FAITHFUL HOUSEHOLDS

Joshua 24:15; Exodus 12:3-13; 16:13-19,23-26,30,31; Luke 10:38,39,42

I wish to speak about our households, and the importance of keeping our households for Christ, and of making room for Him in them. Households are very important: households make up the assembly. In the book of the Acts, when Paul and those with him came to Philippi, you find “a certain woman, by name Lydia, a seller of purple”, Acts 16:14. You might say she was a woman of the world, but that verse also says, “whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul”. She made a very interesting statement: she said “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house” (v.15). Later in that chapter Paul says to the jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house” (v.31). Our houses are very important in the formation of the assembly. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians shows how important these households were. Paul’s visit, recounted in Acts 16, led to the beginning of the assembly in Philippi. Households are necessary to make room “to attend to the things spoken by Paul”, and to be “faithful to the Lord”. It is a great challenge for believers today: we need to be faithful to the Lord.

God has had households in His thoughts from the beginning. God spoke to Moses and said, “Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, according to their fathers’ houses, by the number of the names”, Num.1:2. The number of the names refers to the individual, then the individuals comprise the house, and the houses compose the local assembly. That requires persons that believe on the Lord Jesus and are faithful to Him, which led me to the book of Joshua. He was a great man, and his objective was to bring the people into the land. He had to overcome much; he had to be strong and courageous. That is what God said to him: “Be strong and courageous”, Josh.1:6. He was not to yield in any way to what was contrary. He might have said, ‘Well, Moses has gone; what can I do, how am I going to go on by myself?’ God said, “Be strong and courageous”.

Joshua made a commitment. Has each one here made a personal commitment, a commitment that we will serve the Lord? Joshua did not make such a commitment only for himself, but he said, “as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah”. I would raise that question with each one of us, as to such a commitment. I do not want to exclude the young ones; do not excuse yourself by saying that everything depends on your parents. You have to serve the Lord yourself, you have to make that commitment yourself, that you will serve the Lord Jesus and you will work that out in your own house. You can help your parents work it out, too, because the household is where the Lord’s things are worked out in detail in commitment to Him.

The apostle Paul was able to commend persons because the assembly was in their house – Aquila and Priscilla (see 1 Cor.16:19). They were a husband and wife who held things rightly for the Lord. They came across a brother, Apollos, who was not yet fully instructed in the truth and they “took him to them and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly”, Acts 18:26. As a result he came into the assembly too, showing how things work out in a house. Households are a sphere where commitment on our part is worked out, and it is good to make sure that each one in the house is committed to the Lord and His interests. Often we rely on others, but every one of us needs to commit ourselves to the Lord in faithfulness: “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”. Lydia did not say, ‘Do you think I listened to what you said, Paul?’; she said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”. I encourage us all, young and old, to be faithful to the Lord. It is not exactly that you are called to be faithful to the brethren, but if you are faithful to the Lord, you will be faithful to them too, because the brethren desire to be faithful to Him. That is how it works out. Be faithful to Him! If we are, we will find that everything in the household will be suited to Him, and there will be fresh food provided.

I wanted to speak about food in relation to households. The passage we read in Exodus speaks about the passover lamb; it refers to the death of Christ. We have been speaking about the world around us; the death of Christ would deliver us from this world. How necessary that is, to be delivered from this world. To be “counted worthy to have part in that world” (Luke 20:35) means that we must be done with this world. That is what this lamb speaks of. The passage says, “On the tenth of this month let them take themselves each a lamb, for a father’s house”. It is not a lamb for the whole tribe of Israel, or the whole assembly of Israel; it is not a lamb for each tribe; it is a lamb for each house. We are to come to value and appreciate the perfection and beauty of a “lamb … without blemish”. The passage says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats”. It is a lamb that is perfect, absolutely perfect. This lamb speaks of the Lord Jesus in type: come to love Him! We are to appreciate Him in our houses.

The passover lamb had the liberty of the house, it was in the house. Christ in the house is very precious, and He is to be attractive to each of us in the house. How attractive: every person in the house would want to take care of the lamb. The lamb was in the house four days; it would be appreciated there. How long have you appreciated the life of Christ? How long have you appreciated the work that He has done? If you appreciate Him in His life here, you will come to value what He has done, represented by the lamb being killed on the fourth day. The lamb was killed because blood had to be shed – we read later, “and when I see the blood, I will pass over you”. It had to die. We have spoken of how the Lord Jesus went into death; the death of the passover lamb speaks of Him going through death on our account so that those who believe are delivered from the judgment of death. We must know deliverance from the judgment of death; if not, we cannot enjoy what the Lord wants for us, that is, life which is out of death.

