The Head, Not the Tail!

January 1955

The Head, Not the Tail!

“And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” Deut. 28:13-14.

If you want to be the head instead of being the tail, the Lord will make you the head. It would be hopeless if it was only up to you, but it is the Lord who shall do it, and with Him everything is hopeful and bright. So it is only a question of whether you want it, whether your goal in life is more than just being a droopy tail. “Why would anyone even question that?” you say. Indeed, you have good reason to ask, for we can safely say that most people conduct themselves like tails. The Word is established and says to all of us that the Lord will make you the head; He is not partial. In any case, it is not God’s fault that you are not the head; it is exclusively your fault. Here is an example: There is a prayer meeting and most people have prayed; the prayer meeting continues, albeit a little sluggishly and at last you also pray. What does that mean? It means that you are like a tail, a droopy tail. Don’t you wish to be something more than this? Yes, the Lord wants to make you the head. He wants to make you His witness. He wants to present you as a witness of His great power in this world. The question therefore remains: Do you want to? The Lord will make it so that you will always be above and never below. Sin, the world, and the devil shall never gain the upper hand, but you shall have the upper hand and be above. You never have to hang your head and be discouraged and despondent. It will be completely foreign to you, for the Lord will put you above all that. If a person says something insulting you will never feel insulted; you are always positive, and in that state you are happy and glad and have nothing to complain about to the person who insulted you. Or you hear a truth that is dead on. Then you don’t sit there looking disagreeable because of that truth but you are positive and have something good to add out of the good treasure of your heart, and are thankful for the truth that hit you. You have never seen a head change places with a tail, have you? This doesn’t happen in nature, and it doesn’t happen in God’s kingdom.

You can experience all this blessed salvation in and through Jesus’ finished work as long as you heed the Lord your God’s commandments, act according to His word and do not depart from anything that He commands you, either to the left or to the right; and that you believe with all your heart that each word and commandment must be kept to the uttermost. The Lord will do this in you if you are willing. We are all God’s children because we believe His commandments, and as a result we partake of this salvation by faith.

You also have no reason to say that it is useless for you, because you see yourself as worse than other people. First of all, in several places the Scriptures clearly point out that there were people in the church who had lived deep in sin, but by God’s grace they had come out of it. 1 Pet. 4:3-4. Secondly, it is a much stronger testimony of God’s power when the person who once lived deep in sin is transformed into the image of Christ. Therefore you are without excuse, whoever you are, for it is the Lord’s will that everyone is saved and acknowledges the truth.