WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?
[p. 477] WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?
Jonah 1: 8; Genesis 46: 31 - 34; Genesis 47: 1 - 10
From what I have read you will understand that what is in mind is the enquiry as to occupation. We find it with Jonah, and we find it in Egypt with Jacob’s family; it is found elsewhere, as in Paul, who, before Agrippa, spoke of his manner of life; that is somewhat different from the idea of occupation, but the allusion is to his unconverted days. Later he sends Timotheus to the Corinthians to tell them about his ways as they were in Christ. It is a matter of note that the Corinthians were to be acquainted with the manner of life of the apostle.
But to speak for a moment of Jonah, it is a question of what is the cause of the evil which had come upon him, or as the seamen said “upon us”. That is a very pertinent question now, for it is right morally that we all should make enquiry as to the cause of the evil which has come upon mankind; a terrible disaster falling upon all, and we may well enquire for whose cause? The seamen say to Jonah, of the evil that had befallen them, that it was for him to tell of it. Not much is needed to be said, the story is well-known, but the danger which befell the seamen in whose boat Jonah was had worked out to wonderful matters; God made them so to work out. One is reminded of an incident in the history of the people of God; that is in Ephraim, into whose house, we are told, calamity had come — 1 Chronicles 7: 22, 23. It was evidently caused by the fault of his children, or largely so, but whatever it be, if a calamity such as came into Ephraim’s house fall upon us, it is wise to enquire as to the cause, and to take into account what has been recorded as to such things, because they are recorded for ourselves, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. For whose cause is this calamity come?
[p. 478] Ephraim had a son born named Beriah, which meant that he was born when calamity was in his house. That is the meaning of his name, and what names, dear brethren, can be given to children at the present moment, in the present days, the present years? There are, I understand, an unusual number of births, and what names are applicable as each parent recalls the calamity which has befallen him! The Christian enquires, what is meant by it all, whether it be the case of Jonah, or the case of Ephraim, one of the distinguished sons of Jacob; although the fact that he was distinguished did not save him from calamity, which may come also on the most esteemed of us. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He gives much to us; He lavishes things upon us, whether the ordinary blessings or gifts, and they are without recall; but still His gifts and calling will not, in themselves, save us from calamity, and calamity has come. Whatever we may think of it, those of us who have not been through it fully, although we have in spirit, can hardly name the things that have happened. I can say that, and speak of it feelingly too, as thinking of the brethren. At the same time this question comes to everyone as to the cause, why this evil has come about, and how it is to be worked out.
The failures of Jonah occasioned most extraordinary experiences. He had to go through the depths, to the bottoms of the mountains, the weeds being wrapped about his head; but he was brought up to the dry land. And God has now brought His people up out of a great death! It is well to see that it is a death, and as death works in us, those who have been through it, life works in others who have not been through it. That is God’s way. The enrichment has come to those of us who have not been into this death, it has extended to those who have not been through it; but the dry land is ahead. The salvation [p. 479] of which Jonah speaks is ours indeed; also the great fish prepared, pointing to what our God is ever ready to provide for His people in their extremities. What salvations can be recorded! And may we not say, dear brethren, God is amongst us of a truth! The very evidence of His presence amongst His people is that these salvations have been accorded to us, not because of our prowess, but God’s mercy. It is a question of God. God has had us all in hand, and there is going to be a crop. There has been the sowing, and there is going to be the reaping; so it is for each of us to see to it how he goes through this peculiar time in which we are, involving suffering. But not what it has been, that is gone we may say, for ever; some other sorrow may befall us, but this one God has dealt with, no one else could deal with it, but Himself; no combination of nations could bring about what has happened. God has done it, and it is surely that we might know God better and bear the fruits which He seeks in us in the little while that remains to us to continue for Him. It is a learning time, and a quick learning time; it is a time of quick learning, to get things into the mind and heart as going through them with God, so that there is the formation which He has intended should come about in us.
