I (iii)
I (iii) Marshall Cowan
I just link on with what has been said as to our brother being an overcomer, thinking particularly of the value of experience with God. I suppose the greatest thing that any one of us can covet and seek to enjoy is to have positive, living experience with God. I believe our beloved brother had that. He demonstrated that experience in his life. We have referred to his disabilities and the restrictions that were his physically, and the suffering that he had in that regard, and I thought of Jacob, a very remarkable example for us. Jacob was a remarkable man who had to do with God. I would like to encourage every one of us to see that there is a very positive end in having to do with God, not to be frightened or to have uncertainty as to that experience, but to realise that we have to do with a God who is intensely interested in us, a God whom we have come to know as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, the One whom He has given that we might come into the blessedness of links with Him, our blessed Saviour God. It is a Saviour God whom we await. We are awaiting that wonderful moment. It speaks in Titus of "awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ", Titus 2: 13. How wonderful that is! Our brother had that hope in him, a living hope, and he lived with the light of that in his soul and he waited for that moment. How wonderful it will be when we are all raptured together, when we hear that assembling shout, when we hear the voice of the Lord, "and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord", 1 Thess 4: 16,17. What a wonderful hope we have!
But I thought we might be encouraged to take account of Jacob's history. Jacob had already had wonderful experiences with God. He had built altars. He knew what it was to relate his experience to God, to bring God into his life. He was marked by piety in that way. He was under God's control. We know that Jacob failed as we all do, and perhaps in many ways he was unreliable, but the wonderful thing is what God achieved in him: I think that is what we are taking account of today in our beloved brother. It is what God has secured in our brother, what God is securing in persons, and how wonderful that is! And so it says He wrestled with him and he prevailed. It is this thought of overcoming again, is it not? He prevailed. It is bringing out that there is some level of spirituality to be secured in every one of us, so we can be encouraged, whether we are old or whether we are young that God intends to reach His end in us and that there should be something arrived at in maturity. I think that was what was worked out in Jacob's life. Through all his exercises, through all the experiences he had, God was adding a little each day perhaps, a little here and a little there. And so it is as we have to do with God, that we grow in our experience with Him, and there is something added to us by way of spiritual formation, something that we should all, I believe - everyone who is a believer in Christ - covet to have, to seek to grow in our knowledge of God and our knowledge of Christ, our knowledge of divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful economy we have been brought into! What a wonderful area of blessing we have come into!
And so it says, Jacob prevailed. "And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel". I think that is fine. A wonderful matter that anyone of us might be named as a prince of God. What a great matter! Think of Jacob, what he was! I suppose in one sense he would always be Jacob but God's end for him was that he was Israel. He was a prince, a prince of God. God was pleased to name him and what comes out at the end of his life is that he showed that he was a prince. In his further activities, as you read the history, you find out there are princely features coming out in Jacob. These are the features that mark Israel. In that sense, you might say, our brother's name was changed. I was thinking of his history, as we have said, what it was for him to have these disabilities but in them he had to do with God and he accepted them and something was added that we could see amongst us. It was evident how our brother lived and what he lived for and it would be a great incentive to each one of us to pursue on these lines.
And so it says, "the sun rose upon him". I think it is very fine that we can all have that experience as we have to do with God. The sun rose upon him. You might say:
And heav'nly light makes all things bright (Hymn 12)
He was set forward, on his way, with the light of a new day. May we be encouraged to be like that!
And so we come to the end of his history. We find as we know - I suppose it is well-known to most here - that "Israel worshipped on the bed's head". He worshipped on 'the top of his staff'. That is the culmination of the experience he had with God. He came to that point where he became a worshipper and that is what would be in view for everyone here, everyone who is a believer in the Lord Jesus, who has been brought into the wonderful area of the assembly, that we should be worshippers and that we should be marked by a measure of power in worship, in praise and in the service of God. So here it is. Israel sets it out at the time when he died, just about to be taken, to finish his history here, it says, "And Israel worshipped on the bed's head". Well these features marked our beloved brother. I am sure they did. He was marked by power even in the weakness he had and in these last days that he had, while he was amongst us, it was evident that this spirit of worship was with him. May we be encouraged, beloved, to take on these features, to be marked and to grow in our experience with God to His glory!
KIRKCALDY
21 August 1997
At the burial of Peter Buchan