GOD'S WORDS AND MEN'S WORDS
GOD’S WORDS AND MEN’S WORDS
Luke 4:22; Job 31:40; Judges 11:11; 1 Corinthians 14:19
These scriptures are selected out of many scriptures that speak of words, God’s words and men’s words. They are selected so as to bring forward some thoughts as to words. I begin with Christ because we have to learn everything from Him, either by direct teaching or by example. What appears here is example. Verse 22 refers to the kind of words that marked the Lord Jesus on that occasion, words of grace, causing wonderment in His hearers. The sequel shows that the hearers were not lovers of Christ, so that their notice at the words coming out of the mouth of Christ and their wonderment are all the more significant. The words are words of grace; they are excessively so. They are presented as a model before us, and significantly in Luke, who has in mind to make the testimony attractive; so that there might be nothing unnecessary or nothing to repel as to the testimony in the words we say; in ministry or conversation, Luke would have all attracted. Grace is the reigning principle in christianity. It was the reigning principle in Christ. It is said of Him, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And cannot we all say, “Of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace” (verse 16)? That was the great general feature of Christ as He inaugurated this great and wonderful dispensation. No doubt all of us here can join in saying, “Of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. Christians can all say that in some measure. It says, “Full of grace and truth”, but grace first. So we are doctrinally told in Romans 5 that “grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
[p. 409] Grace reigns. It is well to take that in, and it comes out here in words — the thought of speaking. Even of the greatest of servants, leaving out the Lord Jesus, of Paul and Barnabas it is said, “They went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1). They so spake — it is not what they said, but the manner of speaking: the subject is intelligible. They spoke about Christ. Every christian ought to be able to say something about Christ. The Lord says to the disciples, “Who do ye say that I am?” Of Anna it says, “She ... spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). So that it is in our range and in our obligation to speak of Him, whether we have gift or otherwise,-and our speaking should be such as to attract and not to repel, and the Lord is the greatest example of this. Next to the Lord, we may say, Paul is the greatest example. Paul and Barnabas entered into this city together, bringing out another beautiful trait in the testimony: being together not only in person but in heart, like Peter and John going up into the temple together. They said, “Look on us”. It was the manner of those two servants; there was something seen of God in them, and so Paul and Barnabas entered together and so spake. There was a definite result from the speaking. We read of a man lame from his birth who heard Paul speaking — stress being on what he was doing at the moment — Paul looked and noticed that he had faith. The speaking aroused his faith. So if we want to attract our fellow men there must be right speaking. We are to have words of faith coming out of our mouth. So Paul, “seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Rise up straight upon thy feet: and he sprang up and walked” (Acts 14:9,10). Paul said it “with a loud voice” — for at times our speaking may be loud — following on the line of the speaking,
[p. 410] loud speaking was in order. The Lord cried at a remarkable time, on the last day of the feast of tabernacles — a most important time-He “cried saying, If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). There was nothing repulsive to the ear in that cry of Jesus, but the very opposite: it was a cry of grace, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”. That voice was to be heard, and it was heard in view of grace, although a loud voice. If our testimony is to be believed it must be heard. So Paul “said with a loud voice, Rise up straight upon thy feet”. And the man did it. There was real active power in relation to the speaking, right speaking, not a question of eloquence, as men say. Of the Lord the officers said, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). So in this man in Acts 14 the work of God was there accompanying the speaking; and the very people who did not believe called Paul Mercurius, showing the place that speaking has in the testimony. It is not a question of eloquence but of grace and audibility. Souls are affected by it, especially those in whom God is working. It is very significant that God says of Aaron, “I know that he can speak well” (Exodus 4:14), showing how God takes account of our speaking.
I have said so much so as to stress the idea of model. Of course there are other services besides speaking, but speaking has the first place. So that Peter in the first gospel address says, “Hearken to my words” (Acts 2:14). The Spirit of God records those words; they are words full of spiritual power and effectiveness. So in our passage in Luke it was where the Lord was brought up. One had said, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But this speaking was there; and even those that thrust Him out of the city and would have cast Him over the brow of the hill — His enemies bore witness to His speaking.