I would refer further to the enquiry, “For whose cause this evil is upon us?” Each will have to say, I have had something to do with it; everyone of us will have to say it sooner or later, and the sooner the better. I have something to answer as to it. It is the answering time now, as in the presence of the delivering power of our God, and God amongst us as having delivered us, as Paul says, “and will deliver!” He is amongst us as a delivering God, and it is for us to challenge ourselves. Why has it all come about? It looked as if it would never come about. Well do I remember when the clouds were darkening, and [p. 480] wondered whether such a threatened calamity would happen. God in mercy kept our eyes from it. But it has come about and it has, we may say, come to an end. We have had to do with the coming about of it, and God has had to do with it, and God only could deal with it successfully, in bringing to an end the awful thing. Now, it is a question of working out the result and answering the question in our own hearts, and giving thanks at the same time, because it is a wonderful time of thanksgiving, and thanksgiving is always pleasing to God: “in everything give thanks”. So Jonah came into the result of his disobedient course. I suppose we should never have had his book had he not come to the truth of it, and the truth of it is for us, not for him now, but for us. What may come about through one of the greatest calamities!
Coming now to the scripture in Genesis, a well-known passage, it is a question of the family of Jacob, speaking literally, the most renowned of earthly families. We have had it today already; the Lord said of Nathanael, “an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” He represented the thought fully; the Lord’s own word indicates that he was without guile, an Israelite indeed! But still the Lord did not stop there. Nathanael had his answers from the Lord in a most remarkable way; he learned quickly, he quoted Psalm 2; but the Lord could speak of greater things than even Psalm 2 in itself contains, although they are very great — King of Israel and Son of God. But as I said, the Lord spoke of greater things, and He intimated He had in view more than Nathanael, for in verse 51 He changes to the plural, saying, “Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”. If we have one man signalised it is only to bring out that in principle all the saints are to be signalised. So, as I said, the Lord changes to “ye” in verse 51. We are in a time in which we can expect to see greater things, and these greater things are to deliver us from what might hold us, as the world puts on its best clothes and presents its attractions and possibilities, and young people become interested. The greater things of which the Lord spoke are intended to save us from the wretched things that this world affords. It is good for the young to see this. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world”, 1 John 2:15. The world is against the Father, and we belong to the Father. We are entitled to take the place of sons of God, children of God, children of the Father, so that we might be saved from its attractions, as the world puts on its best to attract us into its allurements.
It is for us, dear brethren, not to be deceived by these things, but to resolve in the light of all that has passed, to profit by it, to resolve not to be attracted by the allurements of the world, but to stand against them in the faith by the aid of the Spirit of God. It is a faith time, it is not a time for sight; what is seen is temporal, what is not seen is eternal, and eternal things are the greatest things, beloved brethren; and it is not for us in the slightest measure to fritter away the very best for the very worst; not only bad but the worst morally. We have already spoken today of the two things which stand out in John’s ministry, the greatest blessings, and eternal punishment. John has no hesitation in presenting the latter in his gospel and in the book of Revelation. The strongest language is used in the way he sums up the terribleness of eternal punishment. And Matthew says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment”, Matthew 25: 46. The Lord makes it imperative to believe the things that are true as to God’s judgment of sin.
Now, to speak further of the family of Jacob, and the enquiry, “What is your occupation?” we [p. 482] know how Jacob experienced the idea of occupation, of toil and wages. These things loom up now very largely, and they are apt to affect the brethren. I am venturing to speak now in an admonitory way to save us from the damaging things which may happen, that we may be on our guard against them, because the question of wages as I am touching on it is most pernicious. If a man is working on the Lord’s day because of the extra wages he gets on that day, he fails to honour the Lord Jesus in keeping the day He has selected for Himself out of the other days. The Lord is pleased to take out of time one day in the week for Himself, and He is looking to us to be sympathetic with Him in it. He has all the days before Him, He has made time, but He has just now selected for Himself one day, hallowing it, calling it His day and also “the first day of the week”, the day on which the Father raised Him from the dead. What a day was that on which the Father came forth and raised His Son out of death! Three days He had, in a sense, been deprived of Him in His burial, but now He is raised by the glory of the Father. What glory it was! God is looking to us to be sympathetic with Him in this matter, this day which belongs to Him, and the Lord Jesus is looking to us, too, to have sympathy with Him in that day which belongs to Him peculiarly. So John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. That is how he spent that day. It is a challenge to us as to how we spend the first day of the week. God has afforded it to us in His providential ways. But when the Lord calls a certain day His day it is more than a providential matter, it is His direct matter, and He is calling us into it and expects us to be in it every week; even if we have to sacrifice for it. He is looking for us to be sympathetic. It is no small matter to Him. He would say to us at any time, The Father raised Me on this day! Can we not signalise it? Surely we can, and [p. 483] surely I ought to be with Him in it, understanding that I am a participant of the glory of it.
