The Well and the Wall 2
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But directly that he finds some sensible support by any discovery or manifestation of Christ to his soul as the Son of God, then to that support he clings with all the tenacity with which a drowning man clings to the branch of a tree that hangs over the river. How suitable is the wall to raise him from groveling in the dust, or being trampled in the mire by sin and Satan!
But you will observe it is said of Joseph that his branches run over the wall. Having found such a suitable support, the branches of the vine spread themselves all over it. And as the well and the wall go together and combine to make Joseph a fruitful vine, so his roots and his branches spread themselves in equal proportion. Gardeners well know that what is called "root action" is the secret of the vine's fruitfulness, for whatever defect there be in the root it manifests itself in the fruit. But when the well feeds the roots, and the wall supports the branches, then fruit adorns the vine. But you will also observe that by the support of this wall the vine becomes more exposed to the beams and rays and fostering heat of the sun. The vine is a native of a sunny climate. It revels and basks in a warm southern sky. It will grow in our climate, but ripens no fruit to perfection.
But observe also that the further the wall extends, the further will the vine spread itself; for its very nature is to seek extension. Of all fruit bearing trees it will reach the furthest in extent, and I believe its best fruit is at its furthest end. I have seen a vine in Kent which spread itself over twelve houses, and I have seen another in Surrey which filled completely a very large hothouse, and which I was told would bear every year a ton of the finest possible grapes. What other tree can you find to spread so widely in every direction, or loaded with so prodigious a crop?
The vine, therefore, well represents a Christian, not only in his weakness but in his fruitfulness, and the way in which that fruitfulness is communicated and maintained. When a vine is thoroughly healthy the branches run over the wall as if they delighted in the support thus afforded them, and they especially seek what I may call the sunny side of the wall; for the wall has two sides, a shady and a sunny, a northern and a southern aspect. The branches then "run over the wall" to get as far as they can out of the shady into the sunny side; and just in proportion as they lie and bask in the warm sun do the roots draw more and more moisture and sap out of the well. So the Lord Jesus Christ gives a solid support to every believing soul which rests upon him for life and salvation, whether on the shady or the sunny side of his face, for though the one may be more comfortable, the other is not less secure.
As then this support is sensibly felt, the believing soul cleaves more and more closely to him by the tendrils of faith which take hold of his Person and work; and its ever renewed delight is to support itself in all its weakness upon him as the Son of God, especially when he shines upon it; as the vine delights to spread itself over the wall to catch every beam of the sun to give verdure to the leaf, vigor to the branch, and ripeness to the fruit.
Now we should think that the sight of this fruitful vine, would draw forth universal admiration. It would do so in nature. A vine loaded with fruit and spreading on every side its rich clusters would naturally be an object of general admiration. But it is not so in grace. As an instance, did the grace which shone so conspicuously in Joseph draw forth the admiration of his brethren? Did they like his "coat of many colors," or when they saw that their father "loved him more than all his brethren?" Were they pleased with his dreams? Did the favor of God thus manifestly bestowed upon him raise up in their hearts any wish to be themselves partakers of the same distinctive grace? We do not find that it did. On the contrary, we read that "they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him." It is true that "they envied him;" but this very feeling only more moved their anger, and stirred up the enmity of their carnal mind, so that they actually conspired to murder him, though they knew it would bring down the grey hairs of their father in sorrow to the grave; and were only dissuaded from their murderous cruelty by the entreaties of Reuben. Though thus checked by the providence of God of their intended crime of murder, they sold him for a slave to the passing Midianites, and thus got him, as they thought forever, out of the way.
As it was then, so it is now. The world cannot love the children of God; it may see, but cannot admire their Christian fruitfulness; may acknowledge that they outshine it, but still it hates what it cannot deny. We need not wonder at all this, for God himself has given us the reason. Enmity has been put between the two seeds; and that enmity will exist unto the end of all things. We come, therefore, now, by a simple and easy transition, to the second branch of our text, that is,
II. Joseph's sore GRIEF, with its cause and consequence. "The archers have severely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him."
Two things are said of the archers, and one of Joseph. Of the archers that they "hated him," and "shot at him;" of Joseph, that he was thereby "severely grieved." We will look at these points in their connection.
