Before Moses died, he called the leaders of Israel before him, and gave to each tribe a special blessing, somewhat after the manner in which Jacob blessed his twelve sons before he died. Asher was one of the tribes of Israel. The son of Jacob who bore this name was by Zilpah, the maid of Leah, whom she gave to Jacob for wife. One of the utterances of Moses in this blessing upon the tribe of Asher was, "And as thy days, so shall thy strength be." Deut. 33:25. This promise has been a source of comfort to God's people in all ages.
Christ gave expression to the very germ of this thought when He said, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matt. 6:34. This places the Christian under the watchful care of God, who is to supply every need and to make his strength equal to the task required. It eliminates covetousness, a sin abhorred by the Lord, and greatly to be shunned by Christians.
Christ taught the same comforting truth in greater detail in His sermon on the mount:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek: ) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 6:24-33.
Here we have the Asher blessing applied, illustrated, and emphasized by Christ in a way that puts to shame our lack of faith. The Christian's business is so to teach the word, and so to live it, that the people will believe the promises of God. If we cannot persuade a Christian to accept the true meaning of a scripture, we leave him as if that promise was never made. It is not his scripture when he does not believe it. If we do not believe a promise ourselves, it is useless to try to cause others to believe; for our very lack of faith denies the teaching. One must believe that the scripture is true if it is to do him any good. If one does not accept the promise and make it his own, he remains unhelped by the word of God.
The Asher promise, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be," is a golden promise, and provides for the future in a way that eliminates all need of worry. Sometimes we fear that we shall not have sufficient strength to meet an issue, and worry ourselves into actual physical weakness because we are fearful that demands will be made on us which are beyond our ability to meet. All these fears and worries unfit us to meet the requirements of the hour as we could have met them had we relied on God and sought Him in prayer and simple faith. God requires no effort on our part for which He is not ready to impart strength. He does not tell His messengers to "go," and then leave them to provide themselves with the power to do the work to which He has sent them.
Many times we do not see how it will be possible to do a required duty. It is beyond our strength, or wisdom, or means. Now when it is known that God commands this to be done, it may assuredly be believed that God will enable the man commanded, to do that work acceptably in His sight. When God commanded His servants in ancient times to do a work, He never failed one of His men if they obeyed His commands. Noah was enabled to build the ark; Abraham was enabled to leave his father's country and people, and to fulfill the command of the Lord; Moses was able to meet Pharaoh, working mighty miracles before the eyes of Egypt that commanded their respect and fear, and to lead Israel across the Red Sea, impossible as it seemed when the command was given; Paul was enabled to escape his enemies and their bitter persecution till the end. All things are possible to those who believe; and if we fail to have faith, we must live in fear and dread all our days of unbelief. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be," belongs to this ministry and to this advent movement.
There never was such a superhuman task required of any people in any age. All other requirements are not to be compared to giving the advent message to all the world in this generation. Judging from the human viewpoint, we would say at once that it cannot be done. History furnishes us with no parallel to this great movement. There is no comparison with any work that God ever gave to man, to see how a similar work has ever been accomplished by man. Already this message has gone away beyond the early church in the world-wide extent to which it has been preached. It has men and workers speaking or writing in all the leading languages of the world; it has more literature scattered abroad than was ever printed and used in promoting any other message that God ever sent to mankind, save the Scriptures.
Yet some tell us that we cannot do the work because of its herculean size and the obstacles involved. But the only question we need to settle is, Is this work from God? When we settle that fact in the affirmative, all else is made easy. We need not say that it cannot be done; we need not fear tomorrow, nor worry about finances; we need not fear apostasies. God will take care of all these things. He will see that His people have the strength to do the work assigned to them. What we need is faith to see the providences of God using the required agencies to bring about what He says shall be.
This work is of God. It is clearly set forth in the prophecies of Revelation and Daniel. Then, as far as God is concerned, He will see that men do this work. True, it is beyond the wisdom and strength of man; but we have yet to reckon with the power of the Holy Spirit. He is infinite in strength, and can do the work that God has said would be done. Through the ages the Godhead has met every promise, fulfilled the word of His servants, and He is abundantly able to bring about whatever God has said shall be.
The great question is, Am I being used of God in this great advent movement? Am I doing my work faithfully as unto the Lord? Am I an office seeker, and a selfish, worldly man, though in the church, seeking my own advancement and not the glory of God? To each worker it is all-important that he be able to know that he is being used of God to promote His work on earth. The question is not, Am I engaged in the work of God? but, Is the Lord using me to His glory? Each worker must answer that question himself. Any person who is in God's work with unselfish motives, with the one desire to win the lost to Christ and to help prepare a people who will be ready and waiting when the Lord shall come, may know that the blessing of Asher is sure, and will be fulfilled in his daily experience.
Faith in the promises of God eliminates fear. Tomorrow is in God's keeping. Today is as far as I am called upon to live and to work. The promise, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be," provides the child of faith with the assurance that as he is cared for and enabled to do the work of God today, so will he be tomorrow. One step at a time, one second of time, is all that we ever have; we live now, and God cares for us. Each passing moment we see and feel the same presence and power of God. So we trust all to His loving care to keep all His promises to us.
Faith in God makes us strong. When we trust Him, we are buoyant, optimistic, expectant. God can do more with an ordinary man who believes and knows that God is his helper than with a doubting Thomas who is weakened by his unbelief. The promise stands out strongly, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."
L.E.F.
