HE SETTETH THE SOLITARY IN FAMILIES
[p. 203] HE SETTETH THE SOLITARY IN FAMILIES
This verse has come before me since I came in, not being: what I purposed to read. In reading it, however, I intend to bring in other scriptures, but it came before me as suggestive of God’s present activities. He “setteth the solitary in families”. If one refers back to the history of the human family, it will be recalled that God had men before Him in this connection in families; the original trunk or tree, whence all the branches have sprung, being Noah, God has each branch under His eye. Subsequently they were divided into nations with different languages, but the divine thought was that there should be families. A family involves affection. It involves parental interest and affection, so that the family answers to what God is. A nation is the human idea. Although adopted by God in His ways, it nevertheless comes to an end. It is not eternal, whereas the family thought is; and so God is referred to in Ephesians 3 as “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. Thus we see that God is occupied with families, and a moment comes when He selects one family which has the first place with Him. Of old Israel had been a family, and was formed into a nation. It had the first place with God in the Old Testament system of nations; now the assembly has the place of the first family and will retain it, it will never lose priority in this way for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, Romans 11: 29. The gifts and calling referring to the assembly, preceded the gifts and calling referring to Israel, for the assembly was in the mind of God before the foundation of the world, that it should be holy and without blame before Him in love, and He will not give up that thought. It is not dependent [p. 204] on anything that man may do, or may not do; it was a conception with God before the world was, so it remains in its place of priority. It is said, “glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, Ephesians 3: 21. That is the assembly’s place; it is according to divine purpose, and irrevocable. I just mention that to begin with.
Now, God is putting solitary ones into that family. In the previous verse to the one we read you will observe, that He is said to be a “father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation”; that is what God is, in His holy habitation. I apprehend this in a spiritual sense, though I should be far from restricting it, or denying the comfort of it to any orphan, any one who, in a literal sense, was deprived of parents, or any one deprived of husband, or husband of wife; for Scripture contains comfort for all, as we read, “that we through comfort of the Scriptures might have hope”, Romans 15: 4. I apprehend, however, that the application is more to spiritual orphans, and those bereft of shelter spiritually; and if there is one such here, I would say, there is comfort in this word for you. God will be a Father to you and He will judge your cause, you need not have any anxiety. So if difficulties arise among the people of God, and if there are those who, in consequence, are denied the shelter and protection due to them, God is the Judge of all such in His holy habitation; and, as is said elsewhere, He is “greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints”, Psalm 139: 7. He is to be feared there. It is well to have that before us, the fear of God in His saints. Whilst He has revealed Himself in Christ, in love and grace and mercy, He is also said to be a consuming fire, and this is said, not of Israel’s God, but of our God. “Our God is a consuming fire”, Hebrews 12: 29. There can be no change in God as to the manner in which He regards sin, He is [p. 205] the same as at Sinai. What He was then against sin when He gave His fiery law, He is now against it; yea! what He was against it at the cross, He is now; there is no change. He is the same, yesterday, today and for ever. There is no change, I repeat, in God as regards His attitude towards sin, hence we do well to remember, that “our God is a consuming fire”, and we would not have it otherwise.
It is a comfort to know that there is a God armed with power to deal with sin, whether in you, or in me, or in any one else, hence it says, “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear”. These are wholesome words; they stand against any tendency to fleshly activity or presumption in the presence of God. He may take His own time to deal with sin, He reserves His sovereign right as regards that, but He leaves us in no uncertainty as to how He takes account of it. “The wrath of God”, we are told, “is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness”, Romans 1: 18. Terrible words! God takes His own time in the execution of this sentence, but it discloses what He is against sin. He deals with it because its action against His people, and against His testimony. If a widow or an orphan is ill-treated, God acts for such, because He is Judge of the widow Hence we need have no anxiety as to our cause, for every morning His judgments come to light, and fail not Well, He places, as I said, the solitary in families In regard to the present world, there can be no doubt that the government of God will bring to light all the families of Noah, for the streams, according to God’s order, have not failed on account of man’s will. Imperialism, man’s will, may seem to disarrange the order of God; but a watchful eye-tracing the ways of God in the history of the world [p. 206] can take note of the original families of Noah coming to light; and they will come to light, as God has in mind to bless them. “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”, Genesis 12: 3. They become nations, and in Galatians, God says they shall be blessed, and so they will be. But the family God has in His heart, the spiritual family, is being put together now, and He places the solitary there. It began at Pentecost, and I want to say a word as to the formation of it. For this purpose I would refer to Genesis 49, where we get the blessing of Jacob. When about to die, he gathers all his sons together, and says, “Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father”. Then later, “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them”. I refer to this passage, as it aids us in seeing the formation of the family into which you and I have been put. As solitary ones, we have each been taken up and put in there by the Father, who names every family; and the formation of the family is seen typically in this passage. Jacob is here a type of Christ in a parental sense.
