Biblical Essays
AUTHORITY AND POWER – OBEDIENCE AND DEPENDENCE
If ever there was a moment in the history of the Lord’s church in which it was vital for people to have divine authority for their path and divine power to pursue it, this is the moment. There are so many conflicting opinions, so many jarring voices, so many opposing schools, so many contending parties, that we are in danger at all points of losing our balance and being carried we know not where. We find the best of men ranged on opposite sides of the same question – men who seem to have a single eye to the glory of Christ; who seem to take the Word of God as sole authority.
What is an unlearned soul to do? How is one to get on in the face of all this? Is there no peaceful haven in which to anchor one’s tiny boat, away from the wild tossing of the stormy ocean of human opinion? Yes, there is; and one may know the deep blessedness of casting anchor in that peaceful haven. It is the privilege of the simplest child of God, the merest babe in Christ, to have divine authority for his path and divine power to pursue it; authority for his position and power to occupy it; authority for his work and power to do it.
What is it? Where is it? The authority is found in the divine Word; the power is found in the divine presence. Each and all may know it – ought to know it for the stability of their path and the joy of their heart.
In contemplating the present general condition of Christians in this age, one is struck with the painful fact that too few are prepared to face Scripture on all points and in all matters personal, domestic, commercial and ecclesiastical. It seems that when the question of salvation is settled (though rarely it is), then people consider themselves at liberty to break away from the sacred domain of Scripture, launching forth on the wild watery waste of human opinion and will, where each one thinks for himself, chooses for himself and acts for himself.
One thing is certain, where it is merely a question of human opinion, human will or human judgment, there is not a shadow of authority – not a particle of power. No human opinion has any authority over the conscience, nor can it impart any power to the soul. It may have some worth, but it has neither authority nor power for the Christian. We must have God’s Word and God’s presence, else we cannot move forward. No matter what comes between our conscience and the Word of God, we do not know where we are, what to do or where to turn. And no matter what comes between the heart and God’s presence, we are powerless. The Word of our Lord is our only guide; His dwelling in us and with us, our only power. “Have not I commanded thee? Lo, I am with thee.”One may ask, “Is it really true that the Word of God contains ample guidance for all the details of life? For instance, does it tell me where I am to go on the Lord’s Day and what I am to do from Monday morning till Saturday night? Does it direct me in my personal path, in my domestic relationships, in my business position, in my religious associations and opinions?”
Yes, the Word of God furnishes us thoroughly for all good works, and any work for which it does not furnish us is not good but bad. Hence, if we cannot find authority for what we do on Sunday or Monday, we must cease to do it. “To obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken, than the fat of rams.” Let us honestly face Scripture; and bow down to its holy authority in all things. Let us humbly and reverently yield ourselves to its heavenly guidance. Let us give up every habit, practice, association for which we do not have direct authority of God’s Word and in which we cannot enjoy the sense of His presence, whatever it may be or by whom it may be sanctioned.
This is a point of gravest importance for this age. In fact, it would be impossible for human language to set forth with proper force or in adequate terms, the importance of absolute and complete submission to the authority of Scripture in all things.
One of our greatest practical difficulties in dealing with souls arises from the fact that they do not seem to have any idea of submitting to Scripture in all things. They will not face the Word of God or consent to exclusively be taught from its sacred pages. Creeds and confessions, religious formularies; the doctrines, commandments, and traditions of men – these things will be heard and yielded to. Too often, we allow our own will, judgment, and views of things to bear sway. Expediency, position, reputation, personal influence, usefulness, the opinion of friends, the thoughts and example of good and great men, the fear of grieving or giving offense to those whom we love and esteem and with whom we may have been long associated in our religious life and service; the dread of being thought presumptuous, intense shrinking from the appearance of judging or condemning many at whose feet we would willingly sit – all these things operate and exert a harmful influence on the soul and hinder full surrender of ourselves to the paramount authority of God’s Word.
Obedience and dependence
As we saw above, our God in His infinite mercy has provided both authority and power for His people in this dark and evil world – the authority of His Word and the power of His Spirit – for the path they are called to tread and the work they are called to do. We have ample guidance in the Word, and we have the power of God to count on for all the difficulties and demands of the scene through which we have to pass, going home to our eternal rest. We have authority and power for all.
But we must always remember that if God has furnished us with authority, we must be obedient. And if He has provided the power, we must be dependent. Of what use is authority if we do not obey it? An employee may receive the plainest and fullest directions regarding where he is to go, what he is to do and what he is to say, but if, instead of acting simply on the directions, he begins to reason and think and draw conclusions, using his own judgment and acting according to his own will, of what use are the directions? Except to show how much he has departed from them. Clearly, the business of an employee, of a servant, is to obey, not to reason – to act according to his master's directions, not according to his own will or judgment. If he only does exactly what his master tells him, he is not responsible for the consequences.
The one grand business of a servant is to obey. It is the moral perfection of a servant. In the entire history of this world there has been only one absolutely obedient and perfectly dependent servant – the man Christ Jesus. His food and His drink were to obey. He found His joy in obedience. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; Mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Ps. 40:6-8).
Our blessed Lord Jesus found the will of God to be His only motive for action. There was nothing in Him that needed to be restrained by the authority of God. His will was perfect and His every movement, His perfect nature was in the current of the divine will. “Thy law is within My heart,” “I delight to do Thy will,” “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”
Satan could do absolutely nothing with such a Man. He tried in vain to withdraw Him from the path of obedience and the place of dependence. “If Thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.” Surely God would give His Son bread. No doubt, but the perfect Man refuses to make bread for Himself. He had no command, no authority, and therefore no motive for action. “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.” Thus it was throughout the entire temptation. Nothing could withdraw the blessed One from the path of simple obedience. “It is written” was His one unvarying answer. He would not, could not act without a motive, and His only motive was found in the will of God. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.”
