WISDOM
W.Dickson
These verses were on my mind, and I trust we will get some help as to wisdom. I am glad to see our younger brethren at the meetings - particularly this meeting - so consistently because the ministry meeting is a very important and valuable occasion. A great deal enters into the meeting for ministry; edification and education and some impression of the variety of the food supply in God's house. It is quite remarkable the number of young men in Scripture whom the Spirit of God takes account of as wise. Joseph was a wise young man, Solomon was a wise young man, Daniel too, he was a wise young man, and Timothy. What marked these young men in God's testimony was their wisdom and it is a quality which receives approbation from God, so I would seek to say a little to encourage our younger brethren.
It says "there are four things little upon the earth and they are exceeding wise". It does not just say that they are wise, it says that they are exceeding wise, and what is called attention to is their littleness and their obscurity. Beloved brethren, and particularly younger brethren, I would like you to get some impression of the moral value of the present position of the testimony. Small as it may be, in reproach publicly, there is a moral value attached to God's testimony as cherished by a few simple believers, a moral value that is appreciated in heaven. Our brother has referred to the seats of learning of this world, and you could put all of them together and their accumulated tabulated knowledge, but they are not of moral value; yet the smallest company of God's people set in relation to His testimony in a place or a city has great moral value in God's eyes. It says they are "little upon the earth and they are exceeding wise: the ants, a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer''. I trust dear brethren, that you are exercised to provide your food supply in the summertime when your natural powers are at their zenith. Some in this room are in the wintertime of their lives, some are in the autumn time, and some very young ones we could say are in the springtime, but you young people are in the summer-time of your lives. What are you using your mind for? What are you using your faculties for? Is it to provide a food supply in the summer-time that is going to furnish and help you in the things of God? Think of the glory of summer-time in the revival, and of what is shining upon us now in all the richness of the ministry that the Lord Jesus has granted us to provide our food in the summer-time. We do not know how things will shape publicly, the way things are going. We can come to these meetings freely, but who can tell what restrictions may be placed upon the gatherings of the saints; have you gathered your food in the summertime? It says "a people not strong", yet they are diligent. It is a mark of wisdom to gather our food in the summer-time when things are propitious, rich and full under God's goodness, and we want to take advantage of it. It says "the rock-badgers are but a feeble folk, yet they make their house in the cliff". Why do they make their house in the cliff, these rock-badgers? They are feeble - they keep themselves out of the range of wrong influences, that is what they do. I think there is a word for us, it is a mark of wisdom that young people do not put themselves within the range of what can damage them. It says "they make their house in the cliff", they keep themselves away from the power that would attack them. I think, beloved, it is an allusion to what we have been taught as to the assembly, that it is a sphere of salvation, the cliff speaks of that. The rock-badgers are feeble, they have a sense that they have no power, no strength of their own and yet in their wisdom, they make their house in the cliff. They recognise the great value of the assembly as a sphere of salvation, and, are thus preserved from the power of the world. Wise young persons would not deliberately place themselves within reach of the enemy.
"The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands" - no king - they have not a Pope , they have not a Moderator, they have not 'one-man' - but they go forth by bands! In other words, it is a mark of wisdom to appreciate the value of the Christian fellowship, that is what the locusts did, they went forth in bands. The world speaks of "loners" - the assembly is no place for loners. Young people, I would encourage you to keep the company of the saints, it is a mark of wisdom. It was one of the things that marked Joseph and Solomon and Daniel and Timothy that they cherished the great principle of being together with God's people. It says the locusts have no king, in other words they have no leader. Of course, Christ is our Leader, we know that, but they recognise the gain that lies in the fellowship and going forth in bands.
Then it says "thou takest hold of the lizard with the hands, yet is she in kings' palaces". That is very precious; you could crush a lizard, you could take it in your hand and crush it, it is so feeble and so defenceless, and yet it is in kings' palaces. You think of what you enter into on a Lord's day morning. We had a Scripture read to us in 1 Kings on Lord's day morning about the adornment of the temple of God, and the impression I had was of the magnificence of the divine structure and the privilege of having part in it. The lizards, outwardly defenceless, under public reproach, could be easily crushed and yet they are in kings' palaces. It is a suggestion of how a sense of the dignity of your position should affect you young brethren. l it is a mark of wisdom not to be occupied just with the smallness and the weakness of the position but to think of the privilege that you have that you go into the king's palace. These are great things to know when the world places so much premium on what has no moral value, to see what God calls exceeding wise, the great moral features connected with His testimony at the present time. I would encourage the young brethren to be amongst the exceeding wise persons who know the value of the fellowship and what is available for everyone of us in these days, for His Name's sake.
EDINBURGH
13 March 1973