If you compare Jacob’s blessing with that of Moses in Deuteronomy 33, you will observe that in the latter it is the “blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death”; whereas the last words of Jacob, who is the father of the tribes, are parental. “Hearken unto Israel, your father”, he says. It expresses to me what Christ was to His disciples. He could say to them, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer”. (Luke 22: 15) As Head of the family, He ate the passover, because every household ate it. It was a household affair. So you have in these last words, typically set forth, the parental interest of Christ in His disciples, and in the whole assembly, on the night of His betrayal. Let these words sink into our hearts, “Hearken unto Israel your father”. It is an outline, as Jacob proceeds, of the history of his family; nothing is overlooked, evil is taken account of as well as good; but withal, fatherly interest and affection come out. So the disciples are left orphans, but left with such a testimony of parental interest, that all the elements which constitute a well-ordered family remain. Such it was at the beginning, but how is it now? Do these elements work out accurately and truly, so that no breach in the family exists? Alas! the prophetic utterances of Jacob disclose only too plainly the will of man at work, as it has been in the assembly outwardly. Nevertheless, the Lord’s supper instituted on the occasion already referred to, is a testimony to that love and order which are essential, and requisite to the maintenance of a family suited to God.
Further, I would draw attention to the way in which the parental interest of Christ reflected itself in Paul. I am dwelling on these points in order to show how the family was formed. I would refer you to one or two passages, to indicate why I speak of Christ in the character of a parent. You get such a word as, “Child, thy sins are forgiven thee”, (Mark 2: 5) and again, “Daughter, go in peace”. (Mark 5: 34) Furthermore, we have the passage in Isaiah which says He is “the everlasting Father”. (Isaiah 9: 6) Becoming man, He has taken that place. David had to say, “Although my house be not so with God” 2 Samuel 23: 5; and the departure of Judas showed how the will of man wrought, even in that blessed circle around Christ. Nevertheless, while the hand of the betrayer was on the table, the Lord introduced the elements, so to speak, that constituted a family. There were fatherly and brotherly interest and affection. John understood this, and throughout the whole of his writings he labours to maintain family affections, himself taking the place of father. “I write to you, children”, he says. (1 John 2: 12)
[p. 208] Touching another point, you get the thought in Corinthians The apostle says, “for though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers”, 1 Corinthians 4: 15. They had only one father. Paul had begotten them through the gospel; he was their father in the faith; and the working of fatherly interest and affection is stated in the most formal way, in his letter to the Thessalonians. “Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus”, he says, “unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father”. (1 Thessalonians 1: 1) This is one of the most remarkable expressions of Scripture, referring, as it does, to the tenderness of family affection God has for the saints. Paul had only spent three weeks in Thessalonica, as far as we know, teaching there on three successive sabbath days, whereas he had laboured eighteen months at Corinth, and three years at Ephesus. So the few days he spent among the Thessalonians were all the more remarkable in their results. They “consorted with” him, we are told in Acts 17: 4. They not only got the blessing, but became allied with the apostle in his ministry. Could you conceive of anything greater than being loved of God the Father, and then being in Him. We speak of the earth being in the sun, but think of being in God the Father! “The church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father”. What security there is in that!