After the lamb was slain, its blood was taken and put on the two doorposts and on the lintel. No one could go out of the house without passing out of the protection of the blood, and if anyone came into the house they came under its shelter. “The blood of Jesus Christ … cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1:7. The blood of Jesus protects you in the house. In a believing household you are in a place of safety under the shelter of that blood: “And the blood shall be for you as a sign on the houses in which ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you”. God is looking at every house, and He says, ‘Is there blood on the doorposts and the lintel?’. A believing household is under the shelter of that precious blood. Of course, each individual needs to believe that their personal salvation is secured by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, and that cannot be taken away from you once you believe. But what a place of safety is found in such a house. If you go outside the house, if you leave its influence, you no longer have that protection. Remain in the house, in a place where Christ and His interests, His assembly, are held dear. Remain in a place that is safe, do not leave it.

Rahab the harlot accepted the Israelite spies into her house, and protected them (see Josh.2:1-7). She said, ‘I realise Jehovah is with you, I have heard what great things Jehovah has done for you, how He parted the Red Sea and how He destroyed the kings of the Amorites, how He destroyed Sihon and Og. I am for you and for Jehovah’ (see vv.9-11). Then she secreted the spies and sent them back another way. She was rewarded, but what was preserved for Rahab was only what was in her house. She had a scarlet line bound in her window while the children of Israel marched round the city of Jericho, seven days. Every day the children of Israel went round, the people of Jericho wondered what was happening. Maybe the world around wonders what you are doing, why you go to all these meetings. But the Israelites kept going round, and on the seventh day, at God’s command, they went round seven times, the trumpets were sounded and the people shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell – except one wall. The wall that did not fall was the wall in which Rahab’s house was. That wall did not fall; it was a place of safety! The place of safety is in the house where Jesus is appreciated, where the lamb is valued, where the shedding of that precious blood is valued. The scarlet thread that Rahab had bound in her window was effective, and every one that was in her house was brought out and assimilated into the children of Israel, every one.

There are no limitations from God’s side. God is able for every person and every situation. How do I know that? Because of the blood of Christ, and God’s acceptance of it. You have to put your faith in the blood. Sometimes you may doubt, you may wonder, is the blood enough for everyone? If you wonder about that, your faith is failing! Be strong in your faith and in your trust in the blood of Jesus. Faith assures you that the blood of Jesus is enough: “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”. That is how God operates. We find that the blood is there, and we have to put it on the doorposts and the lintels of our houses, and in such a place of safety we are able to eat the flesh, the flesh of the lamb roast with fire. That suggests the pressure and the suffering that the Lord Jesus endured. His atoning sufferings were immense. We need to contemplate the sufferings of the Lord Jesus more. How great these sufferings were. The sufferings He endured at the hands of men were grievous, but the atoning sufferings He endured in taking on the judgment of sin were immense. The wrath poured out on Him from a holy and righteous God, that judgment poured out on the head of Jesus, are suggested by the lamb being “roast with fire”. The flesh was not to be boiled or eaten raw, but “roast with fire”.

The sacrifice that Jesus made for you and me, the depths of sufferings that He endured, were so great! We are to feed on and contemplate it, and that helps us to be done with this world. You realise what this world is, and you want to eat of the flesh of the true Lamb, to feed on Him. The Lord spoke of Himself as the true bread out of heaven (John 6:32-35). Feed upon Him, the precious One who has so satisfied God’s heart. That is how you come into “that world” – by feeding on Christ. But first you must come to a true assessment of this world, and we do so, coming to a full end of it, as we feed upon Christ’s death and take it to ourselves. We come to it that this world has no place for Christ, and we have to be done with it.

I read of the manna in Exodus 16 because it is what the Israelites fed on as they went through the wilderness. Morally, we are going through the wilderness in our daily lives, and there are tests. The children of Israel had become accustomed to what they fed on in Egypt. They wanted to go back to it, they said they had flesh pots in Egypt, and they had bread (v.3), and they thought they had everything for their satisfaction. You may think that there is provision for you in the world today, and you might want to go back. In this chapter the people had come through the Red Sea and are going through the wilderness, and they want to fill their stomachs with bread and the flesh pots of Egypt. But God provides for them, and He provides for them in a way that they had not expected. God may provide for you in a way that you do not expect. He provided food from heaven. It says, “and in the morning the dew lay round the camp. And when the dew that lay round it was gone up, behold, on the face of the wilderness there was something fine, granular, fine as hoarfrost, on the ground”. Here was something that they had never seen before. They “said one to another, What is it? for they did not know what it was”. Maybe you have heard some things this weekend and you say, ‘What is it?’. That is a good thing to ask. If you do not know about something, ask. If you do not ask, you will never know. The children of Israel asked, and “Moses said to them, This is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat”.

