That hymn always brings back to my remembrance an incident. I have often referred to the Torrey-Alexander Mission, and on one occasion, when the meetings were going on at the Albert Hall, Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander were held up in the traffic and did not arrive on time.
Everybody was there; the place was crowded. So Harkness was at the piano, waiting anxiously. Then Mr. Harkness got up and said, “I think we had better be singing. What shall we sing?” The words were hardly out of his mouth before the booming voice of Mr. Alexander at the back door shouted, “Thirty-nine!”
And in a trice the piano was going, and it was, “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus.” So we pray.
The crises are threshing floors in the Word of God. We are following on that idea this morning, taking Isaiah’s parable of spiritual understanding in the twenty-eighth chapter of his prophecies.
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 grain is ground;
for He will not be ever 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,
Who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous 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.
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.
You see that this parable of Isaiah is related to spiritual understanding—spiritual understanding in one particular connection: that is, as to the meaning of the ways of the Lord with His people.
You look into these chapters, and you will see that this particular fragment containing this parable has to do with the faithful company of the Lord’s children who, in the midst of many unfaithful, were suffering for their faithfulness.
And that is always a difficult thing to understand: suffering for faithfulness to the Lord. It is a very testing thing for faith because of this perplexity—the presence of suffering. The Lord gave His servant this word and this parable.
The meaning in general of the parable is simply this: that men apply to nature their natural or acquired wisdom—wisdom either born of instinct or of experience—what should be done with this and that, and how it should be done.
But they often fail to recognize two things. Firstly, the wisdom by which they are so acting has come from God: “This also cometh from the Lord.” The other thing is that behind the very things they are doing—expressing their wisdom, their knowledge, their learning, their experience, their training—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 all the experts in the different realms of knowledge and science could see through their expert knowledge to the spiritual interpretation.
What a lot we could have if all the botanists could give us the spiritual meaning of things in that realm, and all the physicians could give us the spiritual meaning of things in their realm. But that is just what is being said here. Behind things that are done in nature—and in this case, the agriculturist—there are spiritual meanings.
We can get those very quickly; it will take us no time.
Beginning thus: “Doth the plowman plow continually to sow?” The answer of common sense is, no, of course he does not. He would be a madman if he ploughed and then went ploughing all through the year, did nothing else, and kept ploughing or harrowing ploughed ground.
Does he do that continually? No. It is a job that has got to be done: breaking up, the pounding over, the exposing to the elements, the harrowing. It is something necessary—essential—but it is not indefinite, continual, permanent.
It is something to be done, but it is something done which has its time, its place, its beginning and its ending. Well, anybody knows that who knows much about farming; even I do.
The Lord is speaking, saying to His faithful people who are, or who are feeling as though they are, under the plough, and their experience is like that. Furrows are being cut deep into their souls. They are being turned up and turned over, laid bare, exposed, broken.
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: that is not going on forever.
Under the hand of the Lord, it is periodic, and it has its time. 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, and 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 the hand on the plough, Who has this whole thing in hand, and this will not go on forever.”
It will not go on forever. It is something necessary. Everybody will agree with it in nature; surely we agree with it in grace. It is something necessary, but it has its time limit.
And when that phase is accomplished, the Lord stops that and says, “Now that is done. We have got that far; we can get on with the next thing.”
I must leave you to interpret and apply the parable. It may be personal; it may be local; it may be general. That is where it begins.
When He has done that, then the parable goes on with the seed. As you notice, there are four kinds of seed mentioned here. It is a very interesting thing, if you could detect it—it is very difficult to do in our translation—that the words chosen are chosen definitely and specifically in relation to the kind of seed.
The fitches, or the anise of the New Testament—the fennel of today, all the same—are the smallest of them all, so minute that one grain could hardly be seen. That is one thing. The cummin is also very small, very small, but a little larger.
And the verbs used in these connections—do you notice? As for the fitches: “cast abroad,” scattered like that. And for the cummin another verb is used: it is distributed more carefully; it is something more than the other, distributed.
