The Lord Will Provide

Rev. W.C. Lamain (1904-1984)

That God gives strength according to cross but also cross according to strength is in agreement with the Truth. We see that clearly confirmed when we read the prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was one who was known from all eternity, beloved of Jehovah. What an immeasurable benefit; who will ever be able to express it in words? In addition to that, God Himself had assured Jeremiah of that granted grace. He was not only known as a child of God and sanctified but also called and separated as a servant of the Lord. In his heart there were mountains of objections, but the Lord took them all away. God Himself took Jeremiah for His own account both personally and officially.

It was a dark and sorrowful time when the Lord called Jeremiah. The righteous judgments of the Lord over both Judah and Jerusalem were at hand. God is not mocked, and a man will reap what he sows. During the reign of the God-fearing King Josiah there was some restraint among the people, but, in general, it was a drawing nigh to the Lord only with the lips; the hearts were far from Him. There was no upright breaking with sin and no heartfelt departing from unrighteousness. Guilt was piled upon guilt, sin upon sin, until the time that God could no longer tolerate their unrighteousness.

It was in these days that Jeremiah had to prophesy. He went about bowed down under the judgments of the Lord. What a deep sorrow filled his heart because of the hardening which increased from day to day. Jeremiah knew that the judgment of hardening preceded the destruction. That is the reason for the great enmity which revealed itself against Gods sent servant. During the rule of King Jehoiakim, Jeremiah was persecuted. Why was that? It was only because he proclaimed the word of the Lord as it had been given unto him by God. How clearly this shows that man seeks nothing more than his eternal ruin and destruction.

In his deep fall man has made a contract of eternal enmity against God. Today, man lives life to the full, either in secret or openly, which will lead him to his eternal destruction unless the Lord by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit stops him. It was also not easy for Jeremiah in the days of the rule of King Zedekiah. Zedekiah was a man without principles (as we see repeated in Pilate’s life). With the use of heavy oaths Zedekiah had pledged obedience to the king of Egypt, but he defected. It would have been better if he had fallen into the hands of the Lord, but of that he remained a stranger, for he sought his strength by the people.

Jeremiah had admonished both ruler and people to bow under the rod of the Lord and to remain submissive to Nebuchadnezzar, but the people would not heed his warning. The prophet had not sought for anything more than their temporal and spiritual welfare. What a deep sorrow it was for the servant of the Lord that they had not paid any heed to his warnings. It caused Jeremiah to suffer because they were his people to whom he was so heartily bound, people from whom one day the Messiah must be born.

Jeremiah was still coming and going among the people, and the time which the Lord gave him he used diligently. To everyone whom he met, he called out, “Do not deceive yourselves!” No matter what means Jeremiah used, however, the people hardened themselves under the Lord’s callings. They would rather have darkness than light. Judah and Jerusalem rejected the truth and believed the lie.

One day Jeremiah went out of the city through the city gate. This was not in the middle of the night but during the day when everyone could see him. He wished to travel to the land of Benjamin where he had been born and where it was likely he still had family. The watchman saw it, and happily he thought there was a reason to detain him. Jeremiah was accused of being a spy, a traitor.

In all good conscience Jeremiah could deny it and prove that it was not the case, but no matter what Jeremiah brought forth, it did not help. Oh, how happy the enemy was. God’s servant was brought before the tribunal by the captain of the guard, and without a further hearing the accusations were accepted as the truth.

Pilate and Herod became friends when it concerned the mocking of Christ. Here we see the same. How foolish are the rulers. Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord, but he was also a petitioner for land and people, one who sighed and wept before God’s countenance. The people do not appreciate the value of such sighing. Jeremiah must be done away with; the blinded and foolish people smote him and cast him into prison.

Jeremiah’s prison was a dungeon in the ground. It was a moist, dirty, shabby hole under the earth like a dark, deep vault. There he lay helpless and inactive, trodden down by the enemy. Why would God permit this to happen? Yes, my friends, that now refers to those two hundred pieces of silver that belong to the guardians (Judges 17). They are the tribulations to which the Lord sometimes lets His dear people be subjected, but let us remember that it is all within God’s wise counsel. That is where it lies hidden, and everything that happens to that people of God is through His fatherly and eternal love.

