deeper experience, a laying hold, an apprehending of that for which he had been apprehended. It is like John Wesley’s heartwarming. It is one thing to hear, now Job “ sees” . It reminds us of the Em- maus disciples who told of those who went to in vestigate the resurrection. They found it as re ported “but Him they saw not.” A report, but not a reality! Now God is a Reality to Job and what happens to Job. “Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” “Coming to the end of self” is not a Bible phrase but the Scriptures do set before us the denial of self, the crucifixion o f self, the judging of self, the abhorring of self. These are days of self-expression and self-exaltation but the Chris tian doctrine is self-execution — not self executing self but self dead with Christ and our submission to that daily dying in actual experience. We cannot crucify ourselves. Even physically, while one may shoot, drown, poison himself, he cannot crucify himself. Spiritually, it is the work of God’s Spirit but we must submit. Paul witnessed his own exe cution ! “ I am crucified with Christ.” Out of it came a new Paul. “We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the dead” (2 Cor. 1 :9). No wonder he could say, “We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord” ! No self-expression there! Job abhorred himself. And out of it all came a new Job and a new prosperity. He and God had an understanding. Think of Isaiah. “ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord.” It is generally the year that Uzziah died, the year o f trouble, that brings the vision of God. Beware of planning your Peniel. It is not in some favored vacation spot, where the setting seems perfect, that we have our best sea son with the Lord. John wrote Revelation on Pat mos, Pilgrim’s Progress came from Bedford Jail and precious hymns resulted from Fanny Crosby’s blindness. Our choicest art and literature came out of poverty and suffering and God does His best work in us often when the time and place seem most unpropitious. We do not come to know the deeper things, rocking on the porch of some lazy rest spot, sipping lemonade, reading a novel. Isaiah saw the Lord and he does not compli ment himself. “Woe is me! for I am undone; be cause I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst o f a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord o f hosts.” He had preached before that but now he is getting a new commission. God is not through with him; God is just getting started with him: “ Go, and tell this people.” True, they won’t listen, but God and Isaiah will understand if no one else does. Consider Daniel: his good looks, his sturdy un willingness to eat the royal fare, his courage and fidelity even in a lion’s den, all that is splendid.
had a private meeting with the Eternal, a rendez vous with the Almighty. Men said of them, “ That man has met God. They are working together. They make a team.” One man plus God make an unbeatable majority! The Bible carries a series of such experiences from Genesis to Revelation. The pages o f church history abound with such records. Such men come to God alone, like Jacob at Jab- bok, like Moses in Midian, like John on Patmos. After waiting on God, they mounted up with wings as eagles. And eagles fly alone. “ After HE had seen the vision, immediately WE endeavoured to go” (Acts 16:10). The vision does not come to the crowd but to the individual. Moses met God and then the people followed Moses. We are too busy meeting each other these days, “making contacts” . We need a private meeting with God, a secret agreement with the Almighty. No man is prepared to stand before the people who has not first stood before God. After Paul was com missioned, he “ conferred not with flesh and blood” but went to Arabia for a session with God. After that, he was unbeatable. Some have criticized Paul’s behavior on trial in Jerusalem. Anyway, that night God stood by him and assured him that he should see Rome. They had an understanding. Abraham was called “ the friend of God” . God stripped Abraham of everything, separated him from his country, kindred, father’s house, Lot and from Ishmael. Then He asked for the sacrifice of Isaac. Out of it all came the assurance, “ I am thy exceeding great reward.” God was his portion. He and God came to an understanding. Moses grew up in the royal court of Egypt. He tried to deliver the Israelites by disposing of the Egyptians one at a time. “ He looked this way and he looked that way.” He was spiritually cross-eyed. God sent him to Midian for a forty-year post graduate course. When he returned “ he endured as seeing Him Who is invisible.” He looked only one way. He saw the invisible and did the impossi ble. On the backside of the desert he had come to the mountain of God and had his tryst with the Almighty. Joshua was captain of Israel but before the bat tle of Jericho, he met another Captain, the Captain of the host of the Lord. They came to an agree ment. Joshua didn’t resign; his commission was resigned! He and the Lord understood. Consider Job, a righteous man, more noble in adversity than we have ever been. But there was something still better for him. God stripped him of property family, health. He allowed him to be tormented by “ comforters” . One o f the worst things about being sick is some people who come to comfort us! But out of it all Job met God anew. “ I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.” He has come to a
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