The Commission Re-issued, and Accepted

“And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. (Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.) And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” — Jonah iii. 1-4. “What was I, that I could withstand God?” — Acts xi. 17. “jT/ the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people he not warned: if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniqtdty; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” — Ezek. xxxiii. 6.

WE have considered the new spirit of dutiful obedience vv’ith which the prophet, after his marvellous and merciful deliverance, would return to the duties of his holy calling. Let us now consider — (1.) The terms in which his commission was renewed; (2.) and secondly, the manner in which he executed it.

I. In the first place, then, we may consider the terms in which his commission was renewed. “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” And here, —

1. Notice, first, the expression employed to indicate the fact that a Divine communication was given to the prophet: “The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, saying.”

It is the formula, or phrase, customarily employed to designate the conveyance of Divine communication to a prophet. It first occurs on the occasion of a prophetic announcement being made to Abraham; and it prefaces that wondrous interview that Jehovah held with His servant beneath the blue vault of the midnight heavens, and beside the slaughtered parts of the victims.

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or sacrifices, by which He ratified the promise of the land to his seed: “The word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. xv. 1). From that time the phrase occurs in Scripture in common use. May it not indicate, however, not merely the advent of an audible sound, but the presence of a living person? May it not point out the Revealer, as well as express the fact of a revelation? The Son of God receives in Scripture the peculiar name of “the Word.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John i. I). It is He who is the only Prophet and Teacher in the Church. It is exclusively through Him that the communications of the Godhead are made to men. No man knoweth anything whatever of the Father’s thoughts and purposes, of the Father’s mind and will, save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal them. May it not indicate, then, the intervention of the great Angel, Apostle, and Prophet of the Church, — through whom alone Divine communications have in any age been made, — when the singular expression is used, “The word of the Lord came, saying “? The language is somewhat strange, if the mere phenomenon of an audible sound is indicated. It is singularly appropriate if the advent and utterances of a living person be intended. Moreover, it serves to keep prominently before our minds the fact that Christ has in all ages been the medium through whom the intimations of the Divine will have been given forth, if we understand that His office, and the exercise of His office, as the great Prophet and Revealer, are indicated, when the expression is employed, “The word of the Lord came.”

It is worthy of observation, also, that while there is a special sense in which it may be said that the word of the Lord came to the prophets, inasmuch as they were constituted the public depositaries and heralds of the Divine revelations: there is a sense, also, in which the word of the Lord is come to every one of us. Wherever the Scriptures are read or preached, “The word of the Lord” is come to every one who hears them. And it remains that every such one consider what reception he has given to “the word of the Lord.” There is something exceedingly alarming in the idea of giving a slighting reception to the word of the Lord — of treating it, when “it comes,” as if it were 2IO The Co7nniission Re-issued — and Accepted.

unwelcome, undesirable, weak, and despicable; as if it were unworthy of being honourably received, or incapable of avenging the insult. The whole character of man, in the light of eternity, depends on the reception that he has given to the word of God. The unconverted have rejected and despised it. If it were not so, it would have arrested, alarmed, humbled, and abased them, and made them turn from idols to serve the living God. Believers, on the contrary, have received it “in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance;” — they have “received it not as the word of man, but as it is indeed and in truth, the word of God, which worketh effectually in them that believe.” And do not think that this word is ever empty, solitary, and dead. The Spirit of Christ abides always by His word. Where that word is lightly esteemed and not admitted to judge, to rule, and regulate the soul, the Great Prophet, in the person of His Eternal Spirit, and in the exhibition of His own and His Father’s will, is despised.

Are men aware of the guilt that they contract in refusing that reverence, faith, and obedience to the Word of God, which believers in a measure alone truly render to it? Are they awake to the alarming thought that the King of glory has paid them a visit in the declaration of His Word, and in the strivings of His Holy Spirit; that they have had an opportunity of receiving and entertaining suitably the eternal Word or Son of the Most High God, or of rejecting, slighting, and despising Him? Yet this is the alternative when the Word of God has come, even as it has to all of us, “For the word is nigh thee” (Rom. x. 8).

2, In the commission thus renewed, the word of the Lord distinctly again sets forth to Jonah the greatness of the city: “Go to Nineveh, that great city.”

