The Closed Door
Gateway to Spiritual Fullness
Gateway to Spiritual Fullness
No Poor Among You
Gleanings From Deut. 15
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts”
(Deut. 15:1).
“There shall be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you
in the Land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to
possess” (Deut. 15:4).
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and
for those at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen
my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together
in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full
assurance of understanding, resulting in the true knowledge of God’s
mystery, that is, Christ Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:1-3).
Chapter 15 of Deut. deals with the matter of poverty.
In God’s mind there should be no poverty among His people. The land of
Canaan has such an overflowing abundance that God’s people should never
ever suffer lack of anything. Chapter 8:7-10 and chapter 11:9-15 give an
amazingly detailed and impressive description of the fullness and riches of
the land. It should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind with regard to God’s
wonderful intention and generous provision for His people.
In typology, the Land of Canaan signifies the overflowing riches and all-
inclusive fullness of Christ as each believer’s full inheritance and
enjoyment.
In light of such fullness and riches, chapter 15:4 reveals God’s view of
believers’ inheritance in Christ: “However, there shall be no poor among
you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your
God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.” Since every believer has
been allotted a portion of Christ, there should never be spiritual poverty if
everyone maintains a normal and loving relationship with the Lord.
However, when we become complacent in our pursuit of and relationship
with Christ, our heart will begin to grow cold and get distracted by the love
of the world. It’s only a matter of time before we take on distorted views of
Christ and are swayed by the winds of teaching. In God’s eye, we have now
become “poor.”
Chapter 15 shows perhaps two kinds of poverty: 1) Specific poverty, our
“neighbor” becomes our debtor (v. 2). 2) General poverty, “If there is a poor
man with you” (v. 7a).
The first case deals with our relationship with our brothers and sisters.
When we offend or hold a grudge against a brother, we become a “debtor,”
because it is an indicator of our abnormal spiritual condition which exposes
our shortage of Christ within. If our spiritual condition is proper, there
cannot be any jealousy, backbiting, gossiping or offenses done against our
brothers and sisters with whom we are closely related. Our normal
experience of the fullness of Christ makes us rich in Christ and will prevent
us from incurring any “debt” of offenses against our brethren.
Contrarily, our backbiting, gossip and offenses against the brethren are
giveaways of our own poor inward condition. By not experiencing the riches
and fullness of the Lord we inevitably offend each other and incur spiritual
debts. It doesn’t take much to agitate and offend a brother who is not
walking with the Lord. Even an innocent look can set him off. In such a
condition, the most pressing need is the forgiveness of “debt.” Christians
need to learn to free each other from their “debts.”
It has been said that it is not easy to forget what aught our brethren have
against us, let alone forgive. Why is it so difficult to forget and forgive?
Could it be due to our own spiritual poverty – lack of Christ within? If we
have not possessed our inheritance of the fullness of Christ, we have no
resources with which to free our brethren from his “debt.”
I suppose some highly moral people can resort to their ethics and morality
to squeeze out some forgiveness; but our natural resources in God's eyes are
nothing but refuse and filthy rags! The only resource that computes is what
has been wrought and constituted into our being through the dealings of
the Holy Spirit.
That’s why this chapter begins with “seven years” (“At the end of every seven
years you shall grant a remission of debts”). As “seven” being the number of
completion, it implies that there must be a full period of time in terms of our
learning to enter into the experience of the inexhaustible Christ. It takes
time to learn and possess the riches of Christ in reality. Much of what we
know of Christ is merely head knowledge. After years of being dealt with
and coming to our senses, we are often shocked to find out how little we
really know and how little of His character we really possess.
So, our ability to set our brethren free from their debts actually hinges upon
our having a season of coming into possessing the reality of Christ as our
resources. This “seven-year” season then becomes a wealth of resources out
of which we can dispense forgiveness, among other blessings, to our
spiritually impoverished brothers and sisters.
The second case of general poverty deals with our less than normal
relationship with the Lord. Since verse 4 says, “there shall be no poor
among you,” it shows that in our normal Christian walk, each has been
given a rich portion of Christ to experience and enjoy, there should be
therefore “no poor” among the saints.
