EXERCISE PURSUED WITH RIGHT FEELINGS
W. Dickson
Our brother’s reference to Saul and Barnabas being available (Acts 13: 2) and the exhortation to Timothy as to doing the work of an evangelist, directed my mind to this passage, particularly as to the days in which we are. The conditions at Antioch were quite unique and distinctive, the Holy Spirit speaking in that assembly and giving direction as to the separation of these two distinguished men for the Lord’s service. But what about our own time?—a time when things are difficult and testing, as they were in the time of Jeremiah as recorded in this scripture.
What I want to say, beloved brethren, is that it is a great matter to be maintained in exercise. I think that one important thing today is to be maintained constantly in exercise about the testimony, about the needs of the testimony, about the needs in the local meeting. It is my observation, I trust of the Lord, that where there is exercise about things the Lord comes in in some way or other. It may be that the exercise might not be, shall I say, vocal, it may be carried by sisters, but as long as there is an exercise about matters, not only matters of difficulty, but a general concern and a desire to be available, to use our brother’s word, the Lord gives help. I think that is true and has been proved.
So I thought of this scripture. Here was Jeremiah put in the dungeon. This Ethiopian eunuch may well have opted out of the responsibility of seeing to the matter. He might have said, ‘Well, I am not one of the nation, I am not a Jew, I have no claim, and they have no claim on me. Why should I exercise myself? If the king said, Jeremiah has to go into the dungeon, let it be. I can free myself from the burden of exercise connected with this matter’. But he went to the king. The king might have said to him, ‘Well, do you think that is your business?’ But he went, as exercised about the matter, and surely God looked down with great pleasure on that man as concerned about the prophet, about the vessel of the testimony at that time. How heaven must have looked down in holy approval to see that man with, so to speak, no responsibility in it and yet taking the matter up in exercise and going to the king. And the king listened to him.
It is quite amazing to think that in an act so deliberate as imprisonment, which the king felt was necessary for the safety of the kingdom, he yielded to the appeal of this man, and I think that should be an encouragement to us. Follow up exercises if the Spirit of God touches our hearts about any matter regarding the testimony, any matter of truth, anything you want help and light on. Follow up the exercise and God will come in for you.
So the king told him to take up thirty men. I do not know why that would be, why they would need thirty men to bring up a man out of a dungeon, perhaps enfeebled through suffering, but it does show how fully and definitely the king allied himself with the exercise. He says, “Take from thence thirty men”. In effect he says, ‘I will give you all the help you need’. Our God is like that. We want to have faith, beloved brethren, to prove these things. God will come in for us and He will give us all the help we need as we take up matters. One might feel occasions arise when we are hardly able for things. Sometimes these feelings take possession of us. We say matters are too heavy for us to take up. But God will help us if we are exercised. “And (he) went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old shreds and worn-out clothes, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah”. He used even what had been discarded to further his exercise. Use everything available to help things on.
Here was all this stuff lying discarded, the old shreds and rags, but he made use of them. Everything is of value in the assembly. The old ministry is of value. I say that to the younger brethren. It is fine waiting on the monthlies coming out, but you have to look at what is old, and what is valuable and can be used in the present testimony. We want to pursue our exercises and take up what is available, take up what is available in our local meetings, take advantage of what each one has and use it for the testimony.
Then it says that the Ethiopian eunuch said to Jeremiah, “Put … these … under thine armholes under the cords”. And Jeremiah did so. And they drew up Jeremiah with the cords. Now what that, brings out, beloved brethren, is an important matter. In following out the exercise the eunuch was a feeling man, a feeling man. When your pursue your exercises you have to have feelings. You just cannot ride rough-shod over everybody and everything in pursuit of an exercise. What comes out was that Ebed-melech had feelings. He says to Jeremiah in effect, ‘You put these old clothes under your armpits and we will haul you up gently’. These are fine things, beloved brethren. That is what makes the assembly workable.
That is what makes it living, free from the taint of clericalism and such things, which can do so much damage. There is always a way open for exercise and tender feelings in regard to the course of the testimony.
So I just leave that with the brethren. Pursue your exercises, but pursue them in a feeling way, and the Lord will come in for you. It is amazing what will open up thus in regard to the prosperity of the testimony in a place, for His name’s sake. Amen.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
10 August 1982