T. PIERCE BROWN
In Proverbs
It says,
"The spirit of man is the lamp of
Jehovah."
It
does not say,
"To the spirit of man Jehovah revealed a
light,"
or various other
true statements.
But the spirit is the lamp.
The word "lamp" or
"candle" can refer to the vessel itself,
or the light that
is produced by it.
A light is usually not for the purpose of
shining just to be seen,
but to reveal
something that would not otherwise be seen.
The spirit of man itself reveals some things about God that would
otherwise not be known.
What are some things which man's spirit reveals?
First, it reveals that there is a higher power.
How does it do that?
Only a person who is perversely blind and
willfully ignorant could find a car or a computer and conclude that they just
got there accidentally,
or came into being
by some autonomous evolutionary process.
How much greater the impossibility that the
one who made the car and computer came into being that way!
It is one of the strangest things known to man
that so many persons
who otherwise seem to act rationally
and with a reasonable
degree of intelligence will assume against all known facts,
contrary to their own
experience and logic that some
non living,
non intelligent,
inanimate thing by some
unknown process evolved into a man with a spirit.
How a person could say with a straight face,
"I do not believe in miracles"
and then assert the
above theory is amazing beyond expression.
The phrase,
"survival of the fittest,"
was supposed to explain all sorts of things
in the presumed evolutionary process.
For
example,
I have read that the giraffe had a short
neck,
but in order to survive when the foliage was gone at the
lower level,
it had to stretch
its neck to reach higher,
and thus, in the
process of time, developed its long neck.
Simple little questions
about how those short necked giraffes survived
long enough to live
for several million years
without being able to
reach food,
we are not told.
Also, why the zebra and other animals
that lived in the same locality and needed the same food to
survive
did not grow the long necks,
we never learned.
But the point now is that the
spirit of man is the
lamp of the Lord,
revealing that there is a
higher power,
and that we are
made in His image.
When Jesus said,
"He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father" (John 14:9),
He
indicated that such attributes as love,
Mercy
and righteousness
that were in Him and
revealed by the operation of His spirit
showed the nature of
God.
His spirit was the lamp of the Lord in a very
special way.
But to the extent that we let the life of
Christ be manifest in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians
our spirits are
also the lamp of the Lord in that special way.
The spirit of man is a lamp because it is endowed with the light
of reason,
knowledge
and wisdom.
There
is no evidence that any animal ever raised such fundamental questions as
"From where did I come?"
"What is my purpose on earth?"
"Why do I act like I do?"
"How can I change my actions for the
better?"
"What is my final destiny
and that of the world about
me?"
And it is also another interesting fact that
not only did no
animal ever have any answers to those questions,
no person who ever
believed that man merely evolved from some animal could answer them either.
The reason for this is that those answers
only come from God,
and only the spirit
of a man
who is willing to let the light from heaven shine through
him
can find the answers
to those questions.
The spirit of man is the lamp of God because
it burns with the light of conscience.
There is not the slightest evidence that any
other being on earth has a conscience.
The average person who believes in God still
does not understand the function of the conscience.
In hundreds of private home Bible studies I
have had,
it appears that most believe that the conscience tells them
what is right or wrong.
The truth is that someone teaches the intellect that a thing is
right or wrong.
But
the intellect is not the conscience.
A man
may have a wonderful intellect,
but a poor
conscience, or vice versa.
The conscience is not actually taught
anything,
but is like a
computer,
programmed to receive
certain information
and respond in one of two ways.
When the intellect gives the input to the
conscience,
"That act was good, and I did it,"
God programmed the conscience to respond,
"You are to be commended for the noble
thing you did."
So you
have a good feeling, and the impulse to do good is
strengthened.
When the intellect gives the input to the
conscience,
"That was the wrong thing to do, but I
did it,
" the conscience
responds,
"You should be ashamed of yourself."
The
Bible sets forth the fact that the conscience is a witness,
accusing or excusing (Romans
That
is all it can ever do.
But in
doing that, it bears witness that there is a wise,
loving and powerful
God. For if there is no God,
then there is nothing
morally right or wrong.
And we can tell that He is wise,
Loving
and powerful
because
although He made man with freedom of choice,
He built in a device that encourages him to
do what he believes is right and
discourages him from doing what he believes is wrong.
So the spirit of any man,
Christian or sinner,
is in many ways a
lamp of Jehovah.
But the spirit of a Christian is a light in
some special ways.
When
Jesus said,
"I am the light of the world"
(John
he expressed a
great truth.
Just by coming into the world,
He cast more light on the nature of God,
the nature of man,
the worth of man,
and many other
things than all the philosophies of man combined.
And He
gave more light on any subject He discussed than any and all others.
But when He said,
"Ye are the light of the world"
(Matthew
He
expressed another different,
yet similar truth.
To the extent that we let the life of Christ
be manifest in our mortal flesh,
we let the light of
Christ be manifest in our spirit.
A candle or lamp gives the fire a
manifestation point to the whole room or locality around it.
The candle is glorified by the fire,
and the fire is
manifested in the candle.
The candle was made for that purpose.
Only as it yields to the fire can the purpose
of the fire or candle be properly fulfilled.
The spirit of man
is the lamp of the Lord,
but how brightly that lamp shines depends on the supply of
oil with which we keep it furnished,
and the frequency
with which we re-kindle the flame.
Paul told Timothy,
"Quench not the Spirit."
So we can let the light burn so low it cannot
be seen,
or actually go out
unless we deliberately choose to maintain a loving and spontaneous spirit of
obedience,
and strive to have
the mind of Christ in all respects.
GRAMPA AND GRAMMA ASK YOU TO KEEP FILLING
YOUR LAMP WITH THE OIL OF PRAISE.
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW
PRAISE HIM ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW
PRAISE HIM ABOVE YE HEAVENLY HOSTS
PRAISE FATHER, SON AND HOLY GHOST