A Ribband of Blue Part 2

How is it that believers so often fail to enjoy this promised blessing? Is it not that we fail to be anxious for nothing, and to bring everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving before G.o.d? We may bring nine difficulties out of ten to Him, and try to manage the tenth ourselves, and that one little difficulty, like a small leak that runs the vessel dry, is fatal to the whole; like a small breach in a city wall, it gives entrance to the power of the foe. But if we fulfil the conditions, He is certainly faithful, and instead of our having to keep our hearts and minds--our affections and thoughts--we shall find them kept for us. The peace, which we can neither make nor keep, will itself, as a garrison, keep and protect us, and the cares and worries will strive to enter in vain.

THE TESTING OF JOB

Reverting to the history of Job: the great accuser, having no fault to find with his character or life, insinuates that it is all the result of selfishness. "Doth Job fear G.o.d for nought." Indeed, he did not, as Satan well knew! Nor has anyone, before or since, ever feared G.o.d for nought. There is no service which pays so well as the service of our HEAVENLY MASTER; there is none so royally rewarded. Satan was making a true a.s.sertion, but the insinuation he connected with it, that it was for the sake of this reward that Job served G.o.d, was not true.

To vindicate the character of Job himself in the sight of the angels of G.o.d, as well as of the evil spirits, Satan is permitted to test Job, and take away all those treasures for the sake of which alone Satan imagined, or pretended to imagine, that Job was serving G.o.d.

"All that he hath," said G.o.d, "is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand."

SATAN'S MALIGNITY.

And soon Satan showed the malignity of his character by bringing disaster after disaster upon the devoted man. By his emissaries he incited the Sabeans, and they fell upon the oxen and the a.s.ses feeding beside them, slaying the servants with the edge of the sword, suffering one only to escape--and this, not in any pity or sympathy, but that he might bear the message to his unhappy master, telling of the destruction of his property and servants. The evil one appears, also, to have had power to bring the lightning from heaven--by which the sheep, and the servants caring for them, were destroyed. Here, again, one servant only was left, by his message to increase the distress of the afflicted man of G.o.d.

Working in another direction, the Chaldeans were led to come in three bands and carry off Job's camels, slaying all the servants with the edge of the sword, save the one left to convey the evil tidings. And, as if this were not sufficient, even the very children of Job, his seven sons and three daughters--children of so many prayers--were swept away at one blow, by a terrible hurricane from the wilderness, which smote the four corners of the house so that it fell upon them, leaving only one servant to bear witness of the calamity. One only of all his family--his wife--seems to have been left to Job. But so far from being a spiritual help to him in this hour of sorrow and trial, she lost faith in G.o.d; and when further calamity came upon him, and he was in sore bodily suffering and affliction, his trial was added to by the words of his despairing wife: "Curse G.o.d, and die." We see from this, that even she was left to Job through no mercy on the part of the great enemy, but simply to fill the cup of affliction to the full in the hour of his extremity.

GRACE SUFFICIENT.

But He who sent the trial gave also the needful grace, and in the words which we have already quoted, Job replied: "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD."

Was not Job mistaken? Should he not have said: "The LORD gave, and Satan hath taken away?" No, there was no mistake. The same grace which had enabled him unharmed to receive blessing from the hand of G.o.d, enabled him also to discern the hand of G.o.d in the calamities which had befallen him. Even Satan himself did not presume to ask of G.o.d to be allowed himself to afflict Job. In the 1st chapter and the 11th verse he says: "Put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face;" and in the 2nd chapter and the 5th verse: "Put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face." Satan knew that none but G.o.d could touch Job; and when Satan was permitted to afflict him, Job was quite right in recognising the LORD Himself as the doer of these things which He permitted to be done.

Oftentimes shall we be helped and blessed if we bear this in mind--that Satan is servant, and not master, and that he, and wicked men incited by him are only permitted to do that which G.o.d by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge has before determined shall be done. Come joy, or come sorrow, we may always take it from the hand of G.o.d.

Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss. Our LORD did not stop short at Judas, not did He even stop at the great enemy who filled the heart of Judas to do this thing; but He said: "the cup which My FATHER hath given me, shall I not drink it?" How the tendency to resentment and a wrong feeling would be removed, could we take an injury from the hand of a loving FATHER, instead of looking chiefly at the agent through whom it comes to us! It matters not who is the postman--it is with the writer of the letter that we are concerned: it matters not who is the messenger--it is with G.o.d that His children have to do.

We conclude, therefore, that Job was not mistaken, and that we shall not be mistaken if we follow his example, in accepting all G.o.d'S providential dealings, as from Himself. We may be sure that they will issue in ultimate blessing; because G.o.d is G.o.d, and, therefore, "all things work together for good" to them that love Him.

DEEPER TRIALS.

Job's trial, however, was not completed, as we have seen, when his property was removed. When the LORD challenged Satan a second time: "Hast thou considered my servant Job ... ?" Satan has no word of commendation, but a further insinuation: "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life ... touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face." Receiving further permission to afflict him bodily, but with the charge withal to save his life, Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.

The pain of his disease, the loathsomeness of his appearance, must have been very great; when his friends came to see him they knew him not. His skin was broken and had become loathsome; his flesh was clothed with worms and clods of dust. Days of vanity and wearisome nights followed in sad succession; his rest at night was scared by dreams and terrified through visions; so that, without ease or respite, strangling would have been a relief to him, and death chosen rather than life. But of death there was no danger, for Satan had been charged not to touch his life.

His kinsfolk failed him, and his familiar friends seem to have forgotten him. Those who dwelt in his house counted him as a stranger, and his servant gave no answer to his call when he entreated help from him. Nay, worse than all, his own wife turned from him, and in his grief he exclaimed: "My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body."

No wonder that those who looked on thought that G.o.d Himself had become his enemy.

Yet it was not so. With a tender Father's love G.o.d was watching all the time; and when the testing had lasted long enough to vindicate the power of G.o.d'S grace, and to prepare Job himself for fuller blessing, then the afflictions were taken away; and in place of the temporary trial, songs of deliverance were vouchsafed to him.

THE LOVING-KINDNESS OF THE LORD.

Nor was the blessing G.o.d gave to His servant a small one. During this time of affliction, which, perhaps, was not very prolonged, Job learned lessons, which all his life of prosperity had been unable to teach him. The mistakes he made in the hastiness of his spirit were corrected; his knowledge of G.o.d was deepened and increased; he had learned to know Him better than he could have done in any other way.

He exclaimed that he had heard of Him previously, by the hearing of the ear, and knew G.o.d by hearsay only; but that now his eye saw Him, and that his acquaintance with G.o.d had become that which was the result of personal knowledge, and not of mere report. All his self-righteousness was gone: he abhorred himself in dust and ashes.

Then, when he prayed for his friends, the LORD removed the sorrow, restored to him the love and friends.h.i.+p of those who previously were for the time alienated, and blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. His sheep, his camels, his oxen, and his a.s.ses, were doubled. Again seven sons and three daughters were granted to him, and thus the number of his children also was doubled; for those who were dead were not lost, they had only gone before. And after all this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his children, and grandchildren, to the fourth generation; and finally died, being old and full of days.

May we not well say that if Job's prosperity was blessed prosperity, his adversity, likewise, was blessed adversity? "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning;" and the night of weeping will bear a fruit more rich and permanent than any day of rejoicing could produce. "The evening and the morning were the first day."

Light out of darkness is G.o.d'S order, and if sometimes our Heavenly FATHER can trust us with a trial, it is a sure presage that, if by grace the trial is accepted, He will ere long trust us with a blessing.

In this day, when material causes are so much dwelt upon that there is danger of forgetting the unseen agencies, let us not lose sight of the existence and reality of our unseen spiritual foes. Many a child of G.o.d knows what it is to have sore conflict with flesh and blood; and yet, as says the Apostle, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against ... wicked spirits in heavenly places" (margin).

