PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Take another example. The matter of diligence is the same. The [fathers] should be diligent, but it must be the person who is diligent. You must be a diligent person, instead of adopting a diligent method.

The same is true for the daily living Some…have one manner of living in private and another manner of living in the church before the brothers and sisters. This is pretense. One should have the same kind of living before the brothers and sisters, and in private as well. We have to be genuine persons….

The lesson [we] have to learn is absolutely not methods, ways, skills, or tactfulness. The lesson…is brokenness before God….When God put Moses over His flock Israel, He first put Moses in the wilderness for forty years with the purpose that he might learn the lesson of brokenness. In Numbers 12, even when Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron rose up to slander him, God's word testifies for him, saying, "The man Moses was very meek, more than all men who were on the face of the earth." During those forty years in the wilderness, Moses did not learn a set of methods concerning how to manage God's people. He learned only one lesson, the lesson of brokenness. God had broken him. When he was forty years of age, he was indeed a very shrewd and capable person. It was as if God said, "Shrewdness will not work; capabilities will not work; the fist that killed the Egyptian will not work; the brute method that slew the Egyptian will not work." All these must be torn down. All these must be broken. God put him in the wilderness for forty years to teach him one lesson only--the lesson of brokenness….

These days we have been studying Numbers. We see that Moses was nearly one hundred twenty years old. He passed through forty years of life in the Egyptian palace, forty years of testing in tending the flock in the wilderness, and thirty-eight years of experience in leading the Israelites. Each time the Israelites rose up to trouble him, however, he did not exercise his own tactfulness….He never exercised his own ways. Each time difficulty arose, he did not reason; he had no methods, arguments, or tactfulness. He only submitted himself to God and let God solve the problem. He was truly a broken man.

The Scriptures tell us that Moses had exhaustively studied the knowledge of the Egyptians. Historians also tell us that he was not only a statesman and an educator, but also a military strategist. He was such a capable man, yet look how much he was harassed by the Israelites! He was like a man without knowledge, without capabilities, and without resources. He only knew to prostrate himself before God. The more the Israelites created disturbances, the more he fell down before God. If there were any methods, he let God work them out. If there were any words to be said, he let God speak to the people. Here we see a man who had wisdom, knowledge, and capabilities, yet he was a broken man…. Witness Lee, The Elders' Management of the Church, pp. 25-35

APPLICATION

1. What is the meaning of doing things by our person rather than by methods?

2. What are some examples of doing things by our person and how can we distinguish between real and pretentious actions?

3. What is the meaning of brokenness before God and how can we practically experience being broken?