“BE A MAN”
A. J. E. Welch
Numbers 27: 15–17; 1 Kings 2: 1–3; 1 Corinthians 16: 13, 14
The burden of the word is set out in the brief but potent injunction in the second scripture,
“Be a man”. It appeals to me that there is a need for what is developed and mature with all of us, with brothers and sisters, so that we are not diverted and we are not subject to be detained by things
which should not detain us. We should see the immediate point of the Spirit’s activities, having some clear apprehension of them, so that such energy and opportunity as we have is spent in the right direction; to use a scriptural expression, furthering God’s dispensation which is in faith (see 1 Timothy 1: 4).
We have first, at a very important juncture, a desire expressed to God by Moses, “Let Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the assembly”. It is a very significant word which brings out the need for elements of leadership, exercised in continual dependence, but nevertheless exercised. The course of Moses was about to conclude. How much God had committed to Moses, and to his beloved people through Moses! What a great extent of things Moses had been given of God to set on, and now he is to look into the land and see it, and to die. The people of God no doubt were instructed to varying degrees, speaking practically, for some of them would have been mature in age and experience; others would be younger and less experienced. They would have learned the most precious divine principles which Moses had laboured so needfully to insist upon; they would be lodged in the minds and affections of the people, to some degree anyway. What Moses is suggesting, and what Jehovah Himself endorses, is that this of itself is not the full divine thought, but there is a necessity for a man. I take that to mean that at every point of growth, at every point in the movements of the saints, divine thoughts and divine principles must be in substantial expression.
We may have principles in our minds, very precious principles; we may be able to assemble them and dwell upon them at times of special need, and see what principles govern a situation; all
that is of God. But Moses recognises the need among the people of God for a substantial expression in manhood of those principles. It is right to know the principles, cherish them, and stand for them, as the last scripture would urge; but it is a great need among the people of God to see the expression in substance, in life, of what those principles maintain; that is to say, a man is needed, a man.
It is sometimes true, I believe, in the localities in which saints are happily gathered, that a man is needed. Not that he is to dominate in a human sense, far be the idea—we knew a little of that—but a man is needed. It might not be one man in a given locality; we had something of that too. The point is what a man stands for in the sense of giving a right impression to the saints of the divine mind; this is needed that the saints may prosper and move in the light of the divine thoughts. Putting it very simply, the whole principle of leadership is needed. I am not dwelling on negatives, and would not wish to when I say I believe the need exists of evidence of leadership, to strengthen what God is doing among His beloved people. Let it ever be in full relation to Christ as the glorious prime Leader in everything, and let it be in dependence upon the one Spirit who alone will afford the grace, the vigour, the strength, and the maintaining of dependence which are so needed. Moses sees the need of a man, and he enlarges upon it in a very interesting way—“who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in”. That is to say, he is manifestly to be a man of influence, a man of moral weight.
You may say to me, and you would be right and just in saying it, ‘You are setting a very high standard; you are naming requirements which are very demanding’. That is the case, but, beloved brethren, in these closing moments we need to face up to demanding requirements, in the assurance that our resource is in God. Are we set for moral influence among the people of God, which works for their benefit and for God’s glory in the entrance of the brethren into what is so precious in His sight? Can I be an influence for that? Can I lead out and lead in?
The leading in is something we need as well as the leading out. I suppose the leading out would involve the testimonial conflicts; leading in would involve carrying in before God and supporting what is, in a direct and responsive way, due to Himself from us in the assembly. A lead is needed in both, and the man, the man that God looks for in this connection, will be divinely furnished; but the lead is so necessary. The danger would be to hold back; another danger would be to press forward in the spirit of the wrong man; I say that simply, because the possibility is there of assuming something. I certainly do not have that in mind, but that we may not hold back; it calls for dependence, waiting on God, being in the Lord’s presence, cultivating constantly deepened links with the Spirit.
All those things are open to us; we are not asking an impossibility of anyone in saying, Let deepened links with the Spirit come to light. It is open to everyone. How little, sometimes, we avail ourselves of divinely-given provisions and opportunities by which, if we profit from them, God Himself would reach some glorious end which He cherishes for the delight of His own heart. I think what we had in the reading would perhaps leave an impression with us that things for God’s pleasure do depend upon us, in a right way. Shall we deprive God in these wonderful closing moments, moments of great import in God’s sight, of that
which answers to His own heart in men? That challenge is to stimulate us, and to reach into our affections, that we may yield to God what answers in some full way to His pleasure.
Now Solomon, where we have this injunction in 1 Kings 2, had all the history of David behind him—all the exercises of David in conflict, the great culminating matter of David’s concern to build a house for God, and his acceptance that it was not for him to build it, though he prepared so much of it. What history entered into that! But now the house needs to be built and finished and God be glorified as reaching what the scripture speaks of in the type as a settled place for His dwelling; the building needs to be done, the pattern needs to be implemented. Solomon had the pattern of the house; the account in 1 Chronicles 28 tells us that David had the pattern by the Spirit and gave it to him; but it needed to be implemented. It is no use having a set of drawings for this meeting room if the meeting room is not built. The thing needs to be done, built, completed, and conformity to the pattern maintained at every point in the building. This calls for manhood. Hence David’s word to Solomon—“Be a man”.
