Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 14th

I know that thou wilt bring me to death. - Job 30:23.

LET us contemplate the happiness or the misery of this knowledge. What a source of misery must this knowledge be to a man who is a sinner! If it be not, it ought to be. But it commonly is, and much more commonly than those who feel it are willing to allow. In several of Voltaire’s letters to his private friends, this expression frequently occurs:-“I hate life, and I dread death.” Why, the only concern of thousands of our fellow-creatures is to banish the thought of it from their minds; for the remembrance of it, like the handwriting on the wall, is enough to turn the pleasures of the feast into horror and anguish. Inspiration itself calls death “the king of terrors.” What view can be taken of it that can be agreeable and inviting, that must not be repulsive and terrible, to an unpardoned, unrenewed sinner?

If he desires it, the Scripture meets him with the question, “For what do you desire the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord to you is darkness, and not light.” Those who say it is better for them to die than to live are perfectly mistaken; for, whatever be their present hardships, and privations, and sorrows, and trials, these are only “the beginnings of sorrows,” these are only the harbingers of misery,-the first words in the roll which is “written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe.”

We have heard of the afflictions of Job, and that a number of messengers arrived one after the other, and the last was always worse than the preceding; and what a sad story is the summing up of the whole! “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither,” said the patriarch: and we may apply this to a dying sinner. Oh, how many messengers may we suppose coming to him. One comes and says to him, You must resign all your offices and employments, however honourable or beneficial they may be, and have nothing more to do with any of the concerns below the sun. While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, You must be stripped of all your possessions,- your houses, your lands, your silver, and your gold. While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, You must resign all your recreations, all that ever charmed your imagination or delighted your senses; you must no more walk by the side of the murmuring brook; no more inhale the fragrance of the spring; no more behold the tints of autumn; no more be delighted by the singing of birds, or the converse of friends. While he is speaking, another comes and says, Your blood must be congealed and your body become a mass of loathsomeness; you must be laid in a corner of the earth, and be devoured by worms. While he is yet speaking, another comes and says, Your soul must enter the invisible world, and, in a new and untried condition, appear before the Judge of all!

We can easily imagine, therefore, what a source of misery this knowledge must be to a sinner. But let us turn the medal: let us see what a source of comfort it is to the Christian. If it be not, it ought to be, and continually too; for with regard to those who know the Saviour, the curse is turned into a blessing, and the enemy is converted into a friend. “The righteous hath hope in his death.” “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace,”-peace in the issue, and commonly peace in the exit too. “To die,” says the apostle to the Philippians, “is gain.” Yes. “To depart and be with Christ is far better.”

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? - Psalms 77:9.

THERE is an infinite difference between the judgments of God and the judgments of men. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” saith the Lord; “for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” This Divine assertion may be addressed not only to unenlightened sinners, who are “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,” but also to those who have “received the Spirit of God,” that they may “know the things which are freely given them of God.” Their illumination at present is partial; their views, in many cases, obscure; they frequently come to very erroneous conclusions, and sometimes they err where the glory of God and their own welfare are deeply concerned.

We have a striking instance of this in the passage which will engage our attention this morning. Here is a mournful complaint: “Hath God forgotten to be gracious?”-language which at least implies that God had ceased to be gracious towards the writer, and that he no longer exercised his care over him, and exhibited towards him no affection; while in reference to themselves, the wicked think too much of the goodness of God, by mistaking the effects of his general bounty for evidences of his peculiar friendship.

While living regardless of his praise, they yet persuade themselves that he will not be severe to mark what they have done. Yet the very reverse of this is the disposition of all the subjects of Divine grace. They know that self deception is tremendous-that it is probable; and they know, too, that self-deception is common, and therefore they are afraid of it. And they often carry their solicitude beyond the point of duty; and in reading and in hearing they will apply to themselves what was intended only for others; for, as an old divine says, “There is no beating off the dogs without making the children cry;” and therefore they still refuse to be comforted. They think too little of the favourable side of the question, and dwell too little on the kindness and tenderness of God. Though they are concerned to please him, they often “walk mournfully before the Lord.”

They are anxious as to how matters will go with them at last, and sometimes despair of ever seeing the goodness of God in the land of the living; and that he “has in anger shut up his tender mercies, and will be favourable no more.” Not that this is always the case. There are moments when their feelings are in unison with those of the Apostle when he said, “In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that hath loved us;” “for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Then, again, the sky which was clear is overcast with clouds. Alas! he sighs, will the Lord cast me off for ever, and will he be favourable no more?