"FEAR NOT, THOU WORM JACOB"

A.B.Parker

Psalm 22: 4-6; Isaiah 41: 14-16

These scriptures have been pressing on my mind since we came together. It is very affecting that the Lord Jesus, on the cross submitting to the will of God and rejected by men, should think of persons who were delivered when they cried to God in their distress. We see that this was so, particularly in the book of Judges. The people sinned again and again and were delivered into the hands of their enemies, but when they cried to Jehovah He heard their cries and delivered them. Think of how often the compassions of God were moved in man's failing history - but for Him who had served so perfectly, there could be no relief. He felt it! He said, "I am a worm, and no man ... despised of the people". He had done nothing to deserve reproach - in fact, He was then fulfilling the will of God, yet no expression of God's appreciation could be uttered. How He felt it! "I am a worm, and no man" .

It helps us in our present circumstances to understand something of the feelings of the Lord Jesus - what it meant to Him to be rejected, crucified, made a curse and a reproach of the people with no intervention possible. Such was the will of God, and it was on our account. Now we are in reproach which, in one sense, is deserved. Yet, the despising and reproach which we feel most is not because of our unfaithfulness, but because we have judged evil and are seeking to stand for the truth. We have been unfaithful; we humbly recognise that and justify God for the heaviness of his hand in government upon us, but the reproach we suffer from those nearest and dearest to us is not because of our unfaithfulness, but because we seek to pursue righteousness. Let us, accept this reproach and sorrow humbly, as part of God's discipline.

In the second passage read, Jehovah says, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob". Jehovah was about to come in for Jacob. He calls him Jacob, probably because it is the name that denotes responsibility and, no doubt, includes his failures, but it is evident that there is something in Jacob with which Jehovah can have a link. He is reproached and despised; he is a worm! God rebukes and chastens those whom He has taken up, but He will not allow others to despise them, with impunity. He takes account of it, dear brethren. We can thank God for the measure in which we have been helped to judge ourselves for our involvement in what was wrong. We contributed to it and supported it and were too weak to publicly condemn it. But does not the Lord feel it that we are despised because we have judged it and condemned it? I believe that He does. O, that we may get this comforting word, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob". Do not cringe under the title, Worm. God would take account of us as such - "thou worm Jacob". Let us accept it, feelingly and justify Him in using it! Then we may feel some sense of power coming in.

The power that Jacob is promised will be a devastating power for the destruction of his enemies. The power that we long for is to be more acceptable to the Lord in our lives here - both individually and collectively - and that our brethren may be wakened out of the snare of the devil for God's will. As we await this power coming in, may we be preserved in humility, for His Name's sake.

Brooklyn, N.Y.

8th May 1973