A Word to Believers.
[1884 3] There are two things which should mark every saint of God; namely, experience flowing from having to do with God, and intelligence as to His mind, so far as He is pleased to reveal it. State of soul is especially connected with godly experience, without which there cannot be divine intelligence, so as to judge, walk, and worship aright, or profitably communicate God's mind to others.
Daniel, in the second chapter of his Book, is the blessed expression of what marked a saint of God, and that at a time of weakness and failure, when circumstances were by no means favorable. But under God they proved to be an occasion for the saint to enjoy communion with God, as well as to become the vessel to make known His mind as to the rise, course, and end of the world under given responsibility, together with what is beyond it in blessing on God's part.
After knowing God in grace, the most blessed thing, surely, must be to be allowed to have to do with Him about everything, both in the confidence of what He is, and in the exercise of that faith which trusts in Him at all times. The object doubtless God had, as to His creature Man, was, that he should implicitly trust and confide in the One who created and blessed him; hence his true and perfect happiness was in it.
Satan, the enemy of God and man, sought, and alas! succeeded in shaking man's confidence in God, giving him the thought that he should be independent, and would do better without than with God. Alas, the snare and success, with its fearful consequence! If man has failed to give God His worthy place of confidence and trust, grace has worked and does work, in order to recover and bring man as a believer back, to own and have to do with God. Saints more or less, throughout the Old Testament, shine in thus owning and honoring Him. Daniel as a saint was no stranger to God; his experience was not only that of one believing in God, but there were marks of the after-life of faith together with the refusal and separation from what was a denial of it. When God gives faith, He gives the exercises which are proper to it, bringing about the very circumstances, as both a test and a display of sufficiency to the soul possessing it.
Daniel manifested the state of soul he was in, at the moment of hearing the difficulty which he was not THEN prepared to solve; but he knew God was acquainted with all that man was a stranger to, and troubled about, and his faith at once confided in Him. What holy and peaceful dignity, at a moment of universal trouble, with no human way out of it, to be able to look away from every thing and person to the living God, with the assurance that He will interpose to display Himself, and honour those who put their trust in Him. If faith is confident, it is never presumptuous; hence Daniel who owns and believes God, betakes himself to that which is exactly opposite to the spirit of independence, set up by the will of man at the first. Prayer is the happy expression of dependence, and is the healthy mark of a soul right with God, as well as walking with Him, and counting on Him. Daniel in his experience was no stranger to prayer, together with its positive value in the hour of need; so he invited others of like experience, and sought from God the needed mercy. How unspeakably blessed to be able to go to God and count upon Him; truly may it be written, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." Special circumstances of trial and pressure in which man had been totally helpless proved a ready occasion for faith to exercise its confidence in, and dependence upon, the living and known God; therefore special mercies were sought from the God of heaven, and in due time the suited and ready answer came.
The life of dependence has its special moments, as in this case, when, in the knowledge of having the ear and interest of the living God, the saint is assured, as the apostle John states, of having the petition desired of Him. Daniel in the habit of his soul was evidently no stranger to ever looking to God, answering in a way to the exhortation to the believer in a later day, "Pray without ceasing." Truly there never can be a moment when the saint is not dependent upon God; neither can there be a circumstance in which the sufficiency of God will not show itself. What a refuge is the living God in the hour of trouble! How blessed when there is a state of soul, with the exercise of faith to appropriate it, as well as the resources in the only One equal to every circumstance, and who loves to communicate His mind so as to exalt Himself, and honour the faith confiding in Him.
Daniel proved that prayerful dependent waiting upon God was the attitude suited to receive divine communications; for it was then the thing troubling the world, with its responsibility and course, which was given to the one who was not only outside the spirit and current of it, but had refused its associations and advantages, verifying that God knows those who honour Him. The receiving direct answers from God, as the fruit of seeking and waiting upon Him, leads to an experience of soul which can only find its level in turning to God in worship and thanksgiving. Daniel as a receiver and worshipper seemed in spirit and character with Eliezer in early times (Gen. xxiv), who gave an outlet to his prosperous way in worship and thanksgiving, or as the Elders around the throne in heaven (Rev. iv), who, having received crowns of gold, cast them before the throne in holy and happy worship.
When every thing received from God returns to Him the glory and praise of it by those so favored, such are counted worthy to be entrusted with making God known to others with the blessing and teaching. Daniel, when going into the presence of the king to communicate the mind of God, carried the savour and power of what he had expressed in his worship, both as to God Himself in His majesty and greatness, and what He alone can do, confessing too, that however favored the vessel, it was naught save as God was pleased to use it.
Truly such a state of soul, with such experience of unshaken confidence in God, prayer of faith, and the answers, leading to holy and happy worship, may well be sought for in these times of assumption and self-sufficiency, with, (it is to be feared,) no little lack in having individually to do with God. The true dignity of the saint of God shines when permitted to go before the world, in its hour of distress going direct from God, as the bearer of His mind, whether in the form of a fresh revelation, a revealer and interpreter of dreams, or to make known what has already been revealed in the scriptures.
