The Change<\/p>\n
One most observable matter, which the course of the Lord\u2019s providence frequently manifests in his dealings with his people, is strikingly illustrated by that portion of David\u2019s history which has passed under our survey. It is that afflictions and trials are often allowed to accumulate, one after another, without rest or pause, for a certain time, until a point of such accumulated wretchedness is reached, that it seems as if the last point to which human endurance can stretch\u2014the utmost pitch to which even heavenly sustainments can uphold this earthy essence, has been attained, and that it needs but one atom more added to the accumulated burden of our troubles, to break the back on which it has been piled up. Then, at what seems to us the last moment, He who knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are but dust\u2014He who will never suffer us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, appears as a deliverer. With his strong hand he lifts the burden from the shoulder, and casts it afar off; tenderly does he anoint and bind up the deep sores it has worn in our flesh, and pours in the oil and the wine\u2014and graciously does he lead us forth into the fresh and green pastures, where we may lie down at ease under the warm sunshine of his countenance, till all the frightful past becomes as a half-remembered dream\u2014a tale that is told.<\/p>\n
In David\u2019s case, the long misery of the first stage of his public career seems to have reached its culminating point, when, on his return to Ziklag, he found his pleasant home burnt up with fire\u2014his wives and children borne away into captivity, he knew not whither\u2014surrounded by men who were the sharers in this calamity, and who, in the bitterness of their spirits, mutinied against their leader and placed his very life in peril.<\/p>\n
This was the trial. It was, as Joab said of another trial, many years after, the worst to him \u201cof all the evil that had befallen him from his youth until now.\u201d This was a sign that relief was at hand. When things are at the worst, as the common proverb says, they must mend. And they mended with David from that hour. And this was not because things were then at the worst with him, but because being at the worst, he fought that great fight of affliction well. \u201cHe encouraged himself in the Lord his God;\u201d and he found that his encouragements in God, exceeded beyond all measure his discouragements in man, although friends combined with enemies to discourage him then. From that moment, when he believingly cast all his dependence upon the Lord his God only, whom he had found faithful in all his promises, and whose providence had never failed him in his deepest dangers\u2014from that moment he was safe\u2014from that moment he was prosperous. \u201cGod loves (as David knew)\u201d says an old writer, Note: Christopher Ness. \u201cto reserve his holy hand for a dead lift in behalf of his servants in covenant with him, when there is a damp upon their hopes, and a death upon their helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that the time of change was come, all things went well with him, and his prosperity increased like a river, gathering strength and fulness in its course, until, long after, a great crime stayed its course, and overwhelmed him with tides of trouble and grief, compared with which the trials of his early days were light. This Ziklag is laid in ashes\u2014but no sooner is he left shelterless than God provides him a better city, even Hebron, a city of refuge, and most truly a refuge to him. Saul even dies at this time to give him room. \u201cNow doth David find the comfort,\u201d says Bishop Hall, \u201cthat his extremity sought in the Lord his God. Now are his clouds for a time passed over, and the sun breaks gloriously forth. David shall reign after his sufferings. So shall we, if we endure to the end, find a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge; shall give us at that day.\u201d With reference to his taking with him his companions, to be the sharers of his better fortunes, while their mutiny was yet fresh and green, the same writer beautifully remarks, \u201cThus doth our heavenly Leader, whom David prefigured, take us to reign with him, who have suffered with him. Passing by our manifold infirmities, as if they had not been, he removeth us from the land of our banishment, and the ashes of our forlorn Ziklag, to the Hebron of our peace and glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor do these observations find application only to temporal prosperities. The same is observable in the higher matters of spiritual life. It is, perhaps, the general rule, that we are seldom admitted to the fulness of God\u2019s presence, and to the enjoyment of that peace which passeth all understanding, until we have gone through great throes of spirit, and groanings that cannot be uttered, in the conviction of our forlorn and miserable condition. It is then that the Comforter comes to reveal Christ to our hearts, as a Redeemer and a Healer\u2014and their, to us, old things are passed away, and all things are become new. We are not healed, till we feel how desperately we have been wounded\u2014not redeemed, till we know how utterly we have been enslaved\u2014not saved, till we know how entirely we were lost.<\/p>\n
And again, how often do we, in our spiritual course, have seasons, sometimes long, of darkness and gloom of spirit, during which our Lord seems to hide his face from us, and has forgotten to be gracious to us; and then, at the moment of most extreme despondency and discouragement, when the gloom is deepest\u2014the agony most intense, and we gasp as in the throes of spiritual death\u2014the cloud rolls away, the sun shines out upon. it, and all the fair fields and gardens of our inner paradise again look green\u2014the drooping flowers of the heart revive\u2014and all that is not earthly in us exults in the enlivening rays.<\/p>\n
These considerations are most proper to the history of David, for there is no human history in which those transitions are more distinctly marked; while his Psalms are full of passages which may be, and are, continually cited to illustrate these contrasted aspects of our spiritual condition.<\/p>\n
Autor: JOHN KITTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Change One most observable matter, which the course of the Lord\u2019s providence frequently manifests in his dealings with his people, is strikingly illustrated by that portion of David\u2019s history which has passed under our survey. It is that afflictions and trials are often allowed to accumulate, one after another, without rest or pause, for … Continue reading ““285. THE CHANGE””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}