"They knew not... the voices of the
prophets which are read every sabbath" (Acts 13:27).
The
Quest For A Man
"Run ye to and
fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and
know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can
find a man... that seeketh the truth" (Jeremiah
5:1).
There are two
preliminary words necessary to a consideration of this so
terrible implication. One is that it can hardly be taken
in its utter and final suggestion. It seems to imply that
there was no such single man in Jerusalem. But we do know
that Jeremiah was not absolutely alone in his quest for
truth. There were, at least, a few who remained true in
heart and desire, although the landslide to declension
was so great. The other thing is that, appropriate as the
challenge to our own time may be, we are not suggesting
that there is in our day such a general state of positive
rejection of, and rebellion against God and alliance
with heathen gods as was the case amongst God's
people in Jeremiah's time.
Having said that, we
still feel that there is the occasion and the need for
this part of the 'Voice' to be heeded. It is the quest
for a man, and the emphasis has to be put on "a
man". God is revealed to us in the Bible
as ever and always being in quest of a man. In creation
and throughout history the Bible shows how God's heart is
set upon a man after His heart. One question raised by
the Psalmist spans the ages - "What is man that thou
art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4).
With Jeremiah this
quest becomes a challenge. It is the challenge as to
where there is manhood according to God's mind. It may be
that there are exceedingly few who could answer that
challenge utterly, but there are certain features which
with God weigh heavily in constituting the man of His
quest. Not all of the things which the world regard as
making a man to be admired describe the man that God so
characterizes. When Pilate brought forth Jesus and cried
"Behold the man", there was everything present
with Jesus as to His position, His success, His
associates, His physique, His apparent impotence, His
inability to "save Himself", His prospects,
etc., which put Him at an utter discount with the world
and men. Paul was right when he said: "Unto the Jews
a scandal, and unto Greeks foolishness." The world,
and worldly-mindedness, demand for the ideal man success,
prestige, means, reputation, and natural ability of one
kind or another, such as social, physical, intellectual.
Without these as obvious things the man is
"despised and rejected of men".
Over against the
world's estimate and standard stands God's assessment of
a man's values. What was it that Jeremiah challenged his
hearers to find? Look at the description and you look
straight into the eyes of God. There you will see that
with God the features which characterize the man of God's
quest are spiritual and moral values.
One word or virtue
covers a very great range. It is the word
"Truth". Truth is elemental. That is, it is not
manufactured or compounded. It is of first principles and
in the very nature. What is made can be unmade. Truth is
an essence. It is fundamental and indestructible. If
anything can be destroyed, annihilated and brought to an
end, it is not true. Truth is eternal. God will not
countenance or commit Himself to anything that will
ultimately be exposed to be a lie. Truth is a spiritual
element.
There is the
profoundest reason why God is so intensely jealous in His
regard for truth. The entire history of the wreck and
ruin, the sin and all its consequences in this world, is
due to an initial and fundamental lie. It was a lie about
God. It was a lie about man. It was a lie about human
destiny. The lie was a deception, a misrepresentation, a
trick and snare, a distortion, an invention and
fabrication, a perversion, a myth, a subterfuge, a
disguise, a counterfeit; it was hypocrisy and pretence.
It was in nature a 'snake in the grass', a 'wolf in
sheep's clothing', a Satan 'as an angel of light'. Like
the venom of the serpent's bite, it has entered the very
blood of humanity and it has impregnated the very
constitution of the world's system. Its beginning
appeared simple but its end will be so complex, so
unmitigated and blatant that men will "believe a lie
instead of the truth" because thereby they more
easily obtain their object. We are now living in the time
when systems and ideologies reign which have repudiated
the existence of such a thing as truth, and the idea of
it is ridiculed or fought. Hence the world and society
are disintegrating. There is no security or assurance
anywhere.
No wonder that God
hates every semblance of untruth, and that His hatred
thereof was so fiercely demonstrated against the
hypocrites, the pretenders of His time.
Thus it is that God
puts such high value upon a man who "speaks the
truth to his own hurt"; a man who not only speaks
true things but is true. Truth is something of
"the inward parts". The framework, the
instrumentalities, the means employed and blessed by God
may pass away, but the inward spiritual value which is
God Himself will abide for ever and never be destroyed.
Of all that may be said
about the Prophets it is this "Voice" that is
the loudest and most challenging. They stood solidly
against all forms of falsehood, and when Satan sought to
discredit them by means of "False Prophets"
they withstood them and eventually God vindicated the
true.
We must abide in the
truth, for Satan's downfall and all its devastating
results are attributed to his not "abiding in the
truth".
Hand-in-hand with the
stand for truth is another virtue upon which God places
very much value. The Bible makes so much of this in
relation to the Man of God. This is more than the voice
of words from the Prophets, it is characteristic of the
Prophets themselves. I refer to spiritual courage.
This, as we know, was a
very real feature of Christ, and it was one of the
evident fruits of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles and
others on, and after, the Day of Pentecost. We repeat:
the Prophets were outstanding in the matter. As with
truth, so with courage, a very great deal of ground is
covered by it. A great modern soldier has ranked courage
as supreme among the virtues. If we really analysed and
defined courage and noted all its aspects we would go a
long way toward agreeing with that estimate.
There are other words
and other ways of saying the same thing. For instance,
there is no word in this category that shows God's
estimate of this value more than the word faithfulness.
Faithfulness is the very essence and embodiment of
courage. God has linked the crown of life with that.
"Be thou faithful
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Faithful to God. Faithful to the truth. Faithful to what
God has shown. Faithful to our trust. Faithful to our
brother. A word which carries the same meaning and may
bring us closer to the practical aspect is the word
loyalty. It takes courage to be loyal. The opposite is
cowardice, compromise, policy, diplomacy; and anything
that sacrifices principle for personal gain, advantage,
convenience. Disloyalty is a most contemptible feature.
It costs to be loyal,
courageous, and faithful, and it sometimes means that it
puts our popularity and acceptance in jeopardy. To
sponsor an unpopular but valuable cause, ministry, and
instrument of the Lord may cause real hesitation if
policy and personal advantage have weight with us. Paul
said to Timothy: "Be not ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, nor of me his prisoner."
It may have been costly in those times to stand with the
testimony of Jesus, but it went right to the soul to show
allegiance with that man of world-wide ostracism and now
in prison. It was a great triumph in a young man that he
stuck loyally to Paul to the end. He has ever since
shared Paul's vindication.
We now laud the
Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs, but we must remember
that in their time they were the sponsors of the most
unpopular, and - apparently - the most forlorn
causes, and they had to show a supreme courage in great
aloneness and dislike.
Look and listen again
to them and their "Voice" as the embodiment of
courage in the presence of every conceivable aspect of
'conformity to the death of Jesus'.