WORK

WORK

1 Thessalonians 4: 9 - 12; Proverbs 31: 10 - 31

I wish, dear brethren, to say a little as to work, and the importance that God attaches to work. The Lord said when He was here, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work,” and we read of the Holy Spirit, “But all these things operates the one and the same Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12: 11. So that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all presented to us as working.

God worked in creation for six days, day after day, and then on the seventh day He rested and sanctified it, and called upon His people Israel later to hallow the Sabbath day in order that He might convey that while the normal thing is to work, He also cherishes the thought of rest, and would give His people to enter into rest with Him. So that the thought of the Sabbath goes right through Scripture. One of the most important references to it, in actual application to ourselves, being in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, where the manna is given, and where we are told that they ate manna for six days; gathering it each day afresh, and then on the seventh day found none. Of course it was the Sabbath and God had provided on the sixth day a double amount to carry them over the seventh. The teaching of that is that if we habituate ourselves to feeding on manna, in connection with the ordinary responsibilities of daily life, six days feeding on manna will lead to a seventh day of rest. The more we accustom ourselves to feeding on manna, the more we shall find rest in our souls. That is the principle. That however much we may have to do, and God expects that His people should have plenty to do, we should learn to find rest in the middle of what we do have to do: rest of mind and heart, as finding in the manna, Christ once humbled here, the principle of obedience to God’s will... That is what the manna represents. We should find in the daily circumstances of our ordinary life, that which will give us rest in our souls. The Lord says in Matthew, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Take my yoke! Learn from me! That is the appropriating of the manna. “And ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Now I was saying that God is presented to us as working, steadily working, and indeed, He is still working. On the sixth day He brought in the man and the woman. He created man and He blessed them and set them over the works of His hands. It looks on to the day to come when Christ and the assembly will be in supreme headship over things in heaven and earth. In that day God will rest, but now He is working.

In Genesis we find that man was set to work in chapters 2 and 3. In the second chapter we find that God planted a garden; He wanted a garden for His pleasure, and then He placed the man in it to till it and to guard it. That is, God set man to work. Not in a slavish way, but with a view to preserving what was for the pleasure of God in the garden. I have no doubt that the garden of Eden was a type of the assembly in this world, the spot on earth that God would secure and maintain for His own pleasure in the presence of evil. Evil had already come into the world at that time. Satan and his angels had sinned, and evil was there although it had not yet covered the earth. God chose to plant a garden as a sphere which He would have for His pleasure, and He gave man the responsibility of tilling and guarding it. That is the most exalted kind of work: that we should have charge of His interests in this world, and set ourselves to promote those interests and to guard them. In Genesis 3, you find that man sins, and then God sets him to work in another way as part of His governmental ways with him. It says in verse 19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground: for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.” That is, God introduced hard labour. You might say that hard labour is part of His governmental ways with man as a result of his sin, and that remains to this day.

It is a very serious matter for any of us to ignore the governmental consequences of the ordering of God that man should work. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” it says. He also brought in at the same time, certain governmental consequences on the woman, and they remain until this day; but man has to work in the sweat of his brow, and that is part of God’s governmental ways with man. Thus it is important that we should understand that it is for everyone of us to submit ourselves to it, in lowliness and subjection. As some of us were saying yesterday, God’s ways in government always have in mind the furtherance of His ways in blessing. He has taken us up for blessing before the foundation of the world, and His ways with us, what He orders for us, have in mind the further promotion of the blessing which He has taken us up for, according to His purpose. Hence, in this passage in Thessalonians, the apostle is commending the brethren saying, that he had no need to write to them as to brotherly love, “for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For also ye do this towards all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia: but we exhort you, brethren, to abound still more; and to seek earnestly to be quiet, and mind your own affairs, and work with your own hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk reputably towards those without, and may have need of no one.” That is a remarkable exhortation from the Lord by the apostle Paul to every one of us - to work with our own hands, so that we may be walking with a good reputation among those without, that there should be no discredit brought on the testimony, and we should have need of no one. Not to be dependent on others. The Lord would set us to see that we work, and that we should in that way have a good reputation and ability to look after our own affairs, and have need of no one. All this is very practicable, and as you read Scripture, especially the epistles, you find that Christianity is not intended to alter the state of things in the world. The world has, of course, greatly benefited by its influence, but God does not intend to set aside the inequalities that exist among men; for some are servants and some employers: but God does not upset that. He rather brings in the power to adorn the doctrine as a servant, and the power to adorn the doctrine as an employer. The epistles are full of this. We shall find that Ephesians 6, Colossians 3 and 4, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy 6, this epistle (1 Thessalonians), and 2 Thessalonians, all touch on this question. This practical question of our working and how we are to conduct ourselves if we are servants, and how we are to conduct ourselves if we are masters. All these are practical matters which the Spirit of God takes up and they are part of our discipline. Discipline belongs to us all as children, and as sons. Hebrews 12 shows that every one of us comes in for discipline because we are sons. “Ye endure for chastening, God conducts himself towards you as towards sons; for who is the son that the father chastens not? But if ye are without chastening, of which all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced them; shall be not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?” And our employment day by day, the necessity of going on day in and day out, is part of the discipline that God has ordained for us. It is intended to help us in our spirits, and to develop in us the spirit of subjection and the spirit of dependence on God. And all intended to further the work of God with us, that we should be sons, and practical sons: not only by title, but sons as characterised by the affections and dignity and the subjection and all that is proper to sons who have God as their Father.

