The Father has hidden all the things as the contents of His economy from the wise and the intelligent—the worldlings. In 1 Corinthians 1:26 Paul said, “For consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn.” The universities are full of wise and intelligent men who are blind concerning God’s economy.
The Father has revealed these things to the infants—the Son’s believers (Matt. 19:13-14; 1 Cor. 1:27-28). In Matthew 19, when people brought the infants to the Lord Jesus, the disciples rebuked them. But the Lord said, “Allow the little children and do not prevent them from coming to Me, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens” (v. 14). If we are wise and intelligent and not as children, there is no hope for us to enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
It is the Father’s pleasant will to hide the contents of His economy from the wise and intelligent, the worldlings, and reveal them to infants, the Son’s believers.
The first God-man is the Head of the Body, the prototype, and the model (Matt. 11:29a). He came as one grain of wheat to produce many grains (John 12:24). The one grain was the prototype, and the many grains are the mass production. The mass production is the duplication of the model. Peter told us that Christ is a model to the believers (1 Pet. 2:21). The Greek word for model is literally a writing copy, an underwriting used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them. We become the reproduction of Christ as the original writing copy. Christ is the prototype to produce a mass production and the model to produce the many duplications.
Christ was the first God-man, and we are the many God-men. We have to learn of Him in His absolute submission to God and His uttermost satisfaction with God. Christ was so submissive to and satisfied with the Father and His will.
The Lord was meek, meaning that He did not resist His opponents. He was also lowly, meaning that He humbled Himself among men in His heart.
The Lord’s believers answer His call in their heart and come to Him bodily (Matt. 11:28a). To come to Him bodily means that our entire being has to come to Him. This is why Paul charges us in Romans 12:1 to present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice. We have to present our bodies in a practical way by being in the meetings of the church. Since I was saved by the Lord in 1925, I have come to Him with my entire being.
The believers copy the Lord in their spirit by taking His yoke—God’s will—and toiling for God’s economy according to His model (Matt. 11:29a; 1 Pet. 2:21). The Lord told us to learn from Him. To learn from Him is to copy Him, not to imitate Him outwardly. In this way we become His duplication and mass production. The first requirement in learning from Him is to take His yoke, which is God’s will. God’s will has to yoke us, and we have to put our neck into this yoke. Seventy years ago as a young man, I took the yoke of Jesus. That yoke has protected me for the past seventy years.
We also need to be those who toil for God’s economy. All the worldly people are toiling and are burdened in many things. They are very busy. The Lord is calling those who are toiling, who are burdened, and who have no rest or satisfaction, to come to Him so that He can give them the real rest with satisfaction. The rest without satisfaction is not the real rest. We take His yoke and toil for God’s economy according to His model, following Him in His footsteps.
The hardest thing is to rest in our soul. People lose sleep because their soul is bothered. The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our soul. We share in our soul His rest in satisfaction (Matt. 11:28b, 29b, 30).