SIX MEN OF FAITH
J. Renton
I desire help to speak about these men who are mentioned here, to say a brief word about each one. It, is significant that the writer, whom we presume is Paul, should put these names together. They are not given in historical order, but the writer has some, purpose in mentioning them. They were all leaders; leadership is a very needful feature in our time. A leader among believers is not an outstanding personality who is able to carry all before him with natural ability. Leadership is promoted in this world at the expense of others, whether in business or politics or military affairs. In one sense, dear brethren, we are all leaders. We all lead in some direction. We all have a certain influence. We are all persons who others imitate, whether for good or for what is not good. I have to ask myself—and let each one of us ask ourselves—In what direction do I influence? If all other believers followed the way I am on, would that be for good, and for the furtherance of the testimony? Let each one here ask himself and herself—Would the way I am on, if followed by others, promote the interests of our absent Lord until He comes? That is a very challenging matter. We all lead and influence in some direction; may we be concerned that any lead we may give or any influence we may have may be for the promotion of the interests of our absent Lord until He comes.
Young people are leaders. Timothy was. He was told by Paul, “Let no/one despise thy youth”
(1 Timothy 4: 12), so he must have been somewhat young, “but be a model of the believers”—one such as others would follow for their spiritual profit.
Titus was also somewhat young and he was exhorted to afford himself “as a pattern of good works”, Titus 2: 7. Now we all, each one of us, present some kind of pattern. Young people, others will imitate you and what you do. Let each one of us be concerned that the course we are on is such as others can imitate for their spiritual profit and for the promotion of the interests of our Lord. Of course, some are more responsible to lead than others, but we all exert some kind of lead. Let it be for good!
Having said that much about leaders, I want to speak about these men and to say a brief word about each one, and about one feature of each of them. So we shall begin with Gideon. Now the threat in Gideon’s day was from the Midianites. The Midianites are usually coupled with other nations, that is, they associate with others. In Genesis 37 they are found along with the Ishmaelites; in Numbers 25 they are found along with the Moabites; in Judges 6 they are found along with Amalek. The Midianites are persons who associate, and they are not discriminate as to those with whom they associate. As believers we are to be discriminate as to those with whom we associate. Wrong associations, dear brethren, bring about famine conditions. The result of the Midianites’ dominance was lack of food, famine conditions.
How was Gideon acting? Was he in this association? No, He was having his, own links with God, filling out his own exercises. As far as we know he was alone; he was threshing wheat in the winepress; he was following his own exercise. If we want to be preserved from wrong associations and from party activity, or anything of this kind, let us have our own private exercises, our own links with God. That was Gideon.
Now one feature of Gideon was this, he was reluctant to take a step without being assured of the Lord’s approval. Jehovah said to him, “I will certainly be with thee”, Judges 6: 16. Did that give Gideon a free hand to do just what he liked and act as he thought fit? No, it made him all the more dependent. He said, “If now I have found favour in thine eyes, shew me a sign” (Judges 6: 17). He does not want to take one step without being assured that the Lord is with him and is approving. At a further stage he asks for another sign. He wants to be sure.
He says, “Behold, I put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if dew shall be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground ...” (Judges 6: 37), and it was so. Was that enough for him? No, he wanted to be doubly sure, so he asked for another sign—“Let it, I pray thee, be dry upon the fleece only, and upon all the ground let there be dew” (Judges 6: 39). You see how dependent he was, how simple he was, how unlike some of us who take an action and then hope it will turn out all right. We say something, maybe, and hope the results will be good. But not Gideon. He wanted to be assured that in every step he took he would have the Lord’s approval and the Lord with him. Now this feature is needed by believers at the present moment, that we should have our own links with the Lord, be free from any party activity and wrong associations, and be assured of the Lord’s approval in the steps we take.
And then we have Barak. The difficulty in Barak’s day came from Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor (see Judges 4). Another Jabin, king of Hazor, had been overcome by Joshua in the previous book. And here they come again, with Sisera and chariots of iron, in a great offensive against the children of Israel. This kind of thing happens in the history of the testimony; exercises that have been faced previously recur.
