The night season is the most difficult for watching and praying. The tendency is to spiritually sleep and to enter into periods of apathy and indifference. Christ warned in the Olivet Discourse that because of the abounding of iniquity (lawlessness), the love of many would wax cold. We truly are witnessing the lawlessness of society, of government, as well as of the churches throughout the world. Without the Bible, Christians cannot maintain a proper worldview of life and will be drawn into the powers of lawless and loose living. As a result, our burning love for God will “progressively cool” down (Greek translation of “wax cold,” Matt. 24:12), and lukewarmness will take over the heart and the living. Amidst the aggressive side effects that have come because of global apostasy, even in the most conservative camps of Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism, compromise has become commonplace.
We must acknowledge that God has sovereignly appointed our lot to be in this generation. Therefore, Christ’s grace will be there to enable us to overcome the worst of the night season. If we enter into spiritual passivity, we will fall away. We must carefully ask, what is this “lot” to the appointed priests of the night season?
The Providence of God
According to the early writings of the Jews, the casting of lots was important. Through this method the priest learned what his appointment by God was for his watch. The priests at the beginning of the watch would pass into the “hall of polished stones” to cast lots for their services. The lot was cast four times, though at different periods of the service. This occurred in the following manner: The priests stood in a circle around the president, who for a moment removed the bonnet of one of them to show that he would begin counting at him. Then all held up one, two, or more fingers of one hand (whatever number they desired). Because it was not lawful in Israel to count persons, the president could count fingers. After announcing a chosen number, he began counting the fingers of the priests until he reached the number announced. This process meant that the lot had fallen on that priest.
The first lot cast was for cleansing of the altar and preparing it. The second lot was for those who were to offer the sacrifice and to cleanse the candlestick and the altar of incense in the Holy Place. The third lot was the most important, for it determined who was to offer the incense. The fourth lot fixed those who were to burn the pieces of the sacrifice on the altar and to perform the concluding portions of the service.
The lots in history were the sign of providence’s choice in a moment of circumstance. This held true to the context of the singers (1 Chron. 25:7, 8) and for the porters or the doorkeepers (1 Chron. 26:13). “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). We must keep in mind that the Bible had not been completed; man relied on providence for finding the will of God, and this included the Urim and Thummim which were a form of the lot. In Acts 1:26 the lots were cast for the man to take Judas’ place among the Twelve. But we must carefully note that prayer preceded this lot, and we are not told how it was done. By Acts 13:2–4, there was no casting of lots, but prayer and fasting and the guidance of the Spirit were now the means of finding God’s will.
God has divinely appointed all of our lives for this season of history. How will we live our lives in this dispensation? How will we find out what we are to do in the decisions of life? As we have all been made kings and priests unto our God (Rev. 5:10), the ministers in the night must live by the Word of God. This written Word must direct us; it must guide us from the smallest part of life to the largest. It must guide our words, our actions, our thoughts, and our motives because the Bible declares God’s thoughts about all of these. It tells us how to live with self, with others, with one’s wife or husband, with children, and with business acquaintances. Everything is to be found in this Book.
We must ever find the Word of God for our lives. The written Word has taken the place of living by the casting of lots; certainly we must not live by the philosophy of “whatever will be, will be.” Although providence is with us twenty-four hours a day, it should not take preeminence over my conscious life. The Word of God is preeminent. We must always be careful how we interpret providence, for we may read into it at the moment that which is not true; we could follow our interpretation of that circumstance at that moment and think we know why it is happening, when we do not. As William Cowper, the great Christian poet, declared, “God is His own interpreter [of providence], and He will make it plain.” Providence is to be viewed by the Christian only as a witness and confirmation to the Word of God and not the reverse.
Providence: Direct Hand or Divine Permission
Providence is very important in the night season of history; it is the “left hand” of God found behind our head (Song of Sol. 2:6) away from the sight of our eyes. It is ever going before us through circumstances and situations to pave the way for our living. However, we must be careful how we view the circumstances that are happening in this wicked and perverse generation. God is working both in the earth in global proportion and also in individual lives. In this night season, how am I to view providence or the workings of God? Such circumstances come either by the direct hand of God (His divine appointment) or by divine permission, which must be viewed as His will though perhaps not for the reason we think. What is the distinction between the direct hand of God and His permission of certain situations?