The family of Jacob is now in the test, and this question is asked: “What is your occupation?” How often such questions have been asked lately, both of sisters and brothers, as an agent of the government claims them, and even now governments are claiming them; how often this question comes up, “What is your occupation?” What I would say, dear brethren, is that we are living in a mediatorial time; the Lord Jesus is pleased to serve us as our Joseph. The whole matter of his brethren is set under the influence of Joseph; and our Joseph is in a mediatorial position, but particularly so in this matter of which we are speaking. So Joseph goes before and instructs his five brothers, whom he had chosen, as to what they should say to Pharaoh. How sweet it is to be chosen by the Lord in this sense! Joseph chose five out of the whole number, and of course he knew them, he knew their histories, he knew their proclivities, he knew what they would be as presented and left to themselves, left to answer for themselves before the great potentate. Many of our young people may be called before the tribunals, and how glad they are to find they have one like Joseph with them, standing by them, having a sympathetic look to support them in a time of pressure. How sweet it is when the brethren join in with their sympathy, when a young brother or sister is faced with the question, “What is your occupation?” He may say, I did not cause the war. Of course not, but are you wholly immune from any charges as to it? Each one has to challenge himself as to what the calamity means.
It is not here a question of calamity, but of Joseph’s brethren and their occupation, and he carefully says to them, ‘Tell Pharaoh what your occupation has been’. It would tend to make them truthful.
[p. 484] I believe all these matters which we have had to go through challenge us as to truthfulness, as to transparency. We are all naturally deceitful, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So it was that Joseph saw to it that they were not left to themselves as answering Pharaoh. And I say to all the young brothers and sisters here, You will not be left to yourselves. If there are these questions to be answered the Lord will stand by you, He will give you the strength to answer them. It enters into the gospel of Matthew, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”. In all that we have to go through in meeting the authorities He will see to it, as we are faithful, that we go through them according to Him. If any be suffering, He has suffered too; it is a time of suffering. Paul felt it was a time of suffering when he spoke of the sufferings of Christ being filled up for the sake of the assembly, so let us not shirk it. It is a wonderful time for working out the truth, but it is a suffering time too. Questions are being asked, and we have our Joseph; He will not leave us alone, He will be by our side to help us to answer the questions. We have proved it and will prove it! It brings out what is really in the saints, not according to nature, the deceitfulness of the heart, but transparency; new birth is the foundational principle in us in view of all that is put upon us. It is a question of what man is to be in a new way, brought into a new order of things, born again throughout, so that each one seeks to answer his questions truthfully. “Speak every man truth with his neighbour”. Unless dependent, how easily we slip into untruthfulness!
So these men are asked, “What is your occupation?” And that brings out in an important sense their histories and those of their fathers. I wonder sometimes why Jacob’s history is given in such detail, but what is it if not that they and ourselves [p. 485] should learn to be truthful, to be transparent, to be fair in all our dealings? God is putting it upon us, He is looking for “the new man which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Ephesians 4: 24. That is the only man that can be trusted. Adam could not be trusted. It is the new man that is to be trusted. The true believer is not alienated from “the life of God”, he has part in it, he is created in righteousness and holiness and truth. So, like Jacob’s family, we are now under the test of the governors of this world. We are not yet out of the matter. God has allowed it to come and He has made a certain deliverance, but it is not all finished, far from it. Brethren have to set themselves to be according to God in these circumstances. Now the authorities have changed round somewhat in favour of the saints. Thus the importance of our avoidance of what might antagonise them.
Jacob himself is seen here under a test, for he also is presented to the king. Many of us here are old brethren. We should glory in the old brethren who have stood for the truth. They have peculiar value: I need not go outside of Jacob to show this. Pharaoh does not ask Jacob what his occupation is; he does not say a word to Jacob as to this. Jacob blessed Pharaoh; it is the moral greatness of the old man. The patriarch in the presence of the monarch is truthful and dignified. Twice it is said of him here that he blessed Pharaoh, and “beyond all gainsaying the inferior is blessed by the better”. So I would say by deduction that Jacob was the greatest man in the world at that time. He blessed Pharaoh when he came in, and when he went out. But he told the truth to Pharaoh and that is the idea to be maintained before the rulers of this world. The new man is the great feature. What we see here, at least in type, is putting on the new man. As I have said, he is the only man that can be trusted. Let us remember [p. 486] that he is created in righteousness and holiness of truth. So that Jacob is an old man amongst his brethren, and at this point he adorns them. What I am stressing now is a truth in Scripture. Old brethren who have been going on with the truth for years, heaven is looking down on them with pleasure, and is going to safely conduct them to glory. They will all go through and go through in victory. There is one finishing his course now, well-known and honoured by us all. We rejoice in what he is as answering to the enquiry: “How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” That is the point to come to. The old men have to face it; it is their wisdom to face it, that they may acquire a wise heart. “So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”, Psalm 90: 12. The word in Peter greatly encourages this: “Thus shall the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be richly furnished unto you”, 2 Peter 1: 11.
