THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
[p. 236] THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
Acts 16:19 - 28; Acts 12:3 - 14; Genesis 39:20 - 23; Genesis 40:1 - 7; Genesis 41:14,38
I desire to bring before you certain thoughts in regard to the government of God, first as to how it bears on the ministry or the testimony, and then secondly, how it bears on each of us individually as christians. The government of God cannot but further His interests; it can never be against His interests either in a general way or in the individual; it always culminates in advantage to the testimony and to His people. We find in the early part of Genesis when the enemy would centralise the whole race of mankind in the plain of Shinar, that God came down Himself to see what they were doing and building, and seeing what they had begun to do, He confounded their language and scattered the race abroad on the face of the whole earth. Then we find, having done that, He gives us a second time the genealogy of Shem, that is, the stem whence the testimony or the vessels of it should come, as if He were to say, Now I have dispersed the race over the face of the whole earth, I will bring in the line or family in which I intend to operate. In other words, He makes a way for the testimony when the enemy would have blotted it out.
This may serve to indicate what I have in my mind — how God acts in favour of His testimony governmentally. He actually came down Himself to see what the children of men did, as if He would not judge at a distance but with first-hand evidence. Then followed the dispersion and the confounding of the languages — barriers raised up between the nations, and these barriers remain. Moral walls between the nations are being built higher and higher, and we must not complain because of this. Divisions are in [p. 237] favour of the testimony. I do not, of course, mean division among the brethren; division among the brethren is another matter. What we have to dread is centralisation. We find throughout John’s gospel an allusion to divisions among the Jews, and the more the better, for they were those who had become hostile and reprobate, and when it is a question of evil the less concentration the better, the more division the better. It is a way made for the testimony, for what God is doing.
Now the present moment comes in on that head, and so I have read these passages, the first as showing what the ministry was at the outset. It is well that we should compare what we have with what has been. It is wholesome. Of old in the days of Ezra the weeping and joy mingled, the weeping being occasioned by the comparison made between what was being built in that day of small things, and what had been in the days of Solomon. It is wholesome to mingle our tears and our joy; it balances us to remember what has been as compared with what is, and then God comes in and encourages us in regard to what shall be. What has been, as compared with what is, is discouraging, but perhaps I should not say discouraging, for it produces wholesome humility and sorrow; but the comparison of what is and what shall be induces joy, and God never fails to bring in that which induces joy where there is genuine sorrow, and where things are felt. He has great regard for those who feel things; the apostle says of Timothy, “who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on”, Philippians 2:20 and he says to him, “remembering thy tears”. 2 Timothy 1:4.
God has great regard for these things, and so He furnishes that which induces joy in bringing to our attention what shall be. Therefore in the minor prophets, that is, in Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, you have the announcement of what is coming in; in Haggai we read. “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”. Haggai 2:9.
[p. 238] And as I have said, it is well to compare the ministry and the outset, and I believe we cannot get a better example of it than in Acts 16 — a chapter which records its introduction into the western world, into Europe. The testimony at that moment was under pressure — great pressure! What may shine in prosperity may give way under pressure. It is when things are put to the test that their strength is brought to light. At times it may be latent and come to light, but With Paul the strength that marked him in his ministry was always there; he speaks of the tribulations he endured. It is a question of endurance, and so the Holy Spirit gives us at some length the details of his imprisonment with Silas at this juncture.
You will observe how the national feeling arose at Philippi, “These men utterly trouble our city, being Jews, and announce customs which it is not lawful for us to receive nor practise, being Romans”. I hardly know of anything more potent in that way than national prejudice. It was instanced on this occasion — what we are and what they are — a very ominous comparison! The apostle Paul addressing men would say that God made of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth; here it is, we being Romans, they being Jews. They are troubling our city; it was a commercial matter. They were deprived of their gain, and they appealed to the national prejudice, a very common method of hostility, and the multitude was gathered against them. It was no small affair, an unusual movement was stirred up and so the crowd rose up, too.
