THREE OUTSTANDING MEN
A. Macdonald
Ezekiel 14: 11 (last phrase), 20, 22, 23
These three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, are well known to us, and our beloved brother whom the Lord has been pleased to take to be with Himself was well known by everyone here. But the great question, beloved brethren, is whether we are well known in heaven; it is our relationship with God that will stand by us. Ties are broken here, but there are ties that go through, and that is why I read verse 11, “They shall be my people, and I will be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah”. Our beloved brother often helped us in relation to our relationship with God Himself, and that is of all importance. What we know of God is what we have seen in Jesus, that blessed One who is the Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. Thank God for every one in this room who has a living link with our blessed Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ; that is a link that cannot be broken and will go through. I referred to the end of the chapter because it brings in the thought of comfort, “and ye shall be comforted”. One would desire that we may receive the comfort of divine Persons as we are together. The Holy Spirit is referred to as “another Comforter”; the Lord said of the Father, “He will give you another Comforter” (John 14: 16), and He is with us for ever. Then I think divine Persons have given us, as the people of God, the capacity to comfort one another and we would therefore desire to surround our beloved sister at this time and render comfort to her.
But I just refer to these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job. As we know, the days of Noah were very similar to the days that we are in; evil was waxing worse and worse on every hand and God repented that He had made man.
Nevertheless there was one man who walked with Him and that was Noah. It says among other things that Noah was just and perfect among his generations and he walked with God (Genesis 6: 9). That privilege is open to you and me. Oh that we might have a right judgment, a sober judgment, of this world and its system. Our beloved brother did; he was upright, and we had a sense that he walked with God. Among other things, Noah was a builder, and that is a characteristic, beloved brethren; that we need to take on. We need to take on the characteristics of these three men. Noah was a builder; Daniel was a prophet, and Job became a priest. We need to take on these features, to be on the line of building up. Surely we can build one another up on our most holy faith. May we not be on the line of tearing down but rather may we be on the positive line of building one another up. We need it in this city.
Think of Daniel. There was one time when he was weak, but then the Lord came in to strengthen him, and several times in that chapter divine help came in and he was touched and strengthened (see Daniel 10). Our beloved sister here can count upon that same divine support and strengthening, and her relationship with God is a real matter because God is the God of the widow. He takes special care of widows. We have many widows in this city and, thank God, He is a known God and would come in day by day and moment by moment and support and succour those who are widows indeed. You will recall that in chapter 10 “a certain man clothed in linen” drew near and spoke to Daniel and strengthened him. We would desire this, that we may feel the nearness not only of angels but of divine Persons as we are together, because God would draw near to us. The
Holy Spirit would make Himself felt, and certainly the Lord Jesus would draw near to us and comfort us. But as a hand was laid on Daniel he was called “beloved”, and we can certainly refer thus to our brother; he was a beloved brother, and he was a father to many of us. He was a father and an elder in this city and we shall miss him.
Oh that God may raise up fathers amongst us! It is a father who would have tender consideration for his children, seeing how they would get on in the truth. Our brother did that.
Before I was recovered to the truth he was faithful to me; “Faithful are the wounds of a friend”, Proverbs 27: 6. Thank God for those that are faithful amongst us I will not soon forget our beloved brother being faithful to me. We need that, to be faithful to one another.
What a father he was! There may not be many fathers amongst us but thank God, as one nobleman could say as to the scripture, “Not many high-born” (1 Corinthians 1: 26), ‘Thank God it does not say, Not any’. I believe we can say that we do have fathers amongst us; thank God for them; but we will miss our beloved brother as being a father. So the word came to Daniel that he was to stand in his lot at the end of the days (Daniel 12: 13). Our beloved brother was faithful and I believe that he will stand in his lot at the end of his days; and he was a prophet. We need these lines amongst us, beloved brethren, the building up line and the prophetic line, and we need the line that is priestly.
We may say, how does that fit in with Job? Job prays for his three friends. Think of God drawing our attention to Job, “Hast thou considered my servant Job?” (Job 1: 8). That is what God would say to the brethren; have we considered the pathway of our brother; how consistent it was, how faithful our brother was right to the end, and what a father he was to us? We need to consider this.
So God says, “Hast thou considered my servant Job?” He was upright and he abstained from evil. That is a real matter, to abstain from what is not of God and to be upright. But God greatly blessed his end and he was far greater at the end than at the beginning. As another brother has told us, it is the end that counts. And may every one of us in this room soberly consider what our end may be. Oh that every one’s end may be bright; may it be better than the beginning. Job’s end was better than his beginning; but not only that; he prayed for his friends. What was priestly came out in Job, and God heard his prayer and accepted him.
Thank God for the prayers of our beloved brother who has just been taken to be with Christ. I believe that was an outstanding feature with him. You may recall when matters of difficulty arose what our brother told us. ‘Let us pray about it’, he said. I believe that is the safe thing, to do. Some of us, you know, have a tendency to spread matters, but Scripture says, “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge”, Malachi 2: 7. But I believe it is a lesson we need to learn; certain matters we need to keep local, as beloved Mr. J. Taylor taught us*, and get on our knees before God. Do we know what it is to get into our closets and shut the door and get on our knees and pray? That is what our brother meant. He said, ‘Let us pray about it’. There is no issue or problem that is too difficult for God to answer, and He can answer in a moment; He can bring in the solution. There is no need to spread matters abroad but I believe, as our brother said, there is need for us to get into our closets and get on our knees before God.
These men all knew what it was to have their own relationship with God. We will not find it in
* See ‘Letters of J. Taylor’, Vol. 1, p.6.
the history books but we find it in God’s record, how He through His prophet Ezekiel brings before us in a marked way these three outstanding men who had a distinct relationship with a living God. That is what counts. There was Noah, and there was Daniel, and there was Job.
May those features be kept before us in view of the continuance of the testimony; the need for building up, the need for the prophetic line, and the need for priestly dependence upon God in prayer. O, beloved friends and brethren, may we be sure of our link with God and our link with the Spirit, and our link with the blessed Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ, for His name’s sake.