Helpers

by J. Miller | Category: Voices From The Past - Extracted From Jottings | Jun 1982

It is refreshing to read of the men who came to David; some came at an early time to the cave of Adullam and "he became captain over them" (1 Samuel 22:1, 2); others came to him later to Ziklag and were "his helpers in war" (1 Chronicles 12:1). Later on we have those who came to him to Hebron "to turn the kingdom of Saul to him" (1 Chronicles 12:23).

David had for long known the ebb tide, when he was alienated from the people of Israel, whose true king he was, but slowly and surely the tide turned and began to flow in his favour. Among those who came to Hebron were men of the children of Issachar; "men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do".

This is a vital matter in all service - to have understanding of the times. To serve without a knowledge of the times may be little better than beating the air. We think of the great mass of God's children who evidently, have no understanding of the times, that it is the time for God's house to be built, and who are satisfied with being evangelical; but to build a house for God according to the pattern, such a thing has never come home to many. There were also in the beginning of the present Fellowship men who saw the house of God in their vision, but when they saw the foundation laid and knew that no large and imposing edifice could be built on so small a foundation, they were so disappointed that they gave up the thought of building God's house. In the book of Ezra we are told of many of "the old men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice" (Ezra 3:12). God asked such through Haggai, "Is it not in your eyes as nothing?" (Haggai 2:3).

There is no doubt that we are, like those in the beginning, a small despised few, but if what we have outlined briefly agrees with the true import of the times in which we live, though it is small it is not trivial, and though it is as nothing to many it is all-important to us who see its association with the Lord and God His Father. Is it not better to be in the remnant, and to share in the struggles and disappointments that are connected with remnant testimony, than to be with the many of God's children who have never left Babylon?

J. Miller | Jun 1982
Voices From The Past - Extracted From Jottings