Worship God: by Watchman Nee & Herbert L. Fader & Stephen Kaung

Author:Watchman Nee & Herbert L. Fader & Stephen Kaung
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, General
ISBN: 9780935008739
Publisher: Christian Fellowship Pub.
Published: 1990-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

2

2 The Offence of the Lord

On one occasion, involving John the Baptist, the

Lord said: “blessed is he, whosoever shall find no

occasion of stumbling in me” (Matt. 11.6). In Darby’s version it reads: “blessed is whosoever shall not be

offended in me.” What does this mean? It means that

we do not like what the Lord does. And from our perspective we

have good reason for not liking it. In our own eyes we ought to be offended. That is the offence of the Lord. What the Lord did or did not do caused John the Baptist to be offended. John was not offended by the Pharisees or the publicans, but by the Lord. And from his standpoint he had reason to be offended.

Why was he offended? He had hoped that Israel would be restored

as a nation—that the kingdom would be re-established in justice and righteousness. He had hoped the Lord would bring in a revival. The first Elijah had gone up to Mount Carmel and had wrought mightily.

Israel was revived and Elijah’s ministry vindicated. But the second Elijah, John the Baptist (see Matt. 17.9-13), was put into prison and

was soon to be killed, and yet no national restoration was in sight. So John sent a message to the Lord, because he was greatly offended.

He thought, if I am not to accomplish anything, then surely You, Lord, are to do so! You ought to do something! Couched in a sting of rebuke, John’s message to Jesus was: “Art thou he that cometh, or

look we for another?” (Matt. 11.3) He wanted something done by the Lord by which to demonstrate who he, John, was. From John’s

viewpoint, nothing had been done thus far by Jesus to show who he indeed was, and thus nothing done by which to vindicate his ministry which had now by his imprisonment come to an end.

To “not be offended in me” is not to be offended by what the Lord does or does not do. We feel the Lord does not do what we want,

what we feel He ought to do—that He does not vindicate us. Are we 58 Worship

God

pleased with the way of the Lord with us? This is not just a matter of knowing and doing God’s will, but a matter of whether or not we like His ways. Often we can do God’s will, even though we may do it weeping; even so, we are offended by the way He does things. We

are offended with His way, His road, His method, and so forth. And thus it would seem as if we have a legitimate reason to be displeased.

This has nothing to do with our Lord’s dealings with our flesh, our sacrifice, and so on. For such dealings are on a far lower plane. But I am here speaking of those who have been brought to a place where the whole heart is for God, such as was the case with John the Baptist. We have sought to know His will; we have sought nothing for ourselves; we only want glory for God alone; and yet, in many of God’s ways with us, we are disappointed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.