And I think the obvious design of this was to set prominently before the prophet’s mind the great difficulty of the work assigned to him. There is to be no concealing from him the arduousness of the task put into his hands. He is made distinctly aware that a work is given him to do, of extraordinary, yea, superhuman magnitude. And the Lord’s purpose in thus insisting upon the greatness of the city, and the consequent difficulty of the undertaking, is not hard to discover. He evidently designed to constrain Jonah to despair of his own strength and qualifications, and to shut him up of necessity to the strength of God as his only resource. He would have his service imbued with an overpowerino- sense of the necessity of utterly denying himself; of laying aside all carnal weapons of warfare; of conferring not with flesh and blood, but casting himself wholly upon his God, that he may be strong in the Lord and the glory of His power. The more the prophet was appalled by the superhuman achievement appointed to him, the more would he feel that he must betake himself to the asylum of the Lord’s protection and support; that he could not possibly go alone; and that by faith he must secure and lean upon the presence and power of Him whose ambassador he was.

And the manner in which God thus dealt with Jonah is substantially the manner in which He deals with every believer; with every one whom He delivers from the power of darkness and transfers into the kingdom of His dear Son. He calls upon them to count the cost. He puts at their disposal the means of doing so. He will have them clearly to understand that the work and warfare on which they are entering are of such a nature that no qualifications of theirs are in any measure adequate to bear them successfully or safely through.

I do not mean to say that God gives every believer, at the time of his conversion, a view of the whole path of trial by which He means to lead him to the promised land, or sets distinctly in his eye the series of afflictive dealings or painful conjunctures and ever-varying contests through which the true soldier is to be perfected for his rest. Very much the reverse. The effect of any such anticipation at the opening of the Christian life, would, humanly speaking, prevail in many instances to crush the young purpose of believing patience and perservance. It is often well for the believer to be able to look but a little way before him. The conflict which, when once exercised in the school of Christ, he mio;ht be able to bear, miMit altogether overwhelm him at his entrance; and few have long known the trials to which a faithful attempt to walk with God exposes His people, without taking frequent refuge in the Saviour’s precious declaration, “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;” and in that other promise, “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” Nor is it possible to imagine how many believers have been cheered by the remembrance that ii2 TJie Coniniissioii Re-issiied — and Accepted.

—“It came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said. Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt; but God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea” (Exod. xiii. 17. 18).

Still all this is not only consistent with, but illustrative of, the fact that the whole Christian life is supernatural, — an impossibility to our own wisdom and strength; and that we cannot take one step, or achieve one conquest in it, without feeling that it is an undertaking all too high for us. Though God shielded Israel from the depressing influence of immediate war with the Philistines, they could be saved from that, and from Egypt both, only by being led “through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” They are thrown wholly upon Divine protection. Divine power. Divine provision. They are taken most completely off from all self-dependence. They are absolutely shut up to God. To confer with flesh and blood is useless. Unless God be on their side, they must be swallowed up quick. Unless by faith they cast themselves wholly on God, there is neither help nor hope. They are simply shut up. By faith only can they pass through the Red Sea as on drj- ground. By faith only can they live in the wilderness. By faith only can they find a path through the trackless desert. To them, their unseen Leader, Provider, Lawgiver, and Guide, is “all in all.” They must count the cost, and see that their only hope must be in this, namely, that “with God all things are possible.”

