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September 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
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riority of others. It is the increasing sense of our own unworthiness that makes the sufficient grace of Christ sweet and that fires our witnessing with unquenchable zeal. God introduced Isaiah at once to the divine provisions of His altar. A part of the same fire which consumed the sac rifice, purged his lips. It implies also the conveyance of prophetic inspiration, for his lips were consecrated with heaven ly fire. :ÿ:Not till then did the call come: " Who will go?” Immediately Isaiah could an swer: “Here am I; send me” (v. 8). A soul cleansed from the love of sin and self; may go nimbly to God’s work; out ward discouragements and difficulties are then nothing. Many have entered God’s work who knew nothing of the coal' from His altar. They soon consume and (lie out. “The heavenly altar fire alone,” says Leighton, “keeps in and returns to heaven where it was kindled.” Let this, then, be sought by all who would do effective service for God. P ith and P oint God calls for volunteers ; He never drafts (Isa. 6:8). He who has no vision has no power to carry out his commission. The vision of the King will remove all thought of self-satisfaction and self-suf ficiency (Isa. 6:5). The best of men have seen themselves utterly vile when face to face with In finite Holiness. Lips purified by the fire of God are the only ones that can witness effectively for the truth of God. God schools many in solitary places (1 Kgs. 19:19-20; Amos 7:14-15). Many a man has taken out degrees in the schools of men, who has never learned the alphabet in the school of God. S uggestive Q uestions What was the glory that Isaiah saw? (Jno. 12:41.) Whose work is it to give us a vision of the Lord? (Acts 7:55-56; Jn. 16:14.) How does the effect of Peter’s vision of Christ, compare with that of Isaiah’s vis ion of the Lord? (Isa. 6:5; Lk. 5:8.) What was the effect of job’s vision of the Lord? (Job 40:4.) What was the effect of the Apostle John’s vision of Christ? (Rev. 1:17.) What looking-glass has God given us that will reveal to every man his own guilt? (Rom. 3:19.) What is suggested by the live coal that touched Isaiah’s lips? (Mt. 3:11; Acts 2:3.) —o— G olden T ext I llustration Also I heard the voice of thé Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me (Isa. 6:8). We heard of a preacher who once re ceived a number of calls and who was greatly perplexed as to which one he ought to accept. Finally he called to his hired man, an African Christian, and asked him what he thought. Without hesitation, the old colored man said : “Go where there is the most devil.” The call of God today is for those who will go where His message is most needed. How few there' are who reply, “Here am I, Lord; send me."
PROPHET is a spokesman for God, * delivering a message concerning the past, p r e s e n t or f u t u r e . Things pertaining to the past to which they called
and took the baby Jesus in his arms, said, “for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (Lk. 2:30). “Shaphat”. is ar translitera tion of the Hebrew word which means “judge.” God is Judge over all the earth. When He comes to judge the world, all of His saints shall be gathered together unto Him, namely, those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice (Psa. 50:5), and then shall He Judge the world in righteousness (Isa. 11). "Who was plowing.” God never did call a lazy man into His service. Ih fact God says if a man won’t work, neither shall he eat (2 Thess. 3 :10). One of the first qualifications of a man who can be used in God’s kingdom is that he be a man who is in touch with the people .to whom he ministers, and one who is able to lose his identity, as it were, and take up the bur dens of his people. When Jesus selected apostles He did not go around some so cial hall or gathering place where idlers are wont to spend their time, but He went to men of affairs and sent them forth to become “fishers of men.” “And cast his mantle upon him.” Eli jah’s mantle falling upon Elisha was sym bolic of his prophetic call to become the great prophet’s successor. This symbolic act in a way suggests our Lord’s breath ing upon the apostles shortly before His ascension and His giving them the com mission as recorded by John (Jno. 20:21- 23). “And he ' left the oxen . . . then I .will follow thee.” When the call of God came the prophet was ready to respond. We should be ready, at all times, regard less of circumstances, to ¿ay, as did Sam uel, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant hea/reth.” The