Well, that is how Paul addresses the Thessalonians, and then he says, further down, “Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord”. (1: 6) Followers of whom? “Ye know”, Paul says to them, “what manner of men we were among you”. Paul’s walk and manner were after Christ. It comes home to me often, in any endeavour to serve the Lord’s people, How much of Christ is seen? You cannot lead a soul beyond yourself, you are nothing more than a finger-post if you do. A finger-post never leads, though it may [p. 209] point the way. Many a man speaks what does not affect him, but if I am to speak as Paul did, it can only be in the measure in which I am formed after Christ. Anything else is but confusion. “It must needs be that offences come”, the Lord says, “but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh”, Matthew 18: 7. Offences will come, but they will come in through those who are not after Christ. So Paul says, “Ye know what manner of men we were among you”. (1: 5) He could refer to what the Thessalonians had seen in him when among them, and he adds, “Ye became followers of us and of the Lord”. Think what a man the apostle was! Then he continued, “ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven”. (1: 9, 10)
Now, he goes on to say in chapter 2, “We were like a nurse among you”, and there was not only the skill of a nurse there, but the affections of a mother, as the nurse of her own child, Not only so, but he was also as a father among them. “Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children”. How is it, I would ask, with each of us, as regards our behaviour See what the apostle sets before us, not only what he preached and taught, but what he was, in the midst of the people of God, “how holily and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe”. Did he cause any trouble, or create any confusion among them? Certainly not by his walk. “As ye know”, he says, “how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children”. So that he was among them in all the skill and affections of a nurse, and in the walk and behaviour that was befitting a father and now he can exhort them. And to what end? “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory”. He was,
[p. 210] in that sense, to set up the Thessalonians as a family; and as such, God could set a solitary one among them.
Following that, he says, “Ye, brethren, became followers of the assemblies of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus”. This is an additional thought. They became followers of the assemblies of God. In other words, they were Catholics. Do you understand that? The expression, assemblies of God, means that you become catholic; that is, you have come to recognise the universal order and behaviour suitable to the assembly of God. Nonconformity is absolutely contrary to the mind of God. Rome has the catholic idea, in a way, but no true idea of the assembly of God. Catholicity is right; there is only one assembly, and it is to be governed everywhere by the same principles. The Thessalonians had learned how to keep rank. It was said of old that the children of Issachar had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chronicles 12: 32), and all who came to Hebron to make David king knew how to keep rank. It is a great thing in any locality to have an understanding of the law of the house of God; this preserves from independency. “So ordain I”, the apostle says, “in all the churches”. All assemblies are to be governed by the same principles, hence if there is a solitary one in Judea, or elsewhere, he is set in the family of God.
Now, I pointed out, in the epistle to the Thessalonians, how that in the ministry of Paul, following that of the Lord Jesus, there were the elements of the family of God. “Ye became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus”, he does not say the churches of the Jews. The Thessalonians did not become followers of the churches of the Jews, but of the churches of God, and these, in the aggregate, being governed by the [p. 211] same principles, were the family of God. Nothing is more important than that we should all understand the principles that govern the assembly of God, and that we should take our place in relation to it, bearing in mind that there is only one assembly. We are not meant to be different from other saints, but alike, as the divine thought is that we should all be formed according to the principles of the assembly of God; hence there should be the constant endeavour to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, Ephesians 4: 3. All the saints together, as alluded to in Thessalonians, are the family of God, as known here on earth; and order is to be established so that that family shall be preserved, but if we have not love, what is the value of outward form? To be maintaining form and order, without affection, is but a shell without substance. Let us therefore cherish the family, so that if there be any solitary one in Christendom, any soul who has no city of habitation, found there, he may find a place in the family of God.
I wonder if what I am saying finds a response in all our hearts? One would not like to speak beyond the intelligence of one’s audience, so I am constrained to ask whether the word finds a response. You will recall how, in your soul’s experience, you were found solitary, and God took you up, and placed you in the family. He set your roots in the soil of love. He rooted and grounded you in love. I would appeal to you, have you grown up in that? Or have you developed weeds which are becoming the occasion of sorrow to the people of God? It is a serious matter, and ought to be faced, as to whether I am developing the elements introduced by Christ, and carried on by His people, or not. Am I developing the elements introduced by Christ, and carried on by His people, or not. Am I developing these elements; am I promoting family affections in what [p. 212] I say to the saints? I believe the Lord would help us, so that there might be in localities the principle of the family of God, and thus the solitary ones might find a home. Without a family, there is no home. Stone walls do not make a home! You cannot have a home without a family, and the point with God, in establishing order, is that the family should be preserved, and every family is to be named of the Father.
Each family will receive its name according to the measure in which it answers to Christ. That is what I understand; for every family must bear Christ’s name in some sense, as He is Head of all. The Father, as I said, names every family. There are things He does not do, He does not judge any one, but one thing He does, He names the families. The “family” corresponds to the Father’s affections, it is what He delights in, and He names it according to the measure in which it corresponds to Christ, so one would seek the promotion of what Christ is among the people of God. Thus, if any one is attracted to those who seek to walk according to divine principles, it is the attraction of Christ that moves such an one. The city in Revelation 21, which is the assembly, comes down from heaven as having the glory of God, and the glory of God is the perfection of His nature in Christ.