No. 2.
GOD has a perfect knowledge of us. From the very start He knew all about us; nay, before the start of our short natural history He knew all that we should be to the end. And before the beginning of our spiritual history He knew all that we should discover in ourselves. When we first came to Christ we wondered exceedingly at the grace and kindness we found in Him; but we knew very little of the vileness in ourselves naturally. This we have all to learn experimentally; and this Joseph’s history strikingly illustrates.
Fresh favors had been shown to his brethren. They had been privileged to dine with Joseph, and there was one peculiar circumstance that caused them to marvel even then, for they were placed at the dinner-table in “birthright” order―from “firstborn” to “youngest”! But with all these favors there was the profession and the considered proof of their integrity.
They had started with the dawn on their second homeward journey. But not far had they gone outside the city when Joseph’s steward overtook them. That steward and Joseph himself were in a secret of which they had no present knowledge. It had to be discovered to them. A silver cup belonging to Joseph was in one of their sacks! In their ignorance they protested against any slur on their innocence, and boldly volunteered to pronounce sentence upon the guilty party if the charge could be proved, and upon themselves also as associated with him if the missing cup could be discovered in their possession. Hear what they say. “Let him die, and we also will be my lord’s bondmen” (Gen. 44:99With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen. (Genesis 44:9)).
How their own words respecting Joseph, years before, were coming back to them! First they had said, “Let us slay him”; then, “Let us sell him”! (Gen. 37:20, 2720Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. (Genesis 37:20)
27Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. (Genesis 37:27)).
Search was made, and the cup was actually found―and found where it was least expected, “in Benjamin’s sack”!
“What shall we say? How shall we clear ourselves?” “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.” This told the tale of their dilemma. Their consternation must have been overwhelming.
But a like experience has caused very genuine alarm in the minds of thousands of God’s saints since Pentecost. After starting for the “Heavenly Land” they have made the unexpected and very unwelcome discovery that an evil principle still exists within them. “How can we clear ourselves?” is the absorbing question. Joseph’s brethren might have considered the discovered money in the sack as “an oversight.” But what of this “silver cup” brought to light by the steward’s strict search!
The fact was that Joseph knew two things, of which they had been in complete ignorance. He knew both what was in his own heart and in their sacks. What is so truly interesting is that the discovery of the latter was the means of coming to a fuller knowledge of the former.
So with us. If Jesus loved us, it was in the full knowledge of all that we should afterward discover our own hearts to be capable of. “He needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man” (John 2:2525And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. (John 2:25)). But if He had found out man’s iniquity, He had found out a righteous way of meeting it at His own great cost. We usually find it out by degrees: He knew all from the beginning. His precious death as truly covers what He knew there was in us as the sinful things which, in word and action, would come out of us.
As with the brethren of Joseph when the steward brought them back into his presence, to hear his gracious words, and feel his tears and kisses on their once stiff necks, so every fresh discovery of evil in ourselves is only a new occasion for the Spirit to bring us into the Lord’s presence to learn Himself in a new way.
It is thus that we learn to abhor ourselves, and joyfully to adore His blessed saving Name.
Speaking of the inward exercises depicted in the seventh of Romans, another has said: “Three immensely important lessons are learned, under Divine teaching, in the conflict connected with this state.
“First, in me―that is, in my flesh―dwells no good thing. This is not the guilt of having sinned, but the knowledge of what we are―that is, as flesh.
“Next, I learn that it is not I; for, being renewed, I hate it. The true I hates it. It is then sin in me, not I―a very important lesson to learn.
“Thirdly, if it is not I, it is too strong for me. The will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
The discovery of nothing but worthlessness and weakness in ourselves is the way which the true Steward (the Spirit of God) takes to discover to us that all blessedness and all strength are in Christ, and all ours in Him. GEO. C.