So the “poor man” in verse 7 is one whose relationship with the Lord is sub-
normal either due to lukewarmness of his heart, loss of first love, love of the
world, distorted religious concept or wrong teachings, etc. It should be
noted that whatever the case may be, the remedy is the same: “make a
release” for the “debtor,” the spiritually poor.
Whether we slacked off in our walk with the Lord and resulted in owing a
“debt” to our neighbors, or our sub-normal relationship with the Lord
resulted in our spiritual poverty, the remedy is the same, “make a release”
for the “debtor.” This should deeply impress us: the Christian life that we
live is not an individualistic life. Early on in Adam’s family, his children
were taught to be their “brother’s keeper.” Here in Deuteronomy 15, we are
told to “make a release” for the debtor, the spiritually poor brothers and
sisters.
Clearly, the Lord wants His people to relate to each other and be sensitive to
each other’s plight. When one member of the family falls into indebtedness
or spiritual poverty, the other members should have the sensitivity of such
plight and seek to “make release” for their stricken brethren. The Lord can
never be pleased with monastic Christians, no matter how holy and loving
they may appear! He is after a corporate testimony, let there be no doubt.
This is the reason we are burdened for our brothers and sisters who, for one
reason or another, fall into either indebtedness due to improper
relationship with the saints, or poverty due to improper relationship with
the Lord, or a combination of both. This is the reason we reach out, pray for
and seek to undo their spiritual poverty.
We see two important themes running throughout the Bible: Relationship
with God, and relationship with the brethren. When Israel’s relationship
with God suffered, they suffered defeat in the hand of the enemy, and
poverty ensued. When Israel’s relationship with each other suffered, i.e.
when their rivalry split them into two kingdoms, the corporate testimony
suffered, and indebtedness resulted.
In the New Testament, the same two themes continue: the kingdom became
the Church, the Bride of Christ, with whom the Lord courts a love
relationship. The Church is also the family of God in which there is no
Greek or Jew, no bond or free, no class distinction, no divisions. We are all
one body and are commanded to love one another and practice family life,
not forsaking the assembling together.
Out of these two important themes, i.e. relationship with God and
relationship with the brethren, emerge the apple of His eye – the Church.
And, lest we forget, when we merge our vertical relationship with God and
horizontal relationship with men, what do we have? A cross!
Where the cross is not a reality, neither is the church, no matter how
authentic the pattern may be.
Let us never forget, we have been commanded to release our brethren who
are in the bondage of “indebtedness” or the chokehold of “poverty.” The
question is, how do we do it? By our zeal? Ability? Gifts? Natural
resources?
By “seven years.” We need the Lord to lead us into a thorough dealing of
our flesh, so that there can be a gaining of the fullness of Christ within,
which then becomes our spiritual resources with which we “make release”
for our brothers and sisters who are in spiritual poverty.
We need to pray. Pray that the Lord grant us mercy so that we would come
out of our own indebtedness and poverty, and that we would be vessels
which the Lord can use to deliver others from bondage with.
Perhaps now we begin to understand why Paul told the Colossian saints,
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for
those at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and
attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of
understanding, resulting in the true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is,
Christ Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge” (Col. 2:1-3).
Incidentally, did you see the emergence of a cross in these verses? Look
again. Look for the vertical and the horizontal aspects of Paul's burden.
It takes a tremendous struggle in spirit to be burdened for our brethren who
are mired in deep spiritual poverty just as Paul burdened for the Colossians
who were in danger of being taken captive by heresies, philosophies and
traditions which sent them to Christ-less poverty. It takes the travails of the
cross to usher the impoverished saints back to the wealth in Christ.
Deut. 15:6 says, “…you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not
borrow; and you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over
you.” One of the amazing things about the scriptures is its many-fold
applications and spiritual significance.
For the Old Testament dispensation, the required application is merely
physical and outward and by the letters. It falls short without the reality in
Christ. For the New Testament age, the required application is spiritual and
inward and consummating in Christ. Our present concern, therefore, is not
to seek physical and outward applications by the letters, but to extract for
inward spiritual reality hidden in Old Testament letters.
