Ministry Meeting
(i) Words
David Scougal Snr.
I read this remarkable verse this week. The people of God were in difficult days. Sometimes we say we are in very difficult times and that would be true but not as difficult as the days of these dear captives. At the beginning of the chapter it says, “And Jehovah said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (v.1). They had pleaded: “Jehovah, we acknowledge our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers”, Jer. 14: 20. How serious things were with them! “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me”. What a man Moses had been! What a work he had done for God’s people! He was one who was a mediator, one who was prepared to be blotted out of God’s book as long as the people were saved – a type, of course, of our great High Priest, the One who gave His life for us. “Though … Samuel stood before me”: what a man Samuel was! What words he gave, what prophecies he uttered! It says, “Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground”, 1 Sam. 3: 19. Where did that word go? That word was treasured in the hearts of those who heard. That is where they went. It did not fall to the ground; it fell into their hearts and souls in the day of Samuel. We have had a lot of prophets in our day, we tend to say prophets of the recovery, and that is true, but we have the prophets of the New Testament: Paul, Peter, John, James. Think of these great men, great prophets! Think of the greatest Prophet of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, a Prophet, a Priest and a King. What about His words? He says, “let these words sink into your ears” (Luke 9: 44), into the depths of your soul. That is where Samuel’s words went, into the depths of the souls of God’s people. That is where the Lord’s words were to go. That is where Paul’s words were to go. We have had many prophets in the days of the recovery – ministry, Oh, dear brethren, read it and cherish it and speak of it with affection!
I just thought of this verse following what our brother has said: “Thy words were found”. A word has come to us, beloved brethren. The Lord has spoken to us tonight. Do not anyone say that is not so. It is so. The Lord has spoken in His word. “Thy words were found”, now are we going to eat them? Are we going to make these our own? The old brothers used to tell us when I was a young man, ‘Make it your own’. Let us make this word our own! “And I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart”. Oh, the joy that God’s word gives us as we make it our own, our hearts stimulated, our souls quickened, our spirits set forward. These people of old, at the end of the chapter it says, “yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible” (v.21). Think of it! At the beginning of the chapter things looked very difficult: ‘if Moses and Samuel stood there, I would not have anything to do with you!’ But then they found the word and they took the word and they ate it. You know, if you eat a thing and masticate and swallow it, it becomes part of you. That is simple dietetics. You appropriate something and you eat it and it forms part of your being. When the word of God comes to us, the thing is to accept it and to eat it and to make it our own and become formed by it so that we become, as our brother has said, good neighbours.
It says at the end of the chapter for these people of old, “I will deliver thee … and I will redeem thee”. We would be helped out of these difficulties, problems that we have, the problems that should not be amongst us. I do not specially mean locally; but I mean throughout the fellowship there are problems that should not be there. We are thinking different things, thinking different ways, but the way to get the benefit is the appropriation of the word of God, the prophetic word as it comes to us. In the latter days of Mr Taylor’s ministry, if he stressed one thing it was the prophetic word. It had not been always in the days of his service that meetings for prophetic ministry were arranged, but he suggested such meetings, possibly in the late thirties and early forties, stressing the need to listen to the prophetic word coming amongst us, and this was taken on and proved of great help, and that will help us and set us forward and bind us together, now, today.
Well, there is not much more I can say, but it says, “and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name”, God’s own people. He names us, calls us after Himself. You say, what do you mean? Well, we come to know Christ as our Saviour, come to know what it is to have part in this wonderful vessel, the assembly, and that vessel is named after the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12 it says, “so also is the Christ” (v.12), the anointed vessel. What a vessel, what an inn, what a place of security, what a place of rejoicing, what a place of happiness, what a place of gladness of heart where we can be at rest and peace and joy together! But then there is always the neighbour that needs help. I remember I asked a dear old brother locally, who is the neighbour? Oh, he said, that is simple, that is the brother that is near you. He said, it is not the brother in America or the brother in Australia; it is the brother that is near you. He is your neighbour. Well, may we be helped by this word to have good neighbourly relations together for His Name’s sake!
EDINBURGH
3 December 2002