The Spirit of God dwells on the severity of the treatment, the cruelty of it, so as to bring to light the character of the ministry, the joy of it, the power of it, and the superiority that shone in it. The matter is presented in full force to the magistrates, who strip and scourge the prisoners and they were [p. 239] thrust into the inner prison and their feet made fast in the stocks, as if those feet were never again to move in the carrying of that precious freight, which the apostle elsewhere calls “this ministry” 2 Corinthians 4:1 and “this treasure”. 2 Corinthians 4:7. Surely the vessels in which the treasure was might be regarded as at breaking-point as the cruel jailor applied his power to make their feet fast in the inner prison, but the Spirit of God tells us the effect of the marvellous power of endurance. “At midnight in praying”, it says, they “were praising God with singing”. The prison was turned into a sanctuary, as though He that sat in the heavens laughed, as if He had those who placed His servants there in derision, for in those vessels of His power, of His ministry, He had the victory over all that was opposed. I am not now speaking of the earthquake, but of what was in those two wonderful men. In prayer they sang praises to God at midnight, and the prisoners listened to them.
The prison, as I said, was turned into a sanctuary in which, resounded praise to God. That is the ministry at its height; and then the word to the jailor, as if to convey the character of the dispensation, was, “Do thyself no harm”. He had done them harm, the magistrates had done them harm, the crowd had done them harm; but they said, “Do thyself no harm”. What a reflection of God had come in in Christ through such ministers! They were thinking of others. No one is truly a minister of God who is thinking of himself, or of his own importance. To be thinking of others is the principle of true service, and here at the very height of physical pressure and suffering meted out to them by this very man — the jailor — Paul called out to him with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm”. It is the voice of the Spirit of God portraying for us the excellency of the ministers. In saying “Do thyself no harm”, with a loud voice, how perfectly he was in accord with the precious [p. 240] treasure they had. Did ever prison hear such a voice in it? Never, I believe. It was a voice which conveyed the attitude of God toward men. The servants were not thinking of themselves, they were thinking of others, even of their persecutors.
I come now to chapter 12 to show you the ministers from another point of view, or how they are represented in a prisoner under other circumstances; it is at Jerusalem. The history of the testimony at Jerusalem at this juncture indicates a waning, a weakening. Herod interferes with the vessels of it, not from commercial but from political motives. He is not actuated by any religious feelings, he is a politician. The whole race of Herods were politicians, time-servers, of which there have been many by whom the testimony has suffered throughout the whole history of the dispensation. Politicians turn things to account in order to please or gain supporters. We read Herod laid his hands on some of those of the assembly. It was just a political move, and the actor is a type of antichrist, as the chapter shows; his end was that he was eaten of worms. He is acclaimed by the people as if his voice were the voice of a god, and not of a man. It was not, it was a very different voice, but because he gave not God the glory he was eaten of worms. Such is the end of political power which is active against the testimony of God; the government of God is against it. A politician is one man, a statesman is another. We pray for a statesman, a man responsible in a state, but not for a mere politician. We pray for those who are in authority, but not for time-servers, such as those whom Herod represents. He intended to bring Peter forth to make a show (verse 6).
No doubt it was in a sense to the credit of Peter that he slept, but I wish to use the facts related to show how from the outset of the ministry and extending down to modern times the government of God has intervened for us. Peter is in prison, but he is not [p. 241] presented in special suffering, as were Paul and Silas; he is sleeping, but the record shows divine intervention for the deliverance of the minister. Many of our brethren are thus in prison; I speak now of the facts here as illustrative; they are not suffering; they are quite unconscious, but nevertheless they are in prison, and for the moment out of commission, unavailable for that service which the Lord Jesus is maintaining. The angel comes and smites Peter on the side as if to remind him of the love of Christ for the assembly, for surely that is what every servant should think of; it is because of it that he is here; for he is here on account of the assembly. Whence is the assembly but from the side of Christ, as Eve from Adam? It is Himself, in that sense, object of His dearest affections.
Peter was to be released to serve her, to take care of her. It may be there are those here who are in prison, who are not available for this blessed service, and if so, the Lord would, as it were, smite you on the side to remind you that He has been smitten, the soldier’s spear pierced His side. Would Peter not know that? He did know; he knew all about the death of Christ, about the cross and about the soldier’s spear, but he is reminded of it by the action of the angel — a most striking testimony to one who knew how Christ was smitten. The angel does everything. A light had shone in; things were done in the light. If it were not for the light that shone in the modern prison in which we were, who of us would have come out?
