Is Your Life a Planting of the Lord?

Jesus had just been talking to the Pharisees, answering them about their complaint that His disciples did not wash their hands before eating, thus transgressing the tradition of the elders, and winds up His answer by the astonishing statement (to them) that that which goeth into the mouth does not defile a man, but that which cometh out.

This, of course, offended the Pharisees and they turned against Him, bringing from Him the answer which is the text, He saying that this washing of the hands was not a planting of the Father and would pass away, and not only this but every other plant that had its beginning in the mind of man and not of God would be rooted up.

We live in a world where for all the outward appearances of strength and endurance, things do not last very long, even the most formidable and solid pass away. What changes have taken place since the day when Jesus spake these words! The Roman government of that day, strong and powerful has passed away, nations reckoned on as powers then, are things of the past now. Proud cities, with their commerce and culture, have gone and now have either wholly disappeared or in its place is a pile of debris, hardly one stone upon another.

Religions that at that time had thousands of devotees have disappeared, gods and goddesses, to whom thousands bowed down and to whom they sacrificed their children are today but a memory of the dim past, no one interested in them anymore. The Pharisees have gone, the temple has practically disappeared, the land is controlled by others. What a fulfillment of the words Jesus spake that day.

None of these things were the planting of the Lord, they were the products of men’s minds and strength, and so they have passed away, gone the way of all flesh and all fleshliness. There were many things wrong with them, but possibly the main thing was that they were not the planning of the Lord and that as they were conceived by men who had within them the germ of death, so all that they do has within it that which in the very nature of things will not endure.

They were not planted by God and therefore the day came when they were rooted up, separated from the ground from which they drew their life and so withered and died. And if this has happened with nations, etc., things that are held up to public view, then how many million times these things have happened in the lives of individuals since then.

What disappointments, heartaches as that which is sown by self is rooted up. Small wonder that some men have thought it best to eat drink and be merry as they have viewed the changing scene and noted that nothing endures to their eyes.

But there are things that have been planted by the Heavenly Father, and it is implied in the text that these will endure, and the centuries have proven that it is so, though these things that seem so powerful then have passed away, the words of Jesus, these heavenly words remain, the works of the genius of that day have disappeared, many of them, but the facts of the fishermen who followed Him and whose mouths God filled remain with us to this day and will endure.

All that God has planted has remained, has never been and will never be rooted up. For more personal evidence, let us look at our lives. What of the desires of years ago? Many of them we have laid aside as not good for us, those things that we desired so intensely have often slipped from our grasp so definitely that we think about them no more. And others that we may have secured proved to be a disappointment, what endures of the old life?

Even in the short space of our lifetime, we have discarded things that we once believed, or that we desired, pleasures that once meant much to us. Friends, too, have passed from our acquaintance, and we hardly know where they are. Everything around us is changing, passing away, and we feel within that we too are passing.

Can we not get a lesson from these words of Jesus, coupled with the evidence of the passing of the things that then were, and also with the experience of our own lives? Is it not true that the plants that the heavenly father has not planted either have been or are being rooted up? Does it pay to continue to plant ourselves? Or would it not be far better in the light of our experience, if from nothing else to allow God to plant in the garden which is our life?

Experience is a good teacher, but not always a successful one. Some learn but little from the ashes of past disappointments, and try something else in their own way, but the trouble is not with the thing alone, it is with the one who plants it. If planted by man, it has within it the germ of the corruption that is in man, if planted by God, it has within that seed of the eternal which is God.

And the natural things have passed without any great fight against them, while the things of God have endured in spite of all that hell could do. Also, pride, temper, self-will will go, not being the planting of the Lord, but only as we will it so.

Will the years prove that we in these days have simply planted plants which were of ourselves, or will those things that are in our hearts prove to be enduring because they are the planting of the Lord? Amen.