Ill (iii)
Ill (iii) Eric Burr
There are very few burials of women recorded in Scripture. There are a lot of burials of men: the books of Kings and of Chronicles are full of the burials of men, individual men, some kings, some buried with honour, some buried with less honour; but the number of women who are buried is very small. It may be that as we bury another woman, a sister in the Lord, it again has something special to say to us. There is that remarkable verse later in this book where Jacob speaks, and about the cave of Machpelah he says, "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah", Gen 49: 31. That is a remarkable verse about very remarkable women - Sarah, typical of Jerusalem above, which, as Paul says to the Galatians, is "our mother" (Gal 4: 26), Rebecca, a type of the church, Leah a type of the church, distinctive women. This verse singles out another woman, evidently not of the same distinctive character, not, you might say, someone who was prominent, but someone who has her capacity and her service recorded for us. She was Rebecca's nurse. One thing that has struck me in what has come before us already this morning is that there have evidently been remarked characteristics in our sister which have lessons for us all. That is a great thing: it should be true of every believer, that their life has characteristics in it which are a lesson for us all. What has come out this morning is that the life of our sister and her service and her activity is a lesson for us all. May that be true of us all that what we are is a lesson for all!
I refer to this verse in regard to her being Rebecca's nurse, not that Deborah was what you might call a sick nurse, but she was a nurse that cared. She was a person who cared for others. She cared especially for Rebecca. She reminds one of Phoebe in Romans 16 verse 2, "a helper of many", but she cared and she had evidently watched over Rebecca for a long time. You find her in chapter 24 and she was someone who cared. The fact that she is described as Rebecca's nurse takes one's mind to other references in Scripture because God was a nurse. It says that "he nursed them in the desert", Acts 13: 18. Think of that, God nursing people in the desert. Every day for forty years God nursed them and you might say that sometimes the nursing was severe and sometimes the nursing has to be severe, but there was the care and the protection and the bringing through. Who was it, for instance, that saw that their garments did not fade and their shoes did not wear out? It was God who nursed them in the desert.
If we look for the characteristics of nursing, the first one in whom we find it is God. He cares for every one of us every day and all the time, as I say, not just as a sick nurse, but we need nursing even in our best times. In our prosperity we need nursing. We need care and sometimes we need a kindly word and sometimes we need a corrective word, but the nurse has that. It is a characteristic of nursing that the nurse knows exactly what the present state of the patient requires, not that I speak of Rebecca as a patient or of the brethren for whom our sister has cared as patients, but our sister cared for others. Always if there was somebody to be cared for, our sister cared. She set out the characteristics of a nurse. And Paul says to the Thessalonians, "as a nurse would cherish her own children", 1 Thess 2: 7. Our sister was not married; she did not have children. But she cared for others, you might almost say, dayby-day. Sometimes we have observed her caring day-by-day, day after day, caring and putting herself out, taking on, you might have thought, even more than was needed, almost going to excess in care. It would be unnecessary to recall the names of those for whom our sister has cared but the distinctive character of this woman is that she was buried as a nurse, she was buried as one that cared. It is interesting, if you look at Mr Darby's comment in regard to Phoebe in Romans 16 where he translates the scripture that she has been a "helper of many" is very similar to what he says in translating the word for the Spirit in John 16, one who comes alongside to help, the characteristics of the Holy Spirit seen there.
Therefore, if I might add a word now: it is to the effect that we might nurse one another, that we might look after one another, whatever Christian company we are in, we might look after one another, look after those that we are with, see that they do not go astray, see that they are kept in the way, see, so far as we can, that they are clothed with those beautiful garments with which the Lord and God clothe us, see that these are not tarnished and do not wear out, help people to see, as it says in Ecclesiastes, that their garments are always white (chap 9: 8), help people to see that they keep in the right way. The nursing is a detailed thing. It is not a chivvying thing; it is a comforting, caring thing. It takes account of need as it observes it and helps others to go along. Think of God as He says in regard to Ephraim, "And I it was that taught Ephraim to walk", Hos 11: 3. It was God who nursed Ephraim, God who nursed Israel, God who has nursed me and has nursed you and the pattern of that is to come out in every one of the Lord's people, that there is that diligent care for one another. Paul says in regard to Timothy, as will be well-known, that he had "no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on", Phil 2: 20. That is the characteristic of a nurse. You might even say, in that verse, that it is the characteristic of a male nurse, but the service of nursing is open to brothers as much as to sisters.
I just add this today, because what has come before me and what has been said already is that there have been characteristics in our sister which should be continued amongst us and from which we may learn and in which we may find a pattern. May the Lord help us! These things are very simple: they are the pattern of Christianity. Fellowship implies that we care for one another. Fellowship has other bearings as well, but one aspect of it is that we care for one another. Therefore, I say let us find that, when others are mentioned of considerable distinction, like Sarah and Rebecca and Leah, there is somebody who filled out a humble service. These other women do not have particular moral characteristics attributed to them, but Deborah has a particular moral characteristic - you might even say, an insignificant woman, but Rebecca's nurse. She died and she was buried in Bethel where Jacob had the most profound impressions in relation to God and in relation to his course.
May we reflect on what has come before us this morning and may we find pattern in it, for the Lord's Name's sake!
LONDON
9 April 1998
At the burial of Miss Joan Pouncey