We are now speaking about young men; five of them are in our scripture, and they are told what to do. It is as if the Lord would make the most of us; whatever God has wrought in us He would make the most of that, causing it to shine out in power before the tribunals as each has the opportunity, causing the truth to shine. Tell the whole truth; it is a question of the truth. So these men are tutored by Joseph; everything is made to hinge on Joseph in his day. But he is never greater than his father; his father says, “I know it, my son, I know it”. He knew better than Joseph at a critical time, and that is the whole truth as to Jacob’s position; the old, characteristically, especially in a crisis, are more reliable than the young. Whatever knowledge the young may have, the old brethren through experience, are pretty certain to have the reliable knowledge of God. The Lord said to Peter, “When thou shalt be old”. That would be a test to Peter, but he would submit, he [p. 487] would stretch forth his hands, which means submission to what God may permit. In accord with this, Aaron was told to go up to Mount Hor to die. What a test that was to a man! Moses and Eleazar went up with him and he went up to die in the mount. The allusion shows freedom from natural influences in nearness to God. God loves His people and would make the swellings of Jordan easy for them.
These five brothers are directed by Joseph as to what they should say and evidently God blessed them in their obedience. Thus it is said, “And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, ‘Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee. The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land settle thy father and thy brethren: Let them dwell in the land of Goshen; and if thou knowest men of activity among them, then set them as overseers of cattle over what I have’”, Genesis 47: 6. How favourable Pharaoh was to the family of Jacob! In type it is a question of vindication of the divine family. What was their occupation? They were occupied with live-stock, not with bonds, nor shares, nor grocery, nor hardware, nor dry goods. No. It is live-stock, that is, those who have affection. You say, Have cattle affection? They certainly have. They are represented in Scripture as having affection, and in this they are a type of affection in men. It is a question of what our occupation is, whether we are occupied with such live-stock, that is to say, the brethren, those who love. You cannot find love according to God anywhere except amongst the saints, but it is amongst the saints; no one else has it. “Hereby we have known love because he has laid down his life for us”, 1 John 3: 16. “Beloved let us love one another; because love is of God, and every one that loves has been begotten of God and knows God”, 1 John 4: 7. God has placed love in the saints — in the assembly. The Spirit of God is in the assembly. He sheds the [p. 488] love of God abroad in our hearts and develops it in us.
And so Pharaoh, as I said, is favourable to the family of Jacob. This is a type of what God can do in these circumstances. So Pharaoh says, “The land of Egypt is before thee... my cattle”, Genesis 47: 6. Pharaoh has cattle, yet the Egyptians abominated them! Corresponding with this, Pharaoh’s daughter saved Moses. I am speaking now of what God can do with the powers that be, and if we have to continue to face them and answer their questions, let us trust in God, He can turn things round in our favour.
The passage goes on to show that Jacob was brought in under Pharaoh, and the whole position in Egypt is clarified, and the people of God are there now; they have the advantage of the favour of Pharaoh, and God can bring like conditions about for us. It is a question of God, what He can do, and what we are occupied with, what our occupation is, whether we love the brethren, whether we are going on with the brethren, whether all our interests are there, whether we dwell amongst our own people and refuse worldly associations and the like. We are to dwell among our own people, and God is with them; and we learn that God is with them of a truth. God is true and the victory is ours on these lines, as I said. It is for the young persons especially now to take to heart these things. The measure of the favourableness in which we stand under the government of God in this country and the western countries generally is to be carefully observed. God has come in for His people, at least in measure. But how long the advantage will remain is with Him, and if we fail Him we may have to own like Jonah the “cause” lies with us. Thus the need of “having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and justly and piously in the present course of things”, Titus 2: 12.