It was not easy in the underground, but the Lord does not leave those that are His. No matter in what depths the people of God’s people may come or be, the faithful covenant-God goes with them. Just read that precious covenant promise in Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Of the blessed and exalted covenant Mediator it is written, “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them.”

Yea, the bond, established in eternity and worked in this time state in the heart of people made alive by God, can never be broken by the enemy. Even death cannot break that bond of communion and love (Song of Solomon 8:6&7). Jeremiah was thrown underground, but he was neither forgotten nor forsaken of the Lord. Here, the precious mediatorial suffering of Christ receives such value and meaning; that is the strength of his heart. Yea, beloved, there must be external and internal ways in our life wherein God can reveal Himself as the God of His people so that we can sing with the poet:

The Father has never forsaken His Son; there has never been a separation between the godly persons. For this reason there is also never a separation between God and His people because of the intercession of the blessed Mediator of the Covenant.

Our trust is in His holy name,
Thy mercy, Lord, in faith we claim,
As we have hoped on Thee.

For Jeremiah it was a fatherly chastisement and not a judicial rebuke. It makes such a difference if we bring ourselves into prison or if the enemy is allowed to bring us there. Samson was also in prison at one time, but it was with gouged-out eyes and as a lunatic before the Philistines. It was his own fault and his own sin. As Peter lay sleeping in the prison, however, his soul was resting in God. Paul and Silas sang God’s praises in the prison in Philippi.

The difference is great. If we fall into prison because of our own fault, we will find heaven closed, but if we have been brought therein to try us or because God wishes to display the beauty of His mediatorial work, then we will have free access to the throne of God’s grace through Christ’s blood and righteousness. We will then be continually aware of the expressions of God’s love in our heart, and our souls will be strengthened out of Christ’s administration.

Christ came in the fullness of time, bound by the cords of death and hell. He descended freely to be taken prisoner so that His bound people would be delivered from prison and so that when they are in the greatest bonds, they should glorify God. As Mediator He was forsaken of God in order to bring His people to God, to reconcile them with God so that God would nevermore be forsaken of them. Oh, eternal wonder of God, which can never be measured or understood. It will cause us to sink away with godly adoration and wonderment and fill our heart with heavenly joy.

The Father has never forsaken His Son; there has never been a separation between the godly persons. For this reason there is also never a separation between God and His people because of the intercession of the blessed Mediator of the Covenant. No, that does not mean that they always understand clearly and completely. Zion can, at times, complain despondently, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” Yet, as soon as God comes over in their soul, they will express it differently; then there are no more complaints; their heart and mouth praise the eternal, unchangeable, covenant faithfulness of God who has loved His people with an eternal love.

Such people experience that God goes with them everywhere and that not one of the world’s enemies can interrupt the link between God and their soul. There have been occasions that telephone service has been interrupted and that the connection between one and the other was lost; the way or connection to heaven, however, cannot be broken by any enemy.

Christ lives to always intercede for His people, and the dear Spirit prays in their heart with unspeakable utterances. Christ is the ladder of Jacob whereupon the angels ascend and descend. In Christ, God descends to His people, also those in the depths, and from those depths, through faith, they may climb up to God’s altars. Oh, what riches, what blessedness. The world is so poor, and God’s child is so rich—not rich in themselves but rich in God through Christ.

Jeremiah had spent many days and nights sighing in that miserable dungeon, but God heard the sighing and the complaint of him who was bound in fetters. God will not let His people be tempted above what they are able but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that they may be able to bear it. Jeremiah could not help himself or deliver himself. A child of God is never jealous of people who are able to save themselves, but he is jealous of those for whom God, through eternal love for Christ’s sake, comes to their aid.

What happened? The prophet was supposed to die in that dungeon, but the Lord shows that He has all hearts in His hand, and even “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.” Zedekiah was wicked, but his conscience still spoke. How terrible it is when a person’s conscience is closed and neither blessings, nor callings, nor judgments speak to him anymore.

Secretly, King Zedekiah had Jeremiah brought to him. It was the same later with Belshazzar. When no one else could read the writing on the wall, the then already ninety-year-old Daniel was called. In such anxious times God’s people are still desired, but it is mostly to quiet one’s conscience. That was also the case at this time; it was an anxious and dark time for the king. The Chaldeans surrounded the city, and what would be the outcome for himself and the people? Everything had him in its grasp, and his conscience testified against him. Perhaps Jeremiah could comfort him.