The light has shone in and the governmental action of God has opened the door for us. Many have come out, but there are many yet to come; let us pray for them, for they are in prison. The angel gives all the directions. It is a question of the governmental action of God, the Lord acting providentially, as He says, “I have set before thee an opened door”. Revelation 3:8. He
[p. 242] has done it. What agencies He has employed we cannot enumerate, but He has done it, and no one can shut it; so the angel said to Peter, “Follow me”. Ah, yes, it is a question of following! Let no one draw back, if he has begun to move. “Follow me”, the angel said, “Cast thine upper garment about thee”. Note the attention and consideration for Peter, for his comfort. He is not to be exposed to the cold, he is provided for, but he has “to follow”, and when he passed through the first and second guard, the iron gate which led into the city opened of itself, and the angel and Peter went down one street, and the angel left him, and Peter came to consciousness. Are we following in consciousness? How many of us are asleep? Consciousness, as I am applying these incidents, is that I come back to see what I am in Christ and what I am as having the Spirit of God. I have come to myself, I am no longer asleep, I am awake. I have come into consciousness.
And now Peter moves of himself. How delightful for heaven, as the believer, thus delivered moves in consciousness! And where does he go? He goes to the house of Mary where prayer is being made. He had come into the city, and now he is a representative of Christ; as Paul in the prison represented God and Christ, so Peter as out of the prison represents Him also. He has got a voice; Rhoda comes “to listen”, it says, not yet to open the door. She was a doorkeeper, as we may say, and doorkeepers do not open to everyone, they want to know who it is, who is there; anything else is looseness, and God hates looseness; opening the door to everybody is looseness. You want to hear the voice; Rhoda came to listen; she went to the door to listen. There were four thousand doorkeepers in David’s time, as we learn in the book of Chronicles; how we need them! People are discerned by their voice and Rhoda knew the voice.
[p. 243] I dwell on this because it is so illustrative of the present moment. The Lord has opened the door and ministry has been released, and now it is a question of coming into consciousness, of representing Christ. What kind of voice has one? If one’s voice is not like the voice of Christ, of what value is it? Mere words are of little value. “My sheep hear my voice”. John 10:27. Rhoda recognised the voice, others did not; they said she was mad, but she stood to it. Now all that took place outside the prison. But I want to come to Genesis so as to show you how this government of God acts on the individual believer, gain accruing. Every one of us is under the government of God. One would not be outside of it, for it is in one’s favour. The first thing in this remarkable history of Joseph is the light that he had; it must have been an immense leverage to his soul from the outset. He had the light of what God’s thoughts are about him. Think of God’s thoughts about every one of us, away back before the world was! Let it come into your heart that God was thinking of you before the world was. Marvellous! He is thinking of you now, He was thinking of you then. Although things may go hard with you, love is behind it — love that thought of you before the world was, love that gave Christ in the fulness of time for you, is now behind the discipline, and none of us can afford to do without it. The question now is, how you go through it, whether you are like Christ in it, or whether you are just a poor unbelieving person going through it with groaning, complaining, bitterness, and recrimination. If so you are missing the gain of it all; you are robbing yourself of the gain that God has for you. And so you find that Joseph was loved of his father more than all his brethren. How precious that is! It is most touching that he was loved of his father. You know the history, and the more his father loved [p. 244] and honoured him, the more he was hated by his brethren. A sorrowful thing, but necessary for the course of his education, for the divine curriculum! Alas! for the brethren, but happy for Joseph. He is going through, he is loved of his father, and now the light of heaven comes into his soul, the light of what God had in mind for him: his sheaf stands up. He is to be in power while others do obeisance; and then again, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars will bow down to him. What a future that is! It was to be a reservoir of moral power in his soul; he is to go through in it, hence you find that he is always victorious; he is never under things.
Then an extraordinary history comes to light. He is cast into the king’s prison, into the tower-house — the place where the king’s prisoners were kept. It is a question of the king, and not of that wretched woman who belied him. It was a question of where the king’s prisoners were; where they were is where Joseph was; that is where I am; that is where you are; as the apostle says, “Prisoner of the Christ”, Ephesians 3:1 not the prisoner of Caesar, but prisoner of the Christ; and again, “The prisoner in the Lord”. Ephesians 4:1. It is a question of Christ, but then the Lord was with Joseph; it is stated that Jehovah was with him. Let us see to it that if in the government of God we are in the prison, we are not in it alone. I am a poor companion to myself, a very miserable companion, but the Lord said, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me”. John 16:32. And Paul said, “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me”. 2 Timothy 4:17. It is not God’s intent that we should be alone, and we need not be. The three in Daniel’s day who were cast into the burning fiery furnace were not alone. There was one like the Son of God there. What companionship! And so it says here that Jehovah was with him.
