A Levite was bringing his concubine back home. They went to spend the night in Gibeah, but no one invited them home, until an old man spoke to them on his way back from working in a field. His invitation was accepted but the Levite explained that they had food for themselves and their asses. Yet the old man insisted on providing what they needed. He told the Levite: “Let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street” (Jud 19:18).
Though the later behaviour of the old man was distinctly unsatisfactory, his words, “Let all thy wants lie upon me”, provide us with an illustration of the way the perfectly holy Lord Jesus, through the Scriptures or by the preaching of the gospel, speaks to the sinner who is feeling his need of salvation, looking for deliverance from his fallen condition and crying out for mercy. The Saviour is, in effect, telling the sinner: Let all your needs lie on Me. If the sinner will look to Christ by faith – which is what he is called to do – Christ will supply all his needs for time and for eternity. Instead of the sinner trying to supply his needs by his own efforts, he must look to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness of sin, for a new heart and for the supply of every other need, spiritual and temporal, and he must continue to do so.
When the Saviour begins to supply a sinner’s needs, it is because He took that person’s sins to suffer in his place. That was why He, the Son of God, came into the world, taking our nature, and why He endured all the punishment due to that sinner, especially on the cross of Calvary. He was the Lamb of God bearing away the sin of the world. Accordingly Christ has the authority to say to seeking souls in particular: Let all your needs lie on Me. At the same time He says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).
David Dickson comments that the call to come does not exclude “lukewarm Laodiceans, or any other, who desire to be made sensible [conscious] of sin, who desire to repent, who desire to believe in God and to fear God”. He notes too that “although there be no bar put to hinder any man from coming to Christ, yet none will come until they be sensible of a burden whereof they cannot be freed by any other means”. Finally, he comments on the words, “I will give you rest”: “Rest is opposed to labour and burdens, and so imports [signifies] full relief from all the sin and misery which can trouble any man”.
We can go on to use the old man’s words to illustrate how Christ speaks to those who are already believers and thereby point to the length, breadth, depth and height of the blessings He offers to them. He holds nothing back that can be good for them, and He is the One who can rightly and wisely judge what is good for the individual Christian and what would be harmful. We may consider a number of needs which God’s children experience on their pilgrimage through this world, all of which they are to lay on their Saviour in believing prayer:
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The forgiveness of sin.
The sin even of believers deserves punishment, but what Christ is implying to them is that He has borne their guilt, and borne it away, so that punishment cannot now be laid on them. Because the Saviour has, instead of them, suffered the full punishment due to them for their sins, the guilt of those sins cannot be imputed to them – even the guilt of the sin they have committed after conversion. He is saying to them, Let all your needs connected with the guilt of your continuing sin lie on Me, for “the blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth . . . from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7). He is telling those who seek to follow Him to bring all their guilt before Him and trust in Him for forgiveness, as One who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20). -
The removal of sin’s power.
God’s children will feel the need of being made holy. Let them then come to Him with that particular need and let it lie on Him. And let them realise that it is part of the work of their Saviour to work in their souls by the Holy Spirit, who will subdue sin and increase holiness within them. Perfect holiness is not attained immediately a sinner believes; sanctification is a continuing work that proceeds gradually, stage by stage, throughout the believer’s life. It is among the needs that the Saviour encourages His people to lay upon Him, trusting that He is able and willing to continue the work of sanctification in their hearts and lives. -
Protection from temptation.
The believer is weak; but the tempter, Satan, is strong, far stronger than any human being. His strength relative to human beings is seen in the ease with which he overcame Adam and Eve even when they were in a state of perfect innocence. How much weaker, relative to Satan’s great strength, believers are in their present imperfect condition. Yet, if Satan is the “strong man armed” in Jesus’ analogy, He is without doubt altogether stronger than Satan (Lk 11:12). Protection and deliverance from the evil one is another need that believers must lay on their Saviour. He calls them to do so; to rely on their own strength is extreme foolishness. -
A true sense of one’s spiritual standing.
Believers are directed, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Pet 1:10). But they are still ignorant, though by no means entirely so. So they need to come to the great Teacher, to let their need for instruction lie on Him, so that when they read the Word, listen to it being expounded, and seek to examine themselves, their Teacher may work in their understandings so that they grasp better the distinction between being in a state of grace and being in a state of nature. Let them come to Christ so that, through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, each of them may be enabled to apply these distinctions to themselves so that they may accurately discern whether they are truly believers and, accordingly whether they are indeed among the Lord’s children or not. -
Growth in grace.
The life of a human child is one of growth, and if the growth is very slow, there is something wrong. Similarly, if growth in grace is very slow, there is something wrong, and God’s children may often feel that they are not even growing at all. So here is another need that they must lay on their Saviour – in fact, a significant number of needs: growth in each of these “works of the Spirit”: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith . . .” (Gal 5:22,23). And Christ supplies these needs through the Holy Spirit as He applies the Word to their souls and in answer to prayer, for growth is brought about through the use of the means of grace. -
To reach eternal glory.
The road there may be long and difficult; so believers need much help on the way. What a mercy that the Saviour is so ready to help His people on their way through this world. And His people should take great care to take seriously their duty to let all their needs lie on Him. They are liable to stumble; they are weak; they cannot reach heaven in their own strength. They need to be protected from all their enemies; they need to be kept from falling into sin. So they must keep their eye on Jesus; they must be “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [their] faith; apart from Him, they will go seriously astray. But by God’s grace, through the intercession of Christ and the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit, they will reach the end of their journey safely. They must remember that the Saviour is, in effect, directing them in all their circumstances: Let all your needs lie on Me.
God’s children may learn similar lessons from Paul’s words to the Philippians: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (4:19). And it is because Christ Jesus has such great riches to bestow on His people that He can call on them so readily to come to Him for the complete supply of all their needs. Let them not hesitate to come again and again to such a ready Giver! He gives them the assurance: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Mt 7:7). His promises are absolutely dependable.