CHRISTIAN, BE AN EXAMPLE!
By H.A. Ironside
“When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.” —Deut. 22:8-12.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.” —Num. 15:37-38.
The Apostle Paul gave us an example of taking spiritual lessons from some of these rules of the Old Testament which we no longer consider so important in our times.
When he speaks of the support of Christian workers, he goes to Deuteronomy to find a text, and chooses one which we might thing has no real application to the subject we are treating—indeed, a most peculiar text: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” (Deut. 25:4).
Naturally, we could ask, “What does this have to do with the matter of the support of a servant of the Lord and preacher of the Gospel? Paul uses it, not to teach us consideration for animals that work so patiently serving man, although the Scriptures do clearly emphasize this, but rather to show us our responsibility to care for the temporal needs of the spiritual workers so that they may be free to carry out their labors without anxiety for earthly things.
In Proverbs we read,“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:5).
A converted man gave his testimony of his conversion in a public meeting. When he finished, his wife arose and said: “Friends, if anyone here doubts the testimony of my husband, he should come to our farm. Before he was saved, every cow, every horse and every dog fled from him because he was so vicious that he beat them cruelly; now the animals come running to him.
The entire attitude of the man toward his farm animals had changed.
But the Apostle Paul points out that this was not written only for oxen, but also for our benefit. The ox who treads is an beautiful illustration of the servant of Christ —“treading out” the truth which feeds the soul, the Word of God, in order to prepare it for us.
Now imagine an ox treading and helping himself to a little mouthful every so often as he works along. God says that those who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.
Many churches forget this. They are content to have the servants of Christ that minister the Word of God to them year after year, and they do not notice in the least their needs. They are like the deacon who prayed: “Lord, bless our pastor; keep him humble, and we will keep him poor.”
The use which the Apostle makes of this texts suggests that many texts which apply to conditions in the past, after all, contain veiled suggestions for ourselves.
“When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.” —Deut. 22:8-12.“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.” —Num. 15:37-38.
The Apostle Paul gave us an example of taking spiritual lessons from some of these rules of the Old Testament which we no longer consider so important in our times.
When he speaks of the support of Christian workers, he goes to Deuteronomy to find a text, and chooses one which we might thing has no real application to the subject we are treating—indeed, a most peculiar text: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” (Deut. 25:4).
Naturally, we could ask, “What does this have to do with the matter of the support of a servant of the Lord and preacher of the Gospel? Paul uses it, not to teach us consideration for animals that work so patiently serving man, although the Scriptures do clearly emphasize this, but rather to show us our responsibility to care for the temporal needs of the spiritual workers so that they may be free to carry out their labors without anxiety for earthly things.
In Proverbs we read,“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:5).
A converted man gave his testimony of his conversion in a public meeting. When he finished, his wife arose and said: “Friends, if anyone here doubts the testimony of my husband, he should come to our farm. Before he was saved, every cow, every horse and every dog fled from him because he was so vicious that he beat them cruelly; now the animals come running to him.
The entire attitude of the man toward his farm animals had changed.
But the Apostle Paul points out that this was not written only for oxen, but also for our benefit. The ox who treads is an beautiful illustration of the servant of Christ —“treading out” the truth which feeds the soul, the Word of God, in order to prepare it for us.
Now imagine an ox treading and helping himself to a little mouthful every so often as he works along. God says that those who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.
Many churches forget this. They are content to have the servants of Christ that minister the Word of God to them year after year, and they do not notice in the least their needs. They are like the deacon who prayed: “Lord, bless our pastor; keep him humble, and we will keep him poor.”
The use which the Apostle makes of this texts suggests that many texts which apply to conditions in the past, after all, contain veiled suggestions for ourselves.
SWORD of the LORD April 19th, 1996
