Moses, the Man of God
“Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel.” — D”eut. xxxiii. 1
The man of God! How much the name means! A man who comes from God, chosen and sent of Him. A man who walks with God, lives in His fellowship and carries the mark of His presence. A man who lives for God and His will; whose whole being is pervaded and ruled by the glory of God; who involuntarily and unceasingly leads men to think of God. A man in whose heart and life God has taken the right place as the All in All, and who has only one desire, that He should have that place throughout the world.
Such men of God are what the world needs; such are what God seeks, that He may fill them with Himself, and send them into the world to help others to know Him. Such a man JMoses was so distinctly that men naturally spoke of him thus — Moses, the man of God! Such a man every servant of God ought to aim at being — a living witness and proof of what God is to him in heaven, and is to him on earth, and what He claims to be in all.
In a previous chapter we spoke of Intercourse with God as what man had been created for, as 32 the privilege of daily life, as what was to be our first care in the morning watch. What was there said had chiefly reference to our personal need, and the power of a godly happy life influencing others. The name, Moses, the man of God! and the thought of a man being so closely and manifestly linked to God that men as by instinct gave this as his chief characteristic — the man of God! — leads us farther. It brings us out into public life, it suggests the idea of the impression we make upon men, and the power we can have of so carrying the sign of Gods holy presence with us that when men see us or think of us, the name shall at once suggest itself — The Man of God.
These are the men the world and God equally need And why? Because the world, by sin, has fallen away from God. Because in Christ the world has been redeemed for God. And because God has no way of showing men what they ought to be, of awakening and calling and helping them, but through men of God, in whom His life. His spirit. His power are working. Man was created for God, that God might live and dwell and work and show forth His glory in him and through him. God was to be his all in all. The indwelling of God was to be as natural and delightful as it is true, strange and incomprehensible. When the redemption of Christ was completed in the descent of God the Holy Spirit into the hearts of men, this indwelling was restored, God regained possession of His home. And where a man Gives
Himself up Wholly to the Presence of the Holy Spirit, not only as a power working in him, but AS God Dwelling in Him (John xiv. 16, 20, 23; 1 John iv.) he may become, in the deepest meaning of the word, A Man of God!
Paul tells us that it is through the power of /Holy Scripture that “the man of God is complete.” This suggests that with some the life is imperfect, and needs to be made perfect. “Every scripture is inspired of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the Man of God May BE Complete, furnished completely to every good work.” This brings us again to the morning watch as the chief time for personal Bible study. It is as we yield heart and life to the Word, for God through its teaching, its reproof, its correction, its instruction to search and form our whole life, and be thus come under the direct operation of God, and into full intercourse with Him, that the Man of God Will be Complete — furnished to every good work.
Oh! for grace to be truly a man of God! A man that knows and proves these three things; God is all; God claims all; God works all. A man that has seen the place God has in His universe and in men — He is the All in All! A man who has understood that God Asks and Must Have All, and who only lives to give God His due and His glory! A man who has discovered the great secret that God Works All, and seeks, like the Son of God, to live in the unceasing blessed dependence that the Father in Him speaks the words and does the work.
Brother! seek to be a man of God! Let God in the morning watch be all to thee. Let God during the day be all to thee. And let thy life be devoted to one thing, to bring men to God, and God to men, so that in His Church, and in the world, God may have the place due to Him.
“If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven.” Thus answered Elijah when the captain called him to come down. The true God is the God who answers by fire. And the true man of God is he who knows how to call down the fire, because he has power with the God of heaven. Whether the fire be that of judgment or the Holy Spirit, the work of the man of God is to bring fire down to earth. “VHiat the world needs is the man of God who knows God’s power, and his power with God.
Do believe that it is in the secret prayer habit, of daily life that we learn to know our God, and His fire, and our power with Him. Oh! to know what it is to be a man of God, and what it implies.
In Elijah as in Moses we see how it just means a separation from every other interest, an entire identification with the honour of God, no longer a man of the world, but a Max of God.
