GOD'S HELP IN CONNECTION WITH HIS HOUSE
GOD’S HELP IN CONNECTION WITH HIS HOUSE
I have other scriptures in mind to allude to, but I content myself with this for the moment, as it contains what I have in mind to present, namely, that divine support is available to those who recognise the house of God. From the time of its introduction in the history of the testimony, we find divine help associated with it. I have in mind that we may look together at the facts attendant upon the truth of the house and its continuance as in the Old Testament, and as we look at these facts we shall find evidence of divine help.
But I wish first to call attention to the apostle Paul, who is pre-eminently connected with the house of God. He was concerned that we should all know how to behave ourselves in it, and he himself is the model in that way. He is presented in the scripture as one who particularly had help from God. You recall how in his defence before Agrippa he refers to this: “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day”.
Doubtless there are those who are around us at the present time who are available for help, but the question is — is it help which is from God? “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day” (Acts 26:22), as if to imply that God was his help and without that help continuance was impossible; and in continuing he announced nothing different from what the prophets had announced. He completed the word of God, but his testimony was in keeping with the prophets; it was marked by consistency with all that had preceded him. You will recall how that going to the city of Corinth he lodged with a man and his wife who had come from Rome, and because they were of the same craft he [p. 434] lodged with them (Acts 18:1 - 3). It does not say that it was because they were saints, but because they were of the same craft. In other words, the apostle identifies himself in that city with tentmakers, being one himself. He was known there as a craftsman, and yet he had all the light of God in his soul and he knew it.
One loves to dwell upon Paul, the great apostle to the gentiles, lodging at Corinth as an artisan. He had the full light of God as to what God was building. The structure was in the nature of a tent for the moment, but the building was going on. The apostle being at Corinth the Lord appears to him, saying, “Fear not, but speak and be not silent; because I am with thee, and no one shall set upon thee to injure thee; because I have much people in this city”. Knowing what opposition there was, He also knew that there was much people there. These people were to be enlightened by Paul. They were to be formed into an assembly; they were to become part of the house of God. And so the Lord said to His servant that He was with him. I want that we should take this in. The work is going on; it may be outwardly small, but in the light of faith it is a great work. It can only be carried on with the help which comes from God. “I am with thee” — and so the apostle continued there one and a half years teaching the word of God among them.
In the next chapter it is the word of the Lord, which refers to Hispower. But the word of God brings in the mind of God. The mind of God is known in His house. It was taught by the apostle for eighteen months. It was taught there. The teaching implies that it is wrought into our minds; we are thus intelligently in the assembly. So in Ephesus we have the word of the Lord, whereas in Corinth we have the word of God. The assembly of God is to be marked by the mind of God. As in His house we are [p. 435] privileged to have the mind of God. But teaching the word of God requires patience. In writing to the Corinthians later the apostle mentions the patience that marked his service. Being helped of God he was patient with the saints and his speech and preaching “was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). I wish particularly to call attention to the word of God.
Well, having said so much, I just want to go back to the Old Testament. It says it is “profitable for doctrine ... for instruction in righteousness” ..., (2 Timothy 3:16,17). You recall how Jacob is presented to us as a household man. I think the households of the Lord’s people are intended as schools out of which we graduate into the house of God. Now Jacob, in contrast to Esau, was a “plain man, dwelling in tents” (Genesis 25:27). He was not a man who would come into favour in the locality in which he lived, as a sportsman, a leader of society or anything of that nature. Esau would doubtless be a leader in his day, like many a young man whose parents are believers today. We are told that Abraham dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob (Hebrews 11:9). It may be there is a young man here who desires to be successful in the world of sport. Esau was a man of that character, but Jacob lived in tents with Abraham as an heir of the same promise. Jacob could afford to be a plain man; his day was coming. At the end of Genesis he is seen going down, like a clear sunset, in glorious splendour to rise again. He would be buried in Canaan, the land of God’s purpose. He had the light of the Almighty God in his soul. Esau’s day was present, and he was making the most of it. What was the inheritance to him? He “for one morsel of meat sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:16). Esau despised the inheritance, and maybe you are doing so too.
