DIVINE LEADERSHIP
[p. 308] DIVINE LEADERSHIP
Psalm 107: 7 - 38; Isaiah 63: 11 - 14; Hebrews 2: 10 - 12
These scriptures speak about divine leadership, and I wish to enlarge on them from that point of view. That God would Himself become the Leader of His people is touching and reminds us of the many services that He renders to us; that God Himself should become our Servant, I speak reverently, is one of the most touching considerations; amongst these services, one of the most important is leadership. The first scripture, that is, Psalm 107, contemplates divine leadership in these last days; the second one speaks of it in the early days; and the third one speaks of it in its continuous sense. I want to speak of these features with a view to working out their results, for God always has results in mind, as for instance, “And he led them forth by the right way”, with the result “that they might go to a city of habitation”; that they might go. This psalm is the first psalm in the last book, the book that contemplates the fact that Israel had been scattered and now is being, or is about to be, gathered.
These books of the Psalms are intended to afford a rich material for the service of God, as our hymn book, indeed, in an inferior sense (for the Psalms are inspired) is intended to aid us in the service of God. You will see that the psalm is divided up into sections by “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness”. It is a call upon men, and between each of these calls or demands, we have reasons furnished why men should do this. The psalm thus opens rightly this great section of the book of Psalms, the fifth book, which culminates, as most of you know, in the great hallel of the whole book, when all that has breath is called upon to praise. The book thus contemplates a [p. 309] great victory in that the people of God who had been scattered (grievously so, their own wills governing them in the scattering) are now restored, gathered out of the countries, as we are told in this first psalm. And at the end, they are regarded as a people near unto Jehovah, near unto Him. In this book we have what are called the Songs of degrees; that is to say, God graciously contemplating that His people under those circumstances, begin on a low level. Most of us will admit this. Normally, the spiritual believer advances from level to level; he goes from strength to strength, and every one of them appears before God. This book furnishes the levels one after another until we reach the divine altitude of Zion, where, as it says, “There hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore”. The book therefore is full of victory, and the saints are seen praising in the victory, and reaching the great divine end, namely, God, and the people near unto Him.
If there is one here not near unto God, this meeting is for you; for God is looking out for you, is demanding you to come near. His thought is a people near unto Him; and so it begins, as I said, by leading in a right way. How important that word ‘right’ is in our day! It is always important. There never was a time in the history of this world when the idea of right did not exist in it. But how loudly it speaks as we look back at the history of christendom, a history affording the saddest evidence of man’s will, man’s way, so that today we have a thousand ways, as we may say, amongst those that profess christianity, and amongst the people of God in those ways. They are byways, to say the least. One could enumerate many of them. The psalm contemplates how man in his will has got himself into these byways where he is utterly helpless, and as God works in a man’s soul in these byways, darkened as they are, he begins to think of God, and God hears the cry unto Him. If you run [p. 310] down the psalm at your leisure, you will see what I speak of, what plights men get into, what dark byways; dark associations exist as the outcome of the exercise of man’s will. But God is helping; as the Spirit brooded over the waters of old, God is waiting, so that He might hear a cry, however faint. However faint, He knows; He discerns the movements of the heart, “Then they cried unto Jehovah”, it says. He never fails. “And he delivered them out of their distresses”. Whatever they may be, whatever one’s will has led one into, a cry will bring in a divine intervention, a divine deliverance, not only out of the immediate acute trouble that may be oppressing me, but out of all my troubles. Such is God, beloved friends. The psalm is on a lower level, speaking relatively, for it is dealing, as I said, with the troubles of men, how they get into them, and how God is attentive, ready to serve, as a cry is emitted from any trouble here, so He delivers out of all troubles, whatever they be. There is not a trouble attendant on one that God will not descend to and consider and remove for those who have faith. He is waiting for the cry.
