“THE END OF THE LORD”
D. L. Stewart
Job and Jacob are outstanding examples of persons who have been the subjects of discipline which as we know is one of the most important experiences in a believer’s life. I read recently that discipline is perhaps the main reason why we are maintained and preserved in the pathway. We go over the Scriptures and we find that nearly all who come under the notice of the Spirit of God are the subjects of discipline. It is quite a remarkable thing to have a sense of being of such interest to God that He would single us out, select us in a sense, to be the special subjects of His working in
view of reaching a result that is according to Himself. He does not leave us in our pathways; He does not leave us to work through things by ourselves, but takes a definite hand in it. It is a matter of education and of coming under a defined process in view of what we read in James, “Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord”. I just wanted to touch, if I can, on this thought of “the end of the Lord”. I think we should all enquire about it for ourselves as to whether the Lord is reaching His end. It would be a sorrowful matter to go on and on and not reach in some measure the objective that the Lord has in mind for us.
I was looking in the last chapter of Job for what we might speak of as the end of the Lord. We know the passage no doubt fairly well, and I think I had always thought that the end of the Lord was when Job comes to it that he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes. Now I am beginning to think that that was more like the end of Job himself; but what really is the end of the Lord? You go down the chapter and it speaks of Job’s brethren and all his sisters and all who had been of his acquaintance before. They came to him and they ate bread in his house and they condoled with him and comforted him and so on. That is a fine end in itself. I am sure we would all love to see the brethren coming back. These persons had not appeared right through the whole book; they are out of sight; but once Job gets right himself they come back into the enjoyment of fellowship and become contributors, come to appreciate the wonderful way that God had been working with Job.
We are thankful that some are coming back, very thankful. There is scarcely a week passes without somebody coming back. Well, that as I say is a wonderful end in itself. It goes on to speak
of the way that Job was blessed and he had twice as much as he had before. I suppose that would mean the securing of spiritual substance. These oxen and sheep would speak of substance for God’s service, the product of discipline so that in an increased measure we should be able to rise to the most important matter that there is, that is. God’s service, and as having part in it bring forward spiritual wealth. Then it speaks about his three daughters, and they of course are a most interesting result. We love to think that, out of all the pressure and discipline, in the end there are these wonderful subjective features, which the daughters of Job would speak of, “and in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job”. We were speaking about the women the other night. Think of the end that God has in mind that there should be these features that the Spirit of God can point out and draw attention to as beautiful. It cannot be anything else than the result of divine workmanship, and He has taken us on for that very purpose.
What I was wondering about—and I trust I am not over-emphasising what we have had already—was what we get here also in that Job in the end becomes a man of prayer. Jehovah Himself can draw attention to him; He says, “and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept”. I think that in itself is a remarkable result. You get the sense from this that in the midst of the discipline Job was learning God, learning to trust God; it comes out in various ways in the way he speaks. The Lord Himself can draw attention to it; He says of these other persons that they “have not spoken rightly of me like my servant Job”. This is one of the greatest things that divine workmanship could produce with any one of us—a learning of God’s own thoughts, and to be found in nearness in the secret of His purposes of love so that in
intelligence we are able to speak to him acceptably. It is a most marvellous result. I just suggest that we have here the great thought connected with this matter of the end of the Lord.
We need to be encouraged, every one of us, to be found in this path of communion, as it says,
“for him will I accept”.
I would like to touch on Jacob because the end in Jacob’s case would go alongside that of Job. If with Job we have a man of prayer, which is so much needed in these days, with Jacob we have a worshipper. I think that earlier we have the spirit of worship with Jacob. He comes to Bethel and anoints the pillar and pours a drink-offering upon it, and there it speaks about God talking with him, “The place where God had talked with him”, Genesis 35: 15. God came there, there was no distance, and talks with His servant Jacob. Of course he too is quite a remarkable example of the result of discipline. All the natural features coming out in him are features of our own hearts. In many ways the Spirit of God delineates these things for us and then shows us the breaking down of the flesh. God often has to come in, and does come in, with us in a severe way, and yet what is always before Him is this matter of the end of the Lord.
We have quite a lot said in the Scriptures about Jacob’s discipline, but in the latter years of Jacob’s life the discipline was peculiarly connected with the loss of children. I feel referring to this, but it is quite remarkable. He says as to it, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin! All these things are against me”, Genesis 42: 36. God’s hand was bringing in the pressure severely, and bringing out with Jacob the parental feelings of God Himself. The fatherly feelings of God coming out in a man are a most remarkable thing for us to take account of.
He expresses them time after time; “For I will go down to my son into Sheol mourning”, Genesis 37: 35. He refused to be comforted; he held on under the pressure to this divine provision of children. The loss of them tore his heart.
The thing is that with Jacob the loss of children was a temporary matter; it was there in all its severity, but it was actually a temporary matter. We would love to think that the loss of children in our time, and other losses too, are to be temporary, because God’s ways in severity and discipline are always mixed with mercy. There is always the tenderness of the Father’s heart itself that comes out in relation to them. Nevertheless, here we have a man who goes through it with God and comes out in the end as a worshipper. It speaks about him worshipping on the top of his staff. Think of that staff, his means of support, something that he could trust; it was really part of himself, his knowledge of God and his trust in His shepherd care; and that staff was with him through all the discipline. He had leant upon it and now his experience with God adds lustre and quality and wealth in the great matter of his worship. May we be encouraged in these two features connected with the end of the Lord.
Word in meeting for ministry, Christchurch, N.Z.
13 October 1980