In Galatians 6:7–9 we read of the biblical law of sowing and reaping. This means that there could be circumstances of blessings or tragedies that come to my life because of how I’ve sown. If I have sown to the flesh as a Christian, secretly or openly, God has placed in the law of that sowing, the outcome of corruption. It is not something directly from God, but He permits it. Some casualties of life come because of how I lived and to what I invested my life. If I sow into the Spirit, the Bible reveals I will reap life everlasting—victory and godliness. We are told in Galatians 6:9, that in the proper season we will reap if we faint not. This is a law of providence. How often we have reminisced and wished we had made different choices because of certain consequences that have come to our lives.
In the Book of Haggai we find another view of providence. Fifteen years had elapsed since the laying of the Temple foundation; no additional work had been done for fear of the Samaritans who had surrounded them. The Jews had immersed themselves in their living, their houses, and their accumulated materialism.
Beginning in Haggai 1:5, five times the prophet calls to them to “consider.” Haggai was calling them to view the circumstances that were against them. The deeper they had gone in decisions to get ahead materially, the worse their circumstances had become. He called their attention to the fact that something was wrong. They needed to stop and consider what had been happening: how many wrong decisions had they made that brought this about? God could not be blamed, yet He permitted such circumstances to come continually upon them because of their own doing. In 1:6–10 he declared,
Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough: ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink: ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house: and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
They had been caught up in trying to live; in doing so, they left God out. The burden of the prophet was not for them to leave Jerusalem because of the failure; they were to get right with God and build a life for God.
One of the most fearful passages of Scripture concerning providence is found in 2 Chronicles 32:31:
Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him [Hezekiah], to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
We never know when such situations in God’s providence will arise. We never know how they will be dressed or presented to us. They may look like God’s blessings yet not be of God, such as these men of the world coming to visit Hezekiah. Nonetheless, this testing was of God. The pretext of this embassy from Babylon was one of friendship, to congratulate the king for his recovery, to see the wonder in the land which included the deliverance from Sennacherib. The visit truly was for secular and not spiritual reasons. However, Hezekiah interpreted it as being from God. Oh, dear reader, we may even pray over things, and yet our hearts may not have the pulse of the Word of God. We may have the words of truth, but not the heart of truth.
In Acts 16:6–11 we view another perspective of providence. The apostle Paul was in his second missionary journey:
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
Sometimes we may wonder why God shuts doors that look so promising with the hope for His glory and the promotion of His Word. Truly, Paul had a consuming desire and heart for God and His Word. But God brought hindrances and restraints in providential circumstances that closed the door to Asia and Bithynia. It was only later in receiving the vision to go into Macedonia that he saw what providence was saying: “assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.” We must wait at times in the closing of doors and avenues by the Lord to find out what it means. There will be an increase of this kind of workings of providence in this night season of history. We must not become frustrated, impatient, or discouraged by them. The English translation “assuredly gathering” comes from a Greek word sunbibazo meaning “to bring together or unite.” When Paul, in reflection, brought together in his thoughts the closing of the doors of a hopeful venture for Christ along with the vision that came later, he was able to interpret the events.
Perhaps a final view of providence is to be seen in 2 Corinthians 12, when Paul prayed three seasons of time for God to heal him of a thorn in the flesh. Perhaps these seasons were when there was an increase of pain or discomfort, or because he thought it was affecting his ministry. God was silent in the first two seasons of prayer; but the third time God told him, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). It was at this time that Paul realized the reason for this providential gift that God had given him: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.” Twelve reasons are given in Scripture for physical sickness; we must find the right reason why we suffer when we do. God may heal to His glory, or the suffering may be an appointed gift to bear, given by God to preserve the soul from certain failures or even sins. The Charismatics have pressed in their theology that sickness is always of the Devil and that it is a result of lack of faith or sin in the life. Only the Word of God can reveal to us what the reason may be. If it is revealed that no healing will come (at least at the time of prayer), we must surrender to this appointment of the Lord and get in harmony with it.
End-time Suffering in Providence
As the End Time deepens, we will witness more and more the suffering for righteousness’ sake. The night season may make it appear as if the Lord will not come. The Christian Faith is the only faith of world religions that gives knowledge and assurance from God in the hour when it seems that He is silent in His manifestations. It may seem, as it did with Job:
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:8–10).
