BE STRONG
J.G.Chalmers
2 Chronicles 27: 6; Exodus 1: 18, 19; Joshua 14: 10-13
My desire is that each one present may be strong. This is possible because David, when speaking to God in 1 Chron 29, says, "and in Thy hand it is to make all great and strong". There was a time when we were without strength. We cannot forget that, it keeps us humble; but the Lord in His mercy intervened. Romans is God's intervention in Christ: "We being still without strength, in the due time Christ has died for the ungodly" (chap 5: 6) and His desire is that we should be strong. Indeed we read in Ephesians that "the surpassing greatness of his power .... the might of his strength in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead" is "towards us who believe", (chap 1: 19, 20). That would encourage us from the divine side to be strong.
The thought that is in mind is that our local assemblies should be strong positions. In Isaiah it says, "We have a strong city" (chap 26: 1). We have learned through recent experiences that strength does not lie in numbers but in the moral and spiritual fibre of the personnel in local assemblies. I think that Corinth had numbers because it seems that there were many breaking bread there; but it was to them that Paul had to say, "Quit yourselves like men; be strong", 1 Cor 16: 13. There is a need in every local assembly of effective manhood. You will find from Mr Darby's notes those different words for man - man as a race; man as weak and mortal; and man as suggesting effective manhood and that is what Paul wanted at Corinth when he says, "Quit yourselves like men; be strong''. We may say that from the divine side everything is in our favour. From our side we need faith and the Spirit and the exercise of faith. Abraham was strengthened by faith, he found strength in faith and we can be strengthened with power by the Father's Spirit in the inner man. It is a question of our personal links with Christ and with the Spirit in view of being strong because God's mind is that every one of us should be strong both morally and spiritually.
I read in Chronicles of this young man (I think I can speak of him as young because he started to reign at 25 and died when he was 41). The account of him in both Kings and Chronicles is very brief but positive, but Chronicles has this added touch by the Spirit that he "became strong, for he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God". Now I would like just to commend that matter to all you young people, to prepare your ways day by day before your God. This young man became strong because he did that, God helped him to do it. We are speaking to the young brethren but what about the older ones? Do we know what it is to prepare our ways before our God? It is clear that he was a man who knew his God, "Jehovah his God". Daniel says, "The people that know their God shall be strong" (chap 11: 32). You want then to develop in your knowledge of God, your personal links with God, your personal links with Christ and your personal links with the Spirit. Here is this man Jotham and it says "he became strong, for he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God". That is a very practical matter. You can see that young man every morning before he went out going over the day with God - I am thinking about this, I have in mind to do that, I have in mind to go there' - and it would stand the scrutiny of God Himself. Can you young persons here today cultivate that exercise? Just face up to it. I know what young people are because I am still young myself and in the morning it is as long a lie as possible and off to work with as little breakfast as possible. Get up five minutes earlier and go over the day that is before you with God and ask His help in it. The psalmist says that: "Do thou for me" (Ps 109: 21) and "The steps of a man are established by Jehovah, and he delighteth in his way", Ps 37: 23. So now, young people, God wants the pleasure of your company. He took pleasure in Enoch's company. What a day Enoch lived in, a day of ungodliness. In the epistle of Jude four times in a verse the matter of ungodliness is mentioned and yet there is a man that walked with God and pleased Him. I think every morning Enoch would come into God's presence and say 'this is what is before me today' and God would give him a sense that He approved of it. If it cannot stand God's scrutiny, do not go on with it, do not do it because it will war against your soul, it will hinder your spiritual progress, it will be your downfall. Just cultivate this exercise of getting into God's presence every morning and preparing your ways before Him, because God always delights in your company. God has a heart, God has affections and He wants man's company, not the company of beasts but man's company. He will have it up there but He wants it here, though how few are giving God that pleasure today. I say that soberly. God wants the pleasure of your company in a sustained way day by day. That is why He has reconciled you. Reconciliation means God wants to have you for His own pleasure and satisfaction. So this is a healthy exercise to face, morning by morning, to go over the whole day with God, and whatever can stand God's scrutiny, go on with it, but if it cannot stand God's scrutiny, do not touch it. What are you going to do after this meeting you young people? Just be practical and face it. What is your programme for tonight? Will it stand God's scrutiny? If it will stand it then it is all right, but if it does not stand God's scrutiny, do not do it because it will mean your downfall spiritually. The best thing you can do tonight is to get amongst the brethren, into the houses of the saints, for I am sure there is a house for every one of you. Find a home amongst the brethren and you will be safe there, you will be protected there. That is the reason for this young man becoming strong. It says "Jotham became strong, for he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God".
