The key then to apostolic or prophetic seeing and the receiving of the
revelation of the mysteries of God is found in Ephesians 3:8,
"To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to
preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ."
Authentic
Meekness
In other words, all true "seeing" is given to men like Paul, who indeed
see themselves as the "very least of all saints." Paul is not being
deferential and polite, and making the kind of statement that a chamber of
commerce speaker would make. He actually saw himself as this. He was the
apostle to whom was afforded such visions that God had to give him a thorn
in his side, lest he be exalted beyond measure for the magnitude of the
revelations that were given him. We must not, however, pass by apostolic
character, which is to say, the deep humility, the authentic meekness and
the Christ-likeness of the apostolic or the prophetic man. If the man is
the thing in himself, then it is more than his knowledge. It is his very
life; it is his character; it is his knowledge of God; it is what he
communicates as one who comes to us out of God's own presence.
This statement, "the very least of
all saints" was Paul's actual, stricken, heartfelt consciousness of how he
unaffectedly and continually saw himself before God.
The Closer
to God We Become, the More We See Ourselves as Less
It is a remarkable irony that the deeper we come into the knowledge of
God, the more we see ourselves as less. Instead of becoming more exalted
by the increase of our knowledge of God, the further down we go in seeing
how abase and pitiful we really are. It is a contradiction and a paradox,
and it is a paradox to be found only in the faith. Authentic meekness or
humility is not something that one can learn, emulate, or pick up at
school. It is the dividend of God out of the measure of actual, real
relationship with Him. It is the revelation of God as He is and the
unutterable depths of it, that bring a man to this kind of awareness of
himself.
The revelation of what we are is
altogether related to the revelation of who He is. The two things then
necessarily always go together.
Then I (Isaiah) said, "Woe is
me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among
a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of
hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).
This is the prince of prophets, Isaiah, speaking here. The foundation of
the church, as we have said, is the revelation of God as He in fact is.
That is the foundation. It is not as we think Him to be, which is more
often than not a projection of the way we would like Him to be, especially
when we have chosen to celebrate one attribute of God and ignore another.
The key knowledge is the knowledge
of God as He is, both in judgment and in mercy, and the foundational men
to the church are those who can communicate God in that knowledge. Paul
had this knowledge because he saw himself as the "least of all saints,"
and saw himself as the least because he had this knowledge.
The Meekness
of Jesus
The Lord Jesus Himself was absolute. He used language in such a fierce and
uncompromising way; He overthrew moneychangers' tables. Was He meek even
while He was violent and offensive? This act set in motion the things that
eventuated in His death. How do we reconcile the act of violence that
Jesus performed and the meekness of God? When we think of meek, we think
of lamb-like, quiet and deferring. This is an aggressive act, and yet we
are saying at the same time that it is meek. Meekness is total
abandonment to God; all the more in an act or a word that would give an
impression to the contrary, and lay the obedient servant open to the
charge of a reproach for being violent, or being angry, or being too
zealous. If God wanted to be violent and we withheld Him because it
contradicts our personality, disposition, or preference, then we are
putting something above and before God, namely, our own
self-consideration.
A True
Prophet Not Enticed to be "One of the Boys."
A true prophet will not relent nor refrain. He cannot be bought or enticed
into being "one of the boys." He shuns the distinctions and honors that
men accord men. He necessarily has to or there would be a compromising
of what he is in God. He is scrupulous in character and will never use his
position to obtain personal advantage. He is naturally unaffected, normal
and unprepossessing in appearance and demeanor, despising what is showy,
sensational or bizarre. He is not necessarily the man that is going to be
wearing the hairy garment. He may be wearing rather a three-piece suit! He
will not call any attention to himself by externalities. He is the thing
in himself, in the depth and the pith and marrow of his being because of
his communion with God and his history in God. The false will always lack
meekness, but it is the indistinguishable sign of the authentic prophet,
and also the quintessential character of God.
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