Morning “Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.” / Hosea 12:12
Jacob, while expostulating with Laban, thus describes his own toil, “This
twenty years have I been with thee. That which was torn of beasts I brought
not unto thee: I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it,
whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought
consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.”
Even more toilsome than this was the life of our Saviour here below. He
watched over all his sheep till he gave in as his last account, “Of all those
whom thou hast given me I have lost none.” His hair was wet with dew, and his
locks with the drops of the night. Sleep departed from his eyes, for all night
he was in prayer wrestling for his people. One night Peter must be pleaded
for; anon, another claims his tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting
beneath the cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever utter such
complaints because of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have
brought, if he had chosen to do so, because of the sternness of his service in
order to procure his spouse–
“Cold mountains and the midnight air,
Witnessed the fervour of his prayer;
The desert his temptations knew,
His conflict and his victory too.”
It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having required all
the sheep at Jacob’s hand. If they were torn of beasts, Jacob must make it
good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the whole. Was not the
toil of Jesus for his Church the toil of one who was under suretiship
obligations to bring every believing one safe to the hand of him who had
committed them to his charge? Look upon toiling Jacob, and you see a
representation of him of whom we read, “He shall feed his flock like a
shepherd.”
Evening “The power of his resurrection.” / Philippians 3:10
The doctrine of a risen Saviour is exceedingly precious. The resurrection is
the corner-stone of the entire building of Christianity. It is the key-stone
of the arch of our salvation. It would take a volume to set forth all the
streams of living water which flow from this one sacred source, the
resurrection of our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; but to know that he
has risen, and to have fellowship with him as such–communing with the risen
Saviour by possessing a risen life–seeing him leave the tomb by leaving the
tomb of worldliness ourselves, this is even still more precious. The doctrine
is the basis of the experience, but as the flower is more lovely than the
root, so is the experience of fellowship with the risen Saviour more lovely
than the doctrine itself. I would have you believe that Christ rose from the
dead so as to sing of it, and derive all the consolation which it is possible
for you to extract from this well-ascertained and well-witnessed fact; but I
beseech you, rest not contented even there. Though you cannot, like the
disciples, see him visibly, yet I bid you aspire to see Christ Jesus by the
eye of faith; and though, like Mary Magdalene, you may not “touch” him, yet
may you be privileged to converse with him, and to know that he is risen, you
yourselves being risen in him to newness of life. To know a crucified Saviour
as having crucified all my sins, is a high degree of knowledge; but to know a
risen Saviour as having justified me, and to realize that he has bestowed upon
me new life, having given me to be a new creature through his own newness of
life, this is a noble style of experience: short of it, none ought to rest
satisfied. May you both “know him, and the power of his resurrection.” Why
should souls who are quickened with Jesus, wear the grave-clothes of
worldliness and unbelief? Rise, for the Lord is risen.
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