There is a secret feeling that all this brings more strain and sacrifice, difficulty and danger, than we are ready for. This is only true as long ‘’a as we have not seen how absolute God’s claim is, how unutterably blessed it is to yield to it, and how certain that God Himself will work it in us. Turn back now and look at’^Moses, the manf prayer, ‘Moses, the man of the word, and see how out of these three grew — Moses, the man of God. ’ •’■’^See the same in the life of Elijah — the harmony between our hearing God’s word and His hearing ours, and the way in which it becomes Divinely possible to be and live — A Man of God. And study then the application.
THE POWER OF GOD’s WORD
“The word of God which worketh in you that believe.” — 1 Thess. ii. 12.
The value of the words of a man depends upon my knowledge of him who speaks. What a difference when a man gives me the promise, I will give you the half of all I have, whether the speaker be a poor man who owns a shilling, or a millionaire who offers to share his fortune with me. One of the first requisites to fruitful Bible study is the knowledge of God as the Omnipotent One, and of the power of His word.
The power of God’s word is infinite.” By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.’’ In the word of God His omnipotence works: it has creative power and calls into existence THE Very Thing op Which It Speaks.
As the word of the Living God it is a living word, and gives life. It can not only call into existence, but even make alive again that which is dead. Its quickening power can raise dead bodies, can give eternal life to dead souls. All spiritual life comes through it, for we are born of incorruptible seed by the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever.
Here there lies, hidden from many, one of the deepest secrets of the blessing of God’s word — the faith in its creative and quickening energy. The Word Will Work in Me the Very Disposition OR Grace Which it Commands or Promises. ^’It worketh effectually in them that believe.” Nothing can resist its power when received into the heart through the Holy Spirit “It worketh effectually in them that believe.” “The voice of the Lord is in power.” Everything depends upon learning the art of receiving that word into the heart. And in learning this art the first step is — Faith in Its Living, Its Omnipotent, Its Creative Power. By His word “God calleth the things that are not, as though they were.”
As true as this is of all God’s mighty deeds from creation on to the resurrection of the dead, it is true too of every word spoken to us in His holy book. Two things keep us from believing this as we should. The one is the terrible experience in all around, and perhaps in ourselves too, of the word being made of none effect by human wisdom or unbelief or worldliness. The other the neglect of the teaching of Scripture that the word is a seed. Seeds are small, seeds may be long dormant, seeds have to be hidden, and when they sprout are of slow growth. Because the action of God’s word is hidden and unobserved, slow and apparently feeble, we do not believe in its omnipotence. Let us make it one of our first lessons. The word I study is the power of God unto salvation; It
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Will Work in Me in All I Need, All the
Father Asks.
What a prospect this faith would open up for our spiritual life! We should see all the treasures and blessings of God’s grace to be within our reach. The word has power to enlighten our darkness: in our hearts it will bring the light of God, the sense of His love, and the knowledge of His will. The word can fill us with strength and courage to conquer every enemy, and to do whatever God asks us to do. The word would cleanse, and sanctify, would work in us faith and obedience, would become in us the seed of every trait in the likeness of our Lord. Through the word the Spirit would lead us into all truth, that is, make all that is in the word true in us, and so prepare our heart to be the habitation of the Father and the Son.
What a change would come over our relation to God’s word and to the Morning watch if we really believed this simple truth. Let us begin our training for that ministry of the word which every believer must exercise, by proving its power in our own experience. Let us begin to seek this, quietly setting ourselves to learn the great faith-lesson, the mighty power of God’s word. Nothing less than this is meant by saying: the Word of God Is True! because God himself will make it true in us. We shall have much to learn in regard to what hinders that power, much to overcome to be freed from these hindrances, much to surrender to receive that working. But all will come right if we will only set out upon our Bible study with the determined resolve to believe that God’s Word Has Omnipotent Power in the Heart to Work Every Blessing oe Which It Speaks.