A HOUSE IN A WALLED CITY
P. W. Hickmott
Leviticus 25: 29–31; Deuteronomy 22: 8
I want to apply this scripture as to a dwelling house in a walled city to a house that is set in relation to the assembly. We are thankful that,
in these broken and difficult days, not only is the light of the assembly known to us, but something of the experience of the assembly. If someone has a house in a walled city what protection that would be! Why would anyone ever want to sell it? I trust that no one here, none of us who have homes that are related to the assembly, will ever surrender them. The times we have been through, God has brought us through in pure mercy. May we make resolves—not only thinking of our brother and sister, but each one of us as having households—that they may be maintained in relation to the assembly and the protection it would afford.
So it is implied that the house is to be possessed for ever. I am just making an application of this; it says, “It shall not go out in the jubilee”; it will be his for ever. It would be a fine thing if every one of us made this resolve, that our household, our home setting, will be held primarily in relation to the interests of God and the interests of Christ down here.
I suggest that these other houses in the villages that have no wall round about them may be like many Christian homes around us here, which do not have the light of the assembly.
Hence they would not have the same concern to keep the world out. Oh may none of us let our homes in any sense drift into the evil world that is around us. It is really Satan’s world. In saying that I am not referring to believers, but to the world as a system. It is the world that the Lord Jesus referred to when He said, “The ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”, John 14: 30.
Now just a reference to this parapet in Deuteronomy. It would seem that the houses in those days had a flat roof; the people were often up on the roof and there was a danger that they
would fall off, so a parapet was to be built. How important it is for each one of us who is a householder to have a home that would afford protection to anyone who comes into it. It is a simple matter to speak of, I know, but it is very important. I believe the enemy of our souls would constantly try to infiltrate into our home settings and to bring his things into them so that persons who come into our homes are damaged. Would it not be fine if every one of our homes was a place of salvation—salvation for one another, in fact salvation for anyone who comes into them? Think of enquiring persons coming into them and finding blessing, finding a sphere where God is given the first place, where Christ is given His place.
Well, that is just my word as we are together, that we should not overlook this parapet, but encourage one another to build it, so that each and all of us are protected as we are in our home settings and that we also hold our homes in relation to the walled city, which really is the assembly, for His name’s sake.
Words at the marriage of Mr. M. Hickmott and Miss R. J. Oberg, Villa Grove
3 May 1986