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“Where there is No Vision” Prov.29:18 We live in a very material world. Concerned with the present, the here and now, we must earn our living, care for our families, perform our duties in the Church and to our brethren. It is right to give time and attention to these things. The apostle Paul gives a wonderful exposition on the fact that we are seated with Christ in the Heavenlies (Eph.2:6) and then proceeds to show that as a result of that amazing fact we will be better husbands and wives and fathers and children, recognising our responsibilities as members of our family, Church, place of work and even of the secular State in which we live. But if we are too concerned with these material things we shall soon lose our vision and “perish,” or as one translation has it, “act wildly.” What an apt description of the world today! God has given man a truly wonderful brain to cope with all the problems of everyday life. But this brain has also two other marvellous functions. It provides a memory to bring back to the consciousness the things of the past and an imagination which can envisage the things of the future. The memory and the imagination, like most of our abilities, can be used for good or evil. We are told of those living in the time of Noah whose imagination was “only evil continually.” (Gen.6:5) We can dwell upon things of the past which would depress or worry, and we can look forward to real or fancied events which might have a similar effect. For the Christian, the memory and the imagination will both be included in those things which are consecrated to the Lord and they can be of great importance in spiritual development. Imagination, as the word is here used, is not the practice of daydreaming, of vague desires and fancies which can never be realised, but that “faith (which) is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb.11:1). These images of future events, far from being unrealistic, are more substantial than the ever changing and collapsing world around us, for “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor.4:18). In quiet moments we can ponder on the memory of the Lord’s great goodness, as the Israelites were many times exhorted to “remember” how God had brought them out of Egypt and led them safely through the wilderness and had overcome their enemies in Canaan. So we can continually remember our great deliverance from the power of Satan and the many providences in our lives ever since. How often we have told the Lord of our difficulties and always He has heard the petitions. As we recognise and give thanks for each answer to prayers we go forward in renewed strength and trust, learning by blessed experience that He never leaves nor forsakes us. But what of imagination? Does faith rise as often or as high as it might, to consider the things hoped for but as yet unseen? Do we really have a vision? Isaiah had a vision—a splendid vision of the Lord, high and lifted up. He saw the seraphim and heard them proclaiming “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isa.6:3). As always when men are confronted with the holiness of God, Isaiah was immediately conscious of his sin and of the sin of Israel. Nevertheless, in spite of this sense of utter unworthiness, he heard the cry “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” and because of that glorious vision he at once responded “Here am I; send me.” (Isa.6:8). His name means “Yahweh is salvation” and this was to be the theme of that wonderful message to Israel, although as part of the message he would have many hard and critical things to say to them, many dire prophecies of the Lord’s disciplines. He would warn of invading armies, of the land laid waste, of years of captivity. He would also tell them truths which, in spite of their years of training in the law and the offerings, they would not really understand, and he would give foregleams of a salvation extended to Jew and to Gentile and of the earth restored as the Garden of Eden. Much of the message would be unpopular and the world has a cruel way with those whose prophecies are not acceptable. If tradition is to be believed Isaiah was among those faithful ones described in Heb.11:37 as “sawn asunder.” But he had had his lips touched with coals of fire and his sin forgiven and he was activated by a zeal to serve the Lord which always follows the true appreciation of forgiveness. He volunteered before he knew what was entailed, with a faith like that of Abraham who went out not knowing whither he went. His task was made doubly hard because he was told beforehand that much of it would be fruitless labour, that they would not understand, that they would not hear with their ears or see with their eyes. Yet Isaiah went forth and in the strength of that great vision. He was given the support of the knowledge that a remnant would be saved and that the stumbling of the nation would not be final. What an amazingly important message was his! By his words, from time to time, the dormant Messianic hopes of Israel were revived and the influence of these words can be traced in the writings of later prophets, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Surely, from the writings of Isaiah Jesus himself learned much of how the Lord God would lead him. He would read of the terrible sufferings to be endured for the transgressions of his people, but He would know also that eventually He would “see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” (Isa.53:11). From the same book He was strengthened with the promise of the Kingdom which should never end, of which He would be the King, so that Paul could say of this suffering Servant, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” (Heb.12:2). In Isaiah (40:3) John the Baptist found that which defined his position as the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” (John 1:23) preparing the way for the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world and with words from this book Jesus himself encouraged John when, imprisoned by Herod, he felt forsaken. Many are the quotations in the New Testament which show how the apostles read and loved and by the power of the Holy Spirit understood this prophecy. It confirmed their identification of Jesus as the Messiah and encouraged them to look for that new heaven and earth wherein dwells righteousness. So too have faithful Christians throughout the Gospel age been encouraged by the precious promises recorded in Isaiah. But it was the vision so graciously given by the Lord to Isaiah which enabled him to give forth his message so courageously. How many times when he tried to warn the people and found them so slow to understand would he remind himself “I saw the Lord…, high and lifted