INQUIRY

J.Renton

Luke 2: 46-51; Psalm 27: 4; Isaiah 21: 11,12; 2 Samuel 20: 15-20

These scriptures present the importance of inquiry. It is a feature that is proper to manhood according to God. The attitude of inquiry involves dependence, it includes the idea that we need to learn, and as long as we are here, no matter how old we are, we are always learning and we always need to learn. If the trust that we were speaking of is rightly to be fulfilled by any of us there will be the need to maintain the attitude of inquiry. We can be so fixed at times in our outlook and in our ideas, which is not proper to manhood. The attitude of inquiry is a receptive attitude. It is an attitude that would be ready to receive anything that God may say to us about any matter and is important for each one of us to maintain individually and locally when we come together. There should be always with us the attitude of inquiry.

This attitude is very attractive when it is seen in the Lord Jesus Himself. In this chapter two of the gospel of Luke we have presented to us Jesus as a boy of twelve with his parents. Some here may be about twelve. What a model Jesus is! Young persons here, Jesus was once your age. What a wonderful thing to contemplate Him here, perfect in flesh and blood condition, brought up at Nazareth, living in the household of His parents, and Jesus one of that household. What an example for young persons in households. Maybe sometimes they, as we all have, rebel against certain restrictions which are for our blessing to accept. There were never any of these features with Jesus. It was a poor household; when it came to a certain offering required, the offering of lesser value was offered (Luke 2: 24; Lev 12: 8) which would indicate that the household had not much material resource. It would not be a home such as we live in, dear brethren. His parents went up yearly at the feast of the Passover, and when Jesus was twelve years old they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast and the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. Think of Jesus as a boy of twelve, already committed to His Father's business, rejoicing to go up to Jerusalem. The psalmist said "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem", Ps 122: 1,2. Think of Jesus as a boy of twelve anticipating going up and His feet actually standing within the gates of Jerusalem! What God purposed regarding Jerusalem, and will yet be fulfilled, even regarding the earthly Jerusalem, would come into the heart and mind of the Lord Jesus as a boy of twelve.

As His parents returned, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. They went a day's journey supposing He was amongst their acquaintances and friends. "And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions". Think of Jesus asking questions. We would have to view this setting of the temple and teachers as normal. There was the abnormal side where the doctors of the law were sitting by, critical of the actions of the Lord Jesus in chapter 5, but here we would have to regard. This was normal, just as in chapter 1 there was normal priestly service, Zacharias being in the temple in his course. We were speaking about the failures which took place between what was established by David and Samuel the seer, and what was recovered in the time of Nehemiah (see 1 Chron 9: 22). There were many serious lapses also between the recovery in the book of Nehemiah and the history recorded in the first chapter of Luke. There were over four hundred years of history, some very sad history; there was actually idolatry set up in the temple during that time. What a lapse that was, but you come to the first chapter of Luke verse five and you find the course of Abia functioning as set on by David in 1 Chronicles 24: 11. The line comes right through.

So in chapter 2 there are these teachers: "sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions". I suppose in our day teachers would be scarce. Thank God we have teaching, and there is printed teaching, but teachers are scarce. We are not living in a time when gift is prominent. I do not think persons could be named as teachers today. We are not living in that kind of time but in a time when things are more mutual, and we help each other. We need to help each other because there is not the distinctiveness there has been previously. Nevertheless there is to be in our localities the element of teaching. The Lord Jesus Himself as a boy of twelve was sitting in the midst of the teachers and hearing them and asking them questions. It is an attitude of dependent manhood here; He asked questions of teachers in the temple. What a model for us, dear brethren! "And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers". We are not surprised that those who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers, knowing who He is, knowing the perfection of His committal, but we might be surprised that He was hearing the teachers and asking them questions. It would no doubt emphasise the importance of this attitude of inquiry. So when we come together we do not come together to teach exactly, we come together to inquire and there is help in every occasion as we inquire. The Lord Jesus said "Why is it that ye have sought me? did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?" He was already committed to His Father's business. The more we are committed to the Father's business, and the more we accept being entrusted with the things of God, the more we will need the feature of inquiry, and make use of everything that can help us, and anyone that can help us. Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth and He was in subjection to them. Jesus, committed to His Father's business, was in subjection to His parents in Nazareth. How beautiful it is! How attractive it makes this matter of inquiry, I trust, to each one of us!

