“As a thief in the night.”
I have often thought how very strange it is that this simile should have been used by the inspired writer, that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ should be placed in comparison with that of a thief. Surely of the hundreds of figures used to express some of the qualities of the Saviour, figures which include a stone, a rose, a star, a worm, a nail, this figure of a thief is the strangest of all, The burglars visited us a little while since, but, being disturbed in the midst of their work, they ran away leaving some of their clothes and tools, together with a lot of spoil stolen from a neighbor, on my premises; and so I found myself standing, replacing a screw in the lock of a scullery door, in the middle of the night, with the burglar’s own screwdriver which had been used a few minutes before in taking it out. It was the Lord’s doing and marvelous in our eyes, and I felt a special gratitude and satisfaction in using that particular screwdriver. I thought as I stood there, that, to compare little events with great, I could understand David’s feeling when asked for his enemy’s sword: “There is none like that, give it me.”
And then I thought that I only recollect hearing of one case quite like this before, and that case was no doubt allegorical. It is in the Jewish Talmud where the Emperor, attacking the Rabbi Gamaliel said, “Your God is a thief He stole a rib from a sleeping man.” And the Rabbi’s daughter replied, “A thief came to our house last night and stole a silver vase.” “Bad,” said the Emperor. “But,” said the Rabbi’s daughter, “he left a gold one.” “Good,” said the Emperor. “I wish that thief would come to me, often.” “Such is our God,” said the maiden. “If He takes away anything He gives something more valuable. He took away Adam’s rib and gave him Eve.”
And He who takes from us those things that it is a gain to lose, who takes from us our sins and gives us righteousness, takes from us time and gives us eternity, takes from us hate and gives us love, receives at our hands death and bestows upon us everlasting life. Has He visited your house, your soul? But that is not, I know, the primary meaning of the phrase, which is to set forth to the slumbering people of Sardis the coming of Christ as an occurrence, which to those not prepared for it, would be something unexpected and dreadful. To one class of people, His coming will be like the rising of the “bright and morning star” which preludes the dawning of an eternal day: to another His coming is calamity and disaster. To the one it is a promise; to the other it is a threat: “Repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee!”
J. C. Bayly.