Ezekiel 21:32

REFLECTIONS

READER! the perusal of this chapter will be rendered very profitable, both to your heart and mine, if, under the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, we gather from it the instructions evidently intended from it to the people of God; namely, how blessed it is to have the Lord for our God; and when outward afflictions abound, inward consolations abound also in Jesus. When a child of God is under trouble, still, be the trouble what it may, while he hath a gracious covenant God to fly to, and the righteousness and blood-shedding of Jesus to trust in, all is well. But to have the Lord coming forth as our enemy, when the world presses hard upon us, it is that which aggravates the sorrow, and renders the load unbearable indeed. Saul, King of Israel, felt this to the full when he cried out, The Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me. Here was the bitterness of the affliction. The war of the Philistines had been nothing, for Saul had constantly subdued them when the Lord went with him to battle; but every sword, every arrow of the angry Philistine, became doubly dreadful when the Lord was seen in the appointment. Reader! let you and I learn from it the blessedness of having Jesus always with us and for us. To Him let us go, and in Him always confide. When He undertakes our cause, victory is sure; yea, we are made more than conquerors through His grace helping us.