1.
I learned the meaning of Luke 12:5252For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. (Luke 12:52), John 14:2121He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21), that if there was division in the house, Christ came Himself to the heart in sweetest sympathy and comfort. I recognized these efforts to drive me from the ground I occupied as a witness for the truth of God, as the efforts of Satan though permitted of God to sift my flesh and humble me, that my will might be broken, so that Christ might in my body be magnified; I learned to glory in them and praise the One who sent them, through them all. I learned, too, the meaning of 1 Peter 4:12,1912Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (1 Peter 4:12)
19Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (1 Peter 4:19), that one position of special nearness to the Lord (“the house of God”) involves not only Satan’s fiercest rage, but our Father’s loving chastisement, and that when the trial comes, one should not go for shelter to the ranks of the world, for the end of the disobedient will be far more fearful than the chastisement of the righteous, their troubles will be far more dreadful presently than our light affliction now. No, our resource is God. When Jesus in Gethsemane’s garden was pressed again and again by Satan, His relief was prayer, and when the trial came, He did not attempt to avoid it by leaving the scene, but accepted it in all its (bitterness).
2.
I will ask you to think over Rahab again, and I think you will say that Exodus 12 agrees with Joshua 2, Exodus 14 with Joshua 6, and with the last, Colossians 3 comes in. She was under the shelter of the scarlet line in chapter 2, but not on resurrection ground till chapter 6.
I had observed the difference between feeding on the lamb, and looking out of the window; compare Noah with the last.