to be strong, but the strength we naturally covet is independence of God. If we remember that all real strength is derived from the fullness that is in Jesus, we would always be able to say with Paul, “When I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). We need to be deprived of every resource in ourselves, that we may know our strength to be in Him. When Uzziah felt himself to be strong, God left him. There is great danger of our putting multiplied means in the place of the Lord Himself; we may go the whole round of means, and forget that they are not the supply.
Strong
What has been the history of the church? She was marvellously helped till she was strong; when she was strong, her heart became lifted up. The saints at Corinth had multiplied resources, men, wisdom and the like, and were tempted to think that by the exercise of this wisdom they could refute the heathen. But they were told by the Apostle, No; it is only by bringing in the “wisdom of God,” which is foolishness with man, and the strength of God, which is weakness with man. In the book of Acts, the Spirit of God shows us that the church, when few in number, was marvellously helped. But how soon the church began to look to itself, to its own resources and greatness, instead of to the Lord! And has this a voice to ourselves? Our blessing is in our taking the place of weakness, so that God may for His own name’s sake provide help.
There is danger in our supposing that we have attained to something. It is a mark of failure when a Christian looks to his own honor and credit, instead of the honor of the Lord. The great thing is to have regard for His name, for a single eye will be occupied with Christ.
His Heart Was Lifted Up
It is a very strong word that we have here in reference to Uzziah — “His heart was lifted up to his destruction.” But there is as strong a word in the New Testament — “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” If any, even a saint of God, “soweth to his flesh,” he will reap only a sorrowful harvest of corruption, all his time having been misspent. We need to give heed to the searching words of Scripture, not turning away the point of them from ourselves under the supposition that they cannot apply to us. This thought has been the source of much mischief in the church. That soul will prosper which trembles at God’s Word and is willing to face the most searching parts of it. The saint of God can sow to the flesh, can walk “according to the flesh,” can “war after the flesh”; but the miserable end will be, that he will “of the flesh reap corruption.” When Uzziah was strong (his strength being in his own resources), his heart became “lifted up” — more like the heart of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon (Dan. 4:20) than that of God’s anointed king of Judah. A heart that is “lifted up” is in a dangerous state and is almost always on the brink of a fall.
Though Uzziah was God’s anointed king, not God’s anointed priest, yet he would have nothing restrained from him. We find him transgressing “against the Lord his God,” and going into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense, which appertained not unto him, but unto the priests only, the sons of Aaron who were consecrated to burn incense. Let us too beware of dealing with the Lord in unholy familiarity; a humble spirit is always a confident spirit, but a humble spirit can trust only in the blood of Jesus; it does not rush into God’s presence as the man who is “lifted up” in heart does. We can come there only through the incense of the Lord Jesus, not on the credit of our own graces, or devotedness, or in fleshly fervor.
The Place of a Priest
Azariah the priest, with fourscore priests, valiant men, withstood the king. “Then Uzziah was wroth ... and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord” (2 Chron. 26:19).
Beloved, this history of king Uzziah is written for our admonition. Lifting up of heart is always self-seeking, not God seeking. We have (blessed be God) liberty to enter into the holiest, for we are priests unto God by the blood of Jesus, but it is ever through the incense of our great High Priest.
In chapter 27:6, we have no mention of Jotham’s great army; he “became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” This is the way for the saint to grow in practical strength. Thus it was with the Thessalonians; their “work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope” was “in the sight of God and our Father.” Jotham set the Lord always before him and went on in an even tenor of conduct. In the eyes of man, he might not be as mighty as Uzziah, but the Holy Spirit records his name as that of one “mighty” in the eyes of God.
Christian Truth, Vol. 11
Strength and Courage
Let us look at the frank, open-hearted, upright Apostle Peter. Fervent in his love to Jesus, he was ignorant of the deceitfulness of the heart. The Lord’s eye could look ahead and see Peter in the midst of a scene in which he had not yet been placed. The daily companion of Jesus, witness of His miracles, partaking of His more secret instruction when He expounded to His disciples His parables, experimentally knowing the care of Jesus in providing for him and His companions when He had sent them forth without purse or scrip: Is he such a dog? Shall he deny Him? The thought is repelled with honest indignation. “Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee” (Matt. 26:35). It was to Peter that the Father had made a special revelation of the glory of the person of the Lord, that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. What, shall Peter deny his own confession and the honor put upon him in the revelation made to him of the Father? Impossible!
