“HE THAT HEARETH YOU HEARETH ME.”
-LUKE
10:1-16.-APRIL 24.-
Golden Text:-“Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into
his harvest.”
THE HARVEST work
during the three and a half years of our Lord’s ministry seems to have been
crowded chiefly into the last nine months of that period. We have followed the
course of the gradual unfoldment of the Truth, then due, and now, about five
months before our Lord’s crucifixion, we take note of his statement that the
fields were white for harvesting, and the laborers few. The first verse of our
lesson records the sending forth of the seventy men, two by two, as advance
missionaries to proclaim the Kingdom of God near at hand, and thus to prepare
the people for the later arrival of Jesus in the various cities of Israel east
of the Jordan.
These seventy were not apostles in the special sense. They were additional
to the twelve apostles-they were evangelists; they had not as large experience
with the Master and his teachings, nor so important a work to do as that
assigned to the twelve. Nevertheless, any service to the Lord is an important
service, and to the extent that they did the Lord’s will they represented him.
They were undoubtedly a part of the “five hundred brethren” mentioned by the
Apostle as having seen our Lord after his resurrection. (I Cor. 15:6.) As the
twelve apostles corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel, so the seventy
evangelists corresponded to the seventy elders of Israel appointed by Moses in
the wilderness and afterward represented in the Jewish Sanhedrin, which
numbered seventy.
As the seventy elders appointed by Moses, and their successors, the
Sanhedrin, were the elders of Israel, so in a general way these seventy whom
the Lord sent forth in the end of the Jewish age represented all the leaders or
elders amongst his people today. Elsewhere we have shown what are the present
duties and responsibilities of elders as respects the Lord’s flock;*
and have also shown how at the present time these are chosen or set apart under
the Lord’s direction where his guidance is sought and the instructions of his
Word followed. We have also shown that in a general way all of the people are
fully commissioned in the same sense or degree to speak officially or as the
mouthpieces of his body. To the extent of their abilities and time-given
opportunities all are privileged to tell the good tidings of great joy to all
who may have the ear to hear. But special blessing and special privileges in connection
with the service of the Truth attach to those who in any particular manner are
selected through the Lord’s instrumentality for the service of the Truth-either
as chosen elders of local companies of the Lord’s people or as chosen pilgrims
or accepted colporteurs. Each may serve according to opportunities and the
divine blessing.
THE JEWISH HARVEST AND OURS.
We see that the Lord designated the end of the Jewish age as the “harvest”
time, for the reaping of the wheat of that people and the gathering of them
into the garner of the Gospel dispensation, and for the rejection and
symbolical burning of the chaff of that people in the great time of trouble
which came upon them gradually after the rejection of Messiah, and was fully
accomplished in the destruction of their nation in A.D. 70. We are specially
interested in everything connected with that harvest time after learning that
it was a figure or type or foreshadowing of the harvest time in the end of this
Gospel age-the harvest in the midst of which we now find ourselves. Our Lord
called attention to these harvest conditions at the same time that he sent
forth the laborers, possibly indeed before commissioning them. Sympathizingly
he drew the attention of the believers of that time to the ripeness of the
conditions around them, and urged them to pray to the Lord for laborers to
assist in garnering the true wheat.
Apparently it was those who prayed to the Lord and felt an earnest desire
for the prosperity of the Lord’s work, and the finding of the Israelites indeed
who consecrated themselves to this service, this evangelistic ministry. But no
matter whether they were taught first and prayed first and gave themselves to
the work afterward, or whether they gave themselves first to the work and prayed
afterward-the praying and engagement in the service were associated in the
Lord’s mind and evidently in the minds of those who participated in that
harvest work. And so it is today. As we look all about us we see nominal
Christendom like a great wheat field, ripe and ready for the reaping. The true
children of God greatly need the message which would gather them to the Lord
out of all sectarian bondage, and all who have the Lord’s Spirit feel drawn to
render the assistance necessary, at any cost of personal inconvenience, etc.
As we think of our dear friends groping in darkness and stumbling into
Higher Criticism, Infidelity, Evolution theories, Theosophy, New Thought,
Christian Science, etc., etc., we cry out to the Lord for more laborers for the
vineyard, knowing that he delights to see us thus interested in the work he is
carrying forward. In response he is pleased to send a full company of
laborers, represented by the seventy of our lesson. We may be sure that those
who are most earnestly sympathetic and most earnestly praying are those who are
most earnestly laboring in this harvest-whether they are permitted to labor in
a public manner or are restricted to more private means of personal
conversation, tract distribution and mail correspondence, whether they have the
larger opportunities of the volunteer work on a systematic scale, or whether
they have the still larger opportunities of the colporteur service or pilgrim
work, etc.
