WHAT ARE WE TO DO IN THE PRESENCE OF DIVISIONS?
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In the first place we must ever remember that if "brethren" so-called had never divided, or if, by some miracle of grace, they were all together again, they would still be but a little remnant, The Church would still be broken and ruined. The mere coming together again of brethren would very well content many, but would it content the Lord? Viewing things from our standpoint our vision becomes contracted, our interests limited, and our affections cramped. Did we but see things from the Lord's standpoint we should feel more deeply the condition of the whole Church, and our part with it in all the evil and confusion that has come into the house of God through our failure in responsibility.
However, just as the remnant in Haggai's day, though forming part of all Israel, were distinguished from their brethren in captivity, and had special messages from the Lord, and were dealt with in a special way by the Lord, so may we not say that those in our day, who have received the light of the Church, and seek to walk according to this light, are in a place of special privilege with special responsibilities, though united with all Christians to form the house of God, and sharing in the ruin of that house?
With this reminder, let us confine our thoughts, for the moment, to the divisions among those called "Brethren." Again we ask, does Scripture give us any light as to what is the right course to pursue in the presence of these divisions? Doubtless many Scriptures contain principles that will guide us, and amongst others may we not say that the passage we have quoted from the prophet Isaiah, has great instruction for us in the presence of our failure, as indeed it had for Israel in the day of their failure?
We have seen that the prophet reproaches Israel in the day of their perplexity with not discerning the hand of the Lord in all their troubles. If the enemy was at the gate, if there were breaches in the walls, they failed to see that it was "by" or "from the Lord." First then, learning by their failure, let us unreservedly own that because of our folly the hand of the Lord is upon us in discipline. In the address to Laodicea, presenting the last phase of the professing Church on earth under the gaze of the Lord, He sees on the one hand the great mass of unreal profession which He is about to spue out of His mouth: on the other hand He sees His own — those whom He loves — and such He chastens. Has not the day come when we either belong to those who are loathed and spued out of His mouth, or to those who are loved and chastened by His hand? Looking beyond all second causes which may instrumentally have brought about division, let us see clearly, and definitely admit, that because of our failure these breaches are "from the Lord." It is not that, by so speaking, we charge the Lord with our sin and failure but behind all these troubles and because of our sin and failure, we see the hand of the Lord. No one would charge the Lord with the sin of stirring up strife among the Lord's people, and yet because of the low condition of the Ezra remnant the Lord says, "I set all men everyone against his neighbour" (Zech. 8: 9, 10). Moreover, if we are broken and divided under the chastening of the Lord it behoves us to beware lest we "despise" the chastening of the Lord on the one hand, or "faint" under it on the other.
To say, as some do, "Divisions are all wrong and therefore we ignore them, and minister, or even break bread, wherever we can" is to ignore the fact that divisions exist under the chastening of the Lord, in a word, to despise His chastening — an intensely solemn thing. On the other hand to surrender divine principles and abandon the path of separation because of our failure, is to "faint" under the chastening of the Lord. We have been too apt to view division in relation to our brethren and the way they have treated us, or we have treated them, rather than view them in relation to the Lord and the way we have treated Him. We have said, "We are divided because so-and-so did a wrong act or propounded a wrong doctrine," instead of saying, "We are divided because we have failed to give Christ His place as Head in whom is all the fulness of the Godhead, all power and all wisdom for every possible difficulty that could arise in the history of the Church." The Lord has allowed us to discover that it is much easier to divide than to come together again.
Secondly, we have seen that in the day of Israel's trouble and perplexity they made efforts to stop the breaches, and they looked to their armour, but they did not look unto the Lord. Here surely we have another great lesson — not only let us own that all that has come upon us is "from the Lord," but, abandoning our own puny efforts to stop the breaches, let us whole-heartedly turn to the Lord. The point of departure must of necessity be the point of recovery. As we have seen, "Not holding the Head" was the point of departure, to turn to the Head, as our all-sufficient resource is the way of recovery. It should deeply touch us that the very One we have so deeply wronged — whom we have slighted and grieved — is the only One to whom we can turn in our sin and shame. It is far easier to set to work to repair the breaches than to bow before the Lord in confession of the sin that caused the breaches. One has said "It suits the flesh in us far more to repair a breach and so present a respectable appearance, than to bow in confession and own the hand of the Lord dealing in faithfulness with that which He loves" (Rev. 3: 19).
Finally the inhabitants of Jerusalem were rebuked for feasting and drinking at the very time when the Lord called for weeping and mourning. If it is right to stedfastly set our faces against all human efforts to patch up the breaches, does it therefore mean that we must quietly acquiesce in the fact that the Lord's people are divided? Are we to settle down in heartless indifference to the saints from whom we are divided? Far be such a thought. But it may be asked "What else is there to do?" There is one thing we can do — and only one — we can humble ourselves before the Lord and cry mightily to the One who has said "I will close up the breaches" (Amos 9: 11). In the presence of the breaches we may well look to God that our hearts may be burdened with the sense of our sin and shame, so that with hearts moved to their depths we may confess our sin to the Lord and cry mightily to Him, and wait, and wait upon Him, for who can tell whether He will be gracious to us, and how far He might grant some measure of healing; and who can say that even yet there may not be some distinct movement of the Spirit of God in [the early part of] this century as in the preceding centuries?
Whether it will be so, or what form it might take none can forecast. God is sovereign and will maintain His sovereignty in spite of all that we are. It is ours to cast ourselves upon Him confessing our failure and the common failure of the Church. Such confession, commencing perhaps with only a few, might spread to a very great number being brought to confession before the Lord. The first movement of the Spirit in dealing with unholy alliances formed by the people who returned from the captivity, commenced with one man. Ezra alone pours out his soul before God, saying, "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee" (Ezra 9: 6). But the effect of one man's acting by the Spirit was very great, for we read "When Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children, for the people wept very sore."
Thus in the presence of these sad divisions our only godly course is to unreservedly own that the Lord's hand is upon us in discipline, to turn to the Lord as our only and sufficient resource, and humble ourselves under His mighty hand in confession of our sin and shame.
If, by a special work of the Spirit of God in our day "a very great congregation" of the people of God, in all parts of the earth were stirred to humble themselves in confession before God, it might be answered by that long looked for moment when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, when the sleeping saints shall be raised, when the living saints will be changed, and when at last His scattered and long divided saints "shall be caught up together" to be for ever with the Lord.
H. S.
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