THE MAN AND THE WOMAN
P. Buchan (Kirkcaldy)
Ecclesiastes 7: 27, 28; Proverbs 19: 14; 18: 22
It is wonderful to think of an occasion like this when, in this world, marriage is treated as a very ordinary matter. There is something very great in God’s heart and mind as to marriage “in the Lord”. He would use this occasion to show that He is holding to the “in Lord” position; do not let us lower it.
Where we read, the Preacher says, “A woman ... have I not found”. But he says something else; “one man among a thousand have I found”. The preacher of the gospel may be satisfied with what he finds in the presentation of Jesus as Saviour. But is the Lord fully satisfied with that? The Lord did not find satisfaction in Israel, though He will yet do so in the world to come, but our concern at the present moment is to answer fully to His heart. He is looking for the assembly. The Spirit would emphasize this, and that is what we need to see. So an occasion like this brings before us not only the Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one Man, but also the woman suitable to Him. In the Proverbs you get the woman, and the last chapter shows you how precious she is—“Who can find a woman of worth?” (Proverbs 31: 10); that is what Christ has given Himself for, the assembly, as it says, “even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, Ephesians 5: 25. Paul says, “This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. It is not known in the religious world, and we are greatly favoured to have the knowledge not only of Christ, but of the assembly.
Proverbs 19 says, “House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers”. Our young brother and sister can be thankful for their parents. In the years up to now they have known the care of their parents and now they are setting up a house of their own. God, in His wonderful grace and wisdom, has set them where they are, where there are those who have light as to Christ and as to the assembly—how great it is!
We can thank God for the literal matter as to the fathers, “House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers; but a prudent wife is from Jehovah”. I am thinking of what the assembly is and the fathers that we have had spiritually. We speak of J. N. Darby and his writings; how much work went into them! Think of the work he did, and the whole labour was in relation to this vessel for Christ, what is suitable to Himself, the assembly. Then we think of other servants. What a work these men did! They gave themselves to it, the working out of the truth of the assembly, “A prudent wife is from Jehovah”; we can trace it to God Himself, His work in us. As we look at this large company here today we see His sovereignty in the very fact of our being brought to know Jesus as our Saviour, but then also in our being brought to know the greatness of the assembly so as to work it out practically.
The previous chapter says, “Whoso hath found a wife hath found a good thing”. Our brother has found a good thing, a wife. Many of us can speak from experience; we have found a good thing and we can appreciate what we have in God’s mercy and grace and we are thankful for it. Let us appreciate it, not only the natural thing, but what the assembly is, and work it out in a greater way, being satisfied with what we have found, and going in fully for divine things.
May there thus be a blessing.