It would be comparatively easy to deal with our visible foes, if the invisible foes were not behind them. With foes so mighty and, apart from G.o.d'S protecting care, so utterly irresistible, we should be helpless indeed if unprotected and unarmed.

We need to put on the whole armor of G.o.d, and to be not ignorant of Satan's devices. Let us not, on the other hand, lose sight of the precious truth that G.o.d alone is Almighty; that G.o.d is our Helper, our Protector, and our s.h.i.+eld, as well as our exceeding great Reward.

"If G.o.d be for us, who can be against us?" Let us always be on His side, seeking to carry out His purposes; then the power of G.o.d will always be with us, and we shall be made more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

Coming to the King.

"And King Solomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty."--1 Kings x. 13.

The beautiful history recorded in the chapter from which the above words are quoted is deeply instructive to those who have learned to recognise CHRIST in the Scriptures. The reference to this narrative by our LORD Himself was surely designed to draw our attention to it, and gives it an added interest. The blessings, too, received by the Queen of Sheba were of no ordinary kind. She was not only pleased with her reception, and with what she saw, but all her difficulties were removed, all her pet.i.tions were granted, all her desire was fulfilled. She was satisfied--so satisfied that, with glad and thankful heart, she turned and went away to her own country to fulfil the duties which, in the providence of G.o.d, devolved upon her.

If we may learn from this narrative how to approach the Ant.i.type of King Solomon, and to receive from Him blessings as much greater than those received by the Queen of Sheba as CHRIST is greater than Solomon, we shall not meditate without profit on this portion of Scripture.

In many respects we resemble the Queen of Sheba. Though of royal birth, she was doubtless, like the bride in the Song of Solomon, black, because the sun had looked upon her. The post which she was called to occupy was no easy one; in her own life, and in her duty towards others, she found many hard questions to which she saw no solution. She heard of one reigning in the power of the LORD, whose wisdom exceeded that of the wisest of men, and who, if any one could, might afford her the help that she needed. She felt sure that the reports that she heard of his wisdom and of his acts were exaggerated; yet, even allowing for this, she was prepared to take a long and difficult journey that she might see his face and prove for herself how far her difficulties could be solved by him. And she came not empty-handed; she came not only to receive, but also to give, "with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones," not because she thought Solomon poor and needy, but because she knew of his magnificence she sought to bring gifts worthy of his royal dignity, and so coming she was not disappointed.

Her long journey accomplished, she reached Jerusalem, and was granted the audience with the great king which her soul craved. She not only unburdened her camels, she unburdened her own heart, and found that her difficult questions were no difficulty to him. "Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not." And so gracious was he that, without restraint, "she communed with him of all that was in her heart." Surely this utter opening of the heart implies a great deal. To none but the true Solomon can we give such confidence, but to Him we may lay bare the innermost recesses of our souls, and bring the questions, difficult, perplexing, or sad, which we could breathe into no human ear.

We know what came of the questionings, in the case of the Queen of Sheba, as to whether Solomon really could be all that some enthusiasts had reported. When she had seen his wisdom, and the house that he had built, his state and his magnificence, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her; and she said to the king, "It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

Blessed be the LORD thy G.o.d, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made He thee king, to do judgment and justice."

Was there not the true spirit of prophecy in these words? Solomon has pa.s.sed away, and all his magnificence; the pleasant land is to this day desolate under the power of the Turk; but the LORD has loved Israel for ever, and soon a King shall reign in Mount Zion "before His ancients gloriously." But meanwhile this KING, all unseen to human sense, is reigning, and to those who come to Him in no sordid spirit, but gladly consecrating the wealth of their heart's affection and the most worthy gifts they possess--to those who feel enriched by His acceptance of their gifts, and find pleasure in bestowing on Him for His service the best they can offer--to such there is still given the opening of heart and opening of eye to behold the KING in His beauty, and to find all needed present solution of every hard question.

