Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Apr 1963

The preparations of the heart belong to man:

But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16.1).

The word "preparations" means the "counsels" of the heart. This seems to me to indicate, in one sense of the proverb, that man must prepare his heart to receive the answer of the tongue from the LORD. In another sense the verse may be viewed, that it is not our counsels that shall stand, but the word of the LORD that shall abide.

The proverb may be similar in meaning to the parable of the sower, which the Lord spoke as He sat by the seaside, as given in Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23. He drew His hearers' attention to the sower, " Behold, the sower went forth to sow." The seed was all of the same quality, but it had four different results ; the difference being caused by the condition of the hearts into which it fell. In the picture some of the seed fell by the wayside. Here the ground was trodden hard and baked in the sunshine. The seed lay on the surface and became an easy prey to the birds of the air which speedily devoured it. This, the Lord explained, shows the work of the evil one who comes and snatches the word away from the heart that has no understanding, a heart in which there has been no preparation for its reception. How often this happens! The callous, unconcerned hearer hears the pleading and the warning of the preacher, but it is as though he heard not. Soon the memory of what was spoken is gone as water spilt upon dry and thirsty ground.

In the second case, that of the rocky-ground hearer, there is some small amount of earth in the crevices of the rocks, but it has no depth. Here the seed germinates and springs up quickly, but, alas, the preparation of the heart has been very superficial. Soon the early joy of receiving the word disappears before tribulation and persecution, and he stumbles and bears no fruit. Have we not seen many rocky ground hearers in our time? Alas, it has been so!

Then, thirdly, there was the seed that was sown among thorns. Here we have the worldly-minded believer, the one of whom it has been said, though "going heavenward, casts hack a covetous eye on earth." Such do well to hear the Lord's word, "Remember Lot's wife", an exhortation which applies primarily to those of the time of the great tribulation, who, in their flight from the persecutions of antichrist are to leave their goods and flee for their lives (Luke 17.81-33). The principle of having a loose grip on material things applies now and throughout all time, for " whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it."

Thus the seed which was sown among thorns shows a heart which is already well filled with " the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches," which choke the word and this kind of believer becomes unfruitful. A heart such as this has little time for the word or work of God.

Then, lastly, there is the good-ground hearer. In his case there has been preparation of heart. The ground for the seed had been ploughed or dug; it was in a state of cultivation, and there was every hope of a good yield in the time of harvest. The Lord speaks of such ground bearing fruit a hundred, sixty and thirty-fold.

In Luke 8.15 the Lord compares the good ground to "such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience." This statement "an honest and good heart" in no way contradicts the accusation laid against all mankind, that "there is none righteous," and "none that doeth good" (Romans 3.10, 12). There are those who are honest with the testimony of the word of God as to their state by nature and practice, honest in themselves as to what they experimentally know as to their condition in sin, and who welcome the word of salvation when it reaches them; they receive it and hold it fast and in all the trials and storms of life continue with patience growing and yielding fruit, even bearing fruit in old age. How necessary is the preparation of the heart to hear the answer of the tongue from the LORD!

As truly as preparation of heart is necessary for the reception of the word of God, so true is it that hearts are prepared for the temptations of the world, the devil and the flesh, the three sources whence temptations come. These three sources of temptation are often interlocked, as, for instance, in 1 John 2.15-17,

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, hut is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof : but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

There is nothing in the world to sustain the spiritual life of the child of God any more than there was in the wilderness to sustain the children of Israel in their journey from Egypt to Canaan. Their food (called "spiritual meat" in 1 Corinthians 10. 3) was the Manna which came from heaven. Their "spiritual drink" was the water from the "spiritual Rock that followed them:

and the Rock was Christ" (verse 4). How slow we are to learn that for our spiritual food and drink we have all in the Scriptures! These inspired writings furnish completely the pilgrim on his journey home and heavenward.

The Lord is our great Example in temptation. In the three last temptations the devil plied his arts, in which he had been all too successful with men in general. Some who do not believe in a personal devil say that it was sin in the Lord that said, "If Thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (Matthew 4.8). Whereas the Scriptures say that He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and that the tempter came to Him and said what we have quoted in the verse above.

This temptation plainly came from without, not from any lust of the flesh within the Lord, for lust, which is a form of sin, did not exist in the Lord. He hungered after a forty days' fast, but His mind was as serene and untainted at the end as at the beginning. Israel failed when they hungered in the wilderness where God first gave them the Manna. The Lord was victorious. Psalm 106. 18, 14, says,

"They soon forgat His works;

They waited not for His counsel:

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,

And tempted God in the desert."

The words the Lord used in reply to the devil were those of Moses in connexion with the giving of the Manna, when God suffered Israel to hunger to make them know "that man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing (or word) that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8.8). The words fell with crushing effect upon the tempter. The all-important thing with the Lord was the word which proceeded out of the mouth of God. He had not been told by God to turn stones into loaves of bread.

In contrast to the example given us by the Lord Jesus, who in each of the three recorded temptations triumphed over the devil by His complete reliance on and use of what was written, Judas Iscariot completely collapsed. He carried the bag with the Lord's money, and for some time, longer or shorter, he had been stealing money from the bag. He raised his voice against what he regarded as waste when Mary anointed the Lord, his excuse being that it could have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor. John says that he cared nothing for the poor, and that he was a thief (John 12. 1-8). Immediately following this incident, as recorded in Matthew 26.6-16, when the Lord said that Mary was to be allowed to keep it against the day of his burial, Judas decided to get money by selling the Lord. We see how a heart long given to covetousness was suitable soil for the devil in which to sow his seed. To this, the greatest of all temptations, Judas fell when he sold his Master.

J. Miller | Apr 1963
Jottings