In the record of the call of the apostles, we have a lesson on how the Lord wishes men to obey His call: "Follow me." (John 1:43)
Simon and Andrew were fishers. Jesus said, "Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17)
Not a moment did they hesitate, but: "Straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him."" (Mark 1:18)
Peter and John were also fishers. They were in their boat, mending their nets, which had been broken by the great number of fish that they had just taken. "And when they had done this, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net broke." (Luke 5:6) "And when He had gone a little further thence, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets." (Mark 1:19)
Jesus called them, "and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after Him." (Mark 1:20) "And after these things He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom; and He said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him." (Luke 5:27-28)
There are two great difficulties that confront people when they are asked to follow Christ. That is, most people are confronted by one or the other of them:
1. The poverty of the one called. One man hesitates because he has hard work to make a living, and he doesn't know how his family will be provided for if he obeys the Lord.
2. The wealth of the one called. Another man has so extensive a business on his hands that it is impossible to leave it, at least until he has had time to arrange his affairs.
Both these classes of people are represented in the above calls, but they took no account of the difficulties. We know that Peter had a family, and being a humble fisherman he could not have been wealthy. Yet he did not stop to consider how he should support his family if he obeyed the voice of Jesus, but left his nets, and went with Him.
Levi was wealthy, for the office of publican was a very lucrative one; yet he left his business at a moment's notice, when Jesus said to him, "Follow me."
So it was with Paul. He says, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." (Galatians 1:15-16)
That is the way the Lord wishes men to obey His voice. He reveals himself in the Sabbath of the fourth commandment--the seventh day,--and says to them, "Follow me." "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11)
Many hesitate. With some, it is their poverty that stands in the way. They don't see how they can live if they keep the Sabbath, forgetting that people who do not keep the Sabbath also die; and forgetting that it is the Creator of the heaven and earth, who calls them; forgetting that He who calls them to obey Him, says, "The silver is mine and the gold is mine," (Haggai 2:8) and also, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." (Psalm 24:1)
Of His power to provide for His followers, we have a striking proof in the wonderful draught of fishes that the disciples took at His word.
The more wealthy are still more inclined to hesitate to obey the call which Jesus sends them in the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is the best day for business. They do not reflect that it is He who gives them power to get wealth: "But you shall remember the Lord your God: for it is He that gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore unto your fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
He is just as able to give wealth to those who obey Him, as He is to give it to those who disobey Him; and that, after all, "A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." (Luke 12:15)
Men cannot be too slow to follow strange and doubtful voices; they cannot be too cautious about moving when God has not spoken; but they cannot be too quick to obey the voice of the Lord. David said, "I made haste, and delayed not, to keep your commandments." (Psalm 119:60)
And then he declared that he would run in the way of the commandments of God. "I will run the way of your commandments, when You shall enlarge my heart." (Psalm 119:32)
God's will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven; and in heaven, "[The] angels...do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." (Psalm 103:20)--Present Truth, March 22, 1894--Timeline: II-5 (The First Disciples)--John 1:43.