Take verse 6, for instance, the old dispensation merely requires Israel not to
borrow but to lend and to physically reign over many nations. The present
day application, however, is that we become so filled and enriched with
Christ as our spiritual wealth that Christians would never suffer spiritual
poverty (having to “borrow”), but should have surplus of Christ to share with
others (“lend”).
And our present day “reigning” is certainly not in the form of manifested
reality as will be in the Kingdom to come, but in the form of hidden spiritual
reality. No Christian in his sound and Christ-filled mind would ever tell the
IRS to “get lost,” or his boss to “take a hike” because God’s people are
supposed to “reign.” We are still subjected to many physical, governmental
and social restraints, but in our spirit we soar above all earthly and angelic
powers.
Verse 14 gives the best clue as to what we can do to release our brethren
from spiritual poverty: “You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out
of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress….”
Three things are singled out as being helpful to our “poor” brothers and
sisters: flock, threshing floor and winepress. Put it another way, what
qualifies us to render aid to our needy brethren are our surplus of these
three things: flock, threshing floor and winepress. It behooves us then to
find out what these three things signify.
1) The flock. The increase of the flock comes from daily feeding, and from
the animals undergoing travail to give birth. Spiritually, our increase of the
stature in Christ comes from daily feeding on Christ as life and from
travailing in prayer. Without feeding, we remain spiritual midgets; without
prayer, we become fruitless and insensitive to God’s burdens.
2) The threshing floor. It is the place where grain is sifted to remove
stones, and where chaff is separated from grain. This is the place where the
Holy Spirit takes us through the “fiery furnace” of the cross to remove our
“stones” and “chaff,” and as a result, a “fourth man” – Christ, is gained.
Here not only the flesh gets dealt with, the soulish elements are separated
from the spiritual elements. Our soul is the biggest hindrance to genuine
spirituality because it has an uncanny ability to mimic the spirit. To be able
to help our brothers and sisters in need, our soulish elements must be
separated from the spirit. May the Holy Spirit take us to the threshing
floor.
3) The winepress. A mere mention of the word instills a hush of
reverence. The suffering of Jesus in the hands of the ungodly and the
religious. The lonely road of rejection and misunderstanding He traversed.
The bloodstained cross in Golgotha; and the ultimate rejection by the
Father, though but for an hour….
What more shall we say? O, but the benefit and the blessings we derived
from it! He took the cup of wrath that we might hoist the cup of blessing!
He bore our curse of death that we might reap His triumph of life.
Hallelujah for the cross! If we want to bestow fullness of blessing to our
brethren, we must not shrink back from the winepress.
Now we begin to understand the magnitude of our commanded burden and
service that could lead to the release of our brethren from spiritual
indebtedness and poverty. Now we begin to understand why verse 1 says,
“At the end of seven years you shall make a release.” It takes nothing less
than a full period of time for the Lord to bring our natural zeal and ability to
an end and to produce the “flock,” the “threshing floor” and the “winepress”
in us which enable us to service our brethren and furnish them with the
blessings they really need. Unfortunately, many brothers and sisters think
they can deliver the help that the “poor” brethren need by their raw talents,
natural abilities and zeal without the required “seven years.”
The disciples were always quick to focus on their service to the physically
poor and needy, but only one little humble sister knew how to service the
Lord’s need by her broken alabaster jar. Brokenness. How we all need the
Holy Spirit’s “seven years” of labor to produce a powerful fragrance of Christ
that can only emanate from broken jars!
I am afraid we all are more like the disciples than Mary; and we are far more
inclined to render physical help to the “poor” brethren at their first sound of
despair.
When Lazarus fell ill, his two sisters (and disciples) wanted Jesus to
immediately do something about it. But He waited for days until death
firmly took hold before He went to him. Don’t get me wrong, please. I am
all for rendering “practical” and “timely” help to our brethren. There is
definitely a place for practical and timely help. But what is their (our) real
problem? What is their (our) real need? I am afraid our problem is the
proclivity to circumvent the “seven years” required to produce the “flock,” the
“threshing floor” and the “winepress.”