Here we have the man who does not have God as his refuge in trouble and in death and who grasps at a reed which shall only pierce his hand. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). The question of the king is whether the prophet still has a message from God. Yes, Jeremiah has a message, but its contents are such that it contains no encouragement. “Thou shalt fall into the hand of the king of Babylon.” At the same time that he brought his message, Jeremiah humbly asked to be released from his prison. He had suffered greatly under all of these dealings. If only the king would now take a strong stand and let Jeremiah go free, releasing him completely, but this deceitful king does not agree to do that.

Yet, God’ servant received some relief, and therein was apparent God’s faithful care. Zedekiah gave the command to place Jeremiah in the court of the prison. Some people translate this as being the porch of the prison. There Jeremiah could walk about freely, move around, and breathe deeply. That was a great relief for him. In the dungeon it was oppressive from all sides; he could not get any fresh air. Believe with me that he has sung:

Come, hear, all ye that fear the Lord,
While I with grateful heart record
What God has done for me;
I cried to Him in deep distress,
And now His wondrous grace I bless,
For He has set me free.

As a second example of God’s faithfulness it is written, “That they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent.” Our life lies in God’s hand, both our inward and outward needs, according to body and soul. The rams of Nabaioth so often have to minister to God’s church, and the enemies have to provide nourishment for those poor people. God uses them for it.

A piece of bread was a slice of bread, so we must not imagine that it was a loaf of bread as we know it. It really was not so much. Bread was scarce, and it had to be shared, but for Jeremiah it was enough. “The little that a righteous man hath is better than all the riches of the wicked.” God had added His blessing to that slice of bread; God made the little that Jeremiah received enough, and enough is much.

Now this is all recorded as comfort for God’s people in the troublesome days which we are presently experiencing. If only we would bow under God and His punishing hand. God has come. The lion has roared. His judgments are a mighty deep. Oh, do not deceive your soul. It is only a beginning of sorrows as Christ has so emphatically said.

Something is felt of the dreadfulness when God comes, and then to have to meet Him unconverted and unreconciled. Outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire. Oh, that I may intreat you, both young and old; do not harden your heart, but let the Lord lead you. Fall down before the Lord; now it is still the time. Only in the wounds of that precious Surety there is a hiding place under the throne of the Almighty to provide safety from all of the arrows of the enemy.

Now there is still a remnant according to the election of grace, but so often because of personal guilt they are in the dungeon or in prison. That is also true as it concerns their own life. Do not try to jump out of the pit yourself but ask that the great God might yet command for it to be so. Oh, that the Sun of Righteousness would arise for troubled souls, that you might be released from the pits without water through the blood of the covenant and in Christ be acquitted under all of the judgments and tribulations. May the power of that reconciling, purifying, sanctifying, sparing, but also that arousing blood be applied by the Holy Spirit. What joy it would be if God’s people could lift up their head and that head and heart would be made free and open by the eternal Spirit for Christ’s sake. Then no troubles remain, not even temporal ones. Then there is a bakers’ street where bread is baked as long as Jeremiah is in Jerusalem.

Oh, people of God, that has been merited by your Surety. Because of your sins, the earth has been cursed, but where the earth has been made drunken through His blood, it brings forth good fruit. It is a wonder when such people, in all their unworthiness, may eat a piece of bread. They will have moistened it with their tears because of the wonders of the Lord. Yet, how deeply their soul sinks away before God when they may look upon Christ who has merited everything, also the bread. He has taught them to pray, “Our Father which art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread.”

To have received a childlike right for that merited bread, oh, then to sink away in adoration before God:

O bless the Lord, who all thy need supplieth!
Thy soul with good He fully satisfieth,
And like the eagles, He renews thy youth.
Jehovah doeth right, for He is holy;
His judgments for the sore oppressed and lowly
Are done in perfect righteousness and truth.

And then one day, never more to be in the dungeon but to be taken up in eternal glory—then no more a slice of bread but to be satisfied with the joy of God’s countenance, at His right hand where there are pleasures eternally and forever. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

(The preceding article was written in 1940 at the beginning of World War II.)

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