THE GREATEST SERVICE
[p. 346] THE GREATEST SERVICE
The greatest service is to stand openly for God when the opposition is at its height. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him”. To stand for God when there is no one to help, when everyone is opposing, manifests my dependence and confidence in God, as well as that I am so led by His Spirit in true devotedness, that the more I see Him assailed, and His name dishonoured, the more I must lose sight of every one and stand for Him. I know also in whom I have believed, and I can endure “as seeing him who is invisible”. The more I see Him slighted by His own, the more I feel that I must stand for Him, even if it be single-handed.
It is remarkable in the history of God’s servants how this trait appears very soon in their course. Enoch seems to have been in a very lonely, separate path, and doubtless it was a great day for him as a servant when he pronounced: “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”.
Noah adopted a very singular and isolated path when he first began to build the ark, and he had reached his greatest service when he, with his family, stepped into the ark; he only for God in the whole earth. When a servant is well supported by his fellows, it is easy for him to be bold and decided; but when he is left, not only alone, but every one opposed to him, to stand forth and declare for God, there requires the devotedness [p. 347] of a true heart, and this is the greatest service, for it is so appropriate.
Joseph not only learnt in his own personal circumstances when entirely alone and abandoned, how through God he was enabled to stand with unfaltering integrity, but alone and unsupported, to declare the mind of God before the king of Egypt. His devotedness had an opportunity for its expression.
Still more is this exemplified in Moses. Early indeed, in the ark of bulrushes, a lonely, suffering life was foreshadowed, and yet what a day it was, “when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.. .. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not”. Alone he acted for God, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”. Devotedness always does the greatest service. In the beginning of his course he learned the characteristic of the greatest service, namely, to stand for God, alone and unsupported, in the face of universal opposition. It is a great thing for the man of God when he really has known the solitude of light, which he only enters on when entirely excluded from every influence of man, then it is he sees and becomes acquainted with the Son of God. There is never a full and true sense of the vanity of all human things, and the greatness of the personal company of our Lord Jesus Christ, until this solitude has been known. And assuredly the greatest service is when one is able to count on God, and act for Him, as thus known to oneself, in the teeth of all opposition; expulsion from man is not the same thing as opposition from him, but the one prepares us for the other.
What a time it was for Moses when he faced the whole of Israel, when he came down from the mount and saw them wholly given to idolatry. He thought of [p. 348] no one but God; he feared not the wrath of man; he stood for God in a new unprecedented way, without any direction, but simply from the devotedness of his heart. When he had stood singly and openly for the Lord, then he could afford to stand in the gate of the camp, and say, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
No one can apprehend the greatness of such a moment if he has never experienced it. What a moment when one man can confront his fellows, and everyone dear to him, in unperturbed decision, his heart swayed and sustained by the power of God! God’s glory is before him, and he so realises His presence, though invisible, that man, however visible and active, is as nothing.
It is an unequalled moment when one has the Lord so fully and exclusively before one, that one thinks only for Him, and acts in this devotedness. Then one learns, “Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me”.
I desire to convey that it is at such a moment one is made personally acquainted with the sufficiency of God, when one’s own incompetence is patent. I suppose to every one of us there is given an opportunity of rendering the greatest service, even to declare in some new and distinct way one’s purpose to follow the Lord fully. Thus Caleb separates himself from his fellow-labourers or explorers in the land, and in presence of the unbelieving congregation declares, “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us in”. Surely devotedness which declares for the Lord when all are turning away from Him, and which arises as a light in the darkness is most pleasing to Him. A very small light shows in a time of darkness, but it is very singular, and yet it is but simple faithfulness in a time of unfaithfulness.
It is interesting and helpful to note that the opportunity for this devotedness cannot be foreseen, as if [p. 349] one could be ready for it. Suddenly and unexpectedly the opportunity offers; like an eclipse the sun goes down at noon-day. It is then that the real purpose of the heart towards God is disclosed. The opportunity is given on purpose to call it forth. The true heart is never unprepared.
