"Give ye ear, and hear
my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow
continually to sow? doth he continually open and break the clods
of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he
not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in
the wheat in rows and the barley in the appointed place and the
spelt in the border thereof? For his God doth instruct him
aright, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with
a sharp threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned
about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a
staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is ground; for he
will not ever be threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart
and his horses scatter it, he doth not grind it. This also cometh
forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and
excellent in wisdom" (Isaiah 28:23-39).
"I will proceed to do
a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a
wonder: and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the
understanding of their prudent men shall be hid... They also that
err in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmur
shall learn doctrine" (Isaiah 29:14,24).
"And when they had
preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples,
they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue
in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter
into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:21,22).
This parable that we have read
from Isaiah is related particularly to spiritual understanding,
in connection with the meaning of the ways of the Lord with His
people. The context of the passage is concerned with the faithful
company of the Lord's children, who, in the midst of many
unfaithful ones, were suffering for their faithfulness. That is
always a difficult thing to understand; it is very testing of
faith. It was because of this perplexity, in the presence of such
suffering, that the Lord gave His servant the word of this
parable.
The general meaning of the
parable is clear enough. Men apply to natural processes their
inborn or acquired wisdom - wisdom born either of instinct or of
experience - as to what should be done with this and that, when
it should be done, and how it should be done; but they often fail
to recognise two things. Firstly, that the wisdom by which they
are so acting has come from God - 'This also cometh from the
Lord'; and secondly, that, behind the very things that they are
doing, expressing the wisdom or knowledge that they have
acquired, whether by learning, by experience, or by training -
behind what they are doing, because it is God-given wisdom, there
is a spiritual meaning. They do many things, and they do not see
the spiritual meaning of the things they are doing. I have often
felt, and sometimes said, that I wish that all the experts in the
different realms of knowledge and science - medicine, biology,
physics, and so on - could see through their expert knowledge to
the spiritual interpretation. Isaiah is saying here, that behind
things that are done in nature - in this case, the operations of
agriculture - there are spiritual meanings.
The
Meaning of the Plough
At the beginning: "Doth
the plowman plow continually to sow?" Well, the answer of
common sense is, No, of course he does not! He would be a madman
if he ploughed, and then went on ploughing all through the year;
if he did nothing else but plough, or harrow his ploughed ground.
Does he do that continually? No; it is a job that has got to be
done - the breaking up, the turning over, the exposing to the
elements, the harrowing - it is an essential operation, but it is
not continued indefinitely. It is something to be done, but it
has its time and place, its beginning and its end.
The Lord is speaking to His
faithful people who are feeling that they are under the plough;
furrows are being cut deep into their souls; they are being
turned up and turned over, laid bare, exposed, broken, harrowed.
The Lord says, even to faithful people: 'This is necessary we are
looking ahead to a harvest, to real values; this is an essential
aspect of the work. But... take this comfort: this is not going
on for ever.' Under the hand of the Lord it is periodic, and it
is timed. It comes into the individual life of the child of God;
it comes into the life of a company of the Lord's people; and, as
history shows, it comes into the experience of the whole Church.
From time to time, down through the centuries, it seems that the
action of God once more is cutting deep, overturning, breaking
up. It is the hard way toward some fresh harvest. But the word of
the Lord is: 'My dear people, remember this: I am the Man with
His hand on the plough: I have this whole thing in hand, it will
not go on for ever.' It is something necessary - everybody will
agree with it in nature; we agree with it, surely, in grace - but
it has its time limit; and when that phase is accomplished, the
Lord terminates it, and says: Now, that is done and we can get on
with the next thing.
The
Sowing of the Seeds
Now the parable goes on with
the seed. You notice that four kinds of seed are mentioned here.
And it is a very interesting thing, though it is difficult to
detect this in our translation, that the verbs used are chosen
definitely and specifically in relation to the kind of seed.
Fitches, the 'love-in-a-mist' or 'devil-in-a-bush' of our
gardens, the smallest of them all, are sown broadcast. The
'cummin' is also very small, but a little larger. The fitches are
said to be just 'scattered'; but for the cummin another verb is
used: it is 'distributed', sown more carefully than the other.
And when you come to the barley and the wheat, it is 'dropped'
into holes; it is given more particular care as to where it is
put. It is not just broadcast; it is planted.
Now, probably you can see
something through that. The Lord's people vary. I do not think
that the parable is intended to discriminate in values.
Everything has its own value, and everything has its own worth,
its own significance. It is all a part of the great harvest. But
supposing we look at the fitches and the cummin, not as something
of less importance, but perhaps as those who are smaller, shall
we say, in the immature or child stage. I think they comprise by
far the larger number of the Lord's people, scattered abroad.
They are the Lord's people in general, scattered broadcast over
the earth - "the field is the world" (Matt. 13:38) -
and because they have not come yet to a point of greater
maturity, or to the phase where something more is to be realised,
the Lord deals with them in His own gracious way.