“HOW SHALL THEY PREACH
EXCEPT THEY BE SENT?”
Our Lord intimated that it would be a great honor for any to be sent
forth, and intimated also that none could engage in the service unless they
were sent forth by him-the Lord of the harvest. We are not then to consider
that any and everybody may engage in this work today any more than in the
harvest of the Jewish age. We are to pray for the privilege and opportunity of
service, and when it comes to us are to seize it and use it with zeal, as
appreciating the privilege of being co-workers together with the Lord in the
greatest and grandest work imaginable. There is a distinctly drawn line as to
who are privileged to engage in this work. The harvesters acceptable to the
Lord can surely be none others than those who are fully consecrated to him and
accepted as members of the body of Christ. If others engage we cannot expect
for them the success and blessing that we are authorized to expect for such as
the Lord sends forth. In harmony with this suggestion we find that
unbelievers, book agents and book stores are not successful in handling our
publications. The blessing seems to go only with those who are consecrated to
the Lord and with those of their families who are pleased to cooperate with
them in this harvest under their direction.
AS LAMBS AMONG WOLVES.
Our Lord’s illustration, that his representatives sent forth would be as
lambs among wolves, seems a very strong and almost overdrawn statement of the
case until we get the proper standpoint of observation. Those represented as
wolves were Jews, Israelites, nominally God’s favored people for centuries-the
natural heirs of the Abrahamic covenant and promises. They were the people who
according to the flesh were the Lord’s sheep, as represented in the
twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Yet how grievously they had lost
as a whole the proper sheeplike characteristics is clearly indicated by our
Lord’s words likening them to wolves. The sheep is an innocent and almost a
helpless creature, harmless; the wolf is ravenous, destructive, selfish. Doubtless,
our Lord’s words seemed harsh even to his disciples, who, accustomed to the
selfishness of the world, failed to see it from the same standpoint as viewed
by our Lord, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, in the
most absolute sense and degree. Our Lord, however, “knew what was in man” and
judged not by the outward appearances. What, therefore, might have been an
uncharitable judgment and saying on the part of the apostles was not so on our
Lord’s part. His own experiences less than six months afterward, and the
experiences of his faithful disciples, all attested the wisdom and justice of
the term “wolves” as applied to the self-righteous, Sabbath-keeping,
street-corner praying, tithe-giving scribes and Pharisees, who had the form of
godliness but not the power of it in their hearts and lives.
Continuing to draw lessons from the Jewish harvest and to apply them in
this harvest, we begin to realize that nominal Christendom of today is likewise
wolflike rather than lamblike, and that those who receive the Lord’s message
and go forth in his name now are similarly as lambs amongst wolves. The
Apostle draws a picture, not of the heathen world, but of the nominal Christian
Church of today, when writing to Timothy he prophetically described the
conditions in the end of this age. His words are, “In the last days perilous
times shall come.” “For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but having itching ears will gather to themselves teachers after
their own desires; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and
shall be turned unto fables.”-2 Tim. 3:1-5; 4:3,4.
A GREAT WORK SOON DUE.
As the principal part of the Lord’s work at the first advent was crowded
into the closing six months, so we anticipate that the principal work of the
present harvest will be crowded into the last six years. Already we see
evidences that the work of harvest here is broadening. Many more have the
hearing ear for the Truth than had it a short time ago, and many more are
praying for the outcome of the harvest and cooperating with their prayers by
presenting themselves, all of their opportunities and talents available, to the
Lord’s service in the various departments of the work. It should not surprise
us, therefore, if in the closing six years the evidences would be far stronger
than ever before of the wolfish disposition of many who have a form of
godliness and outwardly claim to be the Lord’s sheep. Should the sheep suffer
at their hands, we may be sure that it will not be permitted until the due
time. It will not be permitted to interfere with the harvest work, and none
can be seriously molested except by the permission of the great Chief Reaper,
and until his time shall be fully come. All such trained in the school of
Christ will be ready, we trust, to say as did the Master at the close of his
career-“The cup which the Father hath poured me, shall I not drink it?”-and
rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer for the name and for the cause we love.
“THIS ONE THING I DO.”