Trust in Our Intentions
Now the error of Peter and of all of us is to take for granted that we know our hearts as well as the Lord knows them. We trust to the integrity of our intentions, and we “enter into temptation,” unaware that we are brought into the place where the integrity of our intentions is to be tested. Let us change the scene, where Peter is sleeping in the garden when the Lord is in agony. The Lord could draw the line, which it would be dangerous for His disciples to attempt to cross in their own strength. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Weak in reality, although strong apparently, Peter, aroused from his slumber to fleshly confidence, “stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear” (Matt. 26:51). Brave action to fight single-handed against a multitude, but to watch and pray and to have no confidence in the flesh is far harder. Jesus is deserted by His disciples, despised and rejected of men. Will Peter stand by his former confession? No; he equivocates, denies, curses, swears, “I know not the man.” The Lord had now shown that He knew Peter’s heart better than Peter knew it himself. He restores him with a look, but Peter went out and wept bitterly.
The history of Peter shows us the connection between the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the heart. Little did he know that cursing and swearing were there ready to burst forth on the occasion being opened. Is there a Christian of any experience who does not know the shame of confessing Jesus before men to be more powerful than the most upright resolution? It is comparatively easy when we are among many who acknowledge Jesus also to acknowledge Him, but for Christ to be the only object necessitates the cross. If we do not take it for granted that our “hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” so that we are led to watch and pray, we shall enter into temptation.
Christ in Rejection
Many are the instances of undaunted human resolution, but human resolution is not the spirit of him who is the witness of Jesus. It needs to be broken and to know that it is but weakness. Had the Lord rushed to battle at the head of His followers, in all likelihood Peter would have followed Him, reckless of danger. But such boldness is weakness, for the path of faith, instead of following Jesus to battle, has to follow Him unto rejection. Such was the path of the Master: “Ought not Christ to suffer ... and to enter into His glory?” When Peter had learned the true secret of turning the Lord’s omniscience to a practical personal account and said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee” (John 21:17), then he was no longer prepared to glory in his “wisdom” or in “his might.” The Lord could “signify to him, by what death he should glorify God,” and say unto him, “Follow Me.” What Peter could not do in his own time and way and strength, the Lord enabled him to do in His time, His way and His strength.
God’s End and Object
“What, then, shall we say to these things?” First, a Christian should habitually come “to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God” (John 3:21). This will prevent not only his acting a character, but also prevent that subtle snare of using the character he has among others as a blind to conceal his own faults. Second, we must remember that God’s end and object is to glorify not us, but His own Son Jesus Christ. This is always the object of the Holy Spirit, and when He writes the history of His people, He does not hesitate to record their sins, failings and blemishes, sometimes even without comment, that we may learn the impossibility of any flesh glorying before the Lord. If this is but very imperfectly learned here, it will be very evident when we shall know even as we ourselves are known. But, last, we are taught, both historically and doctrinally (it may be experimentally), that such is the deceitfulness of the heart that no gifts of the highest order, no graces received out of the fullness of Jesus, no honest zeal for His name, no devotedness of past service and no activity of present service are a safeguard against it. We can only be “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). And the unrescinded rule prescribed for our safety by Jesus is, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
The Flesh
The flesh in the saint is shown in its fearful evil by its very proximity to the Spirit. But the heart deceitfully thinks that it does not need to be continually guarded against, and it readily gives new names to old lusts and passions, but the verdict remains unrepealed, “The flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). While watchfulness and prayer are ever needed, he only will be blameless and shameless and without offense who walks in the solemn conviction that he has to fear the outbreak of the foulest sins, unless his soul be occupied with Jesus. The sin from which his heart would recoil, if deliberately presented, may be the very one into which he is insensibly led from one step of temptation to another. “Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25).
J. L. Harris (adapted)
Strength in (Seeming) Defeat
All through the Word of God we are encouraged to have faith in God and to draw on His strength and power in our lives. To do this, of course, we must realize our own weakness and understand clearly that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). But if we look at man’s history, we have abundant examples, especially in the Old Testament, where men who did not have strength leaned on Him and gained wonderful victories. We see Abraham arming his 318 servants and defeating a confederation of four kings, who had just defeated another confederation of five kings. We see the children of Israel passing through the Red Sea, while the Egyptians were drowned in trying to follow them. We see Israel conquering the land of Canaan, although vastly outnumbered by their enemies. We see David, who was only a youth, killing Goliath, who was not only a giant, but a skilled man of war. The list goes on and on of those who, counting on God’s power, won great victories. Some of this history is recorded in Hebrews 11, and especially the history of Abraham’s family, and subsequently Moses and the children of Israel.