Now before I pass on, I urge the brethren to bear in mind that there are those two kinds of work that God has ordained for man. I hope to speak in a moment of the more exalted kind of work, but first, there is the kind of work that comes upon us in God’s governmental ways. The women have their governmental consequences, and of course, the women have to work too, they work in the house. But the men particularly have to recognise that God’s government requires that they work and work hard and continuously, until the time that they come to die, if they have the ability to do so. There is also the more privileged and exalted kind of work. God placed the man in the garden to till it, and to guard it. Tilling would involve work. If, as I have no doubt, the garden of Eden is rightly regarded as a type of the assembly at the present time, as that which is intended peculiarly to afford pleasure to the heart of Christ and the heart of God; we can regard the man as placed in it, first as a type of the Lord in charge of all divine pleasure on the earth, and then also, the saints as with Him in it.

I read this passage in Proverbs because it gives us a kind of full-size picture of the assembly as marked by great activity, or those of the assembly characterised by great activity in relation to the interests of Christ; and that is the most exalted kind of work. The apostle says to the Corinthians at the end of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immoveable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” We are always to be abounding in the work of the Lord. That does not simply mean preaching or giving addresses, it means that there is plenty to do to look after the interests of Christ, and every one of us has to be abounding in it. There is no scripture that gives us a picture of this activity like Proverbs 31. It says, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” It describes this woman of worth. I need not say that the assembly is the true antitype of the woman that God provided for the man at the outset. God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help-meet his like” - and He provided the woman to be a help for the man in all the interests God had entrusted to him. That was looking on to the assembly as given to Christ, to be with Him in all the interests that are under the hand of Christ at the present time. We must not think that the Lord is inactive, because He has gone to the right hand of God; He is very active. He is carrying on much in the way of work. He is not inactive. Joseph, a type of the Lord Jesus, was a man who had many affairs to look after. He came home for a meal at noon, like many of us. He was a man of many affairs, and in that way he is a picture of the Lord Jesus with the many affairs that He has under His hand. He is working all over the world, and has many interests. Every local company is a matter of concern to the Lord, but in those interests He wants to have the assembly with Him as a help-mate. That is one way in which we may show our love for the Lord Jesus. The woman was to become the wife, to enter into the relationship of affection which she would never lose. A true wife will show her affection by looking after the every interest of her husband, and every interest of Christ is to be of interest to us. Once we get an impression of how Christ loved the assembly, we become the wife by looking after the interests of the husband. That means that every interest of Christ in the world at the present time is to be a matter of interest to us. Maybe we can only take a part in our own locality, but nevertheless, there is something for the interest of Christ. The assembly is to be preserved, the saints looked after, the truth ministered, the young looked after, the elderly cared for: all these things enter into this matter of the “work of the Lord,” and “abounding always in the work of the Lord.”