The seventy were sent out without baggage. They took no changes of
clothing, they wore only sandals, and took no house shoes or slippers; their
journey was to be quickly made and all attention was to be given to their
missionary duties; they were not to attempt to make themselves specially
comfortable. It was the custom of the time to entertain travelers, and
especially such as had a religious mission, prophets, etc.; and these
evangelists were not to take up any collections, and hence were to take no
pocket-books with them. They were to ask nothing for their services, but
wherever they went they were to heal the sick, cast out devils, and proclaim
their mission to the people as heralds of Jesus, declaring to them that the
Kingdom of God was near at hand, soon to be established. The command to salute
no man by the way did not signify that they might not say “Good morning,” but
that they were not to follow the custom of their time of stopping by the way to
discuss whatever matter of news might be carried from one village to another.
They were not news-gatherers, nor news heralds, but the heralds of the Lord,
ambassadors of the Kingdom, and were to give their time and attention specially
to that one service.
We might draw a parallel between these representatives of the Truth in the
end of the Jewish age, and similar ministers of the Truth in the present
harvest time. We might note that the Pilgrim brothers go from place to place,
taking up no collections, engaging in no other business, and declaring the same
message-that the Kingdom of God is near at hand. We might note the same in
regard to the colporteurs: they, too, have the one mission, and while their
message is delivered through the printed page, it is the very same message-the
King, the Kingdom, are at the door. And although the message is sold for a
price that price is no more than the seventy received as they went from place
to place. Neither do these laborers lay up treasures on earth, but are content
merely to meet their daily expenses, and glad that thus doing they can feel
that they are giving more than material value for every penny that they
receive, besides the incalculable spiritual blessings which will go with the
matter they are circulating to those who have the ears to hear and the hearts
to appreciate the tidings of the Kingdom. The volunteers who scatter the tract
matter in every city and village similarly are bearing the message that the
King is at the door, and similarly are laboring without remuneration, and
similarly are content with such things as they have and are not seeking for
earthly reward. The spirit of the work now going on and that which was carried
on in the close of our Lord’s ministry have a noticeable correspondence.
BLESSED THE PEACEMAKERS-
CHILDREN OF GOD.
Each laborer in the present harvest should note
well the Lord’s instruction in verses five and six. Wherever the Lord’s
representatives go peace should go, not strife, confusion, turmoil,
quarreling. True, the Truth will prove to be a sword that will arouse
opposition, yet it should be the Truth that causes the opposition and division
and not any rudeness or unkindness of word or action on the part of the Lord’s
representatives. There are plenty of things to aggravate mankind in this our
busy day, and all who have received the Truth should receive also its spirit,
“speaking peace through Jesus Christ.” The “peace of God which passeth
all understanding” should have control of each one who would represent the Lord
and his message, that a hallowing influence should go with each, especially in
every service and word spoken in the name of the Prince of Peace. The true
character of his people is described by our Lord: they who would be properly
termed the children of God should be peacemakers and not peace disturbers. “So
far as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.” It is not possible to live
peaceably with all and yet be true to principles, but the interest of peace should
be conserved in any and every proper way by the Lord’s representatives.
According to the customs of our day it might be considered extreme if we
were to apply the Lord’s words literally and say “Peace to this house,” before
entering; and so also it would be considered extreme today if, not being
welcomed, we were to stamp the dust from our shoes in departing from the
house. However, the spirit of both these matters should be with us. On
entering any house our thought should be to do good, to carry blessing, to
exercise a favorable influence for peace, joy and blessing to those within; and
if we, as the Lord’s ministers, were rebuffed and disdained, not wanted, we
should be careful not to intrude ourselves further, and, in that figurative
sense of the word, we should wipe off the very dust.
“If a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him.” If at any
place we find one having the same spirit of the Lord, desirous of knowing and
doing the Lord’s will, we should rejoice to meet him as a brother and
communicate to him the harvest message as he might have ears to hear it, and
thus a blessing would be his; otherwise we should not remain. The Lord’s
people should never intrude themselves further than to make known briefly their
message and work. If these be properly presented and meet with no response,
the Lord would not have us violate the proprieties of courtesy by imposing
ourselves or our teachings upon those who are unappreciative.
Our Lord set us a good example in this matter.
BEGGING FOR THE LORD NOT AUTHORIZED.
The disciples were not to go from house to house as beggars, to get a meal
here and a lodging there but were to expect that if the Lord had guided them
providentially to those who had received them, the Lord meant to give their
hosts through them a blessing proportionate to the cost of their brief
entertainment. They were not to consider these hospitalities in the light of
alms, for as the Lord’s representatives they were there to confer blessings
more than they would receive, and as common laborers even the service they
rendered should be worth at least their keep. This principle was to apply not
only to a house but to a city. They were not to be fastidious, but to accept
such hospitalities as were proffered them; and if this meant no hospitality,
they were to leave the city and go to one that would receive them and their
message more cordially.