The
Harvesting of the Seeds
Notice what follows: how the
fitches and the cummin are dealt with in one way; the wheat and
the barley are dealt with in quite another way. To the little
fitches and cummin no cart wheel is taken; no threshing machine
is employed; it only just needs the gentle tap of the rod. So
easily is the work done with these that the harder dealings of
the threshing-floor are not called for. They are but children.
Now, is this not true of the Christian life? Sometimes you wonder
why some people get away so easily; so many Christians get off
with it so lightly; the Lord does not seem to deal with them as
He deals with others - perhaps with you. Well, all right, their
time has not come. Of course all parables break down, you cannot
change fitches into wheat; this is where all parables have their
limitations. Within a certain general realm, where there is the
intrinsic value to the Lord, the Lord's dealings, for the time
being, are apparently very light and easy-going; it is just the
staff, it is just the rod, it is just a pull-up here and there,
without anything very drastic. The Lord deals with people
according to their measure. At a certain stage their measure is
this, and the Lord deals with them accordingly.
A
Question of Measure
But, immediately
the question of greater measure, and greater value, comes into
view (sometimes that comes into view very early; sometimes it
seems to take much longer) - as soon as greater values, like
wheat and barley, come into view, the handling of the Lord is
very much more drastic. "Bread corn is ground". If it
is a question of the value of 'bread', then those who are going
to be 'bread', that is, food, for the people of God, are going to
have very drastic handling by the Lord. If you feel the Lord is
handling you in that way, bruising, hammering, using the flail on
you, I say it to you emphatically, that is a hopeful sign. The
Lord is meaning something more of value in your life for others.
It is 'bread' corn that is bruised.
Many young
Christians do not understand when we speak to the Lord's more
mature people about the difficulties and the sufferings of the
Christian life. They think that we are a bit morbid, and making
the Christian life something complicated and hard. To any such
young Christians I would say: If you are the Lord's, the Lord
will deal with you appropriately to where you are spiritually. He
will not be too hard on you; He may be very gentle with you, He
may just correct you with the rod, quite lightly, because so far
you are just in that category of the 'fitches' and the 'cummin'.
But remember, it may not always be like that. The Lord who wants
the most, and whose heart is set upon 'bread' for His people -
that over the whole earth His people should receive strength,
sustenance, building up, through your ministry, individually or
collectively - if it is going to be like that, to satisfy that
desire of His heart, you are going to have a difficult time; you
are going through the 'threshing-floor'; you are going to know
the 'bruising'.
If the Lord is not
able to do that, and He has to keep us on the elementary,
easy-going basis, where we are all having a happy time, and the
Lord very rarely does anything corrective and stringent, it is
not a compliment to our spiritual life. It may just mean that He
is not able to do all that He would do if He could in this great
need of bread. So, if He really does turn His cart-wheel upon us
, if the hoofs of the horses stamp upon us, if the flail gets to
work, it is because He is looking upon us as bread-corn,
something by which He is going to serve Himself in the interest
of others.
An
Explanation of Discipline
That, very briefly
and imperfectly, is Isaiah's parable. Now, if you look, you will
see how that worked out with this company. The suffering remnant
- suffering not because of their own unfaithfulness, but because
of the unfaithfulness of the nation as a whole, suffering under
the Lord's hand, being dealt with, disciplined - it was that
remnant which was the Lord's key to the whole later situation. It
has always been like that. The key to the situation of all the
Lord's people is a remnant, a company, who suffer together with
Him, and who allow themselves to go through the discipline that
is necessary.
What is the Lord
saying, perhaps to you, in the parable? Perhaps you have had a
harder time than many people, and you do not understand it. You
have perhaps said: Is this necessary to the Christian life? Look
at all these other Christians; they do not have my difficulties
and troubles. Well, the parable explains it. The whole point of
this parable is spiritual understanding. The Lord deals with His
people in different ways. Yes, these others are His people, but,
but... so far they just cannot serve Him in the way in which He
wants to be served, and so He is dealing with them, quite gently,
in their category, in their measure; but you may be chosen to
something more.
The idea has been
very common in Christianity, that it is a great and wonderful
thing to be 'mightily used of the Lord'! Oh, to be a great
evangelist! Oh, to be a great teacher! Oh, to be a great
Christian worker! Let me tell you, that is an entirely false
conception. The truth is that those who serve the Lord most truly
go through the deepest suffering. The balances are truly kept by
God - extra suffering, extra usefulness; little suffering, little
usefulness. That is how God keeps His balances, and that is what
is here, implicit in this story. You may be having a more or less
easy time. I do not want to dishearten you by saying it may not
always be so, but if you really want to be of greater use to the
Lord, remember it may be by a deeper discipline of the Lord. And
if you are having a particularly difficult time, most likely it
is because the Lord is going to meet need more fully through you.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1961, Vol 39-4