It is precisely so in all that pertains to our salvation; our lighting the good fight of faith; our working out our salvation with fear and trembling; our abiding faithful unto death. No man knows the tone of mind which is the peculiar essence of all that is truly Christian, who has not seen the superhuman magnitude of an immortal soul’s salvation, and of its perfecting in grace and preparation for glory. With man it is impossible. With man it is impossible to recommend his guilty soul to God, or pay a ransom for his sin; impossible to implant in himself the vital principle of all grace and holiness; impossible, even when it has been planted, to maintain it in life, health, and vigour; impossible to conduct to a successful issue the opposition that must be maintained between that vital principle of grace and the remaining suggestions, impulses, temptations, in a word, the lusts, of the flesh. He is wholly cast upon Another for acceptance with the righteous Judge of all the earth; even on a Divine Substitute and Surety. He is wholly cast upon the power of Another to renew his nature, and enable him truly to trust in the Lord, and fear, and love, and serve Him; even on the Divine Spirit, creating a new heart and renewing a right spirit within him. He is wholly cast upon the same grace of God in every duty, in every time of need; and he never need make one sinfjle effort with the view of “workinsf out his salvation,” save on the believino- understandings that “God worketh in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.” The Bible continually warns you against undertaking the Christian life and warfare in your own strength. It points out the greatness of the work, and shows you that it is too great for you. It shows you the radical and entire change in which the Christian life begins; the great and arduous contest through which it is maintained in existence, prosperity, and progress, amidst the wickedness that remains in your own nature, the tempting and blunting influences of the world, the insidious, ensnaring, violent, and alarming efforts of Satan: and it distinctly sets forth all the arduousness, perseverance, self-denial requisite, in order that you may not fall into the sad snare of imagining that you can either undertake or carry on this work, except in the confiding and appropriating faith of the Holy Spirit’s continual power. So clearly are the sore trials of the faithful Christian depicted; and the multitude of graces he has to cultivate, — diametrically opposite, each of them, to what is natural to flesh and blood; and the manifold duties expected of him, if he is to walk worthy of his high callinof of God, who hath called him to His everlasting; glory and kingdom; — that it is impossible for a man really to understand the case thus depicted, and be infatuated enough to fancy himself adequate to meet it.

When you read, therefore, in the Divine word, of the great and astonishing expectations that God cherishes concerning you; and when j’-ou are apt to fall into utter despair of ever being able to realise them; — when, in your experience, the actual attempt to do so brings you into contact with the continual

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impossibilities; — behold and believe the Divine purpose vsith regard to you. The gracious purpose which God has in view is to take you off from all refuges of lies, and shut you up in His own faithful promise and almighty power. When you learn this lesson, and present yourself helpless at His throne; when you appear before Him in your absolute extremity; when it will no more hide from yourself that your fancied strength is gone, and you hide it from God no more, but resign and renounce all help, all power, save His; — you shall then know that with God all things are possible; that what is marvellous in your eyes need not be marvellous in His; that the ruin of your own strength is the beginning of your glorifying His; that when you are weak, then are you strong, because you have learned now to be strong in the Lord. Be not afraid, then, though evidences multiply to you continually, of the superhuman difficulties in the way of realising steadily your reconciliation with God, and prosecuting steadily the duties of the Christian life, and the cultivation of the graces of the Christian character. You are being taught a lesson without which you will never go from strength to strength. But “wait upon the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, upon the Lord” (Ps. XX vi. 14).

3. The next thing noticeable in the commission delivered to the prophet is the implicit obedience which is now expected of him. His whole mind and will are now to be in immediate and unreserved subjection to God. And there are perhaps two evidences of this.

For when the Lord says, “Arise, go to Nineveh, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee,” it may be, as some have supposed, that the Lord did not at this time inform Jonah of the exact message he would have to deliver, but required of him an immediate departure to the scene of his duty, delaying till he had reached it the announcement to him of the specific communication he would have to make. If this be so, then Jonah must have felt himself placed in some respects in a position similar to that of Abraham, when the Lord called him forth from his native land without yet indicating to him the new land of his adoption.” Now the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land

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that I will show thee.” In either case, there is an immediate duty prescribed; and there is a suspended and delayed communication — delayed and suspended till obedience has first been rendered to the commandment delivered. Thus the Lord tries the obedience of His people. His own authority alone in prescribing duty is the sufficient obligation on His creatures to obey; and irrespective of consequences and of future issues, His simple word alone is entitled to reverence and compliance. Present duty is what we ought to seek to know and seek to do; and when the Lord leads us on in the path of doing it, He will lead us on to larger and more satisfying and more comforting knowledge of His purpose with us. “If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” Abraham is bound to go forth without knowing whither the Lord is leading him; this is the trial of his faith. Accordingly, it is expressly mentioned as the commendation and proof of his believing confidence: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Heb. xi. 8). By faith, in like manner, Jonah must arise and go to Nineveh, to preach there, not yet knowing the preaching, the proclamation, the message that may be put into his mouth. How clearly, in such cases, is faith at once the only instrument of peace, and the only impulse to obedience! There can come forth, in such cases, nothing but a “work of faith.”