Verse 9 might at first appear to be a special message applicable in the
Jewish harvest yet not applicable to the Gospel harvest; but not so. There is
spiritual as well as physical sickness, and the Lord’s ambassadors of today
should consider it to be their mission, their business, to open blind eyes and
unstop deaf ears, and generally heal the sick in a spiritual way with the balm
of Gilead, the good tidings of great joy now due to be understood. Moreover, it
is our privilege now as it was their privilege then to declare, “The Kingdom of
God is come nigh unto you.” This announcement has not been a proper one all
down through the age but merely in the ends or harvests of the two ages. After
our Lord’s death and resurrection the apostles no longer preached, “The Kingdom
of God is come nigh unto you.” On the contrary, they declared that the Kingdom
of God, which had been offered to Israel, had passed away from them now to be
given to a spiritual Israel which should be selected from all the peoples and
kindreds and nations. But now we have come to the end of this period of
selecting spiritual Israel, and in the harvest time of this age the
proclamation again goes forth, Behold, the King is at the door, the Kingdom is
at hand, and the wise virgins are preparing and will enter into the marriage,
as the Lord represented in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. (Matt.
25:1-12.) It is still true that in some places the Lord’s representatives will
be unkindly received no matter how wisely and kindly they seek to proclaim
their message, and they should heed this same injunction.
A MERE “FORM OF GODLINESS”
WORSE THAN NONE.
Then the Lord calls the attention of his disciples to the cities in which
his principal works were done, Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, declaring
that if the same works had been done in the heathen cities of Tyre and Sidon,
or even in the city of Sodom, which was destroyed in Abraham’s day, such works
as he did would have been sufficient to have aroused the heathen inhabitants of
those cities to repentance and seeking the Lord’s favor. He then points out
that when the great judgment day shall come it shall be more tolerable for Tyre
and more tolerable for Sidon and more tolerable for Sodom than for those who
had received favor in so large a measure and yet were not moved to repentance
and obedience. These words suggest several important thoughts.
(1) Why was it that these Jewish cities, so long under divine instruction
through the Law and the prophets, should be more dull, less ready to hear the
good tidings than the heathen? We can only account for it on the general lines
suggested by the Apostle when he declared that all the knowledge any of us may
receive is either a savor of life unto life or a savor of death unto
death-either affects us favorably to draw us into accord with the Lord and the
principles of righteousness, or unfavorably, so as to alienate us the more from
him. This is a general principle, and we can readily see that the Truth coming
to the fallen man under present conditions would to the few work a great
blessing, and to the many would in a measure result in hardening of heart.
(2) We say to ourselves, What is to be the fate of the people of Chorazin,
Bethsaida and Capernaum in the day of judgment, in the Millennium? We see
that, so far as the present life is concerned, they have shared the same fate
as the cities-all of the six cities mentioned are utterly destroyed and their
inhabitants are all totally dead. Will those people have an awakening in the
future-will they arise from the dead? Our Lord answers the question, saying,
“All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man and come
forth.” Well, then, we ask, for what will they be brought forth? Our Lord
answers that their coming forth will be in that day-the Millennial day, the day
of the world’s judgment, the thousand years of Messiah’s reign-when Satan will
be bound and when, as the seed of Abraham, Christ and the Church will reign as
Kings and Priests to bless all the families of the earth.-Rev. 5:10.
“MORE TOLERABLE FOR SODOM.”
Our Lord’s declaration is that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon than for the cities of Galilee in that Millennial time. What can this
mean? It means that under that blessed arrangement conditions will be
favorable or tolerable even for those people who witnessed the Lord’s miracles
and yet were not moved by them to repentance and discipleship; and it will be
still more tolerable for the heathen peoples of Tyre and Sidon-yes, for the
degraded ones of Sodom, who never heard of the grace of God, who never tasted
of the divine favors, or witnessed divine healings, or had opportunities of
being taught of the Lord, or being accepted as disciples of Christ.
The Apostle tells us that as soon as this Gospel age is completed, the
Lord’s favor will turn again to natural Israel, and that as a result blindness
shall be turned away from them-Israel shall be saved from their blindness.