May the Lord grant us patience – and seven years!
Oliver
Gleanings From Deut. 15
“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts”
(Deut. 15:1).
“There shall be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you
in the Land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to
possess” (Deut. 15:4).
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and
for those at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen
my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together
in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full
assurance of understanding, resulting in the true knowledge of God’s
mystery, that is, Christ Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:1-3).
Chapter 15 of Deut. deals with the matter of poverty.
In God’s mind there should be no poverty among His people. The land of
Canaan has such an overflowing abundance that God’s people should never
ever suffer lack of anything. Chapter 8:7-10 and chapter 11:9-15 give an
amazingly detailed and impressive description of the fullness and riches of
the land. It should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind with regard to God’s
wonderful intention and generous provision for His people.
In typology, the Land of Canaan signifies the overflowing riches and all-
inclusive fullness of Christ as each believer’s full inheritance and
enjoyment.
In light of such fullness and riches, chapter 15:4 reveals God’s view of
believers’ inheritance in Christ: “However, there shall be no poor among
you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your
God is giving you as an inheritance to possess.” Since every believer has
been allotted a portion of Christ, there should never be spiritual poverty if
everyone maintains a normal and loving relationship with the Lord.
However, when we become complacent in our pursuit of and relationship
with Christ, our heart will begin to grow cold and get distracted by the love
of the world. It’s only a matter of time before we take on distorted views of
Christ and are swayed by the winds of teaching. In God’s eye, we have now
become “poor.”
Chapter 15 shows perhaps two kinds of poverty: 1) Specific poverty, our
“neighbor” becomes our debtor (v. 2). 2) General poverty, “If there is a poor
man with you” (v. 7a).
The first case deals with our relationship with our brothers and sisters.
When we offend or hold a grudge against a brother, we become a “debtor,”
because it is an indicator of our abnormal spiritual condition which exposes
our shortage of Christ within. If our spiritual condition is proper, there
cannot be any jealousy, backbiting, gossiping or offenses done against our
brothers and sisters with whom we are closely related. Our normal
experience of the fullness of Christ makes us rich in Christ and will prevent
us from incurring any “debt” of offenses against our brethren.
Contrarily, our backbiting, gossip and offenses against the brethren are
giveaways of our own poor inward condition. By not experiencing the riches
and fullness of the Lord we inevitably offend each other and incur spiritual
debts. It doesn’t take much to agitate and offend a brother who is not
walking with the Lord. Even an innocent look can set him off. In such a
condition, the most pressing need is the forgiveness of “debt.” Christians
need to learn to free each other from their “debts.”
It has been said that it is not easy to forget what aught our brethren have
against us, let alone forgive. Why is it so difficult to forget and forgive?
Could it be due to our own spiritual poverty – lack of Christ within? If we
have not possessed our inheritance of the fullness of Christ, we have no
resources with which to free our brethren from his “debt.”
I suppose some highly moral people can resort to their ethics and morality
to squeeze out some forgiveness; but our natural resources in God's eyes are
nothing but refuse and filthy rags! The only resource that computes is what
has been wrought and constituted into our being through the dealings of
the Holy Spirit.
That’s why this chapter begins with “seven years” (“At the end of every seven
years you shall grant a remission of debts”). As “seven” being the number of
completion, it implies that there must be a full period of time in terms of our
learning to enter into the experience of the inexhaustible Christ. It takes
time to learn and possess the riches of Christ in reality. Much of what we
know of Christ is merely head knowledge. After years of being dealt with
and coming to our senses, we are often shocked to find out how little we
really know and how little of His character we really possess.
So, our ability to set our brethren free from their debts actually hinges upon
our having a season of coming into possessing the reality of Christ as our
resources. This “seven-year” season then becomes a wealth of resources out
of which we can dispense forgiveness, among other blessings, to our
spiritually impoverished brothers and sisters.
The second case of general poverty deals with our less than normal
relationship with the Lord. Since verse 4 says, “there shall be no poor
among you,” it shows that in our normal Christian walk, each has been
given a rich portion of Christ to experience and enjoy, there should be
therefore “no poor” among the saints.
