IN studying any subject from the Word of God, it is well to go back to the beginning, and to see how every principle of truth concerning our moral and spiritual welfare is to be found, in germ or essence, in the first book of the Bible. This is why the Book of Genesis has been called "the seed-plot of the Bible," for therein are contained the beginnings or elements of alt those great truths which are afterward unfolded in plan, type or history, for our instruction. It is well when, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit's teaching, we trace God's ways with man in the unfolding of truths so important to our present and eternal welfare. Of wisdom it is said, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way." He is the Alpha and the Omega, and our whole story comes between.
Now, in the serpent's saying to the woman, "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," we can see the question of profit and loss by which the serpent deceived Eve through his subtlety.
The same question is spoken of by Judah to his brethren, in Gen. 37:2626And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? (Genesis 37:26), concerning Joseph. Judah said, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites," and they drew him, out of the pit, and sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. They dipped his coat in the blood of a kid, and sent it to their father, with a lie on their lips; and they brought the coat of many colors, now stained with blood, and said, " This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or not" Here is the result of envy and hatred, culminating in wicked heartlessness and the loss of a beloved son and brother.
The same question of profit and loss is to be seen in the case of Judas Iscariot (Matt. 26:1515And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15)), who said to the chief priests, “What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?
And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Judas Iscariot, having betrayed his Master with a kiss, receives the reward of iniquity; and, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." All pleasure in the money was now gone, “and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." Here, indeed, is eternal loss.
Job describes the prosperity of the wicked, (Job. 21:7-14), and how they speak against God, even in the moment of their death, saying, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? “job shows, by the Spirit, that their prosperity is not in their hand but that God lays up punishment for the wicked man's children, who shall drink of the fury of the Almighty (Job 21:2020His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. (Job 21:20)). Here, we see, there is judgment in store for the wicked, as there is surely a reward for the righteous. It is “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily "that" the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccl. 8:1111Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11))
In the Book of the Preacher (or Ecclesiastes) the question of profit and loss is fully told out. After pronouncing all things to be vanity under the sun; creation itself subject to vanity, man's labor, man's wisdom, man's pleasures, whether physical enjoyments (of which thirteen are named in (Job 2:18), or intellectual enjoyments (Job 2:12-17), all is vanity and vexation of spirit. The heart is too big for the portion. All is measured, and found insufficient. The cry is, "Who will show us any good?" "For who knoweth what is good for a man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him, under the sun?" This is the whole of man as seen "under the sun"; and in the end of the book, the preacher sums up the whole matter, and declares that man's chief good is to fear God, and to keep His commandments. This amounts to owning that there is no good in man; but all good is to be found in God and His word.
In the last outpouring of the minor prophets, we find Malachi addressing the returned remnant from Babylon with these words: Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken... against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?”
They were measuring their professed service to God by personal profit, instead of doing all to the: glory of God. What loss, in that coming day of judgment, for the proud, and those who did wickedly! But even then there was a company of God-fearing ones, who "spoke often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." These were to be His special treasure, and He would spare them in the midst of the coming judgment, and they shall shine in His beauty in the day of His glory. "Verily there is a reward for the righteous!”
The Lord Jesus, at the time of His announcement of His sufferings in Matt. 16, when He began to show to His disciples the necessity of His death and resurrection, and the path of shame and loss which lay before Him, was compelled to rebuke Peter (who sought to dissuade ' Him from taking the path), by turning and saying to Peter, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offense to Me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Then, inviting the true disciple to come after Him, to deny himself, and to take up his cross, and to follow Him, Jesus uttered those memorable words: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Here we get the solemn question of profit and loss propounded by the Son of God Himself. It is no question of the amount of worldly gain. Twenty or thirty pieces of silver may have seemed a goodly price to avaricious and covetous men; but here the Son of the living God puts the whole world in one scale, and the loss of an immortal soul in the other. And what is His verdict?
Surely, that nothing under the sun can measure the intrinsic value of your soul and mine, dear reader. God gave to Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, power and strength and glory, and wheresoever the children of men dwelt, He gave the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven into his hand, and made him ruler over them all. "Thou art this head of gold." Universal dominion was Nebuchadnezzar's; but, alas; sentence was soon afterward pronounced against this monarch of the world; and the word came to him, "Hew down the tree and destroy it.” Yet God tempered with mercy the sentence. “Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass ... and let seven times pass over him." There was space given for repentance; but, at the end of twelve months, King Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the Kingdom of Babylon, and in the pride of his heart said, "Is not this great Babylon, that have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty " His heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, and Nebuchadnezzar was deposed from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him, and he was driven from men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the beasts of the field; they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will. (Dan. 5:20-2120But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: 21And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. (Daniel 5:20‑21).)
Here is judgment mingled with mercy; for we know that at the end of the days Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven, and his understanding returned unto him, and he blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him that liveth forever and ever. He had been raised to the pinnacle of earthly greatness, and he had been degraded to the level of the beasts of the earth, to learn that God's works and ways are truth and judgment, " and those that walk in pride He is able to abase God, in His grace, condescends to reason with us. He sets before us good and evil, profit and loss, life and death, wisdom and folly. He yearned over His people Israel: "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." (Deut. 32:2929O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! (Deuteronomy 32:29).) "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).) Yet He had to say of some: "Ye also have seen Me, and believe not." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. Some, went back and walked no more with Him, but when Jesus said to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" then Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."
Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father's only Son;
God manifest, God seen and heard,
The Heaven's beloved One;
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.