[p. 411] Now I want to show how we reach this, for if the Lord presents a pattern — the idea of a pattern or model comes out in Exodus, as it was needed in the building of the tabernacle; there are not only measurements, but there is the pattern — the idea is that we are brought to the pattern. Hence the Scriptures furnish us with education to that end. Aaron is a striking type. First of all Jehovah says, “I know that he can speak well”. And when the children of Israel turned back to Egypt in their heart — alas, there is often the tendency with young christians to turn back to Egypt — it says, Aaron spoke to them, as if to say that speaking was enough for them, and they turned towards the wilderness. Immediately they turned towards the wilderness the glory of Jehovah appeared, as if God would say, ‘The speaking has turned you in the right direction: I am going to give you a taste of Christ, I am going to rain down manna from heaven’, that is Christ in all His beauty before them, instead of the fleshpots of Egypt. God says, ‘I present the glory to you’. Christ is the glory of God. So He is presented attractively to young people so that they should not go back to Egypt. The speaking is to that end.
Now I turn to Job. “The words of Job are ended”. The passage does not mean that Job did not speak again. The book tells us that he did. This is the last passage of the dialogue between Job and his three friends. That kind of speaking is ended, meaning that that kind of speaking is not pleasurable to God. Job said many true things. Even things that the Spirit of God has quoted in the New Testament were said by Job and his three friends. But it was not the kind of speaking that would attract men and enlighten men, but talking one after the other, each speaking of himself in some form or other, but, in truth, as having in mind to exalt himself. There is much of that kind of speaking going on amongst us, taking the [p. 412] form of discussion and argument and even fierce denunciation. In spite of the fact that God may call one His servant as He did Job, yet even the servant of God may have recourse to such words; words full of pride and yet in some instances beautiful words. The christian should speak beautiful words. Job was the subject of the work of God; he spoke beautiful words, and yet they were beclouded by self-exaltation and pride and bitter sarcasm. He is capable of uttering words like these; alas, that it should be so! The book is to teach us that it should not be so with us. We should learn from the book that God is not pleased with words like these. Elihu had been listening all the time. How he must have been grieved to hear these old men with hoary heads one after the other speaking against each other. According to the Lord’s words, “So shall it not be among you”. We never read that the words of Jesus are to be ended, nor do we want them to be ended, we love Him to speak to us. In fact the book would say, and as we listen we would say it too, even the officers attempting to take Him said it, “Never man spake like this man”. We do not want His words to be ended. But we want to end words that have the character of those of Job and of his three friends. As I said, Job spoke afterwards, but not this kind of words. Those are ended. You may say, Why are they recorded? As I said, to teach us never to have recourse to words of this kind. In chapter 38 Jehovah says to Job, “Gird up now thy loins like a man; and I will demand of thee, and inform thou me”. Job does not answer till chapter 40 and then it is to say that he is vile. Previous to that the Lord had said to Job, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” (chapter 38:2). Darkening counsel by words without knowledge — how much of that there is with us, even in our care meetings and in our conversations with one another! All knowledge must flow [p. 413] from the knowledge of God. Unless we know God and Christ we are darkening counsel by words without knowledge. When Job comes to the end of himself he says those very words; he says, I am guilty of that. You will observe in verse 3 of the last chapter he almost quotes Jehovah’s words in chapter 38. He says, “Who is he that obscureth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not ... Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. These are Job’s words, utterly different from the time when he speaks of himself as a king in the army (see chapter 29:25), so full of his own greatness. He spoke of things which he did not understand. Many of us do that. The knowledge of God should precede all speaking, I am referring to speaking in relation to God and to His things. Everything must flow from the knowledge of God. Jehovah comes in Himself and brings Job to where he should be: “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. He will not speak words without knowledge after this. One would like to hear him now. We are not told any of his speeches after that. But you can see the lesson is learned, and Job will not be darkening counsel any more. His words are ended, and we may end ours, too.
