“I WORK A WORK IN YOUR DAYS”
A. A. Bellamy
1 Samuel 3: 1–4, 10, 11; Habakkuk 1: 5
“The word of Jehovah”, it says, “was rare in those days”. I believe the Lord has challenged us, beloved brethren, about this, and I simply wish to encourage our hearts as to the verity of His word and His Spirit remaining among us. Conditions publicly could hardly have been lower than they were at this point in the first book of Samuel, yet, despite the rarity of the word and the infrequency of the vision, both the word and the vision took place, and at least there was one, and no doubt there were others, who received it. The official and responsible side is evidently in failure, and there is much that is negative in the whole public situation, but a feature of great encouragement, dear brethren, is that the lamp of God had not yet gone out. That, I believe, brings home to our hearts the urgency of the moment; the assembly is about to be translated and the lamp of God has not yet gone out. It is a moment of opportunity, calling upon us for greater dedication than we have ever known to the interests of Christ. Minding earthly things and seeking our own things belongs to the will of the nations, and the time past is sufficient for that; the rest of our time is to be for God’s will (see 1 Peter 4: 2).
God is addressing His word here to a young person. We are often reminded in these occasions that one generation passes away and another generation comes. What a generation Samuel represents!—fruit of assembly exercises, in sorrow and in the presence of the adversary—experiences not unknown to us. The boy Samuel stands out as the fruit of that. He is a man child (1 Samuel 1: 11) and he can accept responsibility immediately. The lamp of God not yet having gone out has also a bearing upon us in regard to our responsibility concerning the Spirit of God, and whether we at any time would have to say that our lamps are going out. It is a matter increasingly, beloved brethren, of our links with the Spirit, and of having oil in our vessels. We should be holding forth the word of life and appearing as lights in the world in testimonial effectiveness, fruit of our links with the Spirit not only individually but assembly-wise. On that line the lamp of God has not yet gone out.
Now the communication is personal here. One would long that this occasion might afford the Lord an opportunity to speak to some young person amongst us, indeed to us all, as He has often spoken. I wonder if we have heard a voice from the unseen world, in soul history with God, such as Mr. Darby refers to—
What powerful, mighty Voice, so near,
Calls me from earth apart—
Reaches with tones so still, so clear,
From th’unseen world my heart?
If any one has ever heard such a voice, beloved brother and sister, let it not be in vain. “Jehovah came, and stood, and called as at the other times”, and that at a time when the word of Jehovah was rare and a vision was not frequent. Think of the resources that there are at this time in the presence of the Spirit in the assembly. So the communication was to an individual, a word of appeal, like the Lord’s word, “Youth”, He says, “Wake up”, Luke 7: 14. He would call us all, out of a dead condition into a living state of things, to have a part in this great spiritual system which is for our help, our sustenance, and is to empower us increasingly in the service of God.
Now another feature is that God is, saying He will “do a thing in Israel”. I do not pretend to say what He is going to do, beloved brethren, but I think I have the sense that He is going to do something “at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle”. Are we ready for that—not only for the word and the vision, but for what God is going to do?
Then in Habakkuk, in a wider sphere, “See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for I work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared to you”. The nations are not out of God’s mind, surely not. He has visited them to call out of them a people for His name, and He says here that He will work a work among the nations. It is a question of what He is going to do, and what He is going to work. May the Lord grant us to be ready for it, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
16 May 1975