FAITHFULNESS

SUMMARY OF READING with A.A.Bellamy

Numbers 12: 6-8; Luke 12: 42-45; Acts 16: 12-15

We might encourage one another on the line of faithfulness from these Scriptures. Faithfulness is not a gift; it is within the scope of every one of us to be faithful. It is not quite the same as faith, though linked with it. Faith is light in the soul from God. Faithfulness means that we are true to the light that God has given us. Paul says three times in writing to the Corinthians that God is faithful. This is a great stay to the soul, and we can always retreat from the arena of our own unfaithfulness into that of God's faithfulness.

Moses has the divine commendation that he was faithful in all God's house. A great deal of the failure which we all have to acknowledge is because of the loss of the sense of being in God's house. Moses' faithfulness has two bearings, first, in the construction of the tabernacle there was no departure from the pattern (this we must be vigilant about constantly), then, second, his conduct was becoming to the presence of God among His people when he took the tent and pitched it outside the camp. "Faithful in all my house" involves detail - how easily we may pass over things which we regard as minimal, but the greatest attention to detail is called for on account of the charge that is committed to us. Hananiah had the charge of the city, Neh 7: 2; he was a faithful man and feared God above many. We can only be in fellowship on that principle.

There is plenty of garbage around with which we could occupy ourselves but the psalmist says, "Dwell in the land and feed on faithfulness", Psalm 37: 3. In Numbers 11: 4 the cry is, "Who will give us flesh to eat?" That was what the people wanted and it says God "gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul," Ps 106: 15. The quality of manhood in Moses is related to his appreciation of the manna - "the man Moses was very meek." We need to cultivate the taste for the manna - Christ, in Whom every feature of faithfulness is seen in its moral greatness. Jehovah speaking mouth to mouth with Moses really gives the explanation of his faithfulness. It is not merely a strong personality meeting all opposition, but a man in conscious links with God. We cannot be in the testimony without something which corresponds to that.

The Lord commends the faithfulness of the saints in Philadelphia more than that of those at Ephesus. The letters to the assemblies are interesting in the references to faithfulness - "be thou faithful unto death," Rev 2: 10; "Antipas my faithful witness”, v 13; and then in regard to Laodicea the Lord Himself takes up the matter because of the unfaithfulness of what professes His Name and speaks as the "faithful and true witness," Rev 3: 14.

Moses seems to be beyond his dispensation in his intimacy with God. God has the prerogative to give light to any one beyond the dispensation in which they live. David and Abraham also experienced this, but what about ourselves? What impressions do we have now of what is eternal, outside the whole order of time? When we have to do with God this is what we experience. The Lord has much to open up to us, not in the way of revelation exactly, for the word of God was completed by Paul, but the truth takes on a vitality and freshness where the state in our souls is equal to it. This was the secret which enabled Moses to bear with these people for forty years in the desert and eventually to come to be recognised as king in Jeshurun. Yet how severe God was with His servant - allowing him to see the land but not to go into it. Behold then the goodness and severity of God!

These chapters, 11 to 16 of Numbers, are most encouraging despite the terrible exposure of what the flesh is. To think of these two men who stood against the majority in bearing witness to the characters of the land in chapter 14, and then to think of coming into "the land of your dwellings", chapter 15, is most stimulating. In many localities we are down to very small numbers, yet there is a kind of tenacity and a consciousness that we belong to the assembly, which is indestructible. No one is thinking of giving up. The number of persons is not the point. Would you not rather have a handful of faithful persons than a hundred unfaithful persons; or a thousand, or ten thousand? Let us get our standards right. The Lord's Supper is the crux of this matter. We are thankful if persons come to the preaching but the test of their fidelity is whether they partake of the Lord's Supper. How a believer can regard lightly what the Lord said "this do in remembrance of me" is hard to understand, yet many do.

The Lord's coming in Luke 12 is not a dispensational idea - "if he come in the second watch and come in the third watch", verse 38, is repetitive - I am coming to you. What does He find? Who then is the faithful and prudent steward? The line of continuity is important because some have had the thought that past history should be cancelled and that there should be a new beginning. This supposes that we can produce a revival as required. You might use Nehemiah to support this idea, that is the responsible side, but you cannot fit it into Ezra. Ezra sets out the sovereign side, Jehovah stirring up the spirits of certain persons with a view to the revival. No man can produce that - God must act initially. That in no way reduces our responsibility, indeed it increases it. God has acted and we have to align ourselves with what He has done. Who is the faithful and prudent steward? The Lord is raising the challenge.

There is the added quality here of prudence, spiritual prudence. "Holding gain to be the end of piety" will lead quickly to Laodicea, but "that I may gain Christ" will lead to Philadelphia. Prudence means that you calculate spiritually, not as in John 6 where there seemed to be so little for so many, but you gauge the capacity and minister accordingly. The prudent and faithful steward gives the measure of corn in season. But where does he get it? "He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed" to "succour him that is weary," Isaiah 50: 4. This bondman is blessed because he was doing this. It is persons who are doing such things who become more serviceable to the Lord; in Antioch "as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting" the Holy Spirit spoke. In Luke 24: 34 "they were gathered together and saying the Lord is risen indeed", then He was there among them.

Lydia is a peculiar sample of the work of God in refinement. She sets out quality subjectively, and humility. She does not claim to be faithful but leaves the judgment whether this is so with the brethren. This has no doubt a bearing on the sisterhood but it also has a wider bearing on the whole matter of what is subjective amongst us at the present time. The Lord opened Lydia's heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. She would be a woman of action. The Lord is reviving and stressing the great importance of what Mr Taylor ministered as to the household supporting the assembly. Her household being baptised indicates a clear-cut severance from the world. What will there be for God in any locality if there is not separation from the world? How subtle the world is! How easily it can come in! A new dress or a new motor car might become an idol in your heart and come between you and the Lord Who bought you. Lydia would not have to make any last-minute adjustments before letting Paul in. Our houses ought to be open to such inspection if we are faithful to the Lord. Lydia was found by the river which connects with what is universal, for all the rivers run into the sea, Eccles 1: 7. You can well understand what the local assembly became in Philippi, what it was to Paul and what it was to heaven, with persons like this composing it.

Edinburgh

23rd March 1973