The manna is another type of Christ: something fine, granular, “as hoarfrost, on the ground”. It speaks of the manhood of Jesus seen in perfection here on the earth, in this same scene in which we are. Jesus walked in this world as a Man in absolute perfection. The description “fine, granular” suggests the perfection seen in every detail of His life. There was nothing out of place in the life of Jesus, everything that He did satisfied the heart of the Father: “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2:49. He said that as a boy of twelve. I do not think that the Lord was referring to His work in the carpentry business, as Joseph did, but He is speaking about His Father in the heavens. He was occupied with what was in heaven. I would encourage us all to keep occupied with what is in heaven. That is what happened here, with the Israelites. What was gathered was there on the ground, and it was all brought into the tent, a place of safety. From the tent you can go out and gather, gather for yourself.

Moses said, “This is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat ... Gather of it every man according to what he can eat, an omer a poll”. God will give you a measure. You may say, ‘I am just a girl’ or ‘I am just a boy’; ‘I am not a man’. Go and gather anyway! Read the Scriptures, read about the Lord Jesus, read the gospels. They will tell you about Him walking on this earth in adverse conditions, the kind of conditions you are walking in today; as a believer you are walking in adverse conditions. Jesus walked in such conditions, and He gives us an example of how to walk. We can feed on the life of that blessed One, the true manna. Every step that He took is for us to contemplate. How pleasing His pathway was to His Father. The Lord says, “the Father who abides in me, he does the works”, John 14:10. He also says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5:17. How wondrous the works of the Father and the Son, and the work that the Son was given to do which led Him to the cross, alone. Dwell on these works, contemplate them; bring them into your tent as it were, and enjoy them. You will find there is enough, there is never a shortage. In the wilderness there was never a shortage of food for the Israelites, because God provided the manna; it came down from heaven. There was never a shortage, and there was never any left over. Some of them tried to save some over (see v.20). You may say ‘I will save some for another day’. Do not leave it for another day; when you get a touch of Christ, enjoy it; assimilate it into your being. The world may teach you to save something for a later day, but when you have an impression of Christ, feed on it freshly, partake of it, enjoy it, enter into it. It is how you become like Him.

That is what we need to do: in the place where He was and where He walked, we are to be like Him. The gospels tell us how He walked here, but as we feed upon and contemplate Him where He is now, the Man in “that world”, we will find we can be like Him where He was, which is where we also are now, in this world. We cannot deny that we are in this world, but we can live in the light of another world that is far superior to anything in this world. Of the manna it is said that they “gathered, some much, some little” and they gathered with a measure. God does not give by measure, but they were told to gather by measure, “an omer a poll”. The thought of measure relates to our limitation: our limitation dictates the measure. You will know when you gather whether you are able to gather more. It brings to mind what was said earlier, ‘Do not read Scripture or the ministry because you have to’. Some children go to school and study because they have to. If you do not study you will fail your exams, so you have to study. But do not read the Scriptures because you have to; read them because you enjoy them. You will find that the more you read the more you will enjoy it, and your measure will increase. You will find you are able to take more in, and to enjoy more of the affection and majesty and beauty of the Lord Jesus Himself.

There came a day in the week when they had to gather twice as much. You say, ‘I thought they were not supposed to keep any over’. God made provision; God never omits anything, and He made provision so they could gather twice as much, because they were not to gather on the sabbath. It says, “bake what ye will bake, and cook what ye will cook; and lay up for yourselves all that remains over, to be kept for the morning”. Here was an opportunity for something to be kept, but it was only kept because the next day was a day of rest. You can only enter into the rest of God and the rest of Christ as you have this food to partake of. As you feed on Christ you will find that you can enter into this rest; you can appreciate the rest of God. God laboured in the making of the earth and then He rested on the seventh day. He has made a day of rest for us where we can rest in Christ. We can take time to enjoy the perfection and beauty of that blessed One: “And the people rested on the seventh day”. What did they find when they gathered the manna? They found that the manna was “like coriander-seed, white; and the taste of it was like cake with honey”; they tasted the sweetness and perfection and beauty of Christ. Here it is seen in its sweetness and its perfection. It is something that you desire to eat, and the children of Israel came to know that, to recognise that. I trust each one of us will find that we have plenty to partake of, and as we do, we will find that our measure will increase as we enjoy it. The result will be a fuller answer secured for the glory of God.