Well now, this right way is what I am speaking of amid all this darkness and confusion, amid these byways that lead nowhere or worse, for some of them lead to the pit. They do. It is depicted in the book of Proverbs. “A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways: ... Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell”, Proverbs 9: 13 - 18. Terrible indeed are those ways, beloved friends, especially the young ones here, those ways that you scarce discern at first, but they lead into the depths of hell. And so in varied degrees [p. 311] christendom is marked by these ways, and Jehovah begins by announcing that He led them forth in a right way. Who are those who are there? Well, if you will allow me, ourselves, beloved. It is those who are delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. As soon as we reach that point of any little deliverance, what is normal is a celebration: “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”. We celebrate, and what do we celebrate? What is more seemly than to celebrate the right way? The psalm, as I say, is a call for special celebrations, but how seemly it is that we should fall in with this, we whose feet have been in the ways of unrighteousness but who are now extricated from the snare of the fowler, for the snare is broken and we are escaped! “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”, and amongst these, the occasion of this celebration is, “He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation”, that is to say, that we might be diverted from formalism and all its hierarchical offices and associations, that have been played up for centuries in christendom, and from all other paths, social, commercial, political, or whatever else, by a divine, gracious, patient, tender leading into the right way, so that we might go. How delightful it is to God to see a young christian, a young brother or sister as discerning the leadership of God, move of himself, taking the initiative himself! God is waiting for that; although He loves to lead you, too; He loves to see you go according to the principles that He has led you in. He loves to see you go to the end of the matter. There is an end to the leading: that they might go to a city of habitation, which means the very opposite of these hierarchical offices and associations. They do not present the idea of a city of habitation.
[p. 312] A city of habitation in the life of the Spirit of God means an ordered state of things where life is, where property and life are cared for and where they are cherished, a city of habitation. You know in these special meetings that one is accustomed to attend, and I attend a good many, young people are very prominent, and thank God for it! These meetings are intended for them, but the challenge is, What do you come for? What is in your mind? God is a God of purpose, and if He works in a man’s or woman’s soul, He means that person to be a person of purpose in some sense. Have I come to a city of habitation? It is in truth the gathering of the people of God where ordered light and life are. Have I got something different in mind? Do I come for some other purpose? If you come for some other purpose, God is against you in every step you take. He is watching these occasions as much as or more than your parents are. The authority of parents does not cease when children attend such meetings. God is against all else but the city of habitation, where you come in contact with men and women who live in the Spirit, whose calling is heavenly, whose associations occasion a heavenly atmosphere. The meetings will not be neglected. What have you come for, save for the meeting, save to find the living and not the dead? God is appealing to the young, and these meetings are for them, but they are not to serve an occasion for the flesh but to promote what is of God in the youngest, that he might value the things of God, that he might see their superiority to anything that the world offers. You will find it constantly in the Old Testament that the young people ask their elders about the things of God; they are supposed to. It is in asking that you get instruction. The Lord Jesus at the age of twelve was found among the doctors. That is typical, as I might say of the brethren who can teach you and can impart divine things to you. He is found among the [p. 313] doctors. Did He go up with His parents to see the sights of Jerusalem? No, beloved friends. The males went up three times a year to Jerusalem. It was in a spiritual sense, and the Lord gives a lead to every young person here in that He was found among the doctors. What was He doing there? Hearing and asking questions. What was His business? — His Father’s. It is the first time that He is on His Father’s business. It is a very fine moment when a young man or young woman puts God before his parents. The influence of the parents should lead to that very thing, not as in the case of Mary and Joseph. They questioned it, but the Lord Jesus sets an example for the young. He is found among the doctors in the temple, hearing and asking questions, and He says that He was about His Father’s business. He has passed Joseph and Mary in that sense. It is a fine moment when a young man or young woman puts God, in that way, first. What a dignity there is!
But I am speaking now about this right way, and how it leads so that you might come to a city of habitation, and as having again come into it we have in the closing words of the psalm how God tarries in grace where He arrests men in their plights. We are told in the second part of the psalm, “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation”. Now that is a call for the establishment of meetings cities of habitation, as they are called here. “That they may prepare a city for habitation”. How can they do it? They do it because of the prosperity that God affords them. Let us not be afraid of the smallness of the number! The Lord is able to make it stand. See what He made of Adam and Eve! See what He made of Abraham! He called them alone, and He blessed them. It is what God can do; it is not a question of forming something for ourselves. It [p. 314] is a question of the city of habitation, and how is it furnished? By all the prosperity that we may expect from God if we are men of faith. If we are not men of faith, let us not attempt it. This is a dispensation of faith, and anything short of faith will come to naught and disaster, but if there is faith, God can make the thing stand, not only so, but prosper it. So that you have here, “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water”. There are two or three brothers: Adam was one; Abraham was one, and Noah was one. See what God made out of them! It is a question of faith in these last days, and this psalm is to encourage us to be diverted into the divine way, by divine leadership to a city of habitation. God would establish this principle over against man’s will in what marks christendom. The city of habitation is a great divine thought. It is said to be in the midst of prosperity spiritually, as it says in these verses. It says, “And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease”. These are wonderful verses in our day when God is seeking those cities of habitation where there is life and order and with all that, where men may dwell in holy love, in holy friendship. Let us learn what friendship means! Without it, beloved friends, our fellowship is but a name. Friendship is the great thought: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends”, John 15: 15.