But be this as it may; whether Jonah was at once put in possession of the preaching that God commanded, or had to wait till he had accomplished his journey and reached the city before he knew what he should be required to address to its wicked inhabitants, this at least is obvious, that Jonah must be simply a minister of the Divine word. He has no discretionary powers. He is to be an ambassador, in the strictest possible sense. He has simply to make known the will and word of God: “Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”

Now this is the law of the prophetic, the pastoral, the ministerial office: — to preach the preaching that God biddeth. To this law, Christ Himself, the great prophet, was eminently in subjection. That He should be so, was announced to Israel of old, when He was promised as a prophet like unto Moses: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him” (Deut. xviii. 18). In accordance with this, how often, when that Prophet came, did He disclaim the authorship of all that He said, and assign it continually to the Father! “Jesus answered them and said. My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me; the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself.” “For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father, which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlastinaf whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.” Again and again, to this effect, does Jesus continually attribute His word unto the Father as the author of it. Himself personally cognisant of all truth. He acts as the Church’s teacher under the responsibility and within the exact limits of His office. Officially ordained the Father’s ambassador. He confines Himself to a declaration of the Father’s words. He preaches the preaching which the Father has assigned to Him. Exactly as the Father hath said unto Him, so He speaks.

And the law of the prophetic office, thus exemplified in Christ, is imposed on all His servants. For herein is His own saying concerning them true — “As the Father hath sent Me into the world, so have I sent you into the world.” This, indeed, is the source of all their safety, strength, and courage. “The word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord, Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth” (Jer. i. 4-9). Here, also, is the proof of their fidelity and the origin of their success; for in proportion as they preach the very words given them of the Lord, even as the Son Himself did, will they have some humble sympathy with the Son in ultimately professing their faithfulness: “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have manifested Thy name unto Thy people; I have given them the words that Thou gavest Me: and they have received them, and believed” (John xvii).

The gospel, then, that is statedly preached to you, if in any measure faithfully preached, is the word of the unseen God, — the thoughts and will of the King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible. They come forth through His own Son as the original, the one only authoritative, the perfect Prophet. They are now delivered — the message is handed on and handed round — from Him to the assemblies of His professing, worshipping people, by the lips of men, chosen from among themselves, and chosen by themselves. This is the singular and glorious treasure, that is deposited in earthen vessels; the word of the only wise God. Unless unfaithful to our office, we preach the preaching that the living God hath bidden us.

But if this be true, mark the deplorable position in which unbelievers must find themselves placed; and every one must be called an unbeliever who does not so embrace the message of alarm and of mercy as to flee from the wrath to come, repenting of his iniquity and turning to the Lord in newness of obedience.

Mark the position in which they are placed. By refusing to believe the preaching that we preach, they are either accusing Almighty God of sending them by our mouth a message utterly useless and trifling; very solemn and awful in its terms, but very senseless in its import; not worthy to be allowed to work effectually in them or produce any change upon their purposes or course: or, they are bringing against us the unparalleled accusation of falsifying the commission given us, and not preaching the preaching that God hath bidden: oi-, they are laying themselves open to the accusation of making God a liar; of making His word void, so far as their testimony can go; and of giving no more weight to a communication from Heaven than to one from some fellow-creature who holds a low place in their esteem, and by whom they would remain unmoved, say to them what he might. Oh! is it not very obvious that the simple possibility of being capable of treating in this manner a communication of the wisdom and will of the Most High God, indicates a depth and entireness of depravity, such as verifies at once the solemn

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declaration, “Verily, verily, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God “? Were careless and unbelieving hearers of the gospel to rise up in a body, and denounce the exhortations delivered to them by their pastor as a mass of his own self-originated and fraudulent imaginations, there would be infinitely less to wonder at in their refusal to submit themselves to the moulding influence of the doctrines to which they habitually listen. But actually to admit that the sum and substance of the instruction delivered to them is a message of truth coming truly and authoritatively from God, and to live precisely as if such truth were merely fancy, is of all things an exhibition of absurdity and contradiction that exhibits human nature in an aspect most humiliating. But the absurdity and infatuation are equalled by the guilt; for great must be the guilt of men by whom their Lord’s word of salvation when it comes to them is rejected and despised. “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not walk in darkness. And if any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak” (John xii. 46-49).