In Luke we have read about persons holding their houses ready. In chapter 7, there is a Pharisee who wanted Jesus to come into his house (vv.36-50). Perhaps you say, ‘Well, I have heard so much about these things this weekend that I would love to have Jesus in my house’. The Pharisee had Jesus in his house, and then he ignored Him. If you are going to have Jesus in your house, you must make room for Him. And if you are going to have Jesus in your heart, you must make room for Him there. That means everything else has to go. There is a woman in that chapter who came into the Pharisee’s house, and she knew and provided what was needed of herself. She provided in abundance, she wept at His feet and washed His feet with her tears, then she wiped His feet with the hairs of her head. The Lord had to speak to that Pharisee who had invited Him into his house. We need to allow the Lord into our houses, and give Him His true place there.

Martha had a house. It does not say it was Lazarus’s house, although he was in the house too, but it is Martha’s house. So it may be the house of a sister: things are not limited to brothers. The opportunity is there for the food supply to be provided by sisters in the house. The woman of worth took her husband’s interest to heart when he was away, and she provided for her house (see Prov.31:10-31). A sister can provide for the house, she comes under the authority of the husband of course, the headship of the husband, if there is one, but she can provide what is necessary for the household. Martha “received him into her house”. Martha is not like the Pharisee in chapter 7, the Pharisee did not attend to Jesus, but Martha attended to Jesus. She was serving Him and she was giving Him what He needed.

In Martha’s house there was another sister, Mary, and she sat at the feet of Jesus and “was listening to his word”. Dear young one, if Jesus is in your household, as I believe He is in every house represented here, then sit at His feet and listen to His word. You cannot listen if you are speaking. Sometimes we speak and speak, and when we do that, we are not listening. Listening is not just hearing, listening is paying attention to what is being said. That is what Mary was doing, she was listening to His word. The words of Jesus that came out of His mouth, the words that He spoke, were wonderful. He is the One in whom grace and truth subsists; we can be sure that every thing coming out of His mouth is absolutely perfect. Is that available today in your house, in the power of the Holy Spirit? If so, you will be prepared to enter into “that world”. I would encourage each of us to be found sitting at the Lord’s feet like Mary was, listening to His word.

Zacchæus is another example of a man who wanted to see Jesus. He knew that Jesus was going to pass by, and he said ‘I would love to see Jesus; how can I see Him? I am too small, so I am going to run ahead and climb a tree, and then I will look down and see Jesus’ (see Luke 19:1-10). If you make an effort to see Jesus, He knows that you really want to see Him, and He appreciates that. He stopped, and said to Zacchæus, “make haste and come down, for to-day I must remain in thy house” (v.5). The Lord wanted to go into the house of Zaccheus, and He says, “To-day salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham”. Jesus took account of the fact that Zacchæus wanted to see Him, who He was. Dear young one, do you desire to see Jesus? Do you want to sit at His feet and truly listen to His word? It is not just a passing glance, a passing view, not just hearing what is being said in the background, or thinking that I can listen and work and do other things at the same time. If you are going to listen, you have to have everything focussed on Him, your whole heart and soul focussed on Jesus.

You will find such an attitude, an interest in Jesus, in the houses of believers. You will also find it in gatherings of the brethren, where Jesus is held in high regard as the Man in heaven, the centre of “that world” we have been speaking about. He is the Man who has done everything to satisfy the heart of God, and has done everything needed to bring you into blessing. Have the desire to be near to Him. Ask your parents questions about Him, ask questions of others who can help to unfold the things of Jesus to you. You will find people who have pondered Him in their minds and in their hearts, the things that He has done, people who desire that a full answer should be secured for the glory of God from our hearts.

The formation of the assembly is the great matter. It begins with individual believers, and is formed in the households, and the households compose the local assembly as they go on in dependence on Christ Himself. Households must feed constantly on Him, constantly feeding on that blessed Man where He is. We spoke in the last reading about the Spirit: “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”, John 16:13. He is speaking what He is hearing from a Man in heaven, and it is all fresh things. It impressed me today, the activity that is going on in heaven. How much activity there is. How much do I know of it? The Spirit will impart these things to us if we listen to what He says; be attentive and listen to the voice of the Spirit and make room for Him. Make Christ the focus of your life.

May we be encouraged, for His name’s sake.

 

Address at Calgary, Canada

28 June 2025

 

Ken Pye

 

 

 

Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin

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