Joshua 1:12, 13.
An Extract.
“I HAVE just been thinking of the words of Job 10:12, 13,” Thou hast granted me life and favor, and thy visitation has preserved my spirit. And these things halt thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.” I don’t know that I ever noticed the last of these verses before; but it strikes me as being beautiful and comforting. The first is clear enough. Whether it be life natural or life eternal, it is a grant or gift of God. Both are to the Christian. Dim his eye may be with tears, he may be down very far under oppression or perplexity, not knowing his way out of the difficulties that surround him, but God is over all, and he turns to God; that is his relief.” Thou hast granted me life and favor, and thy visitation has preserved my spirit.” It may be looking back over the past. There is plenty to be thankful for in that. But God is looked at. The soul is so distressed from below that none but God can ease it; and I believe the Lord does work that. He knows that none but Himself can satisfy the heart, and He won’t let it rest away from Himself; so it looks up under the pressure and speaks to Him; looks at His doings; looks into His thoughts. This is a wonderful thing, but in Christ I know the thoughts of God.
“He shows His thoughts, how kind they are.” I get a look at God manifest in the flesh, and I know He is up there, far above all that can hurt me. I have comfort in the thought that He cannot be reached by any of these arrows. And won’t He care for me! What preserves my spirit? What revives my soul? What keeps me from sinking under the many trials of the way? His love, His favor, the manifestation of it that I get when all turns against me, when my head goes down, down, and the billows seem to be rolling over me. ‘On the side of their oppressors there was power,’ wrote one; ‘but they (the oppressed) had no comforter.’ (Ecclesiastes 4:1.) This is not so in Christ, blessed be His name; true though it be oftentimes in the world. The believer sees His thoughts; that is, as the Spirit reveals them; and faith boldly enters upon them. “I know that this is with thee,” he says. What? Life and favor, preservation of the spirit: hid in the heart of God. He is love, then, after all, says the soul. Yes; He is love; and love to me. Ah, this is blessed, this is relief indeed, to know what God is, to know what He is in Jesus. This is to behold the Lamb; to sit down under His shadow with great delight; to find His fruit sweet unto the taste; and in the Lamb to see the expression of God’s thoughts—God’s thoughts from eternity. He works according to a purpose. “I shall make you like my Son. He trod a path of sorrow; now He is in glory. Faint you not. You shall be like Him; you shall be with Him where He is.”
THE Holy Ghost has “sealed” those who believe on Christ crucified and risen, because redemption is accomplished; He is “the earnest” because the inheritance is sure.