Our Hands Kept for Jesus.
_'Keep my hands, that they may move_
_At the impulse of Thy love.'_
When the Lord has said to us, 'Is thine heart right, as My heart is with
thy heart?' the next word seems to be, 'If it be, give Me thine hand.'
What a call to confidence, and love, and free, loyal, happy service is
this! and how different will the result of its acceptance be from the old
lamentation: 'We labour and have no rest; we have given the hand to the
Egyptians and to the Assyrians.' In the service of these 'other lords,'
under whatever shape they have presented themselves, we shall have known
something of the meaning of having 'both the hands full with travail and
vexation of spirit.' How many a thing have we 'taken in hand,' as we say,
which we expected to find an agreeable task, an interest in life, a
something towards filling up that unconfessed 'aching void' which is
often most real when least acknowledged; and after a while we have found
it change under our hands into irksome travail, involving perpetual
vexation of spirit! The thing may have been of the earth and for the
world, and then no wonder it failed to satisfy even the instinct of work,
which comes natural to many of us. Or it may have been right enough in
itself, something for the good of others so far as we understood their
good, and unselfish in all but unravelled motive, and yet we found it
full of tangled vexations, because the hands that held it were not simply
consecrated to God. Well, if so, let us bring these soiled and
tangle-making hands to the Lord, 'Let us lift up our heart with our
hands' to Him, asking Him to clear and cleanse them.
If He says, 'What is that in thine hand?' let us examine honestly whether
it is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not, do not let
us hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be something we do not
like to part with; but the Lord is able to give thee much more than this,
and the first glimpse of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
your Lord will enable us to count those things loss which were gain to
us.
But if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so much
more with it than before. Moses little thought what the Lord was going to
make him do with that 'rod in his hand'! The first thing he had to do
with it was to 'cast it on the ground,' and see it pass through a
startling change. After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard
and terrifying as it was to do so. But when it became again a rod in his
hand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a wandering
desert shepherd. Henceforth it was 'the rod of God in his hand' (Ex. iv.
20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God Himself would do
'marvellous things' (Ps. lxxviii. 12).
If we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see
that the marginal reading of the word is, 'fill the hand' (_e. g._ Ex.
xxviii. 41; 1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of 'other
things,' they cannot be filled with 'the things that are Jesus Christ's';
there must be emptying before there can be any true filling. So if we are
sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for Jesus, let us
humbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them thoroughly, that
He may fill them completely.
For they _must_ be emptied. Either we come to our Lord willingly about
it, letting Him unclasp their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering
weights they have been carrying, or, in very love, He will have to force
them open, and wrench from the reluctant grasp the 'earthly things' which
are so occupying them that He cannot have His rightful use of them. There
is only one other alternative, a terrible one,--to be let alone till the
day comes when not a gentle Master, but the relentless king of terrors
shall empty the trembling hands as our feet follow him out of the busy
world into the dark valley, for 'it is certain we can carry nothing out.'
Yet the emptying and the filling are not all that has to be considered.
Before the hands of the priests could be filled with the emblems of
consecration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of atonement (Lev.
viii. 14, etc.). That came first. 'Aaron and his sons laid their hands
upon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering.' So the transference
of guilt to our Substitute, typified by that act, must precede the
dedication of ourselves to God.
'My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.'
The blood of that Holy Substitute was shed 'to make reconciliation upon
the altar.' Without that reconciliation we cannot offer and present
ourselves to God; but this being made, Christ Himself presents us. And
you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.
Then Moses 'brought the ram for the burnt-offering; and Aaron and his
sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the whole
ram upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour, and an
offering made by fire unto the Lord.' Thus Christ's offering was indeed a
whole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suffering even unto
death. These atoning sufferings, accepted by God for us, are, by our own
free act, accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance.
Then, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for consecration; for then
'he brought the other ram; the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his
sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.' Here we see Christ, 'who
is consecrated for evermore.' We enter by faith into union with Him who
said, 'For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be
sanctified through the truth.'
After all this, their hands were filled with 'consecrations for a sweet
savour,' so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering
and dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in the
very same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and life
and power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled with
'consecrations,' filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a sweet
savour to God in Him.
'And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?' Do you
want an added motive? Listen again: 'Fill your hands to-day to the Lord,
that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' Not a long time hence,
not even to-morrow, but 'this day.' Do you not want a blessing? Is not
your answer to your Father's 'What wilt thou?' the same as Achsah's,
'Give me a blessing!' Here is His promise of just what you so want; will
you not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall immediately follow.