The Lord would bring us into confidence with one another so that friendship can be promoted where there is this holy state of things, this living state of things, a city of habitation.
Now I wanted to go on to Isaiah 63 to show you how the Spirit of God in these last days would remind [p. 315] us of the first days, for God never gives up the first days. “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase”, Jeremiah 2: 2, 3. How delightful that is for God to look back to. Sometimes I think of Palestine, and Arabia, and Asia Minor, and Macedonia, and all the territory around Illyricum and Italy and Spain and North Africa. What must it be to Christ to look down on those territories! Hardly a sign of life in all that immense territory which once furnished by the power of the Spirit of God that which was of God in His people. What must it be to the Lord to think of that! Do you think He forgets, looking down on Derbe and Lystra and all those points where Paul ministered or was productive? What must it be to His eye! God is in sympathy with all that, but He has come further west, and His eye travels to this vast continent, and He sees the little specks of life here and there amid the sterility that marks it. And He wishes to increase those little specks of life, and order, and light, and friendship, and so He reverts in those verses in Isaiah 63 to what marked the earlier leadings of God, and I wish you to note, dear brethren, the recurrence of the reference to the Holy Spirit in these verses. You will notice that it says in verse 10, “But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit”. We are reminded of the Lord’s own remark. “And whosoever shall have spoken a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him”, Matthew 12: 32. They rebelled against His holy Spirit. It is not simply God in the abstract, but His holy Spirit. God came down so low, so graciously, so as to serve us in any way in which we need service, God Himself, but it is in the Spirit, and these verses revert to that fact, to the service of the Spirit and the [p. 316] rebellion against the Spirit. Let us be on our guard, dear young people, against grieving the Holy Spirit of promise, against quenching Him, in this way. You perhaps may criticise the ministry, those who serve you, those who feed you, and so the Spirit of God reverts to earlier days, and it says in verse ii, “But he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?”. That is how He began it. It alludes to the wonderful furnishing of God’s thought. Israel was brought into a wilderness. He brought them out, and He brought them out with shepherds. There were Aaron and Moses and Miriam, we are told, and others; God provided them. Let us understand that if we are wanting in shepherds today, it is not the divine thought. At the outset, He brought them out through the sea with shepherds. In every divine movement, God would furnish shepherds. The demand for shepherds is great. The need is great, of leadership according to God. He led them forth by the right way in their last days, and so in their earlier days He led them through the Red Sea, but He led the shepherds with them. Moses and Aaron and Miriam knew what to do. God had prepared them for years and years to be shepherds of His people, and He brought them all out with shepherds that they might be furnished in the wilderness, and then moreover He says, “Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?” (verse 11), that is, in Moses, reminding us that leadership (if anyone aspires to it, and it is a good desire to lead the people of God) is by the Spirit, and if the Spirit has His part, it will be a lowly leading. The Spirit would promote this, “That one man should die for the people”, John 11: 50. That is leadership. Leadership is through death, and so the shepherds of God’s flock, all of them, had to experience the bitterest persecution, the bitterest of opposition. The than Moses, we are told, had even [p. 317] his own brother and sister bitterly opposed to him, but he was the meekest man on all the earth. There was no reproach in his mouth. As the Lord says, “Yea, I am as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs” (Psalm 38: 14), but He led, and that is the leading. It is by the Holy Spirit. He “put his holy Spirit within him”. There is no leading otherwise, and then it goes on to say, “His glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses”, the very best that Moses could afford, the right hand of a man. “Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently” (Jeremiah 48: 10), and Moses never did.. His whole being was in the work of God; he led them by his right hand. That is the very best a man can afford. And then it says, “Dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name” (verse 12). What a glorious thing that is amongst the people of God, God making Himself an everlasting name by the leaders He employs! Is He doing anything with them that makes Himself an everlasting name? What a great privilege and honour it is that God can use any of us, and how necessary it is to put the right hand into all that you are doing, all the strength you have in this glorious service, that God might make Himself an everlasting name by you! And then it says further as regards that leading, “Who led them through the depths, like a horse in the wilderness, and they stumbled not” (verse 13). In fact, they do not stumble, that is to say, the leading is of that kind. It is like leading a horse; in leading him he does not stumble. Anything that happens among us calls for understanding. Do I understand that the brethren do not stumble? What influence have I exerted in the wilderness? The horse did not stumble because of the leading. So that anything that occurs reflects back on every one of us. It is a state of affairs in the wilderness at the time, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble; and then moreover it says, “As cattle go down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest”. What a beautiful thought that is! It is the Spirit of Jehovah; not an angel here, although that had been spoken of in the wilderness, but the Spirit of Jehovah carrying that on, all that God is in Christ; the Spirit of God carries that on, and what a thing it is to have Him!