Finally some are mentioned without details being given — Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel, and the prophets (Heb. 11:32). (Note that the first four names are not given in chronological order, but perhaps in the order of the strength of their faith.) The triumphs of these men (and women too!) are well documented for us in Scripture. But then, in the middle of verse 35, we read, “And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. ... Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment” (vss. 35-36). It might seem, at first glance, that these were people without faith, for they did not experience the outward demonstration of God’s power and deliverance. Yet, the Spirit of God records that “these all” were among those who “obtained a good report through faith” (vs. 39). Some may ask how this could happen, if there was real faith in their hearts.
Tried With Fire
We must recognize that God is glorified when His people gain great victories through His strength, but that He is also glorified when they “endure grief, suffering wrongfully” (1 Peter 2:19). God does at times glorify His name by displaying His power on behalf of His people, and we can be very thankful for this. However, the greatest display of faith, that which brings the greatest honor to the Lord, is found when His people continue steadfast in their trust and confidence, even when it is not outwardly rewarded at the time. In the one case our faith is rewarded down here; in the other we must wait for the reward in resurrection. Another has aptly remarked that “God may test our faith, but He will never disappoint our faith.” This is true, but the testing may go on throughout this life, without seeming to be rewarded. Then our faith is indeed “tried with fire,” but this severe trial of our faith will be found “unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). There is a glory in having God come in with His power down here and demonstrate clearly His ability to deliver us, but there is an even greater glory when His people endure all that can come against them, without any outward relief, yet continue to honor the Lord and go on in faithfulness.
No Open Intervention
In these last days, perhaps we are seeing more of this, as the rejection of Christ becomes more and more pronounced in this world. Yet God does not openly intervene in the affairs of men, although doubtless allowing events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods to occur, to warn men of coming judgment. More than this, He is working behind the scenes and moving everything in a direction to accomplish His purposes. In the meanwhile, believers are finding the truth of our Lord’s words, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:33), and also, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Sad to say, some are succumbing to the pressure and deciding that the Christian pathway is too difficult, that it is better to compromise a little and to enjoy some relief from the difficulties of following a rejected Christ. But the Lord has given us wonderful encouragement.
Remember Jesus Christ
Are we willing to be as our Lord and Master? It is noteworthy that in Hebrews 11:35-38, no names are given. Earlier in the chapter, names are given for those who were victorious in faith, but none for those who endured, without being delivered. While not pretending to explain this fully, I would suggest that the Spirit of God does not want to take our eyes away from the One who is the supreme example of this. Was there ever One who suffered as our blessed Lord did, without being delivered? He could say prophetically in Psalm 22:4,6, “Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. ... But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” More than this, He could say, “My God, I cry by day, and Thou answerest not” (Psa. 22:3 JND). Not only was there no deliverance, but even His cry went unanswered. Yet what does Scripture exhort us to do? We read in 2 Timothy 2:8 JND, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David, according to my glad tidings.” Paul was suffering too, without deliverance, yet he tells Timothy to remember that the reward for faithfulness down here will come in resurrection, and not necessarily in this world. It was so for our blessed Master, and “it is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord” (Matt. 10:25).
An Eternal Perspective
The difficulties of the way are many in these last days. In some lands open persecution of believers is going on, even unto death. In other lands, life has become complicated and challenging, especially for young people; finding a suitable career, establishing a home and raising a family are much more demanding than they were a few years ago. Some are “opting out,” and especially when they see others who compromise and seem to get along well. If we are tempted to do this, let us remember that faithfulness will never go unnoticed by the Lord, and it will never go unrewarded. But we must take an eternal perspective, for “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
W. J. Prost
The Flesh is Weak
The Lord’s plan to deliver His people sometimes entails drawing out wickedness against them in all its force. This is very alarming in itself, but it is God’s way of delivering, because the effect is to break down the flesh, to show that we have no strength at all. And this is our victory, for then the question is between God and Satan, and not between us and Satan.
In Egypt, the Lord delivered the Israelites by bringing all Pharaoh’s host against them. They saw that they had no strength themselves, and they cried unto the Lord; they were comforted with the promise, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Ex. 14:10-14).