He does not specify what it shall be; He waits to reveal it. You will
find it such a blessing as you had not supposed could be for you--a
blessing that shall verily make you rich, with no sorrow added--a
blessing _this day_.
All that has been said about consecration applies to our literal members.
Stay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this little
book as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how perfectly fitted
for what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with the brain, so as to
yield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience without which its
beautiful mechanism would be very little good to us! _Your_ hand, do you
say? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life, or rough and strong
with a working one, or white and weak with illness, it is the Lord Jesus
Christ's. It is not your own at all; it belongs to Him. He made it, for
without Him was not anything made that was made, not even your hand. And
He has the added right of purchase--He has bought it that it might be one
of His own instruments. We know this very well, but have we realized it?
Have we really let Him have the use of these hands of ours? and have we
ever simply and sincerely asked Him to keep them for His own use?
Does this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely 'religious'
work, as it is called? No, but that _all that we do_ is to be always
definitely done _for Him_. There is a great difference. If the hands are
indeed moving 'at the impulse of His love,' the simplest little duties
and acts are transfigured into holy service to the Lord.
'A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.'
George Herbert.
A Christian school-girl loves Jesus; she wants to please Him all day
long, and so she practices her scales carefully and conscientiously. It
is at the impulse of His love that her fingers move so steadily through
the otherwise tiresome exercises. Some day her Master will find a use for
her music; but meanwhile it may be just as really done unto Him as if it
were Mr. Sankey at his organ, swaying the hearts of thousands. The hand
of a Christian lad traces his Latin verses, or his figures, or his
copying. He is doing his best, because a banner has been given him that
it may be displayed, not so much by talk as by continuance in well-doing.
And so, for Jesus' sake, his hand moves accurately and perseveringly.
A busy wife, or daughter, or servant has a number of little manual duties
to perform. If these are done slowly and leisurely, they may be got
through, but there will not be time left for some little service to the
poor, or some little kindness to a suffering or troubled neighbour, or
for a little quiet time alone with God and His word. And so the hands
move quickly, impelled by the loving desire for service or communion,
kept in busy motion for Jesus' sake. Or it may be that the special aim is
to give no occasion of reproach to some who are watching, but so to adorn
the doctrine that those may be won by the life who will not be won by the
word. Then the hands will have their share to do; they will move
carefully, neatly, perhaps even elegantly, making every thing around as
nice as possible, letting their intelligent touch be seen in the details
of the home, and even of the dress, doing or arranging all the little
things decently and in order for Jesus' sake. And so on with every duty
in every position.
It may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at one's hand, with the
recollection, 'This hand is not mine; it has been given to Jesus, and it
must be kept for Jesus,' may sometimes turn the scale in a doubtful
matter, and be a safeguard from certain temptations. With that thought
fresh in your mind as you look at your hand, can you let it take up
things which, to say the very least, are not 'for Jesus'? things which
evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for
Him or by Him? Cards, for instance! Can you deliberately hold in it books
of a kind which you know perfectly well, by sadly repeated experience,
lead you farther from instead of nearer to Him? books which must and do
fill your mind with those 'other things' which, entering in, choke the
word? books which you would not care to read at all, if your heart were
burning within you at the coming of His feet to bless you? Next time any
temptation of this sort approaches, just _look at your hand!_
It was of a literal hand that our Lord Jesus spoke when He said, 'Behold,
the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table;' and, 'He that
dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall betray Me.' A hand
so near to Jesus, with Him on the table, touching His own hand in the
dish at that hour of sweetest, and closest, and most solemn intercourse,
and yet betraying Him! That same hand taking the thirty pieces of silver!
What a tremendous lesson of the need of keeping for our hands! Oh that
every hand that is with Him at His sacramental table, and that takes the
memorial bread, may be kept from any faithless and loveless motion! And
again, it was by literal 'wicked hands' that our Lord Jesus was crucified
and slain. Does not the thought that human hands have been so treacherous
and cruel to our beloved Lord make us wish the more fervently that our
hands may be totally faithful and devoted to Him?