Such was the obedience of Jesus Christ – an obedience perfect from first to last. And He was not only perfectly obedient, but perfectly dependent. Though God, yet, having taken His place as a Man in this world, He lived a life of perfect dependence on God. He could say, “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Is. 50).
And again, “Preserve Me, O God, for in Thee do I put My trust.” And again, “I was cast upon Thee from the womb.” From the manger of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary He was wholly and continually cast upon God; and when He had finished all, He surrendered His spirit into the Father's hand and His flesh rested in hope. His obedience and dependence were divinely perfect throughout.
Let us now consider two examples of the opposite of all this – two cases in which, through lack of obedience and dependence, the most disastrous results followed. First, we turn to 1 Kings 13. This case is no doubt familiar, but let us look at it in connection with our present theme.
“And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord, unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord.” Thus far all was right. He spoke by the Word of God and the power of God accompanied the testimony. For the moment, the spirit of the king was humbled and subdued.
More than this, the man of God was enabled to refuse the king’s invitation to come home with him and refresh himself and receive a reward. “And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.”
All this was lovely – perfectly delightful to dwell on. The feet of the man of God stand firm in the bright and blessed path of obedience, and all is victory. The offers of the king are flung aside without a moment’s hesitation. Half the royal house cannot tempt him off the narrow, holy, happy path of obedience. He rejects every overture and turns to pursue the straight path opened before him by the Word of the Lord. There is no reasoning, no questioning, and no hesitation. The Word of the Lord settles everything. He has but to obey, regardless of consequences. And so far he does, and all is well.
But take note of the sequel. “Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel.” Beware of old prophets. This old prophet followed the man of God and said unto him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” This was the devil in a new shape. What the word of a king had failed to do, the word of a prophet might accomplish. It was a wile of Satan for which the man of God was evidently unprepared. The garb of a prophet deceived him and threw him completely off his guard: we can at once perceive his altered tone. When replying to the king he speaks with vividness, force and bold decision: “If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee.” And then he adds, with equal force, his reason for refusing: “For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord.”
But in his reply to the prophet, there is manifest decline in the way of energy, boldness and decision. He says, “I may not return with thee nor go in with thee.” And in assigning the reason, instead of the forcible word “charged,” we have the feeble expression, “It was said to me.”
In short, the whole tone is lower. The Word of God was losing its true place and power in his soul. That Word had not changed. “For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven”, and had that Word been hidden in the heart of the man of God, had it been dwelling richly in his soul, his answer to the prophet would have been as distinct and decided as his answer to the king. “By words of Thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” The spirit of obedience is the great moral safeguard against every scheme and snare of the enemy. The enemy may shift his ground, change his tactics, and vary his agency, but obedience to the plain and simple Word of God preserves the soul from all his wicked schemes and crafty devices. The devil can do nothing with a man who is ruled totally by the Word of God and refuses to move the breadth of a hair without divine authority.
Note how the enemy urges his point with the man of God. “He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art: and an angel spoke unto me by the Word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house.”
What should the man of God have said to this? If the Word of his Lord had been abiding in him, he would have said at once, “If ten thousand prophets and ten thousand angels were to say, bring him back, I should regard them all as liars and emissaries of the devil sent forth to allure me from the holy, happy path of obedience.”
This would have been a wonderful reply. It would have the same heavenly ring about it as exhibited in these glowing words of the apostle: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be anathema.”
But, the man of God stepped off the path of obedience. Then the very man whom Satan had used to draw him off, became the mouthpiece of Jehovah to announce in his ears the terrible consequence. He lied when Satan used him. He spoke truth when God used him. The erring man of God was slain by a lion because he disobeyed the Word of the Lord. Yes; he stepped off the narrow path of obedience into the wide field of his own will, and there he was slain.
Let us beware of old prophets and angels of light. In the true spirit of obedience, let us keep close to the Word of our God. We will find the path of obedience both safe and pleasant, holy and happy.
Let us now briefly glance at Joshua 9, recording for our admonition the manner in which even Joshua was ensnared through lack of simple dependence on God. We do not quote the passage or enter into any detail. We suggest the reader turn to the chapter and ponder its contents.
Why was Israel beguiled by the craft of the Gibeonites? – Because they leaned to their own understanding and judged by the sight of their eyes instead of waiting on God for guidance and counsel. He knew all about the Gibeonites. He was not deceived by their tattered rags and moldy bread; and had they only looked to Him neither would Israel have been.
But here they failed. They did not wait on God. He would have guided them. He would have told them who these crafty strangers were. Had they simply waited on Him in the sense of their own ignorance and feebleness, He would have made all clear for Israel. But no; they would think for themselves, judge for themselves, reason from what they saw and draw their own conclusions. All these things they would do. Hence the tattered garments of the Gibeonites accomplished what the frowning bulwarks of Jericho had failed to do.
We may be sure that Israel had no thought of making a league with any of the Canaanites. No, when they discovered that they had done so, they were in terrible indignation. But they did it and had to abide by it. It is easier to make a mistake than to rectify it, and so the Gibeonites remained as a striking memorial of the evil of not waiting on God for counsel and guidance.