up!” (Isa.6:1) and when the people continued in their faithlessness and the enemies swarmed over the land, he would rejoice in his heart at the memory of the words, “The whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isa.6:3) Because of the vision he even endured martyrdom, surely remembering the words of Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death in victory.” The record of Hebrews 11 suggests that many of that list of faithful witnesses qualified for inclusion therein because they had a vision. Abraham looked for a “city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (v.10) Through all his varied experiences Abraham could look beyond the present and see, in imagination, the day of Christ. Moses counted the sufferings of Christ of greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. (v.26) Surely he had a glimpse of the Messianic reign when he said, “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet...like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” (Deut.18:15) Without his vision on the Damascus road, would Saul of Tarsus ever have become the apostle Paul? Not only did he have this wonderful experience but he was able to say, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19 RSV) Visions are not given simply for man’s joy and wonderment. They bring the power to do great things and also a tremendous responsibility. Those who are granted great visions are often called upon to suffer greatly. We have seen the martyrdom of Isaiah. Moses suffered much from the rebellion of the Israelites. Abraham was called upon to show his willingness to sacrifice his only son and Paul was shown how great things he must suffer for Christ’s sake. Great experiences come in the quiet times, not in those snatched moments of prayer and study which give the Spirit no time to breathe the air of heaven. Noah must have spent much time in communion with God to enable him to become a preacher of righteousness in the midst of that wicked generation. He was saved out of the world because he had proved that he did not belong to it. He and his family were the only ones who did not merit the terrible condemnation “It repented the LORD that He had made man.” (Gen.6:6) Moses was alone in the wilderness when God revealed himself in the burning bush and gave him his great commission. As Noah kept himself apart from the evil world around him, so Moses had to come out of the court of Pharaoh. Abraham did not receive his vision until he left the heathen city of Ur. Then God gave him a promise of wonderful blessings for himself, his descendants and through one special Descendant, all the families of the earth. It was not until Paul was in the desert of Arabia that he was taken up to the third Heaven and shown things not lawful to be uttered. Our Lord himself found it necessary to leave the city and go alone into the hills to commune with his Father, spending all night in prayer. We can imagine this was a frequent occurrence. John was alone on Patmos when his great Revelation came, at the end of a long life of loving service. In different ages and with different individuals God uses different methods. We do not, as a rule, have miraculous encounters with the Almighty, although there are moments when we feel He is so near we could almost say, “I saw the Lord.” But these times are rare, perhaps more rare than they should be. Of course we know we are on unsafe ground when we depend too much upon our emotions, but our faith always gains great impetus when we can form some mental conception of the power and love of God. We do not have a wilderness, a desert, a Patmos, a Judean Hill. Perhaps we cannot often withdraw from physical contact with those around us, but if we take advantage of what opportunities we have for meditation, we can cultivate a quietness within ourselves which can lead to an ever-growing awareness of fellowship with our Father and the Lord Jesus. How very much there is in God’s word to teach of his power and love. See him as the Mighty One, revealed in thunder and lightning on Sinai, while Israel trembled. In all the minutiae of the Law, appreciate how He instructed the nation as to his holiness and their sinfulness. See how He provided for their every need in the wilderness and how, in many varied expressions, types and pictures, he gave them promises of the coming Saviour. He himself said, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (Isa.5:4) Read of the mighty works He accomplished through Elijah. The faith of this prophet leaves us gasping, but we are glad that a record has been kept of his despondency under the juniper tree, for it shows the loving tenderness of God when He met his depression with comforting words and necessary food. What scope there is for meditation in the Book of Revelation, as we ponder on the greatness of the One walking in the midst of the candlesticks. We have proved in our own experience that He is faithful and true as we remember that He is the Lamb Who died for us and also the One who encourages every true ecclesia and every individual member. He is the One Who will take the Church to himself as his Bride and to her will be granted all the special blessings referred to in this book. We too, like God’s people of old, can have a vision which will enable us to do all things through Christ. The poet was right when he said, “The world is too much with us.” (Wordsworth) We can have, not only the memory of God’s great love in the past and a bright hope of a glorious future, but a vision of that other world which surrounds us even now. Surely the Secret of the serenity of Jesus was that the spirit world was to him more real than the material one. He was always aware of his Father’s presence; He knew He was surrounded by legions of angels. Can we not give more thought to the eternal realities? God is on his throne; the great High Priest ever lives to make intercession for us; our angels always behold the face of the Father. (Matt.18:10) God’s word declares all this to be true. Most thinking Christians are agreed that the time must be short before the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and as his children we are already translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. So by faith we can use our God-given imagination to bring into present experience the mercies of the past, the hope of the future and the unseen but eternal things of the Spirit which even now are ours if we but claim them. As these things become more and more part of daily life we shall be spurred on to greater faithfulness so that we shall be able to say, humbly and gratefully, “Mine eyes have seen the King in his beauty and I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” “Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Helen Howarth Lemmel |
