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Scripture Reading: Psa. 90:12; Eph. 5:16-17; Joel 2:25
(Editor's Note: The following article was printed in the Chinese edition of Twelve Baskets Full, Volume 5, chapter twelve. It is similar in content to the article "The Numbering of Spiritual Days" published in Issue No. 47 of Notes on Scriptural Messages and reprinted in The Collected Works, Volume 19. However, there are variations in the arrangement of the material in these two articles. Since we do not have the assurance that this message is based on the same spoken message, we have included it in this volume.)
In the Psalms, Moses prayed to God, "Teach us then to number our days/That we may gain a heart of wisdom." If our days are numbered according to the calendar, then a day is a day and a year is a year; this is easy to understand. But if we take God's view, then some years and days will be numbered, while others will not be numbered. Our days on earth are limited. How should we please God within such a limited number of years and days? How can each day and each year of our life be counted? This is the subject of our study.
There are two genealogies in Genesis 4 and 5. Chapter four is the genealogy of Cain, while chapter five is the genealogy of Seth. The way that the two genealogies are recorded is different. Cain's genealogy is very simple; it does not record the age of Cain and his descendants. Seth's genealogy is much more detailed; it tells us how old each person was when he begot offspring and how many years he lived. It records the ages of generation after generation. Based on the fact that one genealogy is simple and the other is detailed, we can trace God's principle in numbering our days. Cain's genealogy was simple because he offended God and was far away from God. He did not have any fellowship with God. Seth's genealogy was detailed because Seth replaced Abel and was acceptable to God; he fellowshipped with God. Hence, our spiritual days are reckoned according to our condition before the Lord. When we were far from God and dead in sin, our days were not reckoned in the sight of the Lord. But when we repented, turned to God, and began to fellowship with Him, our spiritual days began.
When the Israelites left Egypt, God commanded them, saying, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (Exo. 12:2). The first month is the beginning of the year; it is the starting point of reckoning. In this month the Israelites killed the Passover lamb, left Egypt, and freed themselves from the bondage of Pharaoh. Hence, God charged them to call this month the first month. From this month forward, the Israelites had a new beginning before the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, how much spiritual history do you have? Some of you are quite old; you may be fifty or sixty years old. But spiritually, you are still only one year or even one month old. Your spiritual age began the day you were regenerated and saved. The day you received the Lord's salvation was the day your spiritual history began. Before that day, no spiritual years were counted before the Lord. However, even after you believed in the Lord, one year does not necessarily mean one year. You may have been a Christian for five years, but in the eyes of God, you may not be five years old as a Christian. In other words, even after you become a Christian, some days and years are not counted in God's sight. We can see from the Bible that some years were skipped over because God considered them to be wasted, and they could not be counted. He also records some years in the Bible to serve as our warning. We will consider the following passages and draw some lessons from them.
How many years were there from the time the Israelites left Egypt to the time of the building of Solomon's temple? Acts 13:18-22 says, "And for a time of about forty years He carried them as a nurse in the wilderness. And when He had overthrown seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance. And after these things, for about four hundred and fifty years, He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had deposed him, He raised up David for them as king." (David was king for forty years — 2 Sam. 5:4.) How many years were there from the exodus to the fourth year of King Solomon when he built the temple? It was forty plus four hundred fifty plus forty plus forty, which equals five hundred seventy. If we add the three years prior to the building of the temple, we have five hundred seventy-three years. Yet 1 Kings 6:1 says, "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord." This verse says four hundred eighty years rather than five hundred seventy-three years — a difference of ninety-three years! Why is there such a great difference? Is Acts wrong or is 1 Kings wrong? No, both records are right. A spiritual principle is involved in the discrepancy between the two numbers. In Acts, the record of the forty years in the wilderness is correct, the record of the forty years of Saul's reign is correct, and the record of the forty years of David is also correct. The temple was built in the fourth year of Solomon's reign; therefore, it is right to add three years to that period. The discrepancy is in the four-hundred-fifty-year period. First Kings has ninety-three years less than Acts. Where did these ninety-three years go? In studying Judges, we discover a fact: During that period, the Israelites were subdued by heathen tribes several times. Let us see how many years they were under oppression.