A. First, "the archers HATED him." The figure, you see, is changed. The Holy Spirit does not tie himself to go on always with one figure, but changes it to another, if more suitable to convey thereby divine truth. The dying patriarch, therefore, drops the figure of the vine, and speaks of Joseph as a man, and as one shot at by archers. He also plainly intimates the reason why the archers shot at Joseph. It was because they hated him. The cause of their hatred was twofold—first, the favor of God manifested to him; and, secondly, from seeing the fruitfulness that sprang from his dipping his roots into the well, and spreading his branches so luxuriantly over the wall. His good works reproved their bad ones. His godliness, uprightness, and general consistency silently yet keenly rebuked their ungodliness. So it is, so it ever must be where the life and power of godliness are manifested; for "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus"—(mind, not all that talk godly, but all that live godly, as in union with Jesus)—"shall suffer persecution."
B. But who are these archers? In Joseph's case, they were mainly his own brethren, which made him feel it so keenly. When he was sold to be a slave, and torn away from his native land and his father's house; when he was thrust into prison, there to suffer all the pain and ignominy of the prison-house, how he must have reflected, "it is my brethren, my own brethren after the flesh, who have brought me here." We shall see by-and-by what bearing this has upon Christian experience; but I will just for the present remark that the wounds given by his brethren sank very deeply into Joseph's spirit. The wanton eyes of his mistress, the angry eyes of his master, the scowling eyes of his jailer did not wound him like themurderous eyes of his own brethren.
If, then, we are like Joseph, fruitful vines; if our faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God; if it be given and maintained by the Spirit's secret operations, and, as a consequence, we make Christ our all in all, we shall surely find archers of different kinds and from various quarters shooting at us.
1. Some of these archers will be from the WORLD, for worldly men never can love the children of God; and with opportunity they will manifest their enmity by shooting some of the arrows with which Joseph was assailed. The law of the land has much tied men's hands, and broken, we trust, forever, that bow of violence with which once they shot at the saints of God, when they shed their blood, shut them up in prisons, or taken their goods. But even now, as David says, "Sharp tongues are the swords they wield; bitter words are the arrows they aim. They shoot from ambush at the innocent, attacking suddenly and fearlessly." (Psalm. 64:3, 4.) How often is the tongue of the ungodly "as an arrow shot out!" (Jer. 9:8.) How often are the arrows of calumny and slander at the child of grace, by which men seek to wound his reputation and injure his character; or where they cannot thus succeed, how they will aim at him the arrows of mocking scorn!
2. But the world are not the only archers who hate and shoot at the spiritual Joseph. PROFESSORS OF RELIGION, devoid of the salvation—are not these archers too, and good marksmen—fit to win a first-class prize at a shooting match? O how they hate to see the grace of God eminently shine; how the image of Christ in a believer's heart torments and condemns them. His separation from the world and practical condemnation of it, with all its fooleries and lying vanities; his godly fear, which will not allow him to have partnership with evil; his making Christ to be all in all for salvation, and the work of the Holy Spirit upon his heart for sanctification; his earnest desire to glorify God in body and soul; the doctrines for which he contends; the experience of God's favor and mercy which he enjoys; the practical consistency which he manifests; all move the enmity of the professing generation against him—for his truth condemns their errors; his knowledge of living power condemns their death in the form; and his obedience to the precept condemns their practical disregard of it. As, then, their enmity is stirred up, they shoot their arrows at him secretly or openly to ease their tormented minds, and please themselves by paining him.
3. Nor are they the only archers who severely grieve the spiritual Joseph. Even the CHILDREN OF GOD themselves sometimes can carry their bows and arrows; and the wounds which they inflict are so deep and rankling that they are rarely thoroughly healed. Of all the arrows, except one which I shall presently mention, those are the keenest which are shot by a brother's hand. Is it not cruel, when behind our backs, the bow is held by one of the same faith as ourselves, and it comes to our ears that a friend, at least in profession, or even a minister who preaches the same truths which we ourselves believe, has been shooting arrows in secret against us to damage our reputation, or injure our usefulness? Sometimes these arrows come flying about in the shape of pamphlets. I have had, I believe, more than thirty, though I have never counted them and never cared to read them, written against me by friend or foe. But, through mercy, none have yet succeeded in breaking my bow or beating it out of my hand.
4. But of all arrows, those pierce the deepest which we have winged OURSELVES. There is a pretty tale in an ancient author, of an eagle mortally struck by an archer in the bosom, and, as she lay upon the plain in dying agony, she recognized the feather upon the arrow as having been taken from her own wing. A modern poet has versified the tale, but I shall only quote three or four of his lines, just to give my figure point and edge—
"Keen were her pangs, but keener far to feel
She owned the pinion which impelled the steel.
