the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
I went down to see whether the pomegranates budded. - Song of Solomon 6:11.
OBSERVE, the great Husbandman visits his garden, not only to look after the flourishing of the vine, but the budding of the pomegranates, so that when our Lord comes to examine his garden he looks after the beginnings of grace. We may learn from hence that there are degrees in the divine life. There are in the household of faith babes as well as young men, and young men as well as fathers. There is in the spiritual as well as in the natural husbandry, “first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.” There is in the shining of the sun the dawn and then the day. There is a difference between the bud and the blossom, and between the blossom and the fruit. But he looks after even the buddings of piety.
What are these buddings? Oh, that is a fine bud when a man no longer restrains prayer before God, but cries, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” When his tear drops upon his Bible, and he says, “Lord, save, or I perish!” When he comes with weeping and supplication, and is led to the throne of grace, (for the Spirit of grace is always a Spirit of supplication,) oh, that is a fine bud, when the Saviour is no longer despised and rejected as having no form, nor comeliness, nor any beauty that we should desire him; but when the man begins to discern his loveliness, he begins to exclaim, “Thou art fairer than the children of men, yea, altogether lovely.” Oh that I could once call him mine! One of the earliest buddings of religion is love to the Lord’s people, and tenderness towards them, and delight in them; when they are viewed by them as a sacred people, longing above all to have fellowship with them on earth and in heaven,-oh, this is a hopeful sign! It is a fine bud when a man begins to love the Lord’s day, to call the Sabbath a delight, to long for it to return. It is a fine bud when a man begins to love the house of God as “the place where his honour dwelleth,” and when he begins also to love his Bible, and to read it as a new book, (for it is so now to him,) as a book that tells him what he has never thought of asking that book before,- “What must I do to be saved?”-though he had read it again and again; telling him “how to come before the Lord and bow himself before the high God,” and where he can find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, and be “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
But why does the Saviour look after the very buddings of grace, and value these? We answer, because they are his own producing, the work of his own Spirit in the heart. And because they are necessary; for, though there may be buds without fruit, there can be no fruit without buds; though there may be a beginning without advancing or finishing, there can be no advancing or finishing without a beginning. These things, therefore, are essentially necessary. And because also they are sure pledges of something more. They are not like other buds: other buds may fall, and they often do fall, without bringing forth any fruit unto perfection; but it is not the case here. “We are confident of this very thing,” says the apostle, “that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” And, says David, “Thou wilt perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever; forsake not the work of thine own hands.” Then he does it because he sees perfectly what these buds will produce in good time.
What does he see in them? He sees in them the peace of God, sees in them pardon, sees in them the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Oh, there is heaven in that bud! There is an immensity, an eternity of glory and blessedness, in that bud! It will bring forth fruit unto life eternal.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirts of him that is a Jew. - Zechariah 8:23.
THESE words may be considered both as a prophecy and a promise. A prophecy and a promise agree in this: they both refer to futurity, but they differ in their nature. Any event may be the subject of prediction, but a promise only contains some good. A prediction only requires omniscience; a promise requires efficiency. God foretells evil, but he never produces it; but if he insures good he must accomplish it himself, for all goodness is from him alone.
Whenever a promise is given to us we immediately look to the fidelity and ability of the promise-giver. The giver of the promise may fail in the execution of his engagement, either from forgetfulness or change of mind, or through inability. But nothing of this will apply to the blessed God; he forgets nothing, for his understanding is infinite; he never changes his mind; with him is no variableness nor shadow of turning; he never feels weakness; he is the Lord Jehovah, in whom is everlasting strength-the Almighty. Therefore the prophet here prefixes to his promise a title, importing power, dominion, and resources, to show that he who has promised is able to perform; for “thus saith the Lord of hosts.”
And with regard to the period when the prophecy shall be accomlished. It may be considered as having reference first to the accession of proselytes to the Jewish religion, in consequence of the dispersion in Babylon and their return home, and the diffusion of their Scriptures and the lives and prayers of the godly, and the character and examples of such men as Ezra, and Nehemiah, and Daniel, and the three Hebrew children, and the marriage of Esther with Ahasuerus, and the deliverance thence resulting, and all the miracles performed in their favour, and their rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple, having overcome all opposition. In consequence of these, surprising events were to take place, and many were to become converts to the Jewish Church. We often find a reference to this in the prophecies, and especially in Isaiah.
But, secondly, These words were to be accomplished in the commencement of Christianity, when people from Greece, from Rome, from all countries under heaven, were by the preaching of the gospel turned away from dumb idols to serve and worship the only living and true God; and to believe in him who was the consolation of Israel, the desire of all nations, and the hope of all the ends of the earth. It will therefore be observed that the subject of this passage is attraction. And here let us notice what is said of the attractors.
They are called Jews. This is wonderful enough. The Jews were generally a very despised people; they had no commerce- they were not famed for arms, or distinguished by the arts and sciences, and yet they were to teach their conquerors wisdom after being overcome and enslaved, and degraded by them, and all the countries were to come to learn of them-yes, and to learn the knowledge of him “whom to know is life eternal.” They only were the depositaries of revealed religion; to them were committed the oracles of God. “He showed his wisdom unto Jacob, and his statutes unto the children of Israel.” But why is all this spoken of “a Jew?” Jesus Christ was a Jew; his immediate followers were Jews; the twelve Apostles were Jews; the seventy Disciples were Jews; all the first members of the Christian Church were Jews. And therefore if persons were to embrace revealed religion, or even Christianity itself, they must come to their writings, and must take hold of the skirts of him that is a Jew.” Besides, as the Apostle says, “He is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
We are of the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” “If ye be Christ’s,” says he to the Galatians, “then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” So that the word “Jew” is not used here to distinguish Israelites from Gentiles, but saints from sinners. It applies to all partakers of Divine grace; according to the address of the Apostle to the same Church, “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the whole Israel of God;” that is, the Church of God whose members may be derived from any nation, as they may live in any period.