Judges 3:8 says, "Therefore the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years." This was the first period of oppression the Israelites suffered; it lasted for eight years. Verse 14 says, "And the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years." This was the second period of oppression the Israelites suffered; it lasted for eighteen years. Judges 4:2-3 says, "And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. And the captain of his army was Sisera, who dwelt at Harosheth-hagoyim. And the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah; for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the children of Israel severely twenty years." This was the third period of oppression the Israelites suffered; it lasted for twenty years. Judges 6:1 says, "Then the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years." This was the fourth period of oppression the Israelites suffered; it lasted for seven years. Judges 13:1 says, "Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." This was the fifth period of oppression the Israelites suffered; this bondage under the Philistines lasted for forty years. How many years were there in the five periods of oppression by the heathen tribes? There were eight plus eighteen plus twenty plus seven plus forty. How many years were there? There were exactly ninety-three years, no more and no less. Now we understand the discrepancy between the records in 1 Kings and Acts. In Acts, Paul was speaking about history; therefore, he included the ninety-three years. The emphasis in 1 Kings is on the condition of the Israelites before the Lord, and the ninety-three years were not counted. This is why it says four hundred eighty years.
It is very meaningful that ninety-three years were not counted. These years were lost years. Whenever the Israelites lost their freedom, served heathen tribes, and did not have a judge, their days were not reckoned. The Israelites belonged to God; they were saved from Egypt already. Whenever they were subdued by their enemies and became slaves, whenever they were in bondage, and whenever they could not serve God freely, their days were not counted. When they served something other than God, their days were lost and not counted in God's sight. Brothers and sisters, we should consider how many of the days since we were saved have been counted before the Lord. Perhaps we have believed in the Lord for eight or ten years. How many days during these years have we lived foolishly? How many days in the past have been struck out? We have too many wasted days! I doubt whether the days that can be counted before the Lord add up to a year. We must realize that the days that we live according to man's desire, the days that we live apart from God, and the days of failure and decline are not counted in God's eyes. We have been Christians for many years. Let us ask ourselves, "How many of these days have we wasted? How many of these days can be counted?" Every day that is not lived in fellowship with God is a lost day. Therefore brothers and sisters, we must all redeem the time.
We must not think that the days we have lost are a few, unimportant days. If we consider the journey the Israelites took in the wilderness, we will realize how serious it is to waste our days. Three months after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to Sinai (Exo. 19:1). They remained there for ten months. On the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, they left Sinai and traveled toward the land God promised to give them for their inheritance (Num. 10:11-12). Deuteronomy 1:2 says, "It is eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the way that leads to Mount Seir." Kadesh-barnea was at the border of the land of Canaan. It was only an eleven-day journey from Mount Sinai to Canaan. Yet when they arrived at Kadesh-barnea, they could not enter Canaan because of their unbelief. After this they wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years before their descendants finally entered Canaan. This was indeed a big, indirect route! It took not just three or five years but thirty-eight years. They spent thirty-eight years on a journey to Canaan that should have taken them only two years! In our spiritual journey, there are countless wasted days. Some problems can be dealt with in three to five days, yet they remain unsolved in some people for three to five years. These ones are like the Israelites, who circled around in the wilderness and wasted many days. This is a great loss. We should not consider it to be inconsequential.
The story of Abraham also shows us that parts of his life were counted and parts were not counted. According to Acts 7:2-3, while Abraham was still in Mesopotamia (i.e., in Ur), God appeared to him, saying, "Come out from your land and from your relatives, and come into the land which I will show you." What did he do? He would not have had peace if he did not obey; yet he was not willing to obey completely. As a result, he partially obeyed. God told him to come out from his relatives, yet he took his relatives along. He did not go alone; rather, he brought his nephew Lot and his father Terah with him. God intended that he go all the way to Canaan. Yet he went only as far as Haran and stayed there (Gen. 11:31). This is the picture of a Christian who is not willing to be absolute. Some Christians are not altogether cold; they still have some glow in them. Yet they are not hot. This was Abraham's condition. He left Ur of the Chaldees, yet he did not enter Canaan. He was like a halfway Christian.