While the same plumage which had warmed her nest
Drank the last life-drop of her bleeding breast."
Have you not been this eagle? Have you never feathered an arrow from your own bosom? And as you recognized your own feather upon the shaft, did not sorrow and remorse pierce your inmost soul that you should have given strength, swiftness, and correctness of aim to that arrow which either now is quivering in your bosom, or has made in it a wound which time itself will scarcely heal?
5. SATAN, too, is a cruel archer, and his arrows are tipped with fire, for indeed they are, as the Scripture calls them, "fiery darts" when shot at the soul by this master bowman. What cruel use he can make of our slips and falls to fill the mind almost with despair. How he can point to the feather! "Have you not procured this to yourself?" How subtle his infidel shafts; how terrible his blasphemous injections; how deeply they penetrate—how severely they wound!
These arrows, then, and others which I cannot now mention, severely grieve the spiritual Joseph; and this indeed is the intention of the archers. Their arrows, as we shall presently see, do not prove his death or downfall, but they sadly wound his spirit, try his mind, and grieve his inmost soul. Have these archers ever been shooting at you? But perhaps you have not sufficient fruitfulness to draw forth an arrow. You may be too much like the world for it to shoot at you. It may see no difference between you and itself, and therefore may not think you even worth a shot, or not of sufficient value to count you fair game; for who wastes gun-powder on crows or sea gulls? Or have the professors of religion seen in you sufficient of God's discriminating grace, of separation from the world, of the fruits of godliness or of the image of Christ in internal or external conformity to his likeness to lead them to shoot their arrows at you? But if they do, perhaps you have given them or even the world itself good occasion by your inconsistent conduct, by the slips or falls of which you have been openly guilty, by your heedless words, or your worse than heedless works, to shoot their arrows justly at you? Have you not yourself feathered the arrow now sticking in your conscience? I ask these questions in all solemnity. Conscience, if it is alive in God's fear, will furnish the best answer to them.
But were these arrows, at least in Joseph's case, successful? They severely grieved the man of God; and thus far the malice of the archers was gratified. Joseph's tears were a sweet morsel to his envious brethren; and they had the pleasure of grieving his spirit, if not the gratification of shedding his blood.
III. We are thus brought to our third point—Joseph's STRENGTH, and its divine Author. There was a secret supply of strength and support given to Joseph which the archers knew not of; and by this unseen help their arrows, though they severely grieved him, really fell short of working the mischief designed by them. "But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hand were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."
A. Joseph, you see, carried a bow as well as the archers; of a different material and manufacturer indeed, but far more potent, as made in heaven, and put into his hand by the mighty God of Jacob.
Now the chief object of the archers was to knock this bow out of his hands, or disable him from making use of it; for they could not but see that his bow had great strength in it, and that his arrows flew fast. Joseph's godly conduct was an arrow in the conscience of his brethren, for it, as condemning their ungodliness, galled and vexed their carnal mind. His dreams and the favor that God manifestly showed him were keen arrows against their pride and self-conceit, for they could not but see that it was the Lord God of their father who had given him a bow of steel, and that they must either fall down before him, or he before them.
Joseph's godliness and refusal to listen to her base solicitations were all arrows in the conscience of Potiphar's wife, turning her impure desires into deadly hatred. Thus, as representing the child of God, the spiritual Joseph carries a bow as well as the archers; and it is because the arrows which he sends from his lips and from his life do such wounding, that the archers are so enraged against him. If a minister, for instance, stands up boldly in the name of God, and holding firmly out the bow which the Lord the Spirit has put into his hand, shoots the arrows of truth thick and fast, the words of warning, of reproof, of rebuke, of denunciation of God's wrath against transgressors which fall from his lips, are all so many arrows that fly abroad in the congregation, and wound, it may be, many a heart and fall into many a conscience that he is not aware of. He is thus fulfilling that word, "Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under you." (Psalm. 45:5.)
But if the people do not fall under the keen shafts of truth, and submit themselves to the Lord as conquered subjects, being made willing in the day of his power, these very arrows only stir up the wrath and rebellion of their carnal mind; and this is the secret cause of all that enmity and malice which worldly professors ever manifest against a faithful servant of God.
"But his bow abides in strength." God has put a bow into his hand and arrows into his quiver by furnishing him with a spiritual, experimental knowledge of his own truth, and with life, light, and power. If, then, he draws his bow in the strength of God and shoots the arrows which he has put into his quiver, he must leave the event with the Lord, whether it be a savor of life unto life or a savor of death unto death. When Joseph was in the prison house, he still had his bow; he did not leave that behind in the palace of his ungodly mistress. Nor was it taken from him either by his brethren when they stripped him of his coat of many colors, or by the jailer when he put upon him the prison clothing.