Then what is seen in this woman is that “her husband confideth in her, and he shall have no lack of spoil. She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life.” Let me apply this figure of a garden for God, and a garden for the Lord. We know that the idea of a garden is that it is to yield special pleasure to the one to whom it belongs. A person has a big estate, and it may have many fields, but near the house he will have a garden; not a very large one, but the garden will be specially cultivated in order to provide pleasure to the one who owns it. It is intended to provide special pleasure to the one to whom it belongs. Transfer that idea to any one of our local companies. Take account of the local company at Orange Hill as one of the gardens of the Lord. It is intended to provide special pleasure to the heart of Christ and to the heart of God, and it is certain that evil will find its way into that garden which consists of the saints, each one a tree with roots hidden in the soil, but the result of the roots comes out in fruitfulness and blossoms for the pleasure of God. Every saint is a tree, and anyone who knows anything about agriculture or horticulture, will know that trees require caring for. I do not profess to know much about these things, but trees and plants require caring for and looking after. It certainly is so in regard of the trees that the Father has planted. “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up,” Matthew 15: 13. The trees which the Father has planted will not be rooted up, but they need to be cared for. If a garden is not cared for, weeds will soon grow, and weeds are things that would interfere with the pleasure of the person to whom the garden belongs. If we transfer the idea of the garden to a local company, every one of the brethren in the company is not only a tree, a part of the garden, but he is part of the assembly, to be with Christ in the maintenance of the interests of God in that garden. We must take up responsibility to have our part in caring for it. So, “Her husband confideth in her, and he shall have no lack of spoil. She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life.” Day after day she is doing her husband good. Are we doing the Lord good day after day? Day after day we have to recognise governmentally that we have to work and earn our own living, and accept the discipline that is involved, and get the gain of it as subject to the Father’s hand; but in addition to that, there is always some feature of the Lord’s interests to be cared for day after day.

Then it says, “She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.” As you read the passage you will be surprised at the references to her hands, showing she is a worker and that she works willingly with her hands. Wool is for warmth. It may be the brethren here do not need much wool, but in some countries wool is very acceptable and very essential. Wool is love among the brethren.

There is nothing like the warmth of love. So in the passage read in 1 Thessalonians, the apostle says, “Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For also ye do this towards all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia; but we exhort you brethren to abound still more.” It is a question of the promotion and development of love. Then it says, “She seeketh... flax.” That is practical righteousness, for flax is on the basis of linen. She answers to what is such a prominent feature in the first epistle of John, that we are to be marked by righteousness and love. All this is going to promote the good of the local company. If I do not follow righteousness, if I am not concerned that all my ways are right in the sight of God, I am allowing an opening to the enemy to get in. The responsibility of the man was not only to till the garden, but to guard it. If I am not maintaining what is right in the sight of God in every relationship in which God has set me, I am opening a door for the enemy to get in.

This woman’s activities are of great importance. “She is like the merchants’ ships: she bringeth her food from afar.” That is a reference to the exercise there should be in every local company, to see that we derive our supplies from the Holy Spirit, that we bring our food from afar. That will ensure freshness in the meetings. We do not merely depend on our mental knowledge, but we are dependent on Christ in heaven and the Spirit here. You say, Christ is far off! But thank God He is near in the Spirit and we are to be built up in all His fulness. The fulness of Christ is near to us in the Spirit and may be brought in in constant freshness for the building up of the souls of the saints. All these are features of the faithfulness of the virtuous woman. If we can only get into our minds and souls that Christ loves the assembly, and has given Himself for it, and she is to be a true wife to Him; I believe it will greatly promote the desire with every one of us to play our part in caring for His interests. That is how the affection of the faithful wife shows itself, she is faithful to Him in all His business, and this should give character to our lives.

“She riseth while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and the day’s work to her maidens.” There is not a suggestion of anything in the nature of idleness. She sets the example. Those who are older, and those who lead should set an example to the younger ones. It is one of the most important things in Scripture that there should be examples set by those who lead in any company and those who are older. Although the apostle at Thessalonica and Ephesus had a right to devote himself to the Lord’s work and rely on the saints to support him, he did not exercise that right. He wanted to set an example of working with his own hands. Although he introduced the most exalted truth at Ephesus, he worked with his own hands, and as he leaves he says, “These hands have ministered to my wants, and to those who were with me. I have showed you all things, that thus labouring we ought to come in aid of the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Thus the apostle was exemplifying it that the brethren might take it on. It is an important thing that those who take the lead should be an example to those who are younger.

