LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD

LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD

It is in details, even as with the extremities of the body, that the energy of life is tested and proved. If the hands and feet be cold there is evidently a deficiency of vital power in the system; and though in other respects there may be good health, the coldness of the extremities is evidence that there is not much energy of life.

It is in the way we deal with those related to us naturally that we show the force and measure of divine power in us. There can be action, and action sufficient to testify of the existence of life, and yet not enough to enable us to act in quite a new and independent way towards our relatives. Abram, with his father Terah, may remove from Mesopotamia, but until his father is dead, he does not come into the land. When grace takes possession of the soul and a new man is formed, there will be for a long time, unless there is much exercise of conscience, occupation with it as an object, a seeking ^[p. 268] to obtain light and instruction for it, rather than to avoid the influence of those to whom we are naturally attached and related. The world and general society will be easily refused and separated from; but from those to whom our hearts cling, to whom the tie of nature gives a claim, there will not be separation until the strength of Christ makes their society insupportable. Any one at all spiritual feels that he must get away from the society of the world, he is miserable if he does not; but it is often long and tedious before any one obeys the Master’s word, “Let the dead bury their dead”. Saints who would not listen to the world’s conversation and comments, feeling how irksome and injurious it would be, submit to it from their relations, and often even from their fellow christians. They seem unable to distinguish between the world in those who are not related to them and in those who are. They turn away from the world on one hand, and bear with it on the other. And thus a man’s foes are the men of his own house. The world is not only as bad in one’s own family as in those not related to us, but it is far more injurious, just because it is less feared and less distant. The fact is, the heart blinds or clouds the conscience. If there were no tie, no affection, the conscience of the saint would soon wince because of the worldly influence that the natural man always exerts by his very presence; and once his company is accepted, many worldly things must then be suffered in order not to offend him. Things and habits are retained or excused in order to be more agreeable to this or that worldly relative; and thus not only is the society borne with, but worldly habits and dress are retained in order to accommodate oneself, not to the world, but to the worldly relation. Saints have little idea of how much of the world they retain in order to suit their relatives; they fear to make themselves entirely repugnant to them. If you go into any one’s house, or observe any one’s habits, and challenge anything ^[p. 269] which is worldly, you will find that the ground on which it will be defended is either that one must not do away with everything belonging to position, or one must not make one’s house unattractive or unsuitable to one’s worldly relations. No doubt there is often much of the world still attaching even to some who are zealously and conscientiously seeking to be outside of it; but such an one would soon get extricated if this other and less feared influence were not brought to bear on him, namely, must he not keep up things to please, or if not so much as that, to avoid offending a worldly son or a worldly daughter, or, as is still oftener the case, a more distant relative? I believe if a devoted saint had no position to keep up, or no family influence, he would soon be simple and unworldly enough.

Now the influence which is most difficult to escape from must be the most dangerous. A man must be quite dead as to his nature who can be quite independent of the influence of his relations, and who is in no way affected by their progress or prosperity in the world. It is far easier to break with the unrelated of the world and therefore sooner effected. That tie is over and broken, but it is right and of God that the tie with one’s own relations should continue; and hence the problem is how to be no longer susceptible to their influence. If the tie did not exist, the matter would be simply solved; but the admitted tie, as ordered of God, becomes a plea for the undue acknowledgment of it. The point is to own implicitly the tie, but to refuse the influence which that tie would exert over one naturally; and in order to do this one must adhere simply and implicitly to the Lord’s mind, or the claim of the relation will be too easily yielded to, and then the dead do not bury their dead. It is not enough for one to have broken with the world and distanced oneself from the world’s society, for then one might be like a family in exile, separate indeed from all those who are alien to them ^[p. 270] in blood and religion, and yet as full of natural tastes and feelings in the circle of their own near relations as ever. Therefore this kind of separation from the world often deceives, for such an one has only reduced the circumference of his world, to find it in the smaller circle in a concentrated form and force. It is in figure like one ascending in a balloon and by degrees finding that the higher he goes the smaller is his boundary, but he is in heart as worldly and carnal as ever. Limited circles do not diminish the strength of nature; on the contrary, the more the sphere is limited to one’s grasp, the greater is the tenacity with which it is held. A man dying always clings to those dearest to him; the nearest circle to him is the last which he surrenders — the linen cloth girt about his naked body (see Mark 14: 51, 52) — and hence the most difficult. All the top branches to the very stem of a tree may die, and yet the tree remains alive; and if there is no poison in its sap it will be as strong as if the top branches had not faded away. The fact is, in order that I should be able to let the dead bury their dead, I must be completely dead in myself. I can die a great way, break with all the outside circle; but to break entirely with the circle that comes nearest to me, and leave the dead father to be buried by the dead, requires that I should be completely free from any natural influence, and then I can simply and entirely follow the Lord. I must let the dead bury their dead before I am fully able to follow Him. It is not breaking with all relations, like a monastic recluse, but to break from their influence in order to be quite free and unimpeded in following the Lord.