Nor can we think otherwise of that coming judgment than that it must be so much the more severe as the rejected message from the Father was gracious. For what is that message, that commandment, which the Son delivers from the Father with such exactness and fidelity? Let the Son Himself declare it. “The Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak “(John xii. 49, 50). 0 blessed mission, on which alike the living Head and faithful pastors of the Church are sent! O blessed commandment; to Him and to them alike delivered of the Father! — for does He not” send them into the world, even as the Father sent Him into the world “? 0 exalted motto of the most beneficent office ever executed on the earth!” I know that His commandment is life

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everlasting: whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.”

Yes! The continual Divine injunction to the preacher is: — “Preach the preaching that I bid thee.” May he not well take kindly to his office; seeing that, however some may put the commandment from them, he nevertheless knoweth thai “the commandment is life everlasting “?

II. Let us briefly consider, in the second place, the manner in which Jonah fulfilled his mission. “So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three day’s journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey: and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

The great point, or rather the great principle, of interest and instruction here is contained in the declaration that “Jonah arose and went, according to the word of the Lord.” Nothing now weighed with Jonah, nothing moved him, but “the word of the Lord.” Formerly he had fled from the presence of the Lord according to his own fears; according to the multitude of his thoughts within him. Now he arises, and goes to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. He rests his determination on “the word of the Lord.” He clothes his soul with “the word of the Lord.” He answers every temptation with “the word of the Lord.” Everything save “the word of the Lord” is as nothing in his sight; he looks not to the things that are seen.

Here is the great principle of the trial of faith. As a believer you profess to assign, in your practical regards, a place of absolute, unquestioned supremacy, to “the word of the Lord.” When God hath spoken, it is enough. You are no more faithless, but believing. You are not disobedient to the heavenly message. Difficulties, dangers, fears, anxieties — all must give place where “the word of the Lord” is against them; where they are against “the word of the Lord.” You simply consider them not. You “stagger not at the promise through unbelief.” You bid your trembling heart be still and see the salvation of the Lord. Ah 1 this is “the shield of faith; and by it ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” You resign your own wisdom. You refuse to be governed by things seen and temporal.

There is nothing too hard for the Lord; and the Lord hath passed His word. You “believe that what He hath spoken He is able also to perform;” — that what you have committed to Him He is also able to keep. You confer not with flesh and blood. The weapons of your warfare are not carnal. You are content with “the word of the Lord.” You know that it will stand, and that it will protect you. You believe that it will be unto you even as the Lord hath said. You will venture, peril, trust all on His faithfulness. And blessed are you in doing so! That word of the Lord is a secret home in which your soul dwells in peace. All fears, alarms, obstacles, now are without — outside the citadel. You look forth upon them in composure. They cannot reach you. You have a safety and a peace quite impregnable. You move about in a charmed atmosphere. Wherever you go, you carry this atmosphere with you. Because of it, the world knoweth you not. Because of it, you are in the world, but not of the world. Your principle and rule of action is “the word of the Lord.”

Did you ever meet affliction thus? — did j’ou ever face a trial thus? — did you ever pass through a painful crisis, a sore probation of your patience, faith, or constancy, keeping in view all the while that your purpose and procedure, your temper and policy, should be “according to the word of the Lord”? And did you fail? No. And you never will fail while the desire of your heart and the doing of your hand are ruled and ordered thus. This is the essence of Christianity — the essence of faith.

Tranquillity is here — and strength. Fears and alarms shall pass away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Hindrances to duty shall surrender and give place: but the counsel of the Lord, it shall stand. The multitude of the imaginations of man’s heart are vanity; but what the Lord hath spoken, that is what shall be. To peril all on what hath come forth from the mouth of the Lord is conformable to natural reason; though it is the attainment of nothing less than spiritual and supernatural faith.” For the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the

Lord is clear, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” “For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever” (Ps. xix. 7-9; 1 Pet. i. 24, 25).