In the time of Jehoshaphat, the children of Israel were like two little flocks of kids, while the Syrians filled the country, but the Lord promised, “Therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (1 Kings 20:27-28).
The Jews had a country on earth, and he that killed them would remove them from earth; but the saints are strangers on earth, having their country in heaven; therefore they do not need the same kind of deliverance the Jews did, and should not look for it.
The prince of the power of the air, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places are the enemies of the saint, trying to hinder heavenly-mindedness, and keep him from communion with the Father and the Son.
If the weakest saint is leaning only on Jesus, he is stronger than all the powers of Satan, because Jesus is stronger. May He who works in His people to will and to do of His good pleasure work in our souls, delivering us from that great work of Satan — a form of godliness without power.
Christian Truth, Vol. 4
Weakness and Strength
The ground of strength and courage is the fact that God has commanded, and He is with the one who obeys. “Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Josh. 1:9). The difficulties might be like mountains, but Jehovah was greater than all, and He was with His obedient servant, so that he had nothing to fear. He had delivered Israel out of Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea, the wilderness, and the Jordan; He who had done this could give strength and courage against which no foe could stand.
We need this same strength and courage. Where it is a question of Satan’s power and wiles, we read, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10). And when Christianity began to decline and Timothy was losing heart, then Paul encouraged him in these words: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Tim. 1:7-8). And again: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Timothy needed this encouragement, and we need it, and what is more, God is able to give it, and He will give it to those who go on in dependent obedience to His will.
Faith in God
But we must have faith in God. There is a maxim of this world which says, “Knowledge is power,” but with the believer power is rather connected with “faith.” Faith brings God in, and there is no limit to His power. The real question is, Are we walking with Him? Have we the knowledge of His will so that we can act with confidence? Can we bring Him into what we are doing? If this is so, we can go forward in the name of the Lord with strength and courage of heart, undismayed by all the power of Satan. And here let us observe that diligence of heart is needed, and, of equal importance, prayerful dependence. “Meditating day and night” and “praying always” are what the warriors of Christ are called to. Joshua was to meditate on the words of the law day and night, and the Ephesian saints were to pray always with all prayer and supplication for all saints. Paul says to Timothy, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Tim. 4:15). If we were more diligent as to the Word of God and prayer, how different our state would be! What fervency of heart in all our service and what devotedness to Christ and His people there would be, and how much greater blessing would be enjoyed!
How much we lack this diligence of heart! How much time that might be given up to prayer and meditation on God’s blessed Word is spent in foolish talk and idle gossip, grieving the Spirit, blighting spiritual growth, and drying up the springs of divine love in the soul! “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name” (Mal. 3:16). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another” (Col. 3:16). We need all this so that the Lord may be honored, and our blessing and the blessing of others secured.
Dependence on God
I may add also that strength and courage are needed more in a day of decline than when all is going well. There is not only the enemy with which to contend, but also, instead of having the support of our brethren, we may meet with that which chills the heart and fills it with sorrow. Here the heart is really tested, and God only can sustain. There is not only conflict with a common enemy, but there is the state of the saints to be borne as a burden on the heart. Will we bear this burden? Will we cleave to the saints in the power of divine love when they turn away from us, as all in Asia did from Paul? Will we seek to serve them when we are misunderstood, misrepresented, or even maligned? Paul could say to the Corinthian saints, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you: though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:15). It is easy to love my brethren when they love me and heap their favors upon me. But do I love them just the same when they turn against me or forsake me? Do I intercede for them when perhaps they are only speaking evil of me? The real question is, Have I got the heart of Christ about the saints? Then I shall act toward them according to His heart and seek His glory in connection with their state, regardless of personal rights or present advantage.
Diligent seeking of God’s face and patient waiting on Him for His will, His help and His guidance are indispensable. Why have we no strength? Why is there decline among us? Why breaking of ranks and scattering of the saints? Is it not because we have not lived close to Christ and gone on in humble dependence on God? And God’s Christ, God’s truth and God’s people have not had their rightful place in our affections. We have seen one growing careless and another going wrong, and we have perhaps talked about them and criticized them when we ought to have been on our faces interceding for them.