Then, when you come to the barley and the wheat, it is dropped into holes. It is planted. It is given this more particular care as to where it is put. It is not just broadcast; it is planted. Oh, probably you can see something through that.
A lot of people vary. I do not think that the parable is intended to discriminate in value. Everything has its own value, and everything has its own work, its own significance. It is all a part of the great harvest.
But supposing we look at the fitches and the cummin. Now, there is something of less importance, perhaps—those who are smaller, immature, shall we say, in the child state. I think they comprise by far the larger number of the Lord’s people, scattered abroad.
They are the Lord’s children. When I say “just,” I do not mean to take away value at all. They are the Lord’s people in general, scattered over the earth. The world is the field, scattered like that.
Because they have not yet come to a point of greater maturity, or to the phase where something more is to be realized, the Lord deals with them in His own gracious way. Notice what follows: how the fitches and the cummin are dealt with in one way, and the wheat and 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 a 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 not this true in the Christian life? Sometimes you wonder why so many 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 know. You cannot change fitches into wheat. But here is where all parables have their limitations: within a certain realm, a certain general realm, where there is 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.
That is what is being said here: the Lord deals with people according to their measure—according to their measure. At a certain stage, their measure is this, and the Lord deals with them accordingly.
But immediately the question of greater measure and greater value comes into view—and it seems to me sometimes that comes into view very early; sometimes it seems to take much longer. Be that as it may, as soon as greater values, like wheat and barley, come into view, the handling of the Lord is very much more drastic.
Bread grain is bruised. It is a question of value: bread, food. Those who are going to be bread, food for the people of God, are going to have very rough handling by the Lord.
You feel the Lord is handling you in that way—bruising, using the flail on you, hammering. That is a hopeful sign, I say to you. I say to you, it is a hopeful sign.
The Lord is meaning something more of value in your life for others—for others. It is bread grain, but it is bruised.
Now, many young Christians do not understand when we speak to the Lord’s more mature people about the difficulties and sufferings of the Christian life, and they think that we are a bit morbid and are making the Christian life something complicated and hard.
If there are such young Christians here this morning, just listen. 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 likely, because so far you are just in that category of the fitches and the cummin. But remember this: it may not always be like that.
The Lord wants the most, and His heart is set upon bread for His people—bread for His people. He wants His people to receive strength, sustenance, and 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 difference.
And if the Lord is not able to do that, and He has to keep us on the elementary basis, the easy-going basis—where we are all having a very happy time and the Lord very rarely does anything corrective and stringent—it is not a compliment to our spiritual life.
It may just be saying that He is not able to do all that He would do, as He could, in this great need of bread. We need bread.
So if He really does turn His cart wheel upon us, if the hoofs of the horses stamp on us, if the flail gets to work, it is because it is bread grain. It is bread grain. It is something by which He is going to serve Himself in the interests of others.
That is, briefly—very briefly and imperfectly—Isaiah’s parable.
Now, if you look, you will see how that worked out with this company: a 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 in discipline.
It was that remnant—the remnant which was the Lord’s key to the whole later situation. You know that from your Old Testament. It has always been like that.
The key to the situation for 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.
Allow the parable to speak. See what the Lord is saying, perhaps, to you. You may have had a harder time than many people, and you do not understand it. You perhaps have said, “Is this necessary to the Christian life? Look at all these other Christians. They do not have my difficulties and trouble.”
Yes, for the parable explains it. The whole point of this parable is spiritual understanding. Do you not understand? Do you not understand? The Lord deals with His people in different ways.
Yes, they are His people, but so far they 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—something more.
You know, friends, the idea has been very common in Christianity that it is a great and wonderful thing to be mightily used of the Lord. “Ah, that is wonderful! Oh, 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!” A great thing.
Let me tell you, that is an entirely false conception. The truth is, the truth is, that those who serve the Lord most truly go through the deepest agony of suffering.
The balances are kept like that. Balances are truly kept by God: extra suffering, extra usefulness; little suffering, little usefulness. That is how God keeps them. That is what is here in principle in this story.
So 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 after all.
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.