God’s Word gives us the assurance that no matter how dark and how silent the days become, God is ever with us. My dear father, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, made the following observation in his book The Quest for Christian Purity:
Silence is like suffering in that neither of them, of themselves, is sin. It is the reason for God’s silence that will determine whether there is sin or not. The fact of God’s silence, in this universe, may be universal at times. We cannot say that just because God is silent concerning a matter that He is dead or we are lost!
When God begins to give this world over to the final delusion and the “Lie” of Antichrist powers and Interfaithism, we as the Remnant may suffer. But God has promised to bring deliverance in that hour. The Bible reveals two perspectives of deliverance found in two Greek prepositions, apo and ek. Both are translated “from” but have very different meanings indeed. For example, an individual may be delivered “from” (apo) falling into the Mediterranean Sea, which in this case means he was delivered from even experiencing a fall into the Mediterranean. However, if he were delivered “from” (ek), “out of” the Mediterranean Sea, this would mean he was rescued after having fallen into the Sea.
There may be some circumstances that God will deliver us from ever experiencing. There will be other circumstances into which we will go and no doubt experience pain, suffering, and burden; but God will bring us through and ultimately out of them. We tend to want the former deliverance, but God may appoint us to go through the suffering with the understanding of deliverance in the context of ek.
Conclusion
Every true Christian has a divine appointment in this night season. The lot of providence has fallen to every one of us in a variety of places. The remnant are scattered throughout the world wherever God has placed them. They are to find God’s will for the purpose of their lives and to be true to the commitment of His Word in a time when the fears of the night fall upon the human heart. Radical changes have come to our beloved country with no horizontal hope in sight of ever returning to its former days of glory and liberty. Every day of life must count for Christ.
If you find yourself standing at God’s doors appointed for your life and it seems that nothing has knocked on the door, remain true to Christ. Remain in readiness for His knock. One of His doors is communion. While the institutional Church has placed their Lord outside, He is now looking for anyone within to hear His knock and open that door of private, personal, precious communion. The word knock in Revelation 3:20 is a very soft knock, not a loud, banging one. In these days when the public Church is looking for Christ in the “big” and “the shout,” He is quietly knocking. As men look for the thunder, the earthquake, and the wind, we must have our ear tuned to that “still, small voice.” Yes, as the Church is getting louder, God is becoming more silent, and we must discern Him in the silence. Though the Church declares that we are in an awakening, remnant Christians know that the Church is in apostasy. Only a few will hear the Christ and His Word; only a few will hear the knock and open to Him for this “night” meal, the supper. Christ left this world at the first coming after a “breakfast”; but He will be coming after the “supper” (Rev. 3:20) with His saints. More and more we must be looking, praying, watching, and longing for this intimate supper promised to individuals who have opened that door within the Laodicean Church.
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant” (Ps. 25:14). The “secret” is personal, moment-by-moment communion with the Lord. There will come a day, and we pray it will be very soon, that Christ will call us to the air. “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Ps. 50:5). God the Father through His Son made a covenant with us on the cross of Calvary. But there must be the response of the human heart to that covenant from those who will make up the caught-up ones. It will be those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. The key of this sacrifice may be found in Romans 12:1. Modern Christianity of the night season of history has made the Christian Faith impotent and without accountability. But we must be watching and waiting for His Return: “and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28).
Providence will be most crucial for God’s people in this final season before the catching away of His own. This continuous, unbroken, silent miracle of God is ever working to bring about the consummation of the ages in accordance to God’s will, as well as working to the good of each individual within the Body of His Son. Though we often pray for the “right” hand of God, His “seen” hand, to work miracles, the right hand of providence will be that miracle in which we will daily live, yea, moment-by-moment. God’s saints will find themselves relying on this miracle in a greater way as we near the coming both of Christ and the Antichrist.
In our next article we are called to unveil the night season in which we find ourselves.
May God grant us His continuing grace as we come to the last watch of the night season, as we minister for Him unto His saints.
The race of God’s anointed priests
Shall never pass away;
Before His glorious face they stand,
And serve Him night and day.
Though reason raves, and unbelief
Flows on, a mighty flood,
There are, and shall be till the end,
The hidden priests of God.
His chosen souls, their earthly dross
Consumed in sacred fire,
To God’s own heart their hearts ascend
In flame of deep desire
The incense of their worship fills
His Temple’s holiest place;
Their song with wonder fills the Heavens,
The glad new song of grace.—Gerhard Tersteegen—1697–1769