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Consider The Lilies
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Many and varied are the lessons taught by the Master during his earthly ministry, and they never grow old. To the true disciple of Christ they are ever new, ever fresh. Whether He taught by the seaside or on the mountains or by the wayside, as He walked and talked with his chosen Twelve, his words of wisdom and grace come to us vibrant with meaning, pulsating with life, full of strength and power, cheering, encouraging and blessing our hearts. To the people whom the master generally addressed, the matter of providing for the necessities of life was a very important one. He rarely had the very rich amongst his audience, generally the poor; and the poor in Palestine and other Eastern countries found it very difficult to obtain food and clothing. In many parts of the world to-day, as in India, there are people who scarcely ever go to bed without going hungry; and to these the necessities of life are a very important consideration. Our Lord Jesus indicated that this was so in his time, saying that the important consideration with most people was, "What shall we eat and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?" They were anxious and worried. "After these things do the Gentiles seek", said the Master. Their object in life was to procure food and raiment. That was the burden of their prayer. And even the Jews, though professedly the people of God, had not learned implicit trust in him, but were to a large extent grasping after the material things, seeking chiefly worldly gain rather than the true riches. Our Lord said that his disciples were to realise that God knew what they had need of before they asked him, and should rest fully content in the matter of what God would provide respecting mundane things. Jesus wished them to be sure that God would so supervise their interests that they should not be in want of anything really good and needful to them. This seems to be the whole lesson that our Lord was inculcating in bringing in this illustration from Nature - "Consider the lilies of the field". It was a forceful reminder that the things of the Kingdom were the things of paramount importance, and that, seeking these things first, they might have the assurance that all needed earthly things should be theirs. What is it that we are to consider about the lilies? "How they grow!". What does this mean? Jesus himself answers, "They toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these ". That is, the lilies grow in a very reasonable way; they develop grace and beauty, and are adorned in robes of loveliness without putting forth unnatural, unusual stress or effort. They are not worried about growing. The lily does not wake up in the morning and say, "Now, I wonder if I can make another quarter of an inch today: I wonder if I shall be able to grow as fast and to look as beautiful as that lily over there; and I wonder what people will think about me". It simply assimilates what it can absorb from the earth, and from the atmosphere what God has provided for it there. It does not say, "I think that I shall go to another place, I cannot grow here", but it does the best it can wherever it happens to be. The lilies of Palestine, to which our Lord referred, were not the flowers that we term lilies, but of another plant family, and a very numerous species, growing everywhere. Those who are accustomed to the flowers of Palestine point to a common reddish flower which they think was meant by "the lilies of the field". Our lesson, then, is that since we have given our hearts to the Lord we are not to be worried, anxious, about the things of the present life. Nor are we to be over-anxious regarding our spiritual growth. We are simply to do our best, and trust the growing to him. But we are to be particularly engaged respecting the things God has promised us, that we make our calling and election sure and attain to the glories which our Father has in reservation. If we give our attention to these things, the Master assured us, the Heavenly Father will so supervise our affairs that we shall not lack any necessity of a spiritual kind or of an earthly kind. He will give us whatever of spiritual blessings and of temporal blessings we need as children of God that we may "finish our course with joy". We are not to interpret our Lord's words to mean that we are to neglect proper duties in life; that He would not have us do any more spinning or toiling than the lilies do; that He would not have us labour with hands and brains in order to care for our family or home. Surely not, for these things are inculcated in the Word of God. Here, evidently, he is impressing us with the thought that while we are doing to the very best of our ability in harmony with the surroundings and conditions which God has provided for us, we are not be worried. We are to be as free from anxious care as are the lilies, to be fully content and to look up in faith to our Heavenly Father, expecting and accepting his providential care and overruling in all our affairs and interests. God knows all about our circumstances. If we need to be transplanted to another place, into a different kind of soil, where our new nature can better thrive and expand, or where our reasonable, temporal needs can be better obtained, He can arrange for it. He knows just what is good for us, best for us, temporally and spiritually. It is our part to look for his leadings, not attempting to take the helm into our own hands, not concluding that the Lord will never change our conditions. If it is best for us that they shall be changed, He will change them, if we trust in him; and surely, if we are his children, it is his will that we desire, not our own! We are to be perfectly restful in whatever conditions or circumstances we find ourselves, restful in the thought, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him ". (Matt. 6.8). Will this not mean sometimes strong tests of faith and endurance, if the conditions of our lot are painful and hard to bear? It may be so, but if the Lord's providence does not for a time offer a way of escape, we may be sure that the test will prove one of the "all things" that will work out our good, if we submit to his will and wait for him to point out a different way, if it shall seem best to him. Let us, as lilies of his planting, bloom for the glory of the Heavenly Husbandman. While Jesus tells us that we should ask, "Give us this day our daily bread", this is not a specification of what we would prefer to have in a temporal way. We are not to specify things that would be most pleasing to our palate. We are to leave that part to him. We are to acknowledge that we are dependent upon him, that we are waiting on his providence and will accept those things which his Wisdom provides as proper for us in connection with the instructions of his Word. So on we go, growing daily, happy and content in God, and
preparing for the Kingdom; for Christians who cannot learn now, under
present conditions, to trust in God, would probably not be able to learn
this lesson under other conditions. Present conditions are especially
helpful, indeed, for those who would cultivate trust, dependence upon the
Lord. In this respect we see that the poor have an advantage over the
rich; and it was those who were poor, like the lilies of the field, that
our Lord Jesus was addressing in the words of our text. And it is to those
who are poor in spirit, who realise their own impotency, who long for the
rest and peace that Jesus alone can give, who come to him for that rest,
that all the Master's gracious promises and lessons of wisdom comfort and
instruction are given. |