After his father Terah died, God called Abraham again (12:1). This time, God called him from Haran. God's will cannot be changed. Once He has decided to do something, He will always accomplish it. God wanted Abraham to go to Canaan, and Abraham's deterrence in Haran did not change His will at all. The first time God called Abraham, he only obeyed halfway. Therefore, God called him the second time. When Abraham obeyed God by leaving Haran, the Bible immediately points out that he was seventy-five years old (12:4). His years in Ur were not mentioned, and his years in Haran were not mentioned either. But the minute he left Haran for Canaan, the Bible points out that his age was seventy-five. This shows us a new beginning in his life. The days Abraham spent in Haran, the days he tarried halfway, were wasted days; God did not remember those days. Brothers and sisters, in looking back at our past, we find that there are numerous days we have lost! We must remember that God has no concern for the days in Haran. We often walk according to our self-will. We become lazy and seek our own comfort; we tarry halfway. These are days in Haran and days which will not be counted. In order to receive blessing from God, Abraham had to leave Haran. The year he was seventy-five years old was the year he left Haran. Until then the Bible did not record his age. Until then God did not consider that his age was worth mentioning. He wants man to obey Him in an absolute way!
These were not the only years Abraham wasted. He also suffered a loss in the course of begetting a son. God promised Abraham that he would have a son. Yet he took his wife's suggestion and married Hagar as his concubine. He committed the sin of presumptuousness in the eyes of God. Later, Hagar gave birth to a son; however, this son was born out of Abraham's fleshly energy rather than out of God's promise. At the end of Genesis 16, he is spoken of as being eighty-six years old. But at the beginning of chapter seventeen, he was ninety-nine years old. There was a gap of thirteen years. During those thirteen years, there is no record of anything concerning him. We do not see him building an altar, and God did not appear to him once. He did not receive any new revelation or promises. Those days were empty days and days of nothingness. Those were the days Ishmael grew up. We have to remember that this period of Abraham's life was wasted and lost. Brothers and sisters, have we received any new experience, new light, and new messages during the past few years? Was anyone saved through our hands during the past few years? Did anyone receive our help during the past few years? Have we received a deeper knowledge of God during the past few years? Have we gained a stronger assurance of His promises? Have we renewed our consecration to God? If we did not have any of these experiences, our days were wasted days. An older sister once said, "Every single day of a Christian's life should count for a day. This is the way to assure our reward." What a pity that ten days often do not add up to one day! Brothers and sisters, it would be wonderful if we could live our Christian life in a conscientious way. If we spend our days foolishly, rebelling against God, sinning, and walking according to our self-will, our days have been wasted in the eyes of the Lord; our time has been squandered away. What a waste this is!
Why does the Bible point out that Abraham's age was ninety-nine? It is because he was circumcised in that year. One year after he was circumcised, he begot Isaac. The meaning of circumcision is the removal of the flesh. If we walk according to the flesh, our years are wasted. May we start today by removing everything that is of the flesh and offering ourselves up fully on the altar, so that we will no longer waste our time. We should not wait for fifty years to find out that we have wasted forty-nine of them. We have to consider how many days we have wasted in foolishness and how many days we have left. If we are waiting for the Lord's coming every day, we will pay attention to the way we spend our days.
The Lord spoke a parable in Matthew 20 concerning a householder looking for workmen for his vineyard. We have to pay attention to two words, "standing idle." The householder "went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place, and to those he said, You also go into the vineyard" (vv. 3-4). "And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and said to them, Why have you been standing here all the day idle?...You also go into the vineyard" (vv. 6-7). This parable shows us that God does not want us to be idle; He wants us to work. It also tells us that God has His sphere of work — His vineyard. We may say that we are very busy, and that we are not idle at all. But are we busy in the right place? If we are not working in the vineyard, how is that different from being idle? If we are not living in the will of God, it does not matter how much we have worked; in the eyes of God we are still idle. We may be very busy with our spiritual work, but in God's eyes we are very idle. The only work that God approves is work in the vineyard. The work in the vineyard is the work that is genuinely from God and for God. If our work is outside God's will, our days are idle days in the eyes of God. The householder told the ones standing at the eleventh hour, "Why have you been standing here all the day idle?" The entire day signifies man's whole life. Brothers and sisters, what about us? Are we idle, or are we working in the vineyard? Do not be mistaken. I am not saying that we have to quit our job and be a preacher. The most important thing is being clear about our standing and knowing that we are standing in the will of God in whatever we are doing. To work in the vineyard means to work according to God's will. There are many kinds of work in the vineyard. Some are digging the ground; others are sowing; still others are trimming. Whatever we do, as long as it is for the vineyard, it is good. We should not consider that it is God's work only when we work as certain people do or only when we do certain things. No, we do not have to do that. As long as our days are spent in the vineyard, they are counted.
