Jottings

by Miller, J. | Category: Jottings | Mar 1955

Moses begins the words of his song in Deuteronomy 32. with a very beautiful similitude: "Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak;

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth:

My doctrine shall drop as the rain,

My speech shall distil as the dew;

As the small rain upon the tender grass,

And as the showers upon the herb :"

How delightful it is to think of the word of God like this! There is nothing harsh or offensive; the word is as kindly as the dew that distils upon the tenderest plant or on the petals of the most delicate flower. There is no bruising or crushing as it lays hold of the tender plant and bestows its delightful refreshment. So the word of God comes to the souls of God's saints in all its graciousness and kindliness, giving comfort and consolation, supplying at the same time the food for thought for the upbuilding of strong, virile Christian character. Though the word comes with all the softness of the kindly dew of heaven, there is nothing weak about it, for the word of God has produced men as bold as lions, yet they have been at the same time as gracious and kindly as any excellent specimens of womankind. Paul says, "He that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification, and comfort, and consolation" (1 Corinthians 14. 3).

The Lord said at the close of His ministry, in John 17.8, "The words which Thou gavest Me I have given unto them, and they received them." "Words" here is the Greek word Rhemata, plural of Rhema, a saying, what is spoken, an utterance. The Lord spoke to His disciples the words of God little by little as they were able to hear what He said. Sometimes they did not understand the meaning of His words and acts, as He said, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13.7) A.V. Again it is said, "These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him" (John 12.16). Often the disciples asked Him to explain to them what He taught. But the Holy Spirit was to be their great Teacher when He was gone. He was to quicken their memories and to revive within them words that they had heard from the blessed Master. "The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you" (John 14.26). What a blessed ministry was this by the Holy Spirit! How could the Gospels ever have been written apart from His inspiration, to be, what they are, absolutely true and accurate records of the Lord's life after the passage of so many years? knowing how faulty are human minds. Even if it had been possible to take a transcript by shorthand of what the Lord taught, even that would not have been free from blemishes. But the Spirit knows no such infirmities as are common to men, and with Him in divine perfection has rested the giving to men through men the wealth of divine thought that we have in the Gospels and the other Scriptures.

Not only did the Lord give to His disciples God's words (Rhemata), He gave them God's word (Ton Logon), the whole body of divine truth. As God gave the law (the teaching) in Horeb for all Israel (Malachi 4. 4), which was amplified by the later books of the Old Testament, so the Lord gave to His disciples (especially to the apostles) God's word which also was amplified by the epistles and the book of Revelation. The acceptance of the word and obedience thereto made the disciples different from other men. Hence we have the Lord saying,

"I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17.14).

The disciples were not of the world because they had been taken out of the world by the Father and given to the Son (verse 6) and being not of the world they were not to be worldly m their behaviour But were they left to their own thoughts as to how they should behave and mould their conduct? No, they were not! In God's word as given to them by the Lord was the complete outline of how they should live to please God This godly and heavenly conduct was demonstrated in the life of the Lord Himself as He said And for their sakes I sanctify Myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth (verse 19) Godly living is the result of godly thinking.

Paul, when he began his address to the Jewish people from the stairs on which he was standing, said, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel." As he sat at the feet of this outstanding teacher, one of the greatest of Jewish rabbis, from day to day, he drank in the instruction to which he listened. He said that he was "instructed according to the strict manner of the law of the fathers" (Acts 22.3). Writing to the Galatians he referred to those days, and he said, " I advanced in the Jews' religion beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers" (Galatians 1. 14). His zeal matched his ability to absorb the teaching he received. There was no careless inattention in Saul of Tarsus. The fire of his soul marched in step with a clear thinking brain, and the result of it all was, that at an early time there was a serious impact and collision between himself and those who had sat at the feet of another Teacher. As it had been in crimesteeped Gabbatha, the place of the pavement, where the tribunals were held, the issues were "Christ or Barabbas," "Christ or Caesar," and in each case the choice was for Barabbas and Caesar, so was it now between Gamaliel and Christ, and with Saul the choice was for Gamaliel.

He had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, but the Lord's disciples had sat at His feet and heard His word. Amongst that feeble little band, who were soon to be sent forth into the world, destined to change the course of human history, but better still to change the course and issue of myriads of human lives, and make their destiny heaven and not hell, sat Mary, whose memory is for ever pleasant and fragrant. It is said that "Mary ... also sat at the Lord's feet, and heard His word" (Luke 10. 39). Men sat there and heard His word; the fishermen of Galilee, and the tax gatherers, and all the rest of that band of the world's noblemen. They were but ordinary men, but His word made them different, and it is ever the word of God that makes men and women different from others. The difference in human beings arises from their thoughts, and men never had a good thought in their lives except that thought sprang from the word of God. The evils which afflicted the world in Noah's day arose from minds which were perverted by sinful thoughts of all kinds. So when men came forth from the Ark, God stated the case thus: "The LORD said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8.21). Prior to the flood it is said, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (every day) (Genesis 6.5).

If this is the natural state of man's heart and thoughts, whence is he to get right thoughts, healthful thoughts, to occupy his mind? Only from the word of God, is the answer. Hence arises the need of sitting at the Lord's feet (not literally, now, of course), and hearing His w6rd. His word is not a long dissertation, a weary wilderness of words in which thought has lost its way. Here in the Scriptures thought is packed so tightly together, and is in such profusion, as in no other book that has ever appeared in this world. The thoughts are sweet and nourishing to the mind, and are correctives to every form of moral and spiritual disorder. They foster lowliness of mind, but are the death of pride and its vain associates. The position of the disciples, with Mary amongst them, shows how sitting at the Lord's feet is the fitting place to receive His word.

Of old it was said of Israel when God spoke to them at Sinai,

"Yea, He loveth the peoples;

All His saints are in Thy hand:

And they sat down at Thy feet;

Every one shall receive of Thy words" (Deuteronomy 33.3).

Here was the cause of Israel's greatness, for "they were intrusted with the oracles of God" (Romans 3. 2).

Miller, J. | Mar 1955
Jottings