Matthew 10:30

HAIRS NUMBERED

‘The very hairs of your head are all numbered.’

Matthew 10:30

The chief object of our Saviour’s words was to convey the general comfort of the truth, that His people, and everything which belongs to them, are exceedingly dear and precious to Him.

I. The dignity of the body.—And that especially as regards their bodies. For the whole line of thought, about ‘the sparrows,’ and about ‘the hairs,’ springs out of the words, ‘Fear not them which kill the body.’ It is a serious error when, in the wish to exalt the value of the soul, we depreciate the importance of the body. Our Lord never did this. He was never hyper-spiritual. He spent at least as much time and attention upon the bodies of men, as ever He did upon their souls. And the greater part of the Sermon on the Mount is about the body.

II. Christ the defender.—Our Lord is giving His disciples arguments against fear. And one is, that their cause being His cause, He is their defender and their avenger in everything. ‘Do not be afraid,’ He says; ‘do not be afraid of those that kill: for even if a little sparrow fall to the ground, I know who made it fall. And if any one hurt you, or take away one “hair” of your head, I shall be conscious of it—for I have numbered them.’ God does not expose His jewels till He has catalogued them!

III. Therefore—

(a) Be sure that you are never afraid to pray about the smallest thing.

(b) Do not shrink from feeling yourself a centre about which God is making all manner of kind things to circulate. You are the sun of a system. Do not hesitate to believe that God is working for you in the most direct and express manner. You cannot exaggerate God’s care of you.

(c) Go without anxiety, for all anxiety not only hurts you, but it grieves God.

(d) And remember that the ‘hair’ is an allegory. The inner life is there. The sorrows and the joys; the conflicts and the victories; the earnest longings, and the bitter remorses,—all the soul’s chequered light and shadow,—are all in God’s record!

The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘There is a view, and it is daily increasing, that God, having laid down certain rules for the government of this world, then leaves those general laws to take effect, without any further particular interposition in the affairs of men. “How,” they say, “is it to be expected, how is it possible, how is it consistent with science, that there should be a special interference, in each one of the details of such intricate mechanism as this our universe? and therefore,” they go on to say, “it is vain and wrong to pray, or expect anything, which would be an exception to the ordinary laws of nature.” How do we know that there is not another law behind and beyond what we call “the laws of nature”? Or how do we know—in “the laws of nature”—but that that which we call “an exception,” is not really a part? Or shall we say that the Great Legislator cannot suspend His own laws? Or shall we say that anything is law, but that which originally comes from the mind of God Himself? It is compatible with the universal laws of God’s government—nay, it is essential to them,—nay, it is a part of them,—that God has made this law for Himself—that He orders, in the minutest detail, every event that happens on this earth; and that each passage in a Christian’s life has its own history, its own reason, its own character, and its own intention.’