It is God, beloved friends, in a thoughtful, tender, gracious way attending to everything. That is God, and He makes us to rest. We do not know much about this, because I admit we are constantly on the move, not only physically but spiritually, but you should know the place the sabbath had in Israel, so that about twenty-eight per cent of their time was employed in the sabbath. There is great instruction in that, and God would teach us how to be restful, not lazy or indolent, but spiritually restful in Him, so that the leading in the wilderness afforded the people a rest, like a flock going down into a rich field. It is so beautiful and suggestive to see how cows or cattle he down in the field. Well, that is God’s way of leading.
Well, now to finish, the thought in Hebrews 2 is well-known, the result of divine leadership in Christ. It says, “The leader of their salvation”; a leader is one that goes before, and here He is made perfect through sufferings. If any one aspires to leadership, this is to be in view, that perfection in it is through suffering. Beloved friends, if you are really leading according to what is of God, the suffering is not wanting. God will allow this one and that one to say this and that. The sufferings come up out of the ground; they are constant, but all the time you are being perfected. The great thought in Hebrews is to be made perfect, and any one aspiring to leadership has to have this in mind, that God made the Leader of our salvation perfect through sufferings. Where is He leading us?-to glory. As what?-as sons. Think of the dignity in that, being led as sons to glory. The [p. 319] great end, the great destiny in all of this that I am speaking of, is glory. It is to inspire our hearts, to stimulate them; it involves suffering, to be sure, but glory. The leading is to glory. We are in the light of sonship going to glory. In speaking of it in an abstract way, going to glory, being led to glory, that word is well worth considering, even in regard to Christ Himself being received up in glory, not simply to heaven, but in glory. We are going to glory. But the Son is leading us and leading us to it through suffering, including the cross, of course, in the case of our Lord, but wherever the spirit of leadership is of this kind, it is through suffering, so that the leadership is being perfectly effectual. And the consequence, the result is stated in the next verse. “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. That is where it comes out. Think of Him going to glory and us following, and He turns around and says, ‘These are My brethren’. In the presence of Michael and Gabriel and all the angels of heaven, ‘These are My brethren’. What brethren?-led to glory through suffering. What a glory there is in this! What an appeal at this present moment, to suffer in the light of divine leadership, and then to call them brethren, mark you; not to think of them merely as brethren, but to call them brethren. “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”, 1 John 3: 1. It is not simply, “be”, but, “be called” children of God and the brethren of Christ. Is it not attractive to all you young people to come into the ranks of the spiritual, those who have faith, who talk of this dignity of being led to glory by the Lord, and then to be known as His brethren so that He goes on to say, “I will declare thy name to my brethren”? Psalm 22, that great suffering psalm, is cited here. Let us bathe our souls in it. It gives us lustre. So the Lord says, “My brethren”. ‘I will declare Thy name unto them’. As we had it this afternoon, He says, “I ... will make it known”, John 17:26. That word “make it known” is not ‘manifest’. Earlier in John 17, He says, “I have manifested thy name”, but in the last verse He says, “make it known”, as if to bring the name of the Father into our souls; that we come to the greatest kind of love, the love wherewith the Father loves the Son, and then He says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. You see what result there is in divine leading, that God is praised.
I would say again to every one of you young ones, God intends you to be a vessel of praise. First we are vessels of mercy, fitted for glory, and then vessels of praise so that the Lord can praise through you. He can do it through you. Think of being a vessel in His hand, a musical instrument, as it were, which He can use in His praise. May God bless these thoughts!