THE words of the poet are certainly true, and we frequently sing them with real delight “To those who fall how kind Thou art, Now good to those who seek.” The proof of this is found in both Old and New Testaments. When Elijah fled from the post of duty, terrified by Jezebel's threat, an angel was sent from heaven to prepare for him a fire and a breakfast (1 Kings 19). Nothing like this happened while he walked in the path of obedience. At Cherith ravens were employed to supply his need, and that for a long period. But when he was all wrong with God he was granted special angelic service. The heavenly messenger apparently remained by him while he ate and drank and slept, and then a second time he urged him to eat more, adding compassionately, “because the journey is too great for thee.” Yet the journey should never have been undertaken! All this was divinely intended as a proof to the fugitive prophet that God had not forgotten him, spite of his break-down in service. What a God is ours!
Again, when Peter denied his Lord so painfully (after solemn warning) Luke tells us, “the Lord turned and looked upon Peter” (ch. 22:61). That tender glance broke his heart, and “Peter went out and wept bitterly.” After the Lord's resurrection, an angel bade the women (by divine authority, assuredly), “Go your way, tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee” (Mark 16:7). This touching introduction of Peter's name was intended to assure him that his Lord had not cast him off notwithstanding his great sin. This was followed by a private conversation with the fallen Apostle, which put everything right (Luke 24:34). Accordingly, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, Peter was able to stand boldly and testify to the resurrection of his Lord, with mighty results (Acts 2:41).
Jonah, when imprisoned within the fish, said, “I am cast out of Thy sight” (Jonah 2:4). Surely he had no ground for complaint in this respect, seeing that he fled to Tarshish expressly to get away from the presence of Jehovah! He even told the shipmen that this was the meaning of his voyage in their vessel (ch. 1:3,10). Possibly Jonah familiar as he was with the Book of Psalms, had in mind David's words in Psalm 31:22, “I am cut off from before Thine eyes,” but David said this in haste! We must quote the whole verse: “I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes: nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.” Oh, that precious “nevertheless”! It is not the way of our God to cast off His saints, however deeply they may fail; but He is always willing to hear the voice of their supplications when they cry. But let us beware of speaking in haste. Such utterances are seldom wise. Peter on the holy mount spoke “not knowing what be said” (Luke 9:33). There is “a time to keep silence” as well as “a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7).
Our brethren are not always as merciful in their dealings with us as our gracious God. When David was given the choice of three forms of chastisement after his proud blunder in numbering the people without reference to God, he said, “I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of Jehovah; for very great are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man” (1 Chron. 21:13). The “hired razor” can be very cruel (Isa. 7:20); and was not David himself unnecessarily cruel when he cut the Ammonites “with saws and with harrows of iron, and with axes”? “Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon” (1 Chron. 20:3).
Even after the Day of Pentecost, when the Assembly of God had come into being, with the Holy Spirit dwelling therein, and when the fullness of divine grace was being proclaimed as never before in the world's history, Paul had to admonish the Corinthian brethren to seek out, and forgive and comfort the man they had been obliged to put away for grievous sin. First, they were careless and indifferent to the evil; then after they had been roused to action, they were disposed to have done with the man forever. But he was repentant, and must not be “swallowed up with over-much sorrow” (2 Cor. 2:6,8). “I beseech you,” says the Apostle, “that ye would confirm your love toward him.” When shall we learn these lessons of divine grace towards the erring? The merciless tyrant of Matthew 18:28-34 was meant to be a warning to all who bear the name of the Lord Jesus, and that to the end.
Jonah came up from the depths of the sea humbled and chastened. Scarcely broken, for the concluding chapter of his book shows that he still had much to learn. But he had experienced the power of God to lay low those who rise up against His will, and he was also assured that, come what may, God will never cast off His own. Jonah was one of the earliest of the prophets whose writings have come down to us; but from his short book we may learn that God chastens His messengers as well as those to whom He sends them, but with a heart full of mercy which only seeks the blessing of its objects. May the messengers of God in this Gospel dispensation walk humbly before Him, and not misrepresent His character by ways of disobedience. Those who demand obedience from others should be models of obedience themselves. Moses was sharply dealt with by Jehovah because he had neglected to circumcise his son (Ex. 4:24-25). He had apparently yielded to his wife in the matter; but until this was put right, Moses could not consistently summon Pharaoh to be obedient to the divine commands. The lesson for us is the more important when we remember that circumcision signifies the judgment of the flesh. Only those who have learned to mortify their members, which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5) are competent to stand forth as witnesses for a holy God.
Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus, “if any will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38).