In our onward course it is the one nearest to us in nature that generally hinders most, and simply for this reason, that natural affection makes such an one consider for us naturally, and therefore he attempts to hinder what seems opposed to our present advantage. Abram’s father stands in his way. Jacob’s mother ^[p. 271] because of her affection involves him in much sorrow, and the last link to her we may conclude was broken at Beth-el, when the nurse died, and the place was called Allon-bachuth; Genesis 35. Job is hindered by his wife; Job 2: 9. Peter attempts to counsel Christ according to his natural affection, and it is denounced by the Lord as of Satan; Matthew 16. The one we might expect most from naturally is the one to hinder and embarrass us most if his natural affection has its way. David is driven from Jerusalem by his son whom he had illegally spared. The priesthood is lost to Eli’s family because he failed to rule his sons. Natural affection had intervened, and there was failure in following the Lord. And surely, if it can so markedly hinder, how great and insidious must be its influence, when there is no aim or effort to let the dead bury their dead.

Many parents can deny the world for themselves, who cannot do so for their children, and many ran well until their families grew up. If one were exiled to a distant quarter of the globe, it is plain that, whatever the means, the order and the arrangements would wear another aspect when the heart was simply seeking the Lord. And why? Because there would be then no natural or family influence of any kind. Everything on our own level affects us peculiarly. A child is affected by a child of its own age coming into the room, as a dog is by the encounter of a dog, and thus in every stage and order of life.

Now the more I have been mixed up with the world in departing from God, the more distinctly and openly — and this especially with regard to my own relations — am I required to prove my separation; even as Moses, who, when arresting the idolatry of Israel, directs all who are on the Lord’s side to take every man his sword, and consecrate himself every man on his son, and on his brother.

The mixture into which they had previously fallen ^[p. 272] demanded the more manifest separation. It is often deemed sufficient to separate from the world in its organised idolatry, and seldom thought necessary that every man should put his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour; Exodus 32: 27. The greater the ecclesiastical corruption, the more distinct must be the repudiation of it and separation from it; and if this separation be genuine, it necessarily must be seen where nature touches us most. It is not only the outer branches which are to be broken off, but the very rind and bark that comes nearest to us is to be stripped off and disowned if it compromises our separation. There could not be real consecration to God otherwise. How can there be a true estimate of the dishonour to God that we in nature have fallen into, if I can spare my own, and those near and dear to me, at the expense of His name and truth? Whereas if, on the other hand, I have consecrated myself by cutting off that which is nearest and dearest to me, I prove beyond any question the enormity of the evil, and my entire repudiation of it. It is vain for a man to speak of following the Lord while the innermost and strongest chain is still unbroken. It is useless for a man to suppose that he has surrendered the stronghold — in other words that he is devoted — while he reserves the citadel where the main force is quartered. Give up the citadel and all the rest is easy enough. Prove that you are really free to follow the Lord; that there is nothing to stand between you and Him; that where there was a tie, the dearest to nature, you waived it, disowned its influence, in order to be clear of everything which could mar your faithfulness. “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty”, and surely this is enough.