What a moment for Daniel to go forth with the received intelligence, both as to the king's dream, and the interpretation of it!
If Nebuchadnezzar was to be set in privilege and responsibility as to direct rule under the God of heaven, it was the saint of God, though a captive under this new power of the world, who was favored to tell its head his God-given position. The wonderful image, as seen in its fourfold composition, with its complete and successive power, illustrated from the head to the feet, to continue until the world-kingdoms should give place to the kingdom of God's own Christ.
Daniel was thus in a moment let into the secret as to entrusted power and rule under the God of heaven, together with the smiting of the image: — an act, declaring the holy and righteous judgment on the part of the little stone "cut out without hands," the revealed means by which the present form of government should close, and the world afterwards be filled with fruit. What experiences as a result of having to do with God! What wisdom, and understanding, to know the thoughts of God, and to communicate them, as to the rise, course, and end of the Gentile powers, designated in the New Testament as the "times of the Gentiles!" This fresh form of power would come to an end by divine judgment, though at the same time become the occasion for God's hidden resource in the Person of Christ, typified by the "little stone" to be introduced. He, alone can, and at the appointed hour will, establish and rule the earth in righteousness, peace, and blessing, to the glory of God, and the happiness of man. In the closing Book of the scriptures (Revelation) it is recorded in the first chap. that the last of the apostles was banished to the Isle of Patmos for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. When there, it was that the apostle John is said to have been in the Spirit, a state suited to receive divine communications which concerned the rights and glories of Christ, the Lamb of God. He is the One about whom God and man were at issue, man having rejected and crucified Him. But God has raised Him from the dead and exalted Him, investing Him with all power and glory for the appointed rule of the earth, and making known clearly the previous judgments to be executed upon the professing church, and the world. John was therefore let into the mind of God as to present and future things; moreover he was enjoined to show to others things shortly to come to pass.
If John stood in a special and somewhat similar position to Daniel, all believers are of course not be so placed as to experience or communications. Nevertheless, it is the given privilege of every saint of God, having now the complete and perfect revelation of God, and the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God (the One to make known what is written), to exercise the same unshaken confidence in God, with habitual dependence on Him. May we be in that spiritual state so as to know and communicate what is clearly written, as to man and the world, his sphere, with the relationship and place of each to the exalted Lamb of God. The same cross of Christ by which all who believe are delivered from sin, death, the world, and Satan's power, has plainly determined the moral end of man and of the world.
1 Cor. 1 states unmistakeably that the flesh of man even in its best form (wisdom) is at an end, and refused by God. John 12 declares the world to be judged morally at the cross, for it is written, "Now is the judgment of this world." Moreover the apostle Paul in Acts 17, when insisting that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent, declares that God in having raised Jesus from the dead, is the witness to His judging the present habitable world in righteousness, the day for its execution being appointed. Jesus, the rejected, but exalted, and hidden Saviour, is the very One who is to execute it. If the fixed judgment lingers as to its being carried out, it is because of what the apostle Peter states that the Lord is longsuffering, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The Spirit of God speaking by the apostle Paul to the Thessalonians as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, having cleared their minds as to what would take place when the Lord came for His saints, goes on to speak, in the First Epistle, of the day of the Lord, declaring the sudden and solemn judgment of the world in connection with it, and drawing a distinct contrast between the children of darkness and night, and the children of light and day.
In speaking of the latter, it is said that they have the mind of God as to the present course of the world with its end. "For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night," though at this very time the children of darkness will be saying "peace and safety." However golden and peaceful things may appear, and thereby deceive, the children of light are favored to know that there is no escape for the world. Hence as Daniel made known the rise and course of the world's power, so the believer can declare its end. The One who executes judgment upon the world, is the same One who died for the believer, removing all wrath and judgment, being risen for ever out of it, and lives, in view of all believers living together with Him, in that bright and eternal scene of glory.
If Daniel knew the blessedness of what it was to find his spring of joy, strength, and peace in God, the present children of light knowing the course and end of the boastful world of today, in relation to God, are enjoined to wear the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation; a salvation incomplete in its purpose toward the believer until found with, and like He be the Saviour in glory.
To interpret the day of the Lord in its two-fold consequences is to bear testimony to the coming joy and blessedness of the children of day, but to sorrow and judgment for the unbelieving children of night. What privileges and responsibilities belong to those who are in the secret of the mind of God as to coming glory and judgment! How important for the believer to be living in the hope and power of the one, and in separation from, and testimony to, a world increasingly sleeping amid its pleasures and delusions! Nebuchadnezzar in all his greatness and glory, with every worldly advantage, was in the hour of trouble helpless, and resourceless. So alas! is the world today, as well as willingly ignorant of God's resource in Christ Jesus for salvation, life, and peace with the bright prospect of eternal glory.
May the Spirit of God produce and maintain in each believer an experience and intelligence consistent with the present moment by a scriptural testimony to the world as to the day of the Lord, which like the Red Sea of old will be both salvation and judgment. God hath not appointed the believer to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
How wondrous the grace and mind of God to all who believe! G. G.