DIVINE CARE FOR THE SAINTS
J. S. Gray
Psalm 103: 13–18; Exodus 28: 29, 30; John 17: 16, 17
It seems to me, dear brethren, a matter of encouragement and profit to consider that God always has us each in mind. He does not forget us, even in our ordinary affairs, our ordinary circumstances; He is thinking about us, what we do and what we say and where we go. God is never forgetting us in the way of sympathy, as this scripture in the psalm brings out. There is nothing quite like the interest of a father in his son or in his children. Some feature of progress, some further feature of intelligence, comes to light in a child; the father is interested in that, takes account of it, nothing is missed. In the same way God takes account of us with sympathetic interest. This passage refers to those that fear Him. We live in a day, dear brethren, when many do not fear God, but we are to be amongst those who fear Him. There is encouragement in this scripture to see the gain of being thought of sympathetically by God as Father as we are amongst those who fear Him, involving how we go about our ordinary affairs.
I am impressed with the need to maintain faithfulness in its detail when we are away from one another. Circumstances are difficult, yet God as Father is entering into them, taking account of what they involve in their detail and remembering what we are, even physically.
How affecting that is, that God is able to enter even into that!—“Himself knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust”. Now it is more important to pay attention, beloved, to how God thinks about things than to the reaction men might have to our behaviour, because, after all, as it says here, man is passing. What matters is how God sees things and what His attitude is to them; not any standard that may be arrived at by common consent as to anything, because what is arrived at on that line will be a lowering of things. But the divine standard will be maintained by us, I believe, as we are occupied with Christ and with what is due to God as it has been set forth in Christ. Let us, therefore, see the matter of how man will view things in its proper light, for this scripture shows that man as such (the word involving weakness, ‘mortal man’) is passing. But on the other hand God is taking account in sympathetic interest of those who fear Him, and His loving-kindness is upon them. It is something to consider, beloved, that faithfulness in one generation is often honoured by continuance coming to light in another generation. So it says, “the loving-kindness of Jehovah is from everlasting and to everlasting, upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children, To such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his precepts to do them”.
So that if God is not forgetting about us, beloved, do not let us forget about His precepts, do not let us by-pass them when we are in a strait or in a difficulty, let us remember them.
The law was to be made prominent and kept near to the people in the old dispensation; it was to be read frequently and it was to be bound upon them, showing that we are to be concerned for what is for God as priests, to know the divine standard of things and to be concerned as to its maintenance, so that this enjoyment of conscious favour from God should be our portion as we think of His sympathetic interest in us as amongst those that fear Him. Then, too, we should think of the Lord Jesus as bearing the saints on His heart continually.
This section in Exodus has in view particularly our going in to God, and surely our concern is increasingly to have greater substantial part in the service of God in its reality, so every one is held by Christ in connection with the matter of going in. That seems to be stressed in connection with Aaron here, that it is “when he goes into the sanctuary, for a memorial before Jehovah continually”. And what comes in in connection with this is this matter of the Urim and the Thummim which was referred to when we read the scripture here recently. I was impressed with it at the time that the divine standard is set out there. So the Lord Jesus is not lowering things at all, but He has us in mind according to the standard which He Himself has set forth as here, that we should be maintained according to that standard in view of going in to God. And, beloved, as we all know, our experience of going in to God is affected practically by how we are day by day in our ordinary affairs. But the Lord Jesus has us all upon His heart. How touching it is to think of that in its wider bearing in these days when so many have turned aside and when distance has come in. Beloved, the Lord Jesus has every one in mind and in His affection He is carrying each one. We are to be stimulated by this to see to our own state in view of more substantial entrance into the service of God.
I thought that in John 17 we have an illustration of how the true Aaron is bearing us on His heart in going in to God. It has its bearing on the whole dispensation and, beloved, the standard is that the saints are not of the world as Christ was not of the world. There is no other standard for us than that, and if it is not maintained we shall not have full entrance into, and enjoyment of, the service of God at its true level. Then the Lord’s service is continually available to us, “Sanctify them by the truth—thy word is truth”. How continuously the Lord serves us in sanctification in meetings such as these, and others. His thoughts are directed to what is to be for God and maintained in fulness in the service of God, even if the days are difficult. The Lord Jesus is maintaining things according to God at their true level. He would, I believe, provoke our sympathetic interest, so that we should participate in the maintenance of what is due to God here as priests, upholding divine principles and maintaining the standard of our walk in view of increase in the service of God, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, London, 14 January 1975
Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4QY, England No.