Now I want to go on to the next scripture, that is to Jephthah. There is not much that comes down from Jephthah in the divine book. I am not speaking of the Bible, but there are those who contribute to the treasury of God. There is not much mentioned of Jephthah in that way, but this is a treasury statement, namely that “Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh”. That is the right place to utter words. Job could not have been conscious of being before the Lord when he uttered his long speeches. Jephthah was not a man who had a spiritual history like Gideon and some of the other [p. 414] judges. He is mentioned, however, in Hebrews 11. So he has a place in that way, and moreover, as we look into the facts we see that he is a man who read the Bible — although very little of it was on record in those early days — so God had taken him up, and he qualified for his judgeship. I wonder if all you young men and young women here read your Bible. If you neglect that Satan will attack you sooner or later and you will not be able to overcome him because you do not know your Bible. It is very humbling not to know your Bible. I find in meetings that when texts are quoted people are not able to find them. Think of the pains that God has gone to, to give us the Bible. Why should we not read it, since the apostle says to Timothy, “Give thyself to reading”? We should read, and if we read why should we not understand? Philip says to the eunuch, “Understandest thou what thou readest?”. Jephthah did read with understanding, and when the Ammonites attacked the people he was able to answer. He outlined the whole position of Israel’s history, and he did it with great power. It is the truth that the enemy attacks; therefore we ought to know the Scriptures and be well versed in them, if we are to serve God. The Lord Jesus Himself quoted the Scriptures in each of the temptations. He did not reason with the devil. He said, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written” (Matthew 4:10). The Scriptures overwhelmed the devil, and so also did Jephthah overwhelm the Ammonites.
Now I am speaking of this last clause, “Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh”. I am sure if we were in the consciousness of being before the Lord we would not utter many words that we do utter. The Lord says, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:37). Weigh your words! You say, I did not mean them. The Lord says, “By thy words”. So Jephthah saw to it that he uttered them [p. 415] before the Lord. I mention this in connection with Jephthah because it is corrective to Job. Had Job been conscious that Jehovah was listening his conscience would have smitten him. He would say, It was most unseemly to speak of my fellow men as I did.
Now I come to the pattern (1 Corinthians 14:19). The pattern is found in the assembly. The better translation reads, “In [the] assembly I desire to speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue”. I am speaking now of the importance of speaking in assembly. “In assembly” — that phrase is found several times in this book. The most significant use of it is found in chapter 11, “When ye come together in assembly”. In this passage it is speaking in assembly. It is that character of things, speaking in the assembly. By way of illustration: when speaking in parliament the members have to be careful; a member might be rejected by the use of wrong words; the members have to use words of respect for one another. It is so in any position of that same character, but how much more when it is “in assembly”. That is what the apostle says, “Five words with my understanding”. It is a question of what we say. The Spirit of God expects us to understand what we say, not like Job: words without knowledge. We are to understand what we say; although there are only five words people profit by them. The public order of God requires that: we are in the presence of God, our words are heard by God. What the apostle is concerned about is that in the assembly the understanding should be active. The word ‘understanding’ is a word of peculiar character in the divine vocabulary. The wicked do not understand. It is not a question of understanding languages, it is understanding spiritual things. The wise men of the Old Testament understood. It is a remarkable [p. 416] thing how the word is brought in in the book of Revelation: “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Revelation 13:18). We are expected to understand. We are told the number. It is a man’s number; it is not divine, it is not beyond us. It is within our compass, so that we should become acquainted with the rising of the antichrist — it is a constant rising: “Even now are there many antichrists” (1 John 2:18); but we should become acquainted with how the antichrist will rise, what his number will be. So our wisdom is taxed, our understanding is taxed. His number is six hundred and sixty six. It has been much discussed, but most of the discussions were without understanding. But we are very near to it now, and our understanding is taxed. We are called upon to count his number. The number must have a meaning, and it is found in Scripture. There are the Maschil Psalms, psalms of understanding. In Daniel 12:10 we read, “None of the wicked shall understand”. Such as Daniel understood, and we want to be among them that understand.
If we are speaking in the assembly our words are to be few. We read in Ecclesiastes 5:1,2 “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of, God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few”. We are to have intelligence as to what we speak. “A fool’s voice is known by multitude of words”. Paul speaks of the “ten thousand words”. How much better would be the five words with the understanding, but it is in the assembly you get it. “Five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also”. Instruction goes on in the [p. 417] assembly. We get it on this principle of “five words with my understanding”, and as these five words are uttered, we are very much like Christ. They will be very much like those gracious words that flowed from His lips in the synagogue of Nazareth. May the Lord help us, especially in speaking in the assembly, both to God and to men. For His name’s sake.