prophet gave up instantly his earthly career. His complete and full surrender to God and following Him, reminds one of the instantaneous surrender of the Apostle Paul and of his turning his back upon all material gain (Acts 9:22, 26; Phil. 3). At this timé, however, he asked permission to bid farewell to his father and mother. The record is not clear as to whether he did or not; however, the prophet did not forbid his doing it. Elisha immediately sacrificed the yoke of oxen to God, engaged in divine service, and an swered the prophetic call. Amos 7:14, 15. Amos was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees in Tekoa, a small town west of the center of the Dead Sea. Upon his arrival at Bethel, the royal sanctuary of the northern kingdom, he was opposed by Amaziah, the'priest, who accused him of conspiring against thé government and reported the case to the king. Whereupon he issued a predic tion that Jeroboam II, the most powerful king who ever sat upon the throne of the northern kingdom, should die by the sword, and that the kingdom should be taken into captivity. This prediction stir red Amaziah, the priest, so that he im pugned the motives of the prophet, charging him with “making merchandise of the Gospel” (Amos 7 :12, 13). Amos 7 :14. In answer to this ground less, false charge Amos answered, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophets son; but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees: and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My peo ple." This statement rings with the deep est sincerity possible, being a straight forward statement of actual facts. Chris tians cannot afford to be otherwise in théir statements. It is a dangerous thing
attention were usual ly ' presented by the prophets to stir the gratitude and appre ciation of the nation for what God had d o n e for it; the things of the present, to which they like wise called attention, .pertained to their du
ties first to God and then to their fellow- man, hence, since man is in the fallen condition (Psa. 51 :5, Jer. 17:9), they were compelled, though the task was very unpleasant, to denounce sin and wicked ness of every kind in every one, even in those in high places; and the things of the future upon which they focused the minds of the people were painted in most glowing colors to stimulate and to en courage a closer walk with God. The prophet of God always received his call from God. Along with the gen uine, Satan, or one in whom Satan is working (Eph. 2:2), presents the coun terfeit, hence there have always been and there always will be men through whom Satan works, claiming to be true proph ets of God. God, knowing that Satan would offer the spurious for the genuine, gave Israel two infallible tests by which they were enabled to learn who was the true prophet and who was the false. The first of these is found in Deut. 13 :l-5, the test being that should a prophet or a dreamer of dreams appear arid produce a sign or wonder which came to pass (evidence of . the supernatural));! they should note his message, namely, whether it was, in favor of idolatry or not. If the former, that -fact was evidence that the prophet was a false one. The second test is found in Deut. 18:20-22, which is that if a prophet shall.arise and speak a word presumptuously in the name of God which God had not commanded, or should speak in the name of other gods, that prophet should die, his death being super natural and evidence that he was a false prophet. In New Testament times false prophets arose who became rivals of the true proph ets. Satari transforms himself into an angel of light in order that if it be pos sible he may deceive (2 Cor. 11:15; Matt. 24:24) the very elect. The test by which these are to be tried, which test centers around the personality and the divine ria- ture of Christ, is found in 1 Cor. 12:1-3; 1 Jno. 4:1-3. 1 Kgs. 19:19, 20. After Elijah’s expe rience of hearing the “still small voice” the Lord instructed him to anoint suc cessors both to tiie Syrian and Israelite thrones, together with his successor in the prophetic office. “So he departed thence.” As was learn ed in the second lesson, he was at Mt. Sinai whither he had fled from the wrath of Jezebel, “And found Elisha the son of Sha- phat.” “Elisha” means “God is salvation,” which indeed is true in every respect. This same truth is seen in Psa. 3 :8; 74: 12; Jonah 2:9. Likewise in the New Tes tament the angel Gabriel announced to Joseph that Mary’s Son should be called Jesus, “for it is He that shall save His people from their sins." In like manner Simeon, when he arrived at the temple
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