(Rom. 11:25,26.) He goes on to explain that this will not be for anything of
merit on their part, but because of the Lord’s mercy, compassion, forgiveness
through Christ. The prophet takes up the matter at the same point and declares
that Israel shall look upon him whom they have pierced and shall all mourn
because of him, and that the Lord will pour upon them the spirit of prayer and
of supplication in connection with that mourning. Thus the blessing shall come
again to those who rejected the Lord and crucified him, and with eyes opened
still wider under the favorable conditions of the Millennial age, under the
wise administration of the Lord himself as the great King over all the earth in
that day, and with the influences of Satan bound and restrained that he may
deceive the nations no more by “putting light for darkness and darkness for
light,” the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum shall have a further
blessing, though a somewhat different kind from that which they rejected. They
rejected the privilege of becoming disciples and joint-heirs in the Kingdom.
That will never be offered to them again, because when next divine favor is
exercised toward them it will be with the privileges of restitution to human
nature -to that which was lost in Adam and redeemed by the death of the one
whom they crucified.
“THUS IT IS WRITTEN.”
The Lord through the Prophet Ezekiel (16:48-60) tells us particularly
about the Sodomites, explaining the reason why they and their city were blotted
out, and explaining also why the Israelites were rejected from his favor; but
further explaining that when he shall have compassion upon Israel for the
fathers’ sake, and, according to his promise, bring them back again to their
own land and to greater privileges under the Millennial Kingdom, then also he
will have compassion upon the people of Sodom and recover them also to their
former estate, to all that was lost, to restitution privileges. O, how grand
are the divine arrangements and plans! Some may say, these are blessings that
are coming; but our Lord intimated that certain great tribulations were coming
upon the cities of Galilee. What were they? We have already referred to these.
The people of the cities of Galilee and of all Palestine were involved in the
great time of trouble with which the Jewish age was wound up and that nation
blotted out of existence as a nation, its members being scattered amongst all
nations. This was a great tribulation and sore loss to the people of Chorazin,
Bethsaida and Capernaum-especially when compared with what they might have
enjoyed if they had become obedient to the Lord’s message-had they become
disciples and thus attained joint-heirship with the Lord and the apostles and
all the saints in the Kingdom.
But how will it be more favorable in the Millennial age for those people
of the heathen cities named than for those of Galilee? Will not the terms of
the Millennial age be equally open to all the world of mankind? We answer, Yes,
but all mankind will not be in equal readiness to profit by those blessed
conditions of the Kingdom. It is a law of nature that a blessing having been
once despised, and Truth having been once rejected, is on that account more difficult
to be grasped if offered again. This our Lord intimated when he said of the
efforts of the Jews to make proselytes amongst the Gentiles, “Ye compass sea
and land to make a proselyte, and when he is made he is twofold more a child of
destruction than he was before.” Truths received under unfavorable conditions
and into unready hearts are not really blessings but are sometimes injurious.
When the Kingdom conditions shall be made known to the people of Sodom and Tyre
and Sidon, they will doubtless be more ready to bow to them, accept them and
conform to them than some who already have had a measure of light but have been
unfaithful to what they did see. Hence we may expect it to be more tolerable
in the Millennial age for many of the heathen peoples-more favorable for them
to fall in line with the Lord’s gracious arrangements-than it will be for some
who have enjoyed high place and position in the Jewish and Christian systems,
but whose hearts have been far from appreciative of the principles of righteousness,
etc., involved.
“AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST.”
The last verse of the lesson is most impressive, most encouraging, most
stimulating. The Lord would have us know that when sent out with his message
and under his direction we fully represent him, so that he that heareth us
heareth him. What a wonderful honor is thus conferred upon the most humble of
the Lord’s mouthpieces, “He that despiseth you, despiseth me, and he that
despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” If as the Lord’s people we could
always have this thought with us, it would certainly be a blessing to us in two
ways:
(1) It would prompt us to feel the dignity of the smallest service
rendered to the Lord’s cause. It would banish fear of man and all feelings of
weakness and trepidation. Recognizing ourselves as the Lord’s representatives
we would be courageous to go anywhere, to do any service called for in his
commission and providential leading.
(2) This thought would bring to us such a sense of our responsibility that
all the affairs of the present life would seem trivial and insignificant in
comparison to the one great thing that we do-our heavenly mission and
commission. We would be more dignified in manner, more earnest in our service
as well as less careful of what man might say of us. Our whole concern would
be that we might please him who hath chosen us to be soldiers in his Royal
Legion, to be ambassadors and heralds of the Kingdom and of its terms and
conditions.