The Recognition of Our State
But will we lay to heart our own state and that of our brethren? Will we own our slackness of soul, our carelessness, and with diligence of heart seek God’s face? Then we might expect His blessing and the enjoyment of His favor which is better than life (Psa. 63:3). There is no time for loitering, no time for idle gossip, no time for pampering the flesh and feeding it with the vanities of this world. “Wherefore He saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:14-16).
The blessed Lord give the writer and the reader strength and courage in this evil world to live for Himself and for His own, serving Him and them in lowly grace until we are taken out of the scene of conflict and service to rest in the eternal brightness of His own presence and in the joy of His unchanging love.
A. H. Rule (adapted)
Out of Weakness Were Made Strong
There is a vast difference between “falling into temptation” (or “enduring temptation,” as in James 1:2,12), on the one hand, and “entering into temptation” (Matt. 26:41), on the other. We should be clear in our souls as to this difference, for as the one is blessed, the other is the utmost possible danger for the soul. There is nothing more strengthening than to “endure temptation”; nothing more perilous than to “enter into” it. The wording is similar, and we might easily slur over the difference. But the contrast is complete, for in the one case it is an honor that God puts upon us, and in the other a snare that Satan presents to us.
Which of these two things do we know best? How far do our souls know what it is to fall into various temptations, or to endure temptation? Blessed are we if we do, for falling into temptation or enduring it is that in which God delights. In Genesis 22 we find that Abraham was in a condition in which God could try him, and He loves our being in such a condition. But this is not so unless we are governed by the sense of the presence of God, and the flesh is judged.
Not Enduring
Salvation is not merely an incomparable favor that God has shown to us in our need, but it is inseparable from the dealing with self in the presence of God, and so much so that where this is not learned at the beginning, it must be more painfully taught in the course. And then what dishonor to God! How grieving to His Spirit! Such failure, to teach us what we are, is not enduring temptation, nor is it in the least the same as God’s trying us. In such a state the Lord has rather to buffet us for our faults, as those who bear the name of the Lord Jesus in an uncomely way.
How grievous that those who have such a salvation should so little have used it to deal with self, the most hateful of all things to God! There is nothing so bad as self, yet this is the very thing that every one of us carries with us. The question now is, How far has grace acted upon our souls to lead us to judge it fully in the presence of God? Where this is the case, the Lord can try us, that is, He can put us to the proof by what is not at all a question of evil, because God does not tempt by evil any more than He is tempted by evil things.
Abraham
When God asked Abraham to give up his only son, this was not evil, but a most blessed trial. It was proving whether Abraham had such perfect confidence in God that he would give up the object that was dearest to him, in whom were centered all the promises of God. And by grace Abraham could. Of course, he did it with the perfect certainty that if Isaac were then to die, God would raise him up, for Abraham perfectly well knew, before the sacrifice was asked, that Isaac was to be the child of promise. It was therefore really the good of God’s own heart that was reflected in what He asked of Abraham’s heart, and Abraham was brought into greater communion with God in that which was the counterpart of the gift of His own Son.
Just so it is with the trials by which God is pleased to try us. It is a proof of the greatest confidence on God’s part if there is in us such a groundwork of walking before God that He can try us with something that is like Himself — some prize to give up, some suffering to endure in grace — whatever it may be that is according to His own mind. It is in this sense that temptation is spoken of in James 1:2,12.
After this (James 1:13,15), we immediately turn to temptation spoken of in a bad sense, and this connects itself with Matthew 26:41. Both are words of great importance for our souls. The Lord had looked for His disciples to watch with Him. He says to them, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation,” for it is not any power conferred by the Spirit of God that keeps (even though He is the Spirit of power); it is not energy which keeps, but dependence; it is the sense of weakness that watches and prays, and thus has the power of Christ resting on us. His strength is made perfect in weakness.
The greater our knowledge of the Word of God, the greater our need of watching and prayer.
There is nothing that so tends, where it is severed from Christ, to destroy dependence as a large knowledge of the Word of God. The greater our knowledge of the Word of God, where it is separated from the sense of utter weakness, and consequently from the need of watching and praying, the greater the danger. This is a solemn warning for our souls. There may be plenty of knowledge of Scripture and of what is called intelligence of truth, but do our souls keep up this sense of our weakness and need and the expression of it to God? “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”
The Will at Work
What does our Lord mean by “entering into temptation”? It is the will going into a place where nothing but a judged will, leaning on Him, can be kept; that is, the will goes in where failure is inevitable, just because it is the will at work. So Peter himself soon proved. Peter went where he could not stand, unless the Lord had called and kept him by faith. He entered into temptation and fell. He would have endured, had he gone in by grace, obedience, watching and praying, instead of trusting in his own willingness to die for his Master. When our Lord says, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” He is looking at nature in man, and nature is incapable of such a trial. None but God can sustain, and therefore it would require God’s will expressed in His Word to lead us rightly into such a scene of temptation, and His grace sustaining in faith to keep us in it.