Danger and temptation to let the hands move at other impulses is every
bit as great to those who have nothing else to do but to render direct
service, and who think they are doing nothing else. Take one practical
instance--our letter-writing. Have we not been tempted (and fallen before
the temptation), according to our various dispositions, to let the hand
that holds the pen move at the impulse to write an unkind thought of
another; or to say a clever and sarcastic thing, or a slightly coloured
and exaggerated thing, which will make our point more telling; or to let
out a grumble or a suspicion; or to let the pen run away with us into
flippant and trifling words, unworthy of our high and holy calling? Have
we not drifted away from the golden reminder, 'Should he reason with
unprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith he can do no good?' Why
has this been, perhaps again and again? Is it not for want of putting our
hands into our dear Master's hand, and asking and trusting Him to keep
them? He _could_ have kept; He _would_ have kept!
Whatever our work or our special temptations may be, the principle
remains the same, only let us apply it for ourselves.
Perhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept hands will be very gentle
hands. Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves
into expression by the hand, though the tongue may be restrained. The
very way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or
a defeat, a witness to Christ's keeping or a witness that we are not
truly being kept. How can we expect that God will use this member as an
instrument of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it thus as an
instrument of unrighteousness unto sin? Therefore let us see to it, that
it is at once yielded to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that
it should have been even for an instant desecrated to Satan's use, lead
us to entrust it henceforth to our Lord, to be kept by the power of God
through faith 'for the Master's use.'
For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest
touch of a finger. Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward
shoulder being the turning-point of a life? I have known a case in which
the Master made use of less than that--only the quiver of a little finger
being made the means of touching a wayward heart.
What must the touch of the Master's own hand have been! One imagines it
very gentle, though so full of power. Can He not communicate both the
power and the gentleness? When He touched the hand of Peter's wife's
mother, she arose and ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand
which Jesus had just touched must have ministered very excellently? As we
ask Him to 'touch our lips with living fire,' so that they may speak
effectively for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, that they may
minister effectively, and excel in all that they find to do for Him? Then
our hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.
It is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are indeed our Lord's, we
may ask Him to guide them, and strengthen them, and teach them. I do not
mean figuratively, but quite literally. In everything they do for Him
(and that should be _everything we ever undertake_) we want to do it
well--better and better. 'Seek that ye may excel.' We are too apt to
think that He has given us certain natural gifts, but has nothing
practically to do with the improvement of them, and leaves us to
ourselves for that. Why not ask him to make these hands of ours more
handy for His service, more skilful in what is indicated as the 'next
thynge' they are to do? The 'kept' hands need not be clumsy hands. If the
Lord taught David's hands to war and his fingers to fight, will He not
teach our hands, and fingers too, to do what He would have them do?
The Spirit of God must have taught Bezaleel's hands as well as his head,
for he was filled with it not only that he might devise cunning works,
but also in cutting of stones and carving of timber. And when all the
women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, the hands must
have been made skilful as well as the hearts made wise to prepare the
beautiful garments and curtains.
There is a very remarkable instance of the hand of the Lord, which I
suppose signifies in that case the power of His Spirit, being upon the
hand of a man. In 1 Chron. xxviii. 19, we read: 'All this, said David,
the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all the
works of this pattern.' This cannot well mean that the Lord gave David a
miraculously written scroll, because, a few verses before, it says that
he had it all by the Spirit. So what else can it mean but that as David
wrote, the hand of the Lord was upon his hand, impelling him to trace,
letter by letter, the right words of description for all the details of
the temple that Solomon should build, with its courts and chambers, its
treasuries and vessels? Have we not sometimes sat down to write, feeling
perplexed and ignorant, and wishing some one were there to tell us what
to say? At such a moment, whether it were a mere note for post, or a
sheet for press, it is a great comfort to recollect this mighty laying of
a Divine hand upon a human one, and ask for the same help from the same
Lord. It is sure to be given!
And now, dear friend, what about your own hands? Are they consecrated to
the Lord who loves you? And if they are, are you trusting Him to keep
them, and enjoying all that is involved in that keeping? Do let this be
settled with your Master before you go on to the next chapter.
After all, this question will hinge on another, Do you love Him? If you
really do, there can surely be neither hesitation about yielding them to
Him, nor about entrusting them to Him to be kept. _Does He love you?_
That is the truer way of putting it; for it is not our love to Christ,
but the love of Christ to us which constraineth us. And this is the
impulse of the motion and the mode of the keeping. The steam-engine does
not move when the fire is not kindled, nor when it is gone out; no matter
how complete the machinery and abundant the fuel, cold coals will neither
set it going nor keep it working. Let us ask Him so to shed abroad His
love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, that it may
be the perpetual and only impulse of every action of our daily life.