But what was Joseph's bow? The bow of faith and the arrow of prayer. He could believe in the God of his father in the dungeon as well as in the house of his master; he could pray in the lowly cell as well as or better than when engaged in waiting upon his mistress. Oh! how many sighs and prayers would he put up in his prison cell, and how encouraged he would be by every fresh manifestation of God's favor to hold strongly his bow, and to aim rightly his arrows. "His bow therefore abode in strength." But where would have been his bow, if he had given way to evil? It is sin and nothing but sin that strikes a believer's bow out of his hand. Have you no bow? have you no arrow? for, as I have said, faith is the bow, and prayer the arrow. Where, then, will your arrows be directed? Will you take up the arrows of malice and slander, of scorn or calumny shot against you by an ungodly world, and put them upon your bow to shoot them back? Their arrows will not fit your string, nor will they suit your bow. That is not the way, then, that God teaches his people to use the bow of faith and the arrow of prayer. The arrows which they shoot are up to the throne of the Most High. The cries, sighs, petitions, prayers, and supplications which the Holy Spirit puts into their quiver and which they lay upon the bow of faith, are all so many arrows directed up to the throne. They have to shoot high, for their arrows are directed heavenward and their object is that every arrow should reach the eternal throne, and should leave a mark, as it were, in heaven's own target. Their bow, then, is not like that of their enemies, the bow of unbelief, malice, and enmity; nor are their arrows tipped with deadly poisons, aimed against character or person, ever seeking to damage or destroy; but heavenly is their bow, "the gift of God," for such is faith; and far-reaching are their arrows, for they are shot up to heaven's own gate through which they pierce, when their prayers enter the ears of the Lord Almighty.
B. But how is it, that their bow thus abides in strength? Why do not the cruel wounds which they receive from their inveterate enemies cause their hands to drop and their bow to fall? The aged patriarch gives the reason, "His arms were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Much is contained in these words, if I had time to enter into them. We have a striking illustration of their meaning in that remarkable passage in the 2nd book of Kings, where we read of Elisha putting his hands upon the hands of the king of Israel, and bidding him shoot. (2 Kings 12:15-17.) When, then, king Joash shot, it was not really his hands which drew the bow, but the hands of the prophet which were put upon his. Thus, in our text, the arms of Joseph's hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob being put upon them.
Observe the expression, "his arms," that is, the muscles of his arms, for it is the strength of the muscle in the arm which gives strength to the hand. A weak, flabby arm must ever make a weak, feeble hand. The first thing, then, was to put divine strength into Joseph's arms to draw the bow vigorously, and send the arrow far enough to reach heaven's gate. Do you not know that your prayers cannot reach the throne of grace, unless the blessed Spirit himself helps your infirmities, and intercedes for you, and in you, with groanings which cannot be uttered? In this way, then, the God of Jacob himself put his hands upon the hands of Joseph and actually drew the bow for him; for though Joseph held the bow, it was the Lord that bent it so firm and so strong.
Two things you know are needful for an archer—strength of arm and correctness of eye. You may miss the target from defect of strength, or incorrectness of aim. The God of Jacob, who teaches the hands to war and the fingers to fight, gives both strength to the arm, and aim to the eye. How unerring must that arrow fly when the Lord himself draws the string. Aim high! Set your affections on things above. Lift up your heart to the throne of God—and never cease to draw your bow as long as you have an arrow in your quiver.
Nor is this bow confined to private Christians. The servants of God, as I have said, carry a bow—and blessed is that bowman whose arms are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. When, then, we hold our bow in sight of all, and shoot our arrows of truth among our congregation, aiming at men's consciences, it is not we who draw the string, if any pierce through the joints of the armor. We have no strength of our own to draw the bow, nor wisdom of our own to direct the arrow. But the mighty God of Jacob puts his hands upon our hands, himself drawing the bow and himself directing the shaft. If, then, we are ever favored to draw the bow with a vigorous arm, and shoot the arrow home so as to reach any man's conscience, and leave a wound there which none but the Lord himself can heal, it is neither our own strength nor our own skill, which gives the word of truth a saving entrance into the heart.