Brothers and sisters, you may have been saved for three or five years. Or you may have been saved for ten or twenty years. How much time have you spent for the Lord? It is true that you have done much. But for whom are you doing these works? As long as you are sure that you are working according to God's will, everything will be fine. God has no intention that every Christian drop his job to be a gospel preacher. Sometimes it is contrary to God's will for someone to give himself up solely for gospel work. It is a matter of your heart and how much it is towards God. Hence, consecration is indispensable. From the day you were saved until now, if you have not had a heart for God, your life has been an idle one.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, "And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. But neither yet now are you able" (1 Cor. 3:1-2). As far as I know, from the time Paul first preached at Corinth until the time he wrote 1 Corinthians, there was only a span of a few years. But Paul already felt that the Corinthian believers were not growing. He did not say that they had been Christians for only a few years and that it was understandable that they were immature. Paul said that they should have matured. Yet they had not grown and had wasted their days. They should have been strong enough to eat solid food, but they had wasted their days and were still fleshly babes. They should have been experienced in their obedience to the Lord, in their trust of the Lord, and in their pursuit of the Lord, and they should have been able to lead others. But they still did not know about these things. They had been Christians for a number of years, but they were still babes, and Paul felt that this was wrong. Brothers and sisters, if you think that you should be a babe because you have been saved for only a few years, you are wrong. How many years do you have in your life? How many years can you be a Christian? If you have been a believer for eight or ten years and are still the same as when you were regenerated — fleshly and babyish — you have wasted many days.
Brothers and sisters, how many years can you live on this earth? Seventy years? Eighty years? How short your life is! Within this short period, you have to subtract the years when you were not yet saved. How many years are left? Brothers and sisters, do you know how many more years you will live on this earth? You have lived sixty years. Perhaps God will say, "You have lived less than ten years before Me." Or you may have lived fifty years, but God may say, "In My eyes you have only lived a few days." It would be a pity if all your days were wasted away.
Brothers and sisters, my heart aches when I think of the days you have wasted in the past. But thank the Lord that He has given you comfort; you have the words of Joel 2:25. The years that the locusts have eaten will be restored to you. Thank God that He has a way. Perhaps you are sixty years old and have wasted thirty to forty years. You have to say, "Oh, my opportunity is gone. My best days have been eaten up by the locusts, and the lost days cannot be recovered again. What can I do?" Thank the Lord that He will restore the days that were eaten up by the locusts. If you waste your days, ten years may be equal to one day. But if you redeem the time, one day may equal ten years. David said, "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand" (Psa. 84:10). The days in heaven are not counted by a twenty-four hour cycle. God has a different way of counting days. If our service is according to God's will, one day will equal many days.
There was once a young man who fell into sin and was about to die of tuberculosis. An old servant of God went to him and preached about Jesus taking away sins. He exhorted him to repent, confess his sins, and accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior. At first the young man thought it was a hard thing to do. He doubted whether a sinner such as he could be saved. But eventually, he accepted the Lord and was saved. He was filled with joy and peace. A few days later, the old servant of God went to see him again and noticed that he was full of sorrow and sadness again, and he asked, "Why are you this way? Do not allow the devil to deceive you!" He answered, "No, I know that my sins are forgiven." The old servant asked, "Why then are you still so sorrowful?" He answered sadly, "My days on earth are about over. When I stand before the Lord, what should I bring to Him? My hands are empty! How can I go to the Lord empty-handed?" He was sorrowful because of this. The old man said to him, "Brother, it is all right! Use the very words that you have just said as the subject and write a hymn about it. Perhaps some will be touched by this hymn and will go out to preach and to gain some others. The reward will then go to you." The hymn that he wrote is the famous one, "Must I Go, and Empty-handed," (Hymns, #930). Many have been touched by this hymn to become zealous for the Lord's work. Although this young person lost many of his years, he had a heart for the Lord at the close of his life, and the Lord fulfilled his wish.
Brothers and sisters, let us all number our days! May the days that we have lost be restored to us, and may each day of our life be worth a thousand. May we all walk step by step in the light of God's will!