There are two matters, dear brethren, which have been a concern to godly brethren right from the beginning of the recovery, one is the ‘open’ principle, the other is worldliness. Mr. Darby had to face the open principle and was concerned about the creeping in of worldliness in his time. These two features come in again and again. Every generation has to face them. How does Barak act? He is a man who takes responsibility, though reluctant to do so. The initiative does not come from Barak; it comes from a woman, a prophetess—it comes, you might say, from the underlying godly concern on the part of the body of the saints. There is an underlying body of concern as to these two features I have spoken about at the present time.
The responsibility was laid on Barak and eventually he took it up.
Taking on responsibility is needed when features like openness and worldliness are evident in our localities. Are they allowed to go on without any banner being raised against them? It is not right, brethren. It needs persons to take responsibility that these matters are faced and are overcome and do not dominate in our localities, because the enemy is continually busy. Each generation since the beginning of the recovery has had to face these features and we have to face them in our time. Let us face them, dear brethren. Let us take responsibility in our localities that these features of openness and worldliness do not overcome us but are faced and brethren helped and strengthened to overcome them.
Now we come to Samson. The threat in his day was the Philistine, that is, the will of man and the mind of man in the things of God. Many things could be said about Samson which would not be too commendable, but one feature I would like to stress is what he came to at the end of his life. You
might say it took him a long time to come to it, but he came to something in the way of dependence on God. He came to a sense of his own helplessness, that power must come from God. Oh how needful this is in dealing with the will of man and the mind of man. The will of man and the mind of man would operate in every one of us if we gave way. The antidote to the will of man and the mind of man is the will of God and the mind of Christ. We need to be committed to these two blessed features and we have the wherewithal in having the Spirit.
Samson was a man of great exploits, but I am not going to speak about his exploits. The Spirit of God came upon him and he certainly did some great things, some wonderful things, but the end of his life corresponds with the day in which we are, that is, he was humbled. He gave away the very secret of his life. He was tempted; he was under the influence of the Philistine woman and she gradually acted so that he lost his power. Poor man! he rose up as he had done before and thought he would act as at other times, but he had lost his power (see Judges 16: 20).
Dear brethren, we are under reproach, as Samson was. Samson was under reproach through his own fault, and much of the reproach that attaches to us publicly at the present time is because of our own fault, our own wrongdoing. It is not all the reproach of Christ—thank God there is some of the reproach of Christ—but some is reproach that we have brought on ourselves just as Samson did so that he was made sport of by the Philistines.
Then it says, “But the hair of his head began to grow”, Judges 16: 22. Unnoticed, his hair began to grow. He could no longer speak about the seven locks of his head as he did earlier, but his hair began to grow. It was a sign of life. What we need, dear brethren, is the evidence of
life. It was a small beginning with Samson, unnoticed by, the Philistines, but his hair began to grow; life was coming in. Then he prayed. Twice Samson prayed in his life, once when he was faint after a great victory in chapter 15 and now in chapter 16. He prayed and said, “Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God”, Judges 16: 28. Oh how earnest he is, how dependent he is! How we need to be like this, dear brethren. If we are not the humblest believers in Christendom, we have not learned anything.
Samson was humbled and he was completely dependent on God. He realized he had no power of his own. He could go previously in power and overcome the Philistines and all concerned, but here he is in humbling circumstances, and that is how we are.
Let us accept the humbling and keep humble. It is difficult to keep humble. Even Paul, after he had been caught up to the third heaven, needed something additional to keep him humble.
There were other things that kept him humble and one was the memory of the wrong he had done to the people of God, but after being in the third heaven he required an additional thorn for the flesh to keep him humble. We so tend to be elated. We may well keep humble because of the reproach we have brought on ourselves. Also, certain matters continue unsettled. I think the Lord is bent on keeping us humble. If we had every matter settled we might be a little more like Laodicea again, but Samson was a humble, dependent man, and in that way he met the Philistine. Let us be devoted to the will of God, and concerned to have the mind of Christ. Actually, the final victory Samson secured was greater than all the earlier exploits in his life. There are features we see in these men that the Lord would help us to be formed in.