Now Psalm 27, a psalm of David, is in a section which begins in Psalm 25. It has been suggested that this section of Psalms may have been written during the time of the rebellion of Absalom, and David was in exile, and some of his inward feelings are expressed. It says in this verse we have read "One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after". You remember when he accepted exile and left Jerusalem and Zadok and the priests brought the ark to be with David in exile, he said "Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favour in the eyes of Jehovah, he will bring me again, and show me it, and its habitation", 2 Sam 15: 25. David says here "One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah; and to inquire of him in his temple". It is a longing he has to get into normal conditions, and the privilege of inquiring of Him. It is the one thing that occupies David's mind and heart here. If he is in exile when he writes this you can understand how he would value the privilege he once had, and pray that it should be restored to him. What a privilege we have in an area like this! How privileged we are to have meetings of this kind, to have occasions of fellowship, to be in localities close to other localities! We are not in outposts; there are the outposts.

If we are to experience temple conditions there must be with us the attitude of inquiry. The temple of God is where the Spirit of God is, but even if persons who are indwelt by the Spirit come together without the attitude of inquiry there would not be temple conditions. There needs to be this attitude of inquiry with us. We are thankful for help we get when we come together in occasions such as we had before we had this one, but I sometimes wonder if such occasions could be even more profitable, because the more we are coloured by the attitude of inquiry the more profitable these occasions will be because, the Spirit dwelling here in the temple, there is the answer to any genuine inquiry. What is needed on our side is this attitude of inquiry. We do not come together as knowing everything; we come together as inquirers. Some might know more than others, but it is not a matter of knowledge in any case, it is a matter of what the Lord might say and what God might say to us whether we are a large number locally or whether we are few. Temple conditions do not depend on numbers; I believe temple conditions depend on the attitude of the persons, and if the attitude is one of inquiry we will get more and more help in our occasions of gathering, because there is no limit to the help available to us. There needs to be the receptive inquiring attitude on our part. We do not just come together to talk about the scriptures, we come together to inquire as to what the Lord would say to us on any particular occasion. He is more ready to speak to us than we are to inquire. The need is on our side for this attitude of inquiry. May we be alerted and have more of this spirit of inquiry that there might be divine answers coming to us.

The book of Isaiah consists of a large number of prophecies, and we have the advantage in Mr Darby's translation of indications of when the prophecies start and finish. Some of the prophecies consist of one chapter, some consist of a number of chapters; this one we have read consists of two verses, but it is a prophecy of Isaiah, by itself, which would remind us of the need to be available to answer inquiry, and to be on the outlook for inquiring persons. Not only do we need to have the attitude of inquiry ourselves but we need to be on the outlook for persons who are inquiring. This is the burden of Dumah: "He called to me out of Seir". Who is the 'me'? It might be Isaiah himself. Isaiah's experiences come into his prophecies more than perhaps we realise. He makes several references to himself and how he felt in certain circumstances. He had to walk barefoot and naked for instance in chapter twenty, as indicated of God. Here Isaiah writes "he calleth to me out of Seir". The call is "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" We need to be watchmen, on the outlook for persons who are inquiring. The inquiry is "What of the night?". There are many around us in conditions of night, in darkness; we know something ourselves of that darkness. Paul wrote in the first chapter of Colossians: "Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness". I have no doubt that around us there are dear souls held in the authority of darkness. It is something where Satan has a foothold, where he has authority over the conscience. The consciences of persons are under an authority, but it is not of God, it is the authority of darkness. It is a very solemn thing and we have known something of it. Thank God that we have been delivered from it: "Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love". The authority of darkness would be like the night. "What of the night?" "Watchman", it is repeated "What of the night?" Persons may be living near to us under this authority, there may be some longing with them. Would we be in an attitude of watchmen? Would we be ready to answer any inquiry? "And the watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come". Through divine mercy some of us have known something of what the morning is. There is life and love and liberty and hope in the shining of the sun; how good to come into the morning! Do not let us forget there are persons who are still in the night and let us be available. Peter speaks about "sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts, and be always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you" 1 Pet 3: 15. It is somebody who understands the morning light and hope and is prepared to give an answer. He is like a watchman, he is testifying in his behaviour that he has hope. He is not in the night, he is not under the authority of darkness, he is in the kingdom of the Son of His love and, because he is expressing something of that morning, he arouses inquiry and is "always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear"; not in any boasting attitude, not in an attitude taking any credit to ourselves but in meekness and fear. This brings before us the idea of the watchman on the outlook. Habakkuk takes up his stand upon his watch tower (see Hab 2: 1). We have often referred to part of the panoply in Ephesians 6: "shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace" (v 15). Shod your feet, not just our minds, not just our hearts but our feet, which must involve movement. Such would be available to answer any inquiry. It says here "if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come". In the day in which we are there is a need for this attitude of the watchman being on the outlook for persons who are inquiring, who are troubled, who are burdened; and there must be many of them, persons who have misgivings, who wonder, who possibly did not know all the facts that we knew at a certain juncture. Through mercy we are delivered, but let us never forget persons who are still in bondage and be ready to answer inquiries.