This was very marked in the woman in Mark 14. The state of things at the moment at once evoked the desire of her heart to honour the Lord. She does not appear to have consulted any one. Her act is the ready offspring of her devoted heart. In whatever degree she had heard or noticed the prevailing opposition to her Lord we cannot say, but as the dark storm was rising, she, out of her own heart, without any suggestion, draws from her little store the best thing she has, and fearlessly and happily anoints Him with the precious ointment before all present. Most seasonable indeed! Singularly pleasing to Him! There is at least one who will expend her best on Him at the very moment when the hour of darkness was setting in. Hence, “wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her”.
It is not the opportunity which should be before one’s mind, but the cultivation of that devotedness to the Lord which would be able in a very distinct way to act for Him when the opportunity occurs. Love delights in finding an opportunity to express its devotedness. You will always find that where this devotedness is there is neither an imitation of what others have done, nor is there looking for countenance or support from others, but a course of action quite original and singular, yet eminently effective, not only in answering to the heart’s devotion, but for the glory of the Lord and the service of His people generally.
“When Daniel knew that the writing was signed” (Daniel 6: 10), his true heart adopted a course that eminently testified of his devotedness to God and to [p. 350] His interests. Thus, in the present day, when many feel the darkness is thickening, and the truth has fallen in the streets, there is an opportunity for the devoted heart in a very distinct and peculiar way (conspicuous to all whom it may interest) to show its devotedness to the Lord.
When David visited his brethren at his father’s request, he had not in any way foreseen that he would have to confront Goliath - the terror of his people, but he was equal for the occasion, not because he was prepared for it, but because he so counted on God that he could act for Him and His people in the emergency.
There is ever the tendency to blame others, or bemoan the state of things, when one is not devoted enough oneself to take a stand or make a surrender which will fill the house with the odour of the service.
The more I see failure all around me, and deficiency of true godly action, the more it is my special care and duty, like a Caleb or a Daniel, to set forth what devotedness only could set forth at such a time. There is something peculiarly lovely about devotedness. It has a way of its own, and, however unique, it is the most excellent service. The greatest service is evidently the one most needed at the time. The falling away of others does not dishearten the one who is truly devoted. Gideon’s great army is reduced from 32,000 to 300, but he is as valiant as ever; he does not spend his time lamenting over the great defection, but he says, “As I do, so shall ye do”. “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant”, not he who can give a withering description of our falling away, and the errors which have crept in, and the laxity which is tolerated; but who, while seeing that everything is most deplorable, can come in, in some new, distinct way, and act for the Lord, which, like Samuel’s prayer (1 Samuel 7), will obtain from the Lord a marked intervention and relief from the enemy.
[p. 351] We see how our blessed Lord, in a perfect way, always rendered the greatest service (because the most necessary) at every crisis; and simply because of His devotedness to God as a man. He will bear hunger because of His devotedness. He alone can make a scourge of small cords and drive all the mercenary company out of the temple. In the darkest hour when He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness”, He then pre-eminently, effects the greatest service. In devotedness both to God and to man He goes into the death of judgment!
We learn from His ways that though He could see the utter ruin and failure around, He does not content Himself with seeing things in their desperate condition. No! He is the very One who uses the present misery as an opportunity, in His devotedness, to do the most effective service. I have never known complainers really devoted. No one would like to see a defect in his brother if he really felt that he was to remove it.
We never find Paul more confident in God, and more vigorous in maintaining the truth, than he is in 2 Timothy, when the defection of saints and the difficult times of the last days are before him. Is a man to see his house on fire, but, instead of using every effort to save some of it (at such a crisis the measure of his ability would come out), to fold his arms, casting the blame on someone, or reprehending the mode by which some have checked the flames?
To him who is most set for the testimony of our Lord, and hence most devoted, there is now a wonderful opportunity of rendering the greatest service. May each of us, while wide awake to all the error and laxity around us, not try to excuse ourselves, as not having caused it, but may the very desperateness of things as they appear to us be only a fresh incentive and opportunity for us to come forth in true devotedness to the Lord, to do the greatest service, which will redound to His glory and to the blessing of His people.