You, too, though not called upon, as a servant of God, to bear the 'ministerial bow', have still your own private bow which you are bidden to make daily use of. And do you not find that there is at times a secret power put forth in your soul whereby you are enabled to use it aright? Do you not find that the Lord the Spirit sometimes teaches you how to pray and what to pray for? When then he intercedes in your bosom with earnest cries and supplications, it is he and not you who draws the bow of faith, and aims the arrow of prayer. Do you not find yourself at times strengthened with strength in your soul to pray and cry and seek the Lord's face with a fervor and an earnestness, a boldness and a liberty surprising to yourself; and at such times, does not faith seem raised up in your heart with a sweet assurance that your prayers enter into the ears of the Lord Almighty? Why is this but because the mighty God of Jacob at these seasons strengthens your arms to draw the bow, as he strengthened the arms of Jacob himself to wrestle with the angel the whole night by the brook Jabbok?
Do you not also sometimes feel, in a special manner, that faith is raised up in your soul to believe in the Person and work of the Son of God; to lay hold of him for yourself as all your salvation and all your desire, and thus realize the sweet influence and power of his blood and love? In such favored moments it is not so much you that believe as the Spirit of God believing in you. How strong, O how strong is faith and hope, when the hands of the mighty God of Jacob are making strong the arms of our faith, and enabling us to believe to the salvation of our soul! And do you not also find, that the more the archers shoot at you and grieve you, the better you can use your bow and the more it abides in strength?
O, how the Lord overrules and defeats, as he did so wonderfully in Joseph's case, all the malice of the archers! How he makes all things work together for good to those who love him; and what a confirmation it is to our faith, that when the world, or ungodly professors, or even the children of God themselves, or the great enemy of our souls shoots at us with his infernal artillery—we find sometimes, to our soul's surprise, that our bow abides in strength; that there is a secret power communicated which we cannot describe, yet sensibly feel, so that the bow of faith and prayer is not beaten out of our hand. It is an indescribable mercy when the Lord so strengthens faith as to enable us to find access to himself—power to believe in and receive the Lord Jesus Christ into our very heart—power to submit to his dealings, however trying or mysterious in providence and in grace—and power to do in his strength what we never could do in our own.
Now as your bow thus abides in strength, and your arms are made strong by the arms of the mighty God of Jacob, you will never take up the arrows shot against you and shoot them back against your enemies—for nothing is so likely to cause the bow to drop from your hands; nothing so likely to cause the God of Jacob to take his hands off yours, as for you thus to imitate the ungodly. I do not wish to speak of myself, but this is the way in which I trust I have been led to act—not to be provoked by all that has been said or written against me, to retort upon them their bitter, angry words. It is not from lack of power, for I could shoot back, as well as they shoot at me—but I hope grace has taught me that "the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God" (James 1:20); and that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." (2 Cor. 10:4.)
Bear in mind, then, that your bow is not of earthly, but heavenly construction, put into your hands by the God of Jacob, and that your arrows are not manufactured as theirs are—of carnal, but of spiritual and divine material, and have been lodged in your quiver by the God of heaven. Keep, then, firmly to your own spiritual weapons; and though the archers may severely grieve you with their keen shots, never lay aside the bow of faith that God has given you, to take up the bow of anger and revenge, which is the carnal weapon of your enemies. Never lay aside the arrows of spiritual prayer and supplication to take up the malicious darts of the wicked, lest you provoke the Lord to withdraw his kind support; and then where will be your strength to draw the bow, or where your skill to reach with its shafts the throne of grace?
Let me, in conclusion, just briefly run over some of these thoughts again which I have put before you that they may leave a more abiding impression upon your mind and memory. The leading theme of my subject was, that Joseph, as a fruitful vine, typically represents a true believer. The cause of his fruitfulness I showed you in the well and the wall. I then directed your attention to the enmity drawn forth against him on account of his fruitfulness, and to the grief and pain it caused to his spirit. I then showed how Joseph was not defeated by all the malice of his enemies; that his bow abode in strength, and the reason was because his arms were made strong by the arms of the mighty God of Jacob. I endeavored to impress upon your minds the blessedness of a personal experience of these vital truths.
And now let me conclude by expressing my earnest desire that we may feel a sweet persuasion in our own bosom that we are in some measure walking in Joseph's footsteps; that Joseph's God is our God, and Joseph's shepherd our shepherd; for the aged patriarch added, "From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." And O may the very God of Jacob help us as he helped Joseph, and may we find our bow still to abide in strength, with a blessed conviction in our conscience that it was put into our hands by the Lord himself, and by his grace will ensure us a glorious victory over all our external, internal, and infernal foes!
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