"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." John 13:77Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. (John 13:7). Much is baffling and perplexing to us in God's present dealings. "What!" we are often ready to exclaim, "could not the cup have been less bitter, the trial less severe, the road less rough and dreary?"
"Hush your misgivings," says a gracious God; "question not the rightness of My dispensations. You shall yet see all revealed and made bright in the mirror of eternity!"
"What I do"—it is all My doing-My appointment. You have but a partial view of these dealings-they are seen by the eye of sense through a dim and distorted medium. You can see naught but plans crossed. and gourds laid low, and beautiful rods broken. But I see the end from the beginning "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"
"Thou shalt know!" Wait for the "hereafter" revelation! An earthly father puzzles not the ear of infancy with hard sayings and problems. He waits for the manhood of being, and then unfolds all.
So it is with God! We are now in our childhood—we shall learn the deep things of God in the manhood of eternity. Christ often shows Himself only behind the lattice—a glimpse and He is gone! But the day is coming when "we shall see Him as He is!" A flood of light will break upon us from the Sapphire throne. "In Thy light shall we see light." Psalm 36:99For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Psalm 36:9). The "need be," muffled as a secret now, will be revealed to us then, and become luminous with love.
Perhaps we may not even have to wait till eternity for the realization of this promise. We may experience its fulfillment here. We not infrequently find, even in this present world, mysterious dispensations issuing in unlooked-for blessing. Jacob would never have seen Joseph, had he not parted with Benjamin.
Often would the believer never have seen the true Joseph, had he not been called on to part with his best beloved! His language at the time is that of the patriarch, "I am bereaved." "All these things are against me." But the things which he imagined to be so adverse, have proved the means of leading him to see the heavenly King "in His beauty" even here. Much is sent to "humble" us and to "prove" us. It may not do us good now, but it is promised to do so "at thy latter end."
I shall not dictate to my God what His ways should be. The patient does not dictate to his physician. He does not reject and refuse the prescription, because it is nauseous; he knows it is for his good, and takes it on trust. It is for faith to repose in whatever God appoints. Let me not wrong His love, or dishonor His faithfulness, by supposing that there is one needless or redundant drop in the cup which His loving wisdom has mingled.
"Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (I Cor. 13:12).