"The Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife." What a contrast between her and her master! He stands before us as the very personification of worldly greatness, having, as to this world, all that heart could wish, save that he was a leper-God's hand resting upon him, as it were, in judgment. But here was a little maid, torn from her country and her kindred by the rude hand of violence, and carried far from the land of her God and of her fathers to be a captive in a strange land. Could you well conceive of circumstances more distressing? And yet this little maid has carried with her a secret, a treasure, which makes her the channel of blessing to Naaman and his house. She has the secret of God with her.
The Syrian captain, great as he was, could not heal the disease under which he was pining away; nor could all his riches procure him a remedy from others. But here is a little captive maid who knows enough of God, and of His prophet by whom, at that time, he was acting so gloriously in Israel, as to say one day to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy."
What simple blessed faith was here. She knew the prophet and doubtless the prophet's God, and she unhesitatingly believes not only that he could, but that he would recover her master of his leprosy. And how beautifully her faith finds outflow and expression. It is the spontaneous sighing of her heart, as it were, over her master's helpless, hopeless misery-helpless and hopeless as to anything but that secret of God she had carried in her bosom to this strange land.
"Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria!" What a picture of what the Christian is, or at least ought to be. Of what he is indeed, in one sense; for however little it may be manifested, each saint does carry the secret of God with him. Alas! how little does the consciousness of this fill our hearts and mold our ways. We see sin and misery on every hand, and see it, alas! too often with callous insensibility; and even when our hearts do melt in view of it, how little have we of the faith which brings Jesus into connection with it all. Are our thoughts and hearts so full of him-of Jesus-our prophet, priest, and king-that ever and anon we involuntarily exclaim to one child of sorrow or another, Would God you knew Jesus? Would God you were with Jesus!
Have we, my brethren, the living consciousness from day to day, of possessing in Jesus a remedy for every evil, a medicine for every wound? Poor sinner, if you did but know Him! He is the Healer of every wound, the Remedy for every disease, the Soother of every sorrow, and the Fullness of eternal life and joy. What that you knew Him!
I do not say that He would, at present, heal all your bodily ailments, relieve your temporal circumstances, and bring you into a condition of earthly happiness and prosperity. I could not promise you these things on His behalf. But He has far better things for you than these. When Jesus was here in humiliation, He did heal the bodily maladies of all who came to Him. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to our Lord to ask Him, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."
But what did all this end in? Why the world, wooed, as it were, by these demonstrations of love, wooed by the love of God in sending His Son, and by all these gracious loving acts of His while here,-the world rejected God's only-begotten Son, and completed the proof of its own deep and deadly, and irremediable wickedness, by putting Him to death. What then? The world was given over to judgment. You may start at such a statement; but our Lord Himself, as having come to the hour of His final rejection, says, "Now is the judgment of this world." The world had been on trial until then. Every means had been tried that could act upon the moral nature of man for his recovery, and all had issued in the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God. The proof of the world's lost condition was now complete; there could be nothing beyond; and hence the verdict is brought in and sentence passed. True, there is a way of escape. Through the precious blood which man's wicked hands have shed there is full remission, and perfect righteousness, and heavenly joys, and everlasting life, for all who believe God's testimony concerning Jesus. But as to all others, sentence is passed, and they lie under condemnation. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not is condemned already." And again, "the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
God is not now acting to make this world the place of blessing. His present object is not to relieve this world of the miseries under which it groans, but to gather sinners out of it by the preaching of the gospel. He will make this earth a paradise of joy by and by, when, by the judgments which attend the second coming of Christ, he has purged the earth of its corrupters and destroyers. Then, in the times of restitution of all things, the curse shall be removed, sighing and sorrow shall cease, and joy and gladness extend from shore to shore. But at present the world lies under sentence, awaiting the hour of its execution, when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:7, 87And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (2 Thessalonians 1:7‑8)
Why is the execution of this sentence delayed? That by the preaching of the gospel the Holy Ghost may draw the hearts of sinners to Jesus, that they may be delivered from this evil world with all the judgments that hang over it: that they may be one with Christ Himself even now, in acceptance and life and hope: and that when He shall appear they may appear with Him in glory. Even here, my brethren, we have an assurance of His love, a knowledge of Himself, and a fellowship with His joy, which sustains, and more than sustains, under all the ills of the present life. How the apostle Paul could challenge everything visible and invisible to rob him of what God's own love in Christ Jesus had bestowed! "If God be for us, who can be against us?" He recounts all that the heart so shrinks from-tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword-and exclaims, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:37-3937Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37‑39)
To sing a song of triumph such as this is worth immeasurably more than to have one's bodily diseases cured, or one's temporal circumstances improved. Men vainly strive to bring their circumstances to their mind; but he who knows Christ has got in Him a treasure that not only brings the mind contentedly to the circumstances, but lifts the heart above all circumstances, into fellowship with Christ's own joy and blessedness, and into fellowship with the Father's joy in Him. Oh, that you all knew Him! Would that we who do know Him, knew Him more.