Well now, see the effect of this on his spirit. He is in every instance promoted; he establishes confidence [p. 245] at once in those with whom he has to do. How important that I should convey my uprightness, my integrity as under the government of God. Thus I secure the confidence of the brethren. Want of confidence hinders promotion; it is the establishment of confidence that brings in moral promotion. It cannot be resisted, it is moral superiority, and who can stand before that? It says, “Jehovah was with him”. The prisoners are all put into Joseph’s hands; whatever was done in the tower-house he did it.
Then two notable prisoners — the butler and the baker of Pharaoh — are put into the prison, and the point is they were put “in the place where Joseph was imprisoned”. Had Joseph been there grovelling in his misery, what would have been the gain of being put where he was? But it was to their advantage, and sure enough he ministered to them. One morning he goes in and their countenances are sad, but his is not. He is in conscious victory, but he notices that the countenances of these men were sad. It is not any perfunctory service with him; he is doing it cheerfully, and Jehovah is with him. His work, although menial, is done properly and sympathetically, and he inquires the occasion of the sadness of their countenances. All know the dreams of the butler and the baker. I only touch on the solicitude of this remarkable prisoner for his fellow-prisoners, “Why are your faces so sad today?” They had not Jehovah with them. Alas! how many of us are like this, with sad countenances.
Well, Pharaoh sent for him; the hour had come for his release. One has often been encouraged with that thought. “The days of thy mourning shall be ended”. Isaiah 60:20. God always limits the suffering, and no one can go beyond His limit. Whatever occasions pressure, or entails it, God has marked the limit of the suffering, and so the psalmist said, “Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him”. Psalm 105:19. And then — beautiful touch! — “The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free”. It is liberation day — “let him go free”.
But how does he go, and where does he go? It says that he changed his clothes and shaved. That is a very important touch to my mind, for one is now to put on the effect of the discipline, one has to show it. Joseph has to appear before the king; he does not go back to Canaan whence he had come, he went in to the king. He changes his clothing — an important matter. The prison garment is laid aside for apparel suitable for the presence of the king; and he shaved. These things point to the sense he had as to what was suitable to the royal presence as he was liberated. He is now presented. You have now to think of what others think of you. You are coming out victoriously and you are in suitable attire. You have been released. “Let him go free”. But what has the king to look at? How are you to appear? There is Joseph before him. You can picture that young man, thirty years of age, in full manhood, with all that experience of life behind him, and all that light in his soul, in the presence of the king. Spiritually the position is great.
Now, what does the king think? Pharaoh says to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” Not such a one as ‘that’, but “such a one as this”. He was in his presence; what a man he was, as I said, in full manhood, with all that light in his soul of which we have spoken, with all that experience, clothed and shaved, standing in the presence of the king! What will Pharaoh do with him? “Can we find such a one as this?” he says, “a man in whom the Spirit of God is”. It is such a one that God would use, one who has the Spirit, as God says of Joshua, “a man in whom is the Spirit”. Numbers 27:18. We are not to serve God in our natural ability, but in the Spirit. Some [p. 247] of us may think too highly of our natural parts. We deceive ourselves; God will not use us. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit”, Zechariah 4:6 and hence it is here, “Can we find such a one as this?” There is Joseph, victorious on moral grounds, in the presence of the king.
The Holy Spirit right down that chapter occupies us with the dignity and glory heaped upon Joseph, and the new name given him, Zaphnath-paaneah. What a marvellous setting forth of the effect of the righteous government of God, having love behind it! The object of it is to fit us for the exalted situation to which we are called, a situation far exceeding that of Joseph. The Lord said to His apostles, “Ye shall sit on twelve thrones”, Matthew 19:28 and through Paul to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6:3. But greater still, we are as sons of God, called to companionship with Christ for ever, and hence the importance of accepting humbly the government of God. Love is in it, so that we should be wholly fitted for our great calling and God’s pleasure in us there, and correspondingly for service and testimony here.