So the “poor man” in verse 7 is one whose relationship with the Lord is sub-
normal either due to lukewarmness of his heart, loss of first love, love of the
world, distorted religious concept or wrong teachings, etc. It should be
noted that whatever the case may be, the remedy is the same: “make a
release” for the “debtor,” the spiritually poor.
Whether we slacked off in our walk with the Lord and resulted in owing a
“debt” to our neighbors, or our sub-normal relationship with the Lord
resulted in our spiritual poverty, the remedy is the same, “make a release”
for the “debtor.” This should deeply impress us: the Christian life that we
live is not an individualistic life. Early on in Adam’s family, his children
were taught to be their “brother’s keeper.” Here in Deuteronomy 15, we are
told to “make a release” for the debtor, the spiritually poor brothers and
sisters.
Clearly, the Lord wants His people to relate to each other and be sensitive to
each other’s plight. When one member of the family falls into indebtedness
or spiritual poverty, the other members should have the sensitivity of such
plight and seek to “make release” for their stricken brethren. The Lord can
never be pleased with monastic Christians, no matter how holy and loving
they may appear! He is after a corporate testimony, let there be no doubt.
This is the reason we are burdened for our brothers and sisters who, for one
reason or another, fall into either indebtedness due to improper
relationship with the saints, or poverty due to improper relationship with
the Lord, or a combination of both. This is the reason we reach out, pray for
and seek to undo their spiritual poverty.
We see two important themes running throughout the Bible: Relationship
with God, and relationship with the brethren. When Israel’s relationship
with God suffered, they suffered defeat in the hand of the enemy, and
poverty ensued. When Israel’s relationship with each other suffered, i.e.
when their rivalry split them into two kingdoms, the corporate testimony
suffered, and indebtedness resulted.
In the New Testament, the same two themes continue: the kingdom became
the Church, the Bride of Christ, with whom the Lord courts a love
relationship. The Church is also the family of God in which there is no
Greek or Jew, no bond or free, no class distinction, no divisions. We are all
one body and are commanded to love one another and practice family life,
not forsaking the assembling together.
Out of these two important themes, i.e. relationship with God and
relationship with the brethren, emerge the apple of His eye – the Church.
And, lest we forget, when we merge our vertical relationship with God and
horizontal relationship with men, what do we have? A cross!
Where the cross is not a reality, neither is the church, no matter how
authentic the pattern may be.
Let us never forget, we have been commanded to release our brethren who
are in the bondage of “indebtedness” or the chokehold of “poverty.” The
question is, how do we do it? By our zeal? Ability? Gifts? Natural
resources?
By “seven years.” We need the Lord to lead us into a thorough dealing of
our flesh, so that there can be a gaining of the fullness of Christ within,
which then becomes our spiritual resources with which we “make release”
for our brothers and sisters who are in spiritual poverty.
We need to pray. Pray that the Lord grant us mercy so that we would come
out of our own indebtedness and poverty, and that we would be vessels
which the Lord can use to deliver others from bondage with.
Perhaps now we begin to understand why Paul told the Colossian saints,
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for
those at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and
attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of
understanding, resulting in the true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is,
Christ Himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge” (Col. 2:1-3).
Incidentally, did you see the emergence of a cross in these verses? Look
again. Look for the vertical and the horizontal aspects of Paul's burden.
It takes a tremendous struggle in spirit to be burdened for our brethren who
are mired in deep spiritual poverty just as Paul burdened for the Colossians
who were in danger of being taken captive by heresies, philosophies and
traditions which sent them to Christ-less poverty. It takes the travails of the
cross to usher the impoverished saints back to the wealth in Christ.
Deut. 15:6 says, “…you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not
borrow; and you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over
you.” One of the amazing things about the scriptures is its many-fold
applications and spiritual significance.
For the Old Testament dispensation, the required application is merely
physical and outward and by the letters. It falls short without the reality in
Christ. For the New Testament age, the required application is spiritual and
inward and consummating in Christ. Our present concern, therefore, is not
to seek physical and outward applications by the letters, but to extract for
inward spiritual reality hidden in Old Testament letters.