[p. 436] In the tent with Abraham, Jacob had the opportunity of learning the life of faith in one who walked before God in view of another world. Later his father and mother sent him out to find a wife. He was obedient to his parents in this respect. His brother had married two Canaanitish women who were a grief to his parents, but Jacob would marry in the family of his mother’s people. He sets out and lights on a certain place and tarries there all night; and he took the stones of that place and put them for his pillow and lay down to sleep; and while asleep he saw a vision, as he says later: “God Almighty appeared unto me”. He comes to that afterwards, but for the moment he says, “How dreadful is this place!”, but then he adds with beautiful intelligence, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. That is the way you find the house of God — in the presence of God. Some may go back fifty or seventy-five years to find out whether they or we are on the right ground, but it is the presence of God that determines it. The apostle says to the Corinthians that if one that believeth not or unlearned came in among them while one prophesied he would say, “God is in you of a truth” (1 Corinthians 14:25). The point is, is God there? Jacob found out that God was there. The key to the house of God lies in Genesis 28. The presence of God with His people implies the house of God. The Lord says to Jacob, “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Genesis 28:15).
Now I pass on to Moses. The Old Testament furnishes us with the details of the house. It is one thing to start in it, another to finish in it. “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:6). The discipline [p. 437] of God helps us in this. Jacob continued on this line. But I pass on to Moses, who is presented as the servant in the house. Those who serve in the house come in for great blessing; Moses did. Moses was faithful in all God’s house. The secret of it was that God was with him. At the outset he said to God, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh ... ?”, but He said, “Certainly I will be with thee”. Let us dwell on that. Here is the one who is later designated as faithful in all God’s house. For forty years he was in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness alone, and forty years in it with God and His people. God appeared to him in a bush which burned; Moses turned aside to see the bush which was not burnt. It was a bramble — not of much account outwardly. The bush burned but it was not consumed, and wonderful to say, God was in it. In that way it was typical of the people God would lead through the wilderness. When God saw that Moses turned aside to see, He spoke to him. In other words, when God sees interest in us He gives further disclosures. Moses said, “Who am I ... ?” But God made no mistake in taking up Moses. He said, “Certainly I will be with thee”. Let us not go unless God be with us. If God be not with us there is something wrong. I do not know of anything more distressing than that God should be obliged to abandon those He once supported. Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp. He virtually said the camp is unfit for God; it is unfit today. Then he pleaded with God. “If thy presence do not go, bring us not up hence” (Exodus 33:15). The true christian will not undertake the path without God. If God be not with us let us look into our hearts and see why He is not with us — some unjudged sin. Moses said to God, “How shall it be known then that I have found grace in thine eyes — I and thy people? Is it not by thy going with us? so shall we be distinguished, I [p. 438] and thy people, from every people that is on the face of the earth” (Exodus 33:16).
I pass on to 1 Chronicles 17. I wanted to dwell on David, because he comes in as gathering up all that I have been referring to and more. As a young man David kept his father’s sheep, and as he was there the light of the ark came into his soul. He says, “We heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood” (Psalm 132:6). Then he says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord” (verses 4,5). David refers to the position of the ark here: “I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains”. God searches our hearts and He knows what are the promptings of the Spirit. David had the thought of building a house for the Lord. That was the burden of his life. So Nathan says to him, “Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee”. If you want to give the testimony a better place the Lord will be with you; the ark deserves it. Nathan says, “Do all that is in thine heart”; the remaining chapters of this book show what was in David’s heart. He says, “I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things” (1 Chronicles 29:17).
David taken with Jacob and Moses sets forth the truth of the house of God in the Old Testament. In this respect David and Solomon go together. Solomon carried out David’s desires. So we have in Solomon this beautiful touch, that the building should be by the Son. Moses was faithful in all God’s house, but Christ is Son over God’s house. He who builds the house is greater than the house, and who is this great One? Some of us were lately dwelling on the inherited name, and this scripture supports the importance of the inherited name. God addresses Him as Son. “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (Hebrews 1:5). The inherited name refers to Christ as He is known amongst the saints. He emerges as the anointed One. He is addressed by God as Son, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” (Mark 1:11). The house is built by the Son and governed by the Son. But my thought was to point out that God specially helps those who have His house before them. Through the intercession of Moses God graciously resumed His place in the midst of His people and supported them in the wilderness journey. He dwelt in their midst. Notwithstanding the terrible failure of the public assembly God is now supporting those who have His house before them — who seek to maintain the order and holiness becoming to it.
May God grant that the youngest as well as the oldest of us may know more of His help, for His name’s sake.