“She considereth a field, and acquireth it; of the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.” I take it that means she is alert to any fresh exercise the Lord is bringing forward. She would consider it with a view to securing it. A field is a fresh area from which fruit can be brought forth for the pleasure of God, a crop of harvest. If the Lord brings forward any fresh feature of the truth, He means that it should hold something further for God. She does not ignore anything fresh that is being brought out in ministry, she gets to the Lord, and if it is of God, she is exercised to make it her own. These are the lines on which the interests of God can be cared for.

“She perceiveth that her earning is good; her lamp goeth not out by night.” This has a moral bearing on us. This is the night - not that we can do without a night’s sleep - but this is the night of the Lord’s absence, and there is no room for idleness nor slothfulness. Her lamp must not go out. There is no room for slackening of exercise. The lamp is maintained burning throughout the night. Until the Lord comes, the light should burn for the pleasure of God in every place in which He has set us in responsibility.

“She stretcheth out her hand to the afflicted, and she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” Hand, or palm as is suggested in the note, suggests peculiar sensitiveness and tenderness. She is caring for those who are in affliction. Then it says, “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh body linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.” There we have the thought of clothing again, body linen, that which is nearest to the person standing for practical righteousness and holiness. She is concerned about it. This is a most important matter. It means what I really am, not what I may appear to be. God does not look on the outward appearance He looks on the heart. It is the garment nearest to the person that is in mind here. In Exodus when we are told about the clothing of the priests, the first thing that is mentioned is linen vests, and that is the article of clothing that is nearest to the person. I have no doubt it refers to our being practically righteous and concerned about our conduct. That is important in connection with priestly service God-ward. “She maketh body linen, and selleth it.”

She would bring home to the brethren that this is something to be acquired on the principle of sacrifice. She is not giving it away, she is selling it. Others will be buying. It says, “Buy the truth and sell it not.” We have to do the buying. So every feature of the truth that calls for a subjective answer calls for the element of buying.

Then it says, “She delivereth girdles.” That refers to service, serving love. You remember in John 13 the Lord laid aside His garments and took a towel and girded Himself. A girdle is an emblem of service. The Lord took on what was really a bondman’s service, the most menial service. Washing the disciples’ feet in order to set an example of serving love. This woman makes girdles and sells them to the merchants. That also has to be bought, and she is setting the example. We have to learn how to serve the saints in love. All this shows the different forms that service of love would take, and these things are to be going on all the time. The caring for, the promotion and the preservation of what is for the pleasure of God in every locality. We read that “she surveyeth the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done worthily, but thou excellest them all.” It is a beautiful picture of the kind of activities that the Lord is looking for in those of the assembly. It is to take shape in every place where His name is cherished and the truth of the assembly is valued. This kind of activity is intended to be in evidence as we recognise we are of the assembly as Christ’s wife, so to speak. It is not legal work, but activity in work that is the result of understanding that we have a place in the affections of the heart of Christ, and we have a privilege and a duty to see that we are constantly labouring in the work of the Lord to ensure the promotion of all that is for His pleasure in any locality, and that all that would militate against it, is excluded. We must maintain self-judgment in ourselves, and we may be able to help others. So it says in 1 Corinthians 15: 58: “So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immoveable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Now that includes brothers and sisters. It is not gifted brothers, or prominent brothers or leading brothers; it is brothers and sisters, old and young, and it says, “abounding always.” This chapter in Proverbs 31 gives us some little idea, as we understand what some of the terms mean, of the many different ways in which we may be engaged in this most exalted form of work that God has in mind for His people. But let us also remind ourselves of the form of work that has come on us in the government of God, and we must submit ourselves to this and see that we have part in it. No one can resist the government of God without suffering for it, but if we accept it and submit ourselves to the discipline that it brings from day to day, we shall gain by it and we shall find that God will help us in our souls to develop in features that are pleasing to Himself: and that is what all His ways with us have in mind.

That is all I had in mind, dear brethren, the two kinds of work which have to be going on all the time, and the importance of it. The exalted character of work in the service of God, and that which comes upon us in God’s governmental ways. The two have to be going on together all the time, as I have said. The governmental ways of God will not cease, but we are fitted to have our share in the more exalted form, in which the Father is working and the Son and Holy Spirit are operating as examples. All this is intended to impress us with the moral value, in the sight of God, of working.