In 2 Samuel we have before us the importance of the attitude of inquiry when a difficulty arises. We tend to jump to conclusions and we can be quite sure we have the right judgment, and so we pronounce it very often. The need, dear brethren, is to inquire; whatever the difficulty may be, the need is to inquire. There is a difficulty in this scripture, a very serious difficulty, and Joab proceeds to act. Actually he was not commissioned to do this. Amasa is recognised as the captain, and then Abishai is commissioned to see to this matter, but somehow Joab comes into it. Joab is never far away when something like this arises. They gather together and come and besiege this city Abel-Beth-Maacah and cast a bank against it. They proceed to sap the wall, they proceed to destroy this city because of this difficulty that has arisen. Joab makes no inquiry, he does not consult anyone, he proceeds to act on his own ideas; but there is a wise woman there. "And a wise woman cried out of the city, Hear, hear: say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee". This woman succeeded in getting Joab to listen. One of the last things Joab would do is to listen. Joab was acting here, proceeding according to his own mind, quite sure he has the answer, but she succeeds in getting this man to listen. "Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. And he came near to her; and the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he said, I am he. And she said to him, Listen to the words of thy handmaid. And he said, I am listening". If you get someone listening, even Joab listening, there is some hope of a settlement of things. "I am listening", he says, and she spoke saying "They were wont to speak in old time saying, Just inquire in Abel". Think of that word, "Just inquire"! A difficulty arises - just inquire! There is need to have an open mind and to inquire - just inquire. "Just inquire in Abel; and so they ended". We need, dear brethren, to develop this attitude of inquiry regarding any difficulty arising. Difficulties are arising and difficulties will arise, but "Just inquire"; "Just inquire" before you come to a conclusion. Fortunately, inquiring takes some time; there is time gained by inquiring.

I desire to draw attention to two incidents in the Old Testament. The first is in Genesis 34 where there was the difficulty when Dinah the daughter of Leah went out to see the daughters of the land, and all of us would know the calamity that happened there. This difficulty was answered violently, Simeon and Levi took the matter into their own hands. There is no doubt that it was a wrong thing that was done, but Simeon and Levi made no inquiry; they did not ask Jacob what he thought about the matter. They took the law into their own hands and acted so violently that sixty years afterwards the matter was still on the spirit of Jacob; he was still bearing the burden of what these sons Simeon and Levi did. A wrong was done, there is no doubt that it was wrong, but their action was so violent that it brought in grief which remained for sixty years or so afterwards for when Jacob was blessing his sons he recalled to Simeon and Levi this incident. We can make matters worse by an over-reaction to any difficulty that may happen.

The other incident is in the book of Joshua chapter 22, when the two and a half tribes had been with the other nine and a half tribes and the conquest of the land of Canaan had been completed, and the two and a half tribes were sent back to their own inheritance on the other side of the Jordan. Before they went to their homes they built an altar of grand appearance. The thing looked very bad. A very serious view was taken of it in Israel. When the children of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war (v 12). Such was their answer to the difficulty and even Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the princes were in it. "And they came to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and spoke with them, saying, Thus saith the whole assembly of Jehovah: What wickedness is this which ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following Jehovah, in that ye have built yourselves an altar, rebelling this day against Jehovah?" (vv 15,16). They pronounced it wickedness and rebellion and turning away from God. That is what is pronounced by even Phinehas, the son of Eleazar; and they go on to refer to precedents, which are often referred to when difficulties happen. "Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us?" They would say this is just Peor all over again. Then they refer to Achan's sin. We have these kind of things said when difficulties arise. Immediately we jump to conclusions and say this is Glanton over again, or some other issue over again. After they have said all this and after they have given their conclusion about it, and called it wickedness and rebellion, they find that there is an explanation, so that it says in verse 30 that when they "heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their sight". There was an explanation for it, you see. The thing was good in the sight of the children of Israel. It says in verse 33 "And the thing was good in the sight of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel blessed God, and no more said that they would go up in warfare against them, to destroy the land". It was explained. It was not on a very high level, it was on a low level; nevertheless it was accepted. In fact they said it was good. The idea was that they were so far from Jerusalem that they should have an altar just to prove that Jehovah was their God. It was a very poor thing, and yet it was an explanation which was accepted and instead of war, there was peace restored. It came through inquiry. They inquired. They would have been better to inquire first, before they made their pronouncements, but anyway they inquired afterwards and it was accepted. We had a word on Tuesday night as to our reactions when certain things happen. Maybe the Lord allows certain things to happen to test our reactions. We are always being tested as to what our reactions are to certain things that happen. We are safe, dear brethren, to inquire and to keep inquiring, and the Lord will answer true inquiry and genuine earnest prayer to Him.

May the Lord help us to value the attitude of inquiry and to be maintained in it that we may prove trustworthy as to what is committed to us.

SUNBURY

22 February 1975