What Submission Is (1)

Short words, soon spoken; but to have a suitableness of heart to them is one of the highest attainments of faith. To be sure, it is well; we think so when all things go according to our wish, when there is nothing in providence that crosses our desires, that thwarts our designs, that sinks our hopes, or awakens our fears. Submission is easy work then. But to have all things seemingly against us, to have God smiting in the tenderest part, unraveling all our schemes, contradicting our desires, and standing aloof from our very prayers, how do our souls behave then?

This is the true touchstone of our sincerity and submission. “Here,” as it is said in Revelation 13:10, “is the patience and the faith of the saints.” This shows what they are made of, what they are within.

What is submission to the will of God? To prevent mistakes, we will consider a little what it is not, and then what it is. Therefore to mention but three:

1. This “well” does not suppose there is nothing in providential dispensations which, to flesh and sense, appears evil. Submission quiets under an affliction, but it does not take away our sense and feeling of the affliction. The apostle speaks what is every believer's experience, “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous” (Hebrews 12:11). Whatever be spoken of the good of it, it presents to us a very different face; it is a matter of present grief and sorrow to them that are chastised; nor are we blamed for our feeling and sense of it.

Our blessed Lord Himself wept at the grave of His dead friend (John 11:35), and at the approach of His last sufferings, His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death (Matthew 26:38). Yet He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He opened not His mouth; there was patience and quiet submission under all His sorrows, while nature had some vent, for groans are sometimes an easing of our grief.

Thus it is said of this good woman in our text that “her soul is vexed within her” (verse 27). Elisha saw her agony in her looks, though he knew not the cause of it; and yet all is well. When Job lost his substance and his children and was smitten in his body with sore boils; when Heman and the church in the Lamentations were deprived of the consolations of God; when the Comforter, who could relieve their souls, was far from them; when David also was cursed by Shimei and turned out of doors by his own son; can you think that in all this there was no feeling? Had there been none, there could have been no profit by any of the dispensations.

Unless we realize our trials, and account them trials indeed, what are we the better for them? This would be to despise the chastening of the Lord, to be above correction. To be smitten and not grieve is one of God's sorest judgments, and always indicates a soul ripe for ruin. This “well” does not suppose us insensible of the evil of affliction.

2. Though we believe all that befalls us is well, this does not forbid our inquiring into the reasons of God's providential dispensations, and a searching out the cause for which they come upon us. Every rod has a voice in it, and the man of understanding will hear it, and see the name of God in it (Micah 6:9); what God intends by it, what is His end and design in it. “For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33). There is a “need be” in every dispensation that befalls us: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (1 Peter 1:6).

God acts with judgment in proportion to our needs. There is a convenience and fitness, even more, there is an absolute necessity in the case; it must be that we are in heaviness, and that through manifold temptations. One single trial oftentimes will not do; to empty us of self, to wean us from the world, to show us the vanity of the creature, the sinfulness of sin, and so on, it must be repeated, or others joined with it, so fast are our affections glued to things of time and sense.

Now what this need is in us, what this intention and end is in God, the Christian will and ought to be searching out and inquiring daily into. This was Job's state (and ye have heard, as says the apostle, of the patience of Job), “Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: that which I see not teach Thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more” (Job 34:31-32). Sin lies deep, it must be searched after in the deep and secret corners of the heart; there is so much self-love and self-flattery hid there, that a man cannot judge aright of himself or of God with divine teachings.

“It is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement.” Now, it is one thing to be chastised, and another to bear chastisement—to behave aright under it; to be patient, submissive, thankful; to have a state of heart suited to the dispensation, whatever it is. This is to bear chastisement; and wherever this is, the language of the soul will be, “That which I see not teach Thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.” When an affliction is sanctified, it always produces godly fear and jealousy. A man is then most afraid of his own heart, lest that should deceive him; lest he should come out of the furnace unpurged and unrefined; lest the end of God's visitation upon him should be unattained. And this is well, consistent with our believing all that God does is well done.

3. A soul may say, in a proper frame of mind, and in the exercise of suitable affections, “It is well,” and yet long, and pray, and wait, for deliverance from the trial. Submission to the will of God under awful dispensations is not inconsistent with earnest prayer for a gracious and speedy outcome to these very dispensations. 'Tt is well,” says this good woman in my text; and yet how does she plead for the life of the child (verse 28)! “Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?” As if she had said, “I asked it not; I could scarcely believe it when it was promised me. God raised my expectations Himself, He encouraged my hopes, and surely He will not go back from His own word.”

It was a wonderful act of faith, but the promises of God can never lie long unfulfilled. When He has prepared the heart to pray, His own ear is open to hear. He has not called Himself “I AM THAT I AM” for nothing. Abraham staggered not at the promise through unbelief; no more does this daughter of Abraham here. It is a blessed pleading. “Did I not say, Do not deceive me?” May I trust? May I venture? He has given me the faithful word of God to rely on; here my faith rests. And a son came in due season.

Now she looked to God, the Author of the mercy, and applied to the prophet, who was the revealer of it. He sent Gehazi with his staff, but this will not content her, except Elisha go himself; she knew he was great with God; she will, therefore, have his prayers and presence. “As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee” (verse 30). All this argues the strong desires of her heart after the return of the child's life, though still she says, “All is well.”

While we bear chastenings, we may pray, and pray hard, that God would take them off. “If it be possible,” says innocent, aggrieved nature, in the man Christ, “let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). Opening our mouths against God is our sin; but it is our duty to open our mouths and our hearts to Him. In the former sense, says David, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it” (Psalm 39:9). And yet with the same breath he adds, “Remove Thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand” (verse 10).

Were a child, under the correction of a parent, to show no desire of his leaving off, should we not rather account him stubborn than submissive? In like manner, not to ask of God release from troubles is as offensive as to murmur at them. It is a token of a proud heart and a relentless spirit. God expects other things at our hands; even of the wicked He says, in their affliction, “They will seek Me early”; much more shall His own people, who have known His Name, and prayer, and been so often set at liberty by it from all their fears. If these are silent, they cannot be sensible nor submissive. Only, there is in all their prayers, when they are most earnest and vehement, “If it be consistent with the will of God,” and then there will be no limiting Him as to time or way.

None of these things are inconsistent with the soul's saying under the most awful rebukes, “All is well.”

— John Hill (1711-1746)

— to be continued —

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