Solomon is a son, David’s son, and a true son will always bring his father’s matters to a settled conclusion. That I believe extends into the way in which divine thoughts are held in the assembly, for we have by adoption this precious relationship to the Father, in relation to God, sonship. If we are really in the character of sonship we shall cherish in depth of affection the ideals of the One whose sons we are.
What this leads to, if we follow it through, is that everything must be patterned, everything must be patterned after Christ. A son would cherish that and would delight in every fresh disclosure of the Person, and of the glory, of Jesus the Christ, because that is to be interwoven into the whole character of the house. The pattern is there in Jesus, and a son would always cherish the pattern. In human affairs of construction we have veneer, just a thin layer of the genuine thing on something beneath which is inferior; the appearance for the time may be very fair, but it soon wears thin. I say that because what the Spirit of God is looking for is something deep and genuine and according to the pattern in the whole texture of it; not just a superficial idea but something which runs right through the texture of manhood in all of us.
Solomon would stand for that; he carries things through, and we read of him finishing the work. That is my point particularly, finishing the work. We are in the finishing time, but the finishing qualities, the finishing abilities, are needed to nourish and strengthen the beloved people of God, to maintain the quality of all that the gold in the house would suggest. The divine glory must be constantly in view, and it needs a man for that.
Let us watch the elements of growth in young ones, and in all of us. If we take the right food and devote ourselves accordingly. God helps us to grow quickly. You may say, ‘My measure is very small’. Yes; I would say that too; we would all say that, and we would say it severally.
But God would say, I can increase your measure, and I can do it quickly. Go into His presence and He can increase your measure quickly and in reality. That will not just be in ability to speak of certain things, but in reality of depth in the soul, reality in the features that belong to manhood. We should realize what there is directly for the pleasure of God in the increase of stature
in those that He loves. The Lord asks who by being careful can add one cubit to his stature (see Luke 12: 25), a very pointed suggestion that genuine growth in life is something which is peculiarly delightful to heaven. Not one of us here need be wanting in growth if we really attend to what God is saying to us at the present time. So the point in view in Solomon is the finishing of things; we are not to leave things undone, but to finish them and have everything just according to the pattern.
Now a brief reference to Corinthians where the verses read bring a very strong, yet appealing, word following on the teaching of the letter. I sometimes wonder what the reading of that letter must have meant to genuine persons in Corinth. What remarkable and extended ground it covers productively; it is searching, but searching in an immensely positive context. God is in that; He searches us constantly, but He is the God of all encouragement. He is not searching us to depress; He is not searching us to give any sense that we do not belong to what He is doing; He searches us in what I could speak of as the positive context in this letter.
The searching is there very keenly, but you have for example the blessedness of the gospel, the fulness of the preaching, the greatness of the Lord’s supper, the greatness of the divine scheme of operations in the Spirit, the preciousness of love in activity, the glory of the assembly ‘as in right function under the eye of God—all positive things. It is as if the Spirit of God would say, ‘Come into all these things; they belong in the local assembly’.
There is much touched upon that does not belong in the local assembly, but Paul touches upon it concisely and pointedly in this positive context. It is a wonderful thing when what is prophetic operates amongst us in the context of the positive greatness of the truth of God and the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit, and, in her own place, of the assembly. Dear brethren, we are together today in what I could speak of as a positive context, gloriously so. God is not working just in respect of negative objectives; far be the thought. It would not be possible for God, being God, to work to negative objectives; but He may have to raise, being God, searching questions with us. Yet He has the glory, the positive glory, of His own stupendous thoughts in mind all the time.
Paul says, “Be vigilant; stand fast in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be strong”. “Quit yourselves like men”; sometimes trivialities build up in our minds; we may lie awake at night thinking about them and they build up in our minds. But let us arrive, as God helps us, as the Spirit helps us, at a just measure of things. . A feature of manhood is the ability to measure and assess things; things that are small, leave them so, and things that are important, accept them so, and be in them in the light of their importance. Let nothing that is childish come in; let no personal feelings come in, which spring sometimes from the smallest and most childish things. Let us keep a right sense of measure and of balance in the entrance we have upon divine things, and in the course of our mutual relations together. Let what is of import in God’s sight become of import to us, and what is of little account in God’s sight remain of little account to us. I believe that would be the impact of what is meant by “quit yourselves like men; be strong”, it is as if Paul would say, There has been a lot embraced in this letter, and many matters to attend to; be strong, attend to the matters; be assured in faith.
The enemy will always put something in the way to hinder if possible; let us be strong and attend to everything in view of the pleasure of God, in view of the Supper, which has a prominent place in this letter, that it may be rightly entered upon by all of us, and the whole glory of that occasion, in which the service of God is proceeded into, be more richly known.
May God Himself have His full portion in result, for His name’s sake.
Address at Redbridge
10 November 1979