Take verse 6, for instance, the old dispensation merely requires Israel not to
borrow but to lend and to physically reign over many nations. The present
day application, however, is that we become so filled and enriched with
Christ as our spiritual wealth that Christians would never suffer spiritual
poverty (having to “borrow”), but should have surplus of Christ to share with
others (“lend”).
And our present day “reigning” is certainly not in the form of manifested
reality as will be in the Kingdom to come, but in the form of hidden spiritual
reality. No Christian in his sound and Christ-filled mind would ever tell the
IRS to “get lost,” or his boss to “take a hike” because God’s people are
supposed to “reign.” We are still subjected to many physical, governmental
and social restraints, but in our spirit we soar above all earthly and angelic
powers.
Verse 14 gives the best clue as to what we can do to release our brethren
from spiritual poverty: “You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out
of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress….”
Three things are singled out as being helpful to our “poor” brothers and
sisters: flock, threshing floor and winepress. Put it another way, what
qualifies us to render aid to our needy brethren are our surplus of these
three things: flock, threshing floor and winepress. It behooves us then to
find out what these three things signify.
1) The flock. The increase of the flock comes from daily feeding, and from
the animals undergoing travail to give birth. Spiritually, our increase of the
stature in Christ comes from daily feeding on Christ as life and from
travailing in prayer. Without feeding, we remain spiritual midgets; without
prayer, we become fruitless and insensitive to God’s burdens.
2) The threshing floor. It is the place where grain is sifted to remove
stones, and where chaff is separated from grain. This is the place where the
Holy Spirit takes us through the “fiery furnace” of the cross to remove our
“stones” and “chaff,” and as a result, a “fourth man” – Christ, is gained.
Here not only the flesh gets dealt with, the soulish elements are separated
from the spiritual elements. Our soul is the biggest hindrance to genuine
spirituality because it has an uncanny ability to mimic the spirit. To be able
to help our brothers and sisters in need, our soulish elements must be
separated from the spirit. May the Holy Spirit take us to the threshing
floor.
3) The winepress. A mere mention of the word instills a hush of
reverence. The suffering of Jesus in the hands of the ungodly and the
religious. The lonely road of rejection and misunderstanding He traversed.
The bloodstained cross in Golgotha; and the ultimate rejection by the
Father, though but for an hour….
What more shall we say? O, but the benefit and the blessings we derived
from it! He took the cup of wrath that we might hoist the cup of blessing!
He bore our curse of death that we might reap His triumph of life.
Hallelujah for the cross! If we want to bestow fullness of blessing to our
brethren, we must not shrink back from the winepress.
Now we begin to understand the magnitude of our commanded burden and
service that could lead to the release of our brethren from spiritual
indebtedness and poverty. Now we begin to understand why verse 1 says,
“At the end of seven years you shall make a release.” It takes nothing less
than a full period of time for the Lord to bring our natural zeal and ability to
an end and to produce the “flock,” the “threshing floor” and the “winepress”
in us which enable us to service our brethren and furnish them with the
blessings they really need. Unfortunately, many brothers and sisters think
they can deliver the help that the “poor” brethren need by their raw talents,
natural abilities and zeal without the required “seven years.”
The disciples were always quick to focus on their service to the physically
poor and needy, but only one little humble sister knew how to service the
Lord’s need by her broken alabaster jar. Brokenness. How we all need the
Holy Spirit’s “seven years” of labor to produce a powerful fragrance of Christ
that can only emanate from broken jars!
I am afraid we all are more like the disciples than Mary; and we are far more
inclined to render physical help to the “poor” brethren at their first sound of
despair.
When Lazarus fell ill, his two sisters (and disciples) wanted Jesus to
immediately do something about it. But He waited for days until death
firmly took hold before He went to him. Don’t get me wrong, please. I am
all for rendering “practical” and “timely” help to our brethren. There is
definitely a place for practical and timely help. But what is their (our) real
problem? What is their (our) real need? I am afraid our problem is the
proclivity to circumvent the “seven years” required to produce the “flock,” the
“threshing floor” and the “winepress.”
May the Lord grant us patience – and seven years!
Oliver
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