And so we come to Jephthah. The opposition in Jephthah’s day came from the children of Ammon. It is interesting that they are not so often called Ammonites, they are usually called the children of Ammon. Even when Ammon and Moab were born it says that Moab was the father of the Moabites, but it says that Ammon was the father of the children of Ammon (Genesis 19: 38). You will find that through nearly all the references to that nation it is “the children of Ammon”. It is a rival family. It is another family. It corresponds to the influence of what is natural, a deadly influence. What is natural, of course, has its place, it is ordained of God just as the territory of the children of Ammon is recognised in Deuteronomy 2: 19, but the dominance of it will do damage. In the chapter in Judges which refers to Jephthah you will find the children of Ammon and also the children of Israel. The children of Israel would represent the family of God; the children of Ammon would represent the natural side, and the children of Ammon were claiming the territory of Israel. Later, in king Saul’s time, the king of the children of Ammon wanted to put out the right eyes of the men of Israel (see 1 Samuel 11: 2). That natural family influence would cause us not to have full vision, not to see things as they really are; it would be a reproach on the children of Israel. Later, in David’s time, when David sent a message of grace to the king of the children of Ammon, as he is called there (see 2 Samuel 10), they despised the spirit of grace and cut off half the beards and certain parts of the clothes of the messengers; they made them objects of ridicule. The influence of what is natural is baneful if it is dominant; it has its place, as I have said, but when it becomes dominant, as it was in Jephthah’s time, it represents a serious threat indeed.
Now the feature seen in Jephthah is this, that he sees the issue, he sees clearly what the issue is, which is a very necessary feature. The children of Ammon were claiming divine territory and Jephthah sets out clearly the facts and the principles bearing on the matter. He sees clearly and presents clearly, indisputably, what the issue is. Oh, this is a very important feature to have with us. Very often issues are confused, but Jephthah was not confused. Other things could be said about Jephthah that were not too commendable, but this feature showed he was a man of faith. He knew the history; he could go over it all; he presented the facts, as I have said, and the principles bearing on it. He was definite, and carried the brethren with him. That was Jephthah. You can see the importance of these features. He was the means of overcoming the children of Ammon.
I am only referring briefly to one feature of each of these men and so we come to David, and, of course, much could be said about David, such a man of parts as he was. He was a warrior.
He was a shepherd. He was a psalmist. He was a musician. He was a king. How many things could be said about David! I want to speak about one feature in regard to David and that is this, that when David went wrong, he knew how to repent. That is a very important feature.
We have Psalm 51 which shows how deeply David repented, a psalm that will no doubt be used by a godly remnant in a coming day to express their feelings. David expressed them in his day. Oh how deeply he repented of the sin he had committed! In fact, the sin that he in his lust delighted in, he went over in the presence of God and said, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is continually before me”, Psalm 51: 3. He went over it all in the presence of God and saw it all in a different light altogether. He saw his sin as God saw it, and that brought about the depth of his repentance. How important it is! We all
go off the track sometimes. Do we know how to judge ourselves, dear brethren? David knew how to judge himself. Do we just gloss over things, and make excuses for ourselves? David did not do that. He went into the matter in depth, the depth of repentance.
Not only does David show us how to repent, but he also was ready to be adjusted. That is another feature that marked David. He was prepared to be adjusted by Jehovah, prepared to be adjusted by Nathan, by Gad the seer, and not only by these men of worth. David was even ready to accept adjustment from a man like Joab, an unspiritual man. The need to accept adjustment is a very important feature in the believer for without it we could often go on in independence. Even difficulties in localities can continue because there is not a readiness to be adjusted, but instead an adamant attitude can be maintained. May we all be ready to be adjusted when this is necessary.
Lastly we have Samuel, who was the result of his mother’s exercises, and who as a boy was clothed in a linen ephod and committed to the Lord’s interests. There is no doubt the Lord helps those who commit themselves when they are young. Samuel became a seer, a prophet, and a judge. He was with God in His feelings regarding the people and he counted it a sin not to pray to God for the people. In some chapters of 1 Samuel he is not mentioned; he is with God in secret all the time and in reserve to be available when needed. He had his locality and his circuit of service and was found among a company of prophets in chapter 19. He represents consistency in relations with God and reliability as a result. May we all desire to be thus faithful to the Lord and reliable in His testimony.
“The prophets” are mentioned at the end of the verse read. Much could be said about them, but I trust sufficient has been said about the six men who are named to stimulate us all to have an active part in the testimony of our Lord in our day.
Address in Glasgow
28 August 1982