REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XI, August 2003, Number 8
Two Viewpoints Of the Same Reality
"All these things are against me." - Genesis 42:36b.
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31b.
All these things are against me!
What a depth of misery opens up before us at this heartrending outcry!
Yawning darknesses of despair appear ready to swallow us up, when we utter this passionate plaint of helplessness!
Things are against us! They conspire to destroy us! They have united their forces to extinguish the very light of our life, to take the last drop of sweetness out of our already bitter cup, to leave us in dark despair! And we are alone, helpless, defenseless, without power to ward off the last threatening blow! Alone, for, note the personal element in the outcry, all these things are against me!...
Outburst of lonely grief, of dark despair! Yet, how often, also in the life of God's children in the world, do circumstances fully appear to justify such plaintive exclamations!
They appeared to justify the old patriarch (Jacob) whose words are quoted in the text. Had not the days of his life been few and evil?
Did it not seem, at the moment when this passionate outburst of grief was pressed from his heart, as if lately all things conspired to deprive him of children? Stood he not helpless and defenseless over against these things?
Years ago it was indeed, but still fresh in his memory, that he had sent his most beloved child away from home to inquire after the well-being of his brethren. Never had he seen anything of him again but the blood-soaked garment the brethren had brought to their father as a silent witness that a wild beast had devoured him, that Joseph had without doubt been rent in pieces. The sad departure of the first son of his beloved Rachel had left him comfortless, and when his other children approached him with their vain consolations, he had plainted: I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning! Time had never completely healed that heart-wound...
Yet, now it was cruelly torn open anew!
Famine had ravaged the promised land in which Jacob still dwelled as a sojourner and stranger. The corn had been consumed, and they - Jacob and his family - had also heard the news that was rumored abroad that there was corn in Egypt. Long had Jacob hesitated to send his sons to that far country, but the hunger pressed and he finally let them go. "Look no longer upon one another, for there is corn in Egypt; go and buy from thence, that we may live and not die!" Thus had he spoken. Yet, Benjamin, Rachel's second son, the only one that could somewhat reconcile him to Joseph's death, he had kept at home, "lest peradventure mischief might befall him." The brethren had gone, and when much later than might reasonably be expected they returned to their anxious father, one was missing, The rest told a sad story of the strange treatment they had experienced in Egypt and of the harsh words the ruler of that country had spoken to them. They explained why their one brother was missing and mentioned to their father the condition upon which he might be fetched home again: they had to return and take Benjamin with them!...
What wonder then that the old patriarch breaks out in sad complaints and wails: All these things are against me!...
Joseph is not! The old wound is cruelly torn open and again he beholds his blood-stained coat of many colors. Simeon is not, having disappeared in a way similar to that of Joseph's removal from the family, and Benjamin must now go? Benjamin, upon whom all his father's love had been concentrated since the death of Joseph ?...
Did not things seem against him? Did they not appear to conspire to tear his children from his heart, cruelly, mysteriously, one by one?... and did he not stand helpless, defenseless over against these things?
Oh, he might emphatically declare now, that he would never permit Benjamin to leave home! Did he not know at the same time, that things would compel him to let him go with the brethren? Was it not the proposed condition for Simeon's release? Would not the hunger in the land force him to send the brethren to Egypt once more? Had not that strange ruler of the land, where corn could be had, sworn that he would not see their faces again unless they brought Benjamin with them?...
"All these things are against me!"
How apparently justifiable seems the outburst of grief! How equally justifiable appears a similar vociferation in the life of God's children!
Men, cruel men, devils, times, circumstances, the very place where they live, their name and position, all things often seem against them! They have a family and they cannot support it. They look for work and it is in vain. Or, they have an honorable position, but men conspire to thrust them out. They have a few pennies but they are consumed. They have a home but they cannot keep it and must deliver it up. And they see no outcome!...
They consider these things. They reason with them. They look at them from every side. They count their possessions, their opportunities, their prospects. They figure and turn things over and over in their mind, till they grow weary with thinking and sleep will not close their eyes at night...
But no matter how they care and worry and meditate on these things, dark despair yawns on every side...
"All these things are against me!"...
Yet, brethren, this loud wail of despair, if heard from the lips of the child of God, is but the expression of a viewpoint, a wrong viewpoint, the viewpoint of unbelief!...
For listen! However dark the way may appear, is this not true, unchangeably true, true forever and ever: God is for us!?...
And if God be for us, who can be against us?
* * * * *
"All these things are against me!"
What things?...
Would it not be well, worried brethren, weary with thinking and planning and contriving and calculating; careworn because of your anxiety about