Do we not often give to a poor CHRIST rather than to a rich one? Are we not sometimes unwilling to give until we know His work to be in straits, and sometimes its very existence imperilled? Are not our hearts oft times more moved by the recital of human needs than by CHRIST'S claim for the prosecution of the one work for which He has left His Church on earth? A famine in India, a flood in China, is more potent to bring temporal relief than the continual famine of the bread of life and of the increasing floods of heathen unG.o.dliness. It is well, it is CHRIST-like, to minister temporal relief to suffering humanity, but shall the deep longings and thirstings of His soul, and the impressiveness of His last command ere He ascended on high, be less urgent? How many of the parents who refuse to let son or daughter go into the mission-field would refuse the Queen of England were she to confer the honour of a mission on their beloved children?

Do we recognize the majesty of the King of Glory, and the immortal honor that appertains to His service? To those who do, the glad exclamations of the Queen of Sheba afford well-suited expressions: Happy are Thy subjects, happy are Thy servants which stand continually before Thee and hear Thy wisdom.

To the Queen of Sheba, however, more was given than to those happy subjects or to those servants who served the king in their own land.

To her was given, as an eye-witness of the majesty of the king, as a glad partic.i.p.ant of his bounty, to return to the far-off land, and to testify to those to whom, if they had heard at all, the half had not been told. Not as she came did she return, with a longing, yearning, unsatisfied heart, with duties to discharge for which she had not the wisdom;--with a royal dignity indeed, but one which brought not rest to her own spirit. Now she had seen the king, now all her desire was met; and the glorious king, after thus marvelously satisfying her, had further overwhelmed her with unthought-of gifts of his own royal bounty!

Do we know much of this, beloved friends? Has CHRIST become to us such a living bright reality that no post of duty shall be irksome, that as His witnesses we can return to the quiet home side, or to the distant service among the heathen, with hearts more than glad, more than satisfied; and most glad, most satisfied, when most sad and most stripped, it may be, of earthly friends and treasures? Let us put all our treasures into His hand; then He will never need to take them from us on account of heart idolatry; and if in wisdom and love He remove them for a time, He will leave no vacuum, but Himself will fill the void, Himself wipe away the tear.

There is yet more for us than it was possible to give to the Queen of Sheba. King Solomon had to send her away, he could not go with her; while, though we have to leave the conference or convention, or the early hour of holy closet communion with our LORD, for the ordinary duties of daily life, our Solomon goes with us, nay, dwells in us, to meet each fresh need and to solve each fresh perplexity as it arises.

We have His word, "I will never leave thee, never fail thee, never forsake thee." Satisfied and filled to begin with, we have the SATISFIER, the FILLER, with us and in us. When He says, "Whom shall We send and who will go for Us?" He means to send us on no lonely errand, but on one which will give to Him a better opportunity of revealing Himself, and to us of "finding out the greatness of His loving heart." Who will not answer Him, "Here am I, send me;" or, "Here are mine, send them"?

A Full Reward.

"It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done ... and how thou hast left they father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD G.o.d of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust" (Ruth ii. 11, 12).

In this interesting narrative we have another instance of the way in which the HOLY GHOST teaches by typical lives. We have dwelt on some precious lessons taught us of our KING by the account of the coming of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. There we were specially taught how our hard questions are to be solved, and our hearts to be fully satisfied. Here a still higher lesson is give us: How to serve so as to obtain "a full reward," while as to the nature of that full reward no little light is given us.

To us these lessons are of special interest, as bearing on missions to foreign nations, and perhaps they somewhat explain why He who delights to bless, and is able to bless the obedient soul, said so emphatically, "Go, teach all nations;" "Go ye into all the world."

The service of G.o.d is a delightful privilege anywhere. Those who stay at home, however, need to become strangers and pilgrims there. This is not always easy to do in the present day; and many fail, and forget their true position. To those who are permitted to labour in foreign lands, there is a lessened danger in this respect; and hence many obtain a fuller joy in present service, and look forward to a fuller reward by-and-by, than they antic.i.p.ated ere they left all for JESUS' sake.