Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Dec 1961

The Christian man who thinks he can always sail on calm seas under fair skies, being a friend of everybody, and having enemies in none, is one who has the character of a jelly fish, a creature which has neither fins nor scales and is subject to the currents of the sea. A friend of everybody becomes at length a friend of nobody, a creature of clay to be moulded in the hands of the last person met with. Such were not the men who left their mark for good in the history' of the men of God and of God's people.

Men of God must stand for what is right even if it be necessary to stand alone. Such men were Moses and Elijah in their times the one the prophet of the constitution of Israel, and the other the prophet of the restoration. "Elijah indeed cometh first, and restoreth all things. " (Mark 9. 12) Elijah is no doubt one of the two witnesses of Revelation It 8 13 and probably (as many think) Moses is the other. These two prophets were seen with the Lord on the mount of Transfiguration, speaking with the Lord about His decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9. 28-36)

These two were men who never compromised divine truth they never played game alternately with the righteous and the wicked, and they will be fitting men for that future period of tremendous wickedness in the earth to stand for God in Jerusalem, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just. The world is swiftly going to pieces in the failure of family life. Parents' neglect of their children results in the children's neglect of their parents. On go the corruptions of present days till the times of Noah and of Lot will appear in full fruition in the earth, and then will follow the judgement which these times will bring upon the earth's inhabitants.

Job was another man who stood alone, and in his great sorrow and suffering was sorely bothered by the words of his wife and his three friends, not to speak of the vile accusations of Satan the slanderer, which resulted in God proving to Satan that He had one man on earth who would stand all he could bring upon him without renouncing God.

Our minds travel across the wide field of Old Testament history, from the time of righteous Abel, who stood beside his gory' altar, whereon were being consumed the firstlings of his flock with the fat thereof, a young man justified by faith, only shortly after to be smitten down and killed by his brother, and we see figure after figure of men who stood for God in their day. Often they were alone. On occasions we see some of them broken down through the opposition of men who, they hoped, would stand with them, and at least show their sympathy for that for which they were putting forth their strength for the good and well-being of others. Such a man was Samson.

Samson's story is one which touches our hearts. He was a strange and unique character. He was a Nazirite from birth. Nazirites were nil strange characters with their long hair and ascetic ways. Their life was different from other men's. They had vowed to be separated unto the LORD all the days of their vow. This extra form of separation, in addition to the separation which was required by the LORD on the part of all the people of Israel, had undoubtedly a beneficial effect on that people.

The mighty strength of Samson is proverbial. There was no outward appearance of muscular development beyond that of other men. His strength came from the Holy Spirit which came mightily upon him. His brethren were carnal; he was spiritual. They took sides with the Philistines, with whom three thousand of the men of Judah came to the cleft of the rock of Etam and bound Samson with two new ropes to deliver him to the Philistines. Thus bound, they brought him from the rock to deliver him up to his and their enemies. They would destroy their friend to placate their enemies. Men are indeed strange creatures Samson was alone! But the Spirit of God came mightily upon him. It was a day of victory for Samson, but one of shame for Israel. But, alas! it broke the victor, for he at length went to Delilah and to death, for her house was the way

to Sheol (Proverbs 7.27).

Samson was one of God's men who stood alone. He was alone in Lehi. The three thousand men of Judah had come and bound him with new ropes to deliver him to the Philistines who were pitched in Lehi. What a scene ! the men of Judah joined with the Philistines to put an end to the saviour and judge of God's people. The parallel is close to that of another day when a Man was seen standing at Pilate's bar, most despised of all by far!

For of a truth in this city against Thy holy Servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel foreordained to come to pass" (Acts 4.27, 28).

Here stood the blessed Man, the Antitype of all the men of old who stood for God in their day, of whom Samson was one.

Samson clutched the raw jawbone of a recently dead ass. It was still moist. He beat the Philistines with it in a great slaughter; a thousand corpses lay in piles. But he himself was like to have died from his mighty exertions. He was dying of thirst, like Another who in His great victory said, "I thirst." God clave the hollow place in Lehi and a spring gushed forth and continued running for long years after. Thereat Samson quenched his thirst.

Samson was seeking love; he sought the love of his brethren, which they denied him, and in his utter loneliness he sought a woman, a harlot of Gaza. He, though a mighty Spirit-filled deliverer, was yet a man of like passions with us. He was indeed a mixture of strength and weakness. Such is a man of God, strong in the Lord and in His strength for His people, but utterly weak in himself. Again, Samson loved Delilah, a woman in the valley of Sorek. She was well pleased with his attentions, but she did not love him, and she became his betrayer for money. To gain information as to wherein his great strength lay, the Philistines would give her eleven hundred pieces of silver.

At last she worms her slimy way into his great secret. It was nothing to her, but everything to him! She makes him sleep upon her knees. His seven locks are in her hands, and at last his eyes are gone. Blind and weak he is led away to prison, to the mill, to be chief performer for the amusement of the Philistines, and at last to death. It was a sad end to a brilliant early life. It was a shame to Israel, a blot on their history, of which there are many, when they forsook the man who would have saved them from the Philistines. They had to suffer for it, for many men of Israel perished in after years at the hands of the Philistines, as the history of the 1st and 2nd books of Samuel records. Not till David arose, another Spirit-filled deliverer, who mastered the Philistines and smote them with great slaughter when they molested God's people, was the story of Philistine victories reversed. But David too had to stand alone and had to go forth alone to fight his lone battle against the Philistine, Goliath (1 Samuel 17). He was twitted by his angry eldest brother, Eliab, with the words, "Why art thou come down? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." David's reply was brief, " What have I now done? Is there not a cause?" Saul too misjudged him when he said, "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth." Nevertheless David went out alone (but his God was with him unseen) to fight with the giant. He picked up the five pebbles from the brook, one of which brought the giant crashing to the ground. One man and one stone-that was all! But David's victory cost him many days of wandering, and of danger from the hands of jealous Saul. His hopes rose and fell with the tides. At one time he is heard saying, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living" (Psalm 27.13), and at another, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Samuel 27.1). Such were the changing emotions of the man who was of like

passions with ourselves.

J. Miller | Dec 1961
Jottings