Genesis 42:38

Bring down my gray hairs with sorrow

Graceless children

Some graceless children despise their fathers and their mothers when they are old, and when their grey hairs claim reverence or compassion.

If we must bow before the man of hoary hairs, although he is a stranger, what reverence do we owe to our own parents, when the respect due to age is added to the claims of parental relation! Those children that load the grey heads of their parents with crushing sorrows, are worse than common murderers. Yet, let not parents, by their own frowardness, kill themselves with grief, and load their children with the blame due to themselves. The aged ought to remember that their infirmities may dispose them to make their burdens heavier than God or men have made them. And when we torment ourselves we are too ready to transfer our own folly to the account of others. (G. Lawson, D. D.)

A faithless exclamation

Why should Jacob die with grief, if Benjamin should be lost? Is Benjamin his God, his life, his exceeding joy? “The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock of Israel.” He is the Rock of ages. God had made desolate all Job’s company, and his hope had He removed like a tree; but Job knew that his Redeemer lived. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; but the Word of the Lord shall stand for ever.” And whilst the Word stands, those whose trust is placed on it are safe. They may, through the prevalence of unbelief, and of earthly affections, speak unadvisedly with their lips; hut the Lord will make them sensible of their folly, and enable them to commit their affairs into His hand, and to east all their cares upon Him who cares for all His people. We shall soon hear Jacob saying, “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved”; and on his death-bed he says, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!” (G. Lawson, D. D.)

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