It would have been an abomination in Abraham to sacrifice his son, unless God had spoken the word. But faith, where self is judged, strengthens the soul to endure temptation. We do not enter into temptation where we abide in dependence and self-judgment. Then when we fall into various temptations, we count it all joy, and as we did not enter of our own will, so we do not fall in them, but by grace endure.
The Lord give us to watch and pray, so much the more because He has blessed us with such a knowledge of His Word and of Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ.
W. Kelly (adapted)
A Thorn in the Flesh
Lest Paul should be exalted above measure, a thorn in the flesh is given to him. We learn from the epistle to the Galatians that it was something that made him contemptible in his preaching. It was something to keep him from being puffed up, but this is not strength. We have got the blessedness of Paul in the third heaven. We have got the man in Christ who can thank and bless God for what we are made in Christ — who can say of all of us, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). But after this we have another thing, the flesh and its inclination to be puffed up. And then we find a third thing, the flesh made exceedingly disagreeable. But this is not strength — on the contrary, it is the emptying of strength. You cannot get God to help the flesh and to help self-will. He will break it down. He will humble you by it, but He will never help it. He breaks the vessel that we may know that the power is not of man but of God. So that he says here, “When I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). When I am weak, I feel that I am weak. I know the truth about myself. Here the apostle was preaching, and his manner of preaching was contemptible, and yet hundreds of people were converted through it. Well, this does not come from what is contemptible: it does not come from Paul but from God. The Lord then, when He had made him feel his weakness, says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). If Paul had gotten his own strength, Christ need not have had so much for him; but if Paul had none, the strength that came from Christ was in him. The man had been brought into conscious weakness that the power of Christ might rest upon him.
Christ in the Man
Now there we have, not the man in Christ, but Christ in the man, and this is what we want down here. If we think of the man in Christ, it is perfection. But when it is a question of walking down here, we want strength as well as sincerity — we want power. If the power is in myself, there is the old man set up, and this will not do. The old man must be set down, and then another power comes in. I have Christ with me; I am a dependent man. Christ said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). We see Him constantly dependent, and always right. That is what is so difficult for us. We get into mischief just when we get into independence of God. This is why we so often see a Christian have a fall, after a season of great joy. Why? Because his joy has taken him away from dependence upon God. When I am emptied of self, and am in distresses and infirmities and necessities for Christ’s sake, then I can say, I will glory in them. Why? “That the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Here there will be blessing — being made nothing of in my own consciousness, but then having the consciousness of the power of Christ resting on me. This is not the man in Christ, but the power of Christ resting on him as he walks down here — it is Christ in the man. Supposing I am emptied of self, and Christ is living in me, what shall I get? I shall not be always in the third heaven, but Christ is always there. I have got my security there, my life there, my righteousness there, everything there that I need. Christ is my title: I am in Christ, and not in the first Adam.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Looking Unto Jesus
When along life’s thorny road,
Faints the soul beneath its load —
By its cares and sins oppressed;
Finds on earth no peace or rest;
When the wily tempter’s near,
Filling us with doubts and fear:
Jesus, to Thy feet we flee;
Jesus, we will look to Thee.
Thou, our Savior, from the throne,
List’nest to Thy people’s groan;
Thou, the living Head, dost share
Every pang Thy members bear:
Full of tenderness Thou art;
Thou wilt heal the broken heart;
Full of power, Thine arm shall quell
All the rage and might of hell.
Thou, O Jesus, Thou hast borne
Satan’s rage, the worldling’s scorn:
Thou hast known the bitter hour
Of the wily tempter’s power;
Lo! Thy bloody sweat we see
In the dark Gethsemane:
Hark that piercing, awful cry,
From the mount of Calvary!
By that love which brought Thee down
From Thy high, eternal throne;
Veiled the Lord of earth and skies
In an infant’s lowly guise:
By that love that healed the maim,
Cured the sick, restored the lame,
Bade the darkened eye to see —
Jesus, we will look to Thee.
J. G. Deck