We come to Exodus where the king of Egypt is challenging the midwives. He says, "Why have ye done this, and saved the male children alive? " It says, "the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian; for they are strong". What a word for the sisters! We want the sisters to be strong. Thank God many of them have shown that they were strong. Many sisters stood when we failed. They saw things I did not see because of their personal links with Christ and the Spirit and they were going on with the truth, going on with the ministry and in their secret links; they proved they were strong. They proved themselves like the Hebrew women. The midwives say here that the Hebrew women are strong and not as the Egyptians. Sometimes we get concerned about the Egyptians, their fashions and ways. We do not need to be concerned about that. The Egyptians like to look lovely - that is the Egyptian side of things . Be concerned to be amongst the Hebrew women that are strong, strong morally as having turned their backs on Egypt and its pleasures, and strong spiritually as cultivating your own links with the Spirit. But then the attack by the king of Egypt is on the male side. In Genesis 3 it was the female; the serpent studied the man and the woman and he attacked the woman, and wrought havoc. Here he is attacking the male side, but God defeats him. Think of the Lord Jesus, think of the blessedness that flows from the contemplation of the manhood of Jesus in the gospels, from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John's standpoint; and He says "the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing", John 14: 30. As Mr Taylor said, there was no weak side in Jesus. All the weak sides are in us and the enemy would exploit it, the side of things that is susceptible to prejudice, susceptible to false witness, personal feeling, and all that kind of thing. Once the enemy gets in there he says, I will attack the male side, because his objective is to disrupt the service of God and administration in the assembly. We need the male side for the service of God - "Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God ... and they shall not appear before Jehovah empty", Deut 16: 16. We need the male side for administration according to God in the assembly, free of the weak side. Let us be men; it involves standing up to the moral side in our own histories, like these Hebrew women, in the side of being strong subjectively. What light there has been amongst us! The answer to it in subjective conditions is the great need amongst us. The Hebrew women were strong - strong subjective conditions in the local assemblies. So how do you start being a man? At the end of Romans 7 you discover your true self - "I myself' (v.25). You learn the weak element in yourself and then say, 'I will be a man, will stand by the truth, by divine principles; whatever anyone says, I with the mind will serve God's law and with the flesh sin's law'. That is where true effective manhood starts. Then pray to the Spirit to support you and work that out in a practical sense. So what comes into view is Christ, that is very precious - the male child, a woman bringing in a male child - not the Egyptians (you will not find any traits of Christ among the Egyptians, not one), but these Hebrew women can bring in a male child - the power of motherhood to bring in Christ in a subjective way in a local assembly. May it be so in view of the pleasure of God and in view of effective administration. These midwives too, of course, have a part to fill. You think of localities where there are young people in need of the service of the midwives, this skilful service that would help some young people in their critical exercises. The midwife just serves at a critical point and there are many of these young people going through a critical stage. It might be this way, it might be that way. It might be the testimony, it might be the world. It is just at that point that the service of the midwife is needed. May we take on this service and be alongside these young people in the critical exercises of their souls and help them through to find their own feet and be men in that sense. Hebrew women are strong. It sounds unusual to say, Women and men, but it is what is subjective in view of bringing in Christ so that He will be in expression in our local assemblies.
Then in Joshua. I hardly feel equal to speaking about Caleb because he is a man who has come right through, right through from Egypt, right through the wilderness and he has wholly followed Jehovah his God. What a man he is! He is a man who has set his sights on the purpose of God, he laid hold of God's purposes. What we want to understand and go in for are God's purposes: His purposes are unchangeable. There is the inheritance, there is what is ours by right of the birthright because we are Christ's brethren; but behind it all lies God's purpose, what He purposed in Himself before the foundation of the world and which He has never revised and will never change; and when time is over God will have a full answer to all His purposes. So here is a man who wants Hebron . He says that he is able to take it. He is not being presumptuous. He says, "I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still this day strong ... as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in". For war, yes, it involves conflict. Mr Taylor said that the toughest battles are from Colossians to Ephesians, from Hebron to Jerusalem. To get into the gain of God's purposes involves conflict because the enemy will dog your steps steadily the whole way. But here is a man who says he is strong. He had wholly followed God, he had maintained his own links with Christ and the Spirit and, in the power and grace of the Spirit, he feels equal to taking the inheritance, to taking Hebron. It is a remarkable thing that there is no discouragement. He never thinks he is going to be defeated. He never thinks the Anakim are going to kill him. When he goes out he will deal with all the opposing elements that would hinder his enjoyment of the inheritance, of Hebron, of God's thoughts and purpose, and he will come back again. You cannot kill a man that is over Jordan, can you? He is in the power of resurrection and he knows that greater is He that is in us than he that is against us. There is strong encouragement and he gets what he goes in for. You only get what you go in for. You young people, you get what you go in for and God has the best in His heart for us. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. The assembly’s place is the best. We are the first of all the families. We have the choicest place in divine purpose. Go in for it, enjoy it and you will get it.
May it be so, for His Name's sake.
Grangemouth
6th October 1972