THE IMMINENCE OF THE LORD’S COMING
R. Taylor
We were reading recently in Proverbs 7 of the strange woman who said that her husband had gone a long journey and would not be back until full moon. It impressed on me the need for keeping before us the imminence of the Lord’s return. If she had been expecting him soon she would not have done the things she did. That is really what has happened publicly, and is a danger in our own hearts, if we say, The Lord delays to come. Peter says, He does not delay. I think it is interesting when the Lord speaks about His going away in these passages, and many others.
He also speaks about His coming back. He does not leave a void, but says in the passage we read, “Trade while I am coming”. He does not say, Trade while I am away, but “while I am coming”, as if it is to be the great expectation and hope of our hearts that He is coming.
Things here are not to remain as they are for ever. The time of His absence is marked by certain things, but they will change when He comes, and they have already changed in the hearts of believers who expect His coming. It alters our outlook on things here, our conduct, our occupation, and gives a hope that sustains us in the darkest of pressures. Peter says, “as ye wait for these things, be diligent to be found of him in peace”, 2 Peter 3: 14.
Certain things are to mark those who look for His coming. We often look for Him to come and change things, but I wonder how much we look for Him, whom having not seen we love; to see the One who has not only died for us, but who serves us in His grace in the circumstances of the path. His service has given us some impression of His grace, of His love, and of His patience, but what it will be to see His face; to see the One who has loved us.
The bride, I suppose, in the Canticles, had some sense of it; she was able, in the time when others did not know about Him, to describe Him in His beauty. She could go over the details of His Person, having proved His service of love and grace. It says too that when we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. We do not yet know that in its fulness, it is not yet manifested to us. But when we do see Him we shall be changed into His own image, into His own likeness. I think there is a need for that to be held in our affections, dear brethren, that we may not adjust ourselves to the circumstances that are around us.
The Lord, I think, is speaking of that in these passages I have read; He says, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be”, as the hymn-writer puts it,
‘‘Tis the treasure we’ve found in His love
That has made us now pilgrims below’. (Hymn 139)
The expectation of His coming, and what we have found in Him, now guides us in our pathway here. We can see it in Abraham and in many others in Hebrews 11; they travelled the path in the light of another day, and the promises of divine grace shone in their affections.
The Lord says to the disciples, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself” (John 14: 3)—What a promise! In the meantime He has given us the Spirit to antedate it. So He says, “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be”. He was encouraging these persons in the waiting time; their loins were to be girded about and their lamps burning. How they would stand out from all that is around with their loins girded; it means that they are preserving what is precious; they are harnessed against what would cause them to stray, their loins girded and lamps burning. It reminds you of the virgins in Matthew 25, and the need for the oil so that the lamps might be burning. That there may be a ready answer, that is what the Lord is speaking about here; He may come at any time, and when He knocks they open to Him immediately. It may stand an application to our meetings, that when He comes there are affections that rise to greet Him. It need not be a long wait. The effect of their loins girded and their lamps burning, in the testimonial position, as faithful and true to another Man, is that when He comes and knocks, they open to Him immediately. Their minds are not filled with all the things and problems of the day.
The result is very affecting, as it says, “he will gird himself and make them recline at table, and coming up will serve them”. Do we not have a touch of that at the Supper? Think of the joy the Lord has in coming to such persons of whom we have read to find them watching.
What an expectation for our hearts as we are waiting and watching! The Lord brings in that word a
great deal in connection with His absence— watching—because of what is around. When the Lord comes the watching time is over; He is pleased with those who have been watching, and He does not need to raise any questions. He does not need, as in the parable in Matthew 22, to go into the wedding feast and say to the man, “how camest thou in here not having on a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22: 12). He is ready here to make them recline at table, pleased with what He finds. May we be among those that the Lord has some pleasure in, in the testimonial position, so that He would give us a touch of His love, making us recline at table.
The Lord not only said that He was coming for them, but He says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. John 14: 18. He gives us some taste by the Spirit of this wonderful realm. That woman in Proverbs 7 knew nothing of the Spirit having come to fill out the waiting time; but now the Lord has filled the void by sending the Spirit. So there are persons here in the Spirit’s grace with their lamps burning, and He gives such to taste what it is to know His presence.
In the second scripture I read He puts it more on our responsibility. In this parable He gives them all the same; this is not giving one ten and another five, as in Matthew; He has given you the same as me. He has given us all grace; He has given us all the gift of the Spirit; He has given us all enough to fill out the waiting time as overcomers. So He adds this word to them, “Trade while I am coming”. I wonder what we are doing with what He has given us?
He has given us more than enough to fill out the dispensation and at the end of it there will be a wonderful vessel seen, that is suited to be with Him in the realm of His own glory. He has given us more than enough for the waiting time, so it is a test to us as to what we are doing with what we are given. The passage is well known and some treat what they have been given differently from others. I would encourage our hearts to value what we have been given; it is more than enough. We feel our circumstances testing; we
feel our sorrows, perhaps think we have more than our share of troubles and sorrows, but the Lord has provided more than enough to meet the circumstances, and He would cause us to trade. Trading involves putting things into circulation; trading makes for increase. That is what made this country great, it was a trading nation, it saw the value of certain goods and it dealt with them. Trading involves turning over your capital; the more it is turned over the more it increases. So that is what happens with these bondman, they traded.
It requires persons with whom to trade. I think the meetings would be that, conversations would be that; trading with what the Lord has given us by impressions of Christ. As you speak to dear believers, how they increase! How your heart is refreshed as you trade with one another with impressions of Christ! It reminds me of Simeon and Anna at the beginning of Luke, they were persons who were trading. The Lord is brought into the temple, and what do we find? A man there looking for the consolation of Israel. In principle, there was a man who was waiting for the Lord’s return. We often visualise Simeon with the Lord Jesus in his arms.
He says, Let thy servant depart in peace. He had found all that he had been looking for and far more. You say it was only a babe in his arms. No, he says, I see everything completed. He saw the glory of Israel and the light of the Gentiles; he saw God’s counsels and purposes that he treasured. He was a man who had read the Old Testament obviously, and he could see it all fulfilled in this Child in his arms. As the Lord comes in this is what He does, He gives us to see things completed; He gives us a sense of divine grace in its fulness. That is what Simeon found. Then there is Anna too, she was trading; it says she spoke of Him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem. These were persons who were trading, and how richly they were blessed. May we each join their ranks, dear brethren, to be among those using what the Lord has given us, that our hearts may be refreshed too. May there be
something increased in us personally and in our localities for the Lord’s glory and praise.
Word in meeting for ministry, Kirkcaldy
15 September 1998