THEY were unusually sad that morning, those two State prisoners: a dream of the night had troubled them. Now, to most men’s minds a dream is of very trifling importance; but a strange kind of significance seemed to attach itself to each man’s dream on this occasion. What that particular significance was they knew not until they opened their troubled hearts to Joseph, and he interpreted their dreams and dissolved their doubts (Gen. 40)
Let us leave the Egyptian prison house, and, coming closer home, ask, “Wherefore, downcast reader, look ye so sadly today?”
Ah, it is a matter far more serious than any night dream which presses upon, me, perhaps you will say. Two great realities stare me in the face—a sinful history, a righteous reckoning. And, alas! I can no more deny the one than I can evade the other. GOD IS RIGHTEOUS. I AM GUILTY.
But are you prepared to hear, my dear reader, that there are thousands living on the earth today who, no doubt, have sinned as deeply as you have, and yet for years have not had a single hour’s sadness about the “righteous reckoning” you speak of?
“Possibly they are, as I once was, so hardened by sin and blinded by Satan that they are not alive to their danger.”
Not so. For I refer to those who have been awakened by God to the awful character of sin and its eternal consequences, and yet those souls are now at perfect rest before Him.
Then, why am I so troubled?
Well, the cause is not far to seek, although it is humbling enough to have to face it. It is either ignorance or unbelief that accounts for your uneasiness.
What was it that made Pharaoh’s butler sad before Joseph had interpreted his dream?
It was ignorance of its real import.
But what, think you, would have been the secret of his sadness if it had continued after it had been interpreted to him? Would it not be found in the fact of his not believing what Joseph said about it?
Yes, certainly.
Therefore it is we say that it is either ignorance or unbelief that is the secret of your own unsettled state.
To give further emphasis to this, let me relate an incident or two by way of illustration. An aged widow in the south of Scotland was mainly dependent on her son Tom for means of daily support. In course of time, slackness of work compelled him to seek employment elsewhere, and he emigrated to America, promising to send his mother all the assistance he could.
Time went on, and so did her expenses, till at last she was so reduced as to be unable to pay her rent. The landlord threatened to sell her furniture, and this naturally disturbed her greatly.
Just then a neighbor went in and found her in sore trouble.
“I cannot understand this of Tom,” said her neighbor. “He was always so kind to you. Do you never get letters from him?”
“Oh yes,” she replied.
“Where are they? Will you let me see them?”
“Oh yes. Just go to the corner cupboard, and you will find them in that teapot without a handle.”
The neighbor took down the teapot, and in it found a letter which the mother had received only the day before.
It began thus: “My dear mother. I hope you received the ₤7 which, I sent you in a post office order.”
“Have you got the money?” she asked.
“I have not.”
“Have you any more letters?”
“Oh yes. You will find the others in the same teapot.”
The next letter contained the very thing needed. Holding it up, the visitor said, “Here is the post office order!”
“I don’t know what that is,” said the mother. “I saw it when I opened the letter, but didn’t know what it was.”
Now, reader, just think of this. For three weeks she had had in her possession what would have delivered her from her deep anxiety and met her pressing need, but she knew not its value, although really hers.
Here is a clear case, then. Ignorance was certainly the secret of her sadness. Nor does she stand alone. Many a soul might be found in this land of gospel light whose heart’s sore trouble is traceable simply to this, their entire want of understanding of the message which God in the gospel has sent to them, their ignorance of what Christ has done for them. They suppose that God is making righteous demands upon them, and they would fain meet these requirements, but they find by experience that it is not in their power to do so. Hence their trouble. Whereas God’s gospel, the message He sends to them, tells of His gracious provision for them. If death is sin’s penalty, the gospel tells the welcome tidings that “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
The gospel is not a writ of execution served upon man because he has not been what he ought to be, but a gracious unfolding of what God is as declared in the gift of Jesus when man was at his very worst.
“The very spear that pierced His side
Brought forth the blood to save.”
The gospel comes not with an angry threat because you cannot meet the demands of justice, but with an earnest entreaty that you should freely accept the provisions of grace. It tells you that all that was righteously needed to be done has been done. It shows you that God’s love does not, by lightly passing over sin’s judgment, oppose His righteousness. No, far otherwise. In the gospel God’s unbending righteousness, hand in hand with God’s abounding grace, is seen bringing the tidings of salvation to the utterly lost. Their voices blend in one in the declaration of the gospel message. Their theme is Christ―Christ as the receiver of sin’s just penalty―Christ as the expresser of God’s perfect love. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psa. 85:1010Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (Psalm 85:10)). This is their song, and sweet the refrain to every opened ear!
Is there a voice in God’s universe that dare bring out one solitary charge or lodge one single complaint? The Holy Spirit’s answer is simply this, “it is Christ that died.” And if that answer is enough for God, let every accusing hp be sealed in dump silence before Him forever.