Spurgeon was making the point that the animal will attack the stick, not the arm of the person wielding it! Now, let us judge for ourselves, have we ever been ‘doggish’ in our reactions, attacking the implement being used against us, rather than considering the one who employs it? This is one of the graphic pictures that Spurgeon uses and I write of it in the context of our souls and our gracious Tutor Father Who disciplines in love and employs many an agency to accomplish His good purposes. How often God uses persons as His ‘stick.’ At first we bite back at them in anger and resentment, arguing our points and our rights, in fact there are a myriad of ways in which we seek to sink our teeth into the particular thing or person who has come our way and from which or whom we feel the smarting hurt.
What a relief to our soul when we see past the ‘thing’ to Him Whose intentions are wholly to shape and mould and do us good. We do not have to be ‘doggish’ for the Holy Spirit has come to help us see! It takes a long while for some of us to get beyond the apparently immediate agent, (actually God is THE immediate One) to see Him Who is our Heavenly Teacher, and to see always necessitates repentance and deepening humility of heart on our side, the jettisoning of all realms of blame and the kissing of the Divine hand holding the stick. This contrast is great, instead of biting the stick, let the Holy Spirit show you the hand and with thankful heart lavish kisses upon your God who means only blessedness and not ill. This might appear impossible to us at this point, but He can conduct the willing soul through to the state where they justify God for permitting such things to come their way. Let me apply this to those persons who have been, or presently are somewhat like a stick to us. We have all experienced, perhaps at school, at work and in the church those who seem to be on a mission to mould our souls to the shape they think we ought to be, they are strong souls, perhaps the word ‘psychic’ could be employed but without occult overtones.
Some fancy themselves to be the carver employing chisel to accomplish God’s purpose in another’s soul, in fact, they are nothing more than the tool of the True Workman Who is God Himself and let them beware, for they shall be the subject of God’s judgment, giving account for the pressures they bring upon others. In the scriptures we see the personages of ones like Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus who God used as His chisel, they overstretched their work and paid the price, they were more like hammers and mallets, heavy handed and cruel, they did not wrap their sword in cotton wool. Yes, they were God’s agents, but took on a life of their own and went beyond their calling in the carnality of their own natures, wounding God’s people beyond His decree and God judged them at a later date. I have remarked before concerning verse fifteen of James chapter three where he links together that which is ‘earthly, soulish (psychical) and devilish.’ When souls run rampant in their natural (earthly) strengths in God’s church, indeed, in any arena, politics, education, anything at all, they will surely be conduits for that which is devilish. Herein lies a cause of the hurt experienced by many in church life, it is the outcome of heavy handed leadership, bordering on cruelty, the natural ‘bull’ nature of some extending to them becoming bullies when they are in any way challenged. Beware of the man who quotes ‘touch not the Lord’s anointed and do My prophets no harm,’ (1Chr 16v22, Psalm 105v15) in the defending of his own position of leadership.
Remember, it was God Who said that of Abraham, Abraham did not speak that way of himself. Plenty of damage has been done to souls by domineering leadership, trading off their position and so called ‘anointing,’ mistaking their own strong soul powers for the promptings of God’s Spirit within them. Intimidation, manipulation and domination are characteristics of witchcraft, not of the work of God’s Spirit. We all know that it was the will of God the Father that Jesus our Lord went to the death of the cross, it was God, His was the arm, but the sticks were the High Priests, the Pharisees and the earthly minded multitude that had been manipulated by the religious and political leaders of their nation, the predictable marriage of religion and politics issuing in the cruelty of the cross against the sinless Son of God is often discernible in other forms in the realms of secular government and even in the actions of some church leaders.
The Spirit of God and the spirit that works in this world are antithetical to each other; there can be no union between them. Psalm twenty-two contains a prophetical statement that ‘Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths…’ and in the same psalm Jesus calls upon His Father, looking beyond the agencies He is using and says ‘Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.’ (Psalm22 v20) The word ‘darling’ is an arresting one; it is not easy to translate, its meaning is ‘my only one,’ ‘my solitary person.’ This captures something of the effects of psychic manipulation and intimidation coming from domineering (though maybe well intentioned) leaders, it forces the soul into a sense of isolation, whereas the ministry of God, even in His chastisements carries with it the fellowship of His love and good purpose so that we can say that His chisel is wrapped in cotton wool. The edge of His tool is whetted on the stone of His love and He desires to carve so that we scarcely feel the pain for the joy.
There is no one like Him, skilful in working; tender with the souls He loves. The abuse of power is possible to all in positions of leadership in the church; some souls are much more prone to it than others though. It is sometimes present in the music of a church, how often I have felt the manipulative power of the ‘worship leader’ with their choice of songs and exhortations, the intimidating influence of the volume of the band and the way the first hour of many a Sunday morning meeting is dominated by what is regarded as indispensable to a ‘good meeting.’ Please note the use of these three words again, manipulative, intimidating and dominating, they are characteristic of souls operating in their own power. Thank God it is not always like this, it is blessed to be in churches where the leaderships and the musicians are sanctified souls, where, if there was a ‘bullish’ nature, God has been allowed to bring about change so that the former bully deals tenderly with other souls. It might seem strange to say it, but human souls took on various ‘animal’ attributes when sin entered in; it was all part of our fall. Jesus spoke of Herod being ‘a fox,’ God speaks in Psalm thirty two that we are not to be like horse and mule that require bit and bridle because of our wild tendencies and the apostle Paul states that those who have a wolf nature can be present in the churches.
But, what is a dog save a domesticated wolf? Surely our God is able to most wonderfully ‘domesticate’ us in the type of souls that we are so that we can say of a truth “He has shown and is showing me, He has changed me and is changing me!” We do not lose these characteristics, but the wildness of them is most surely removed so that we can be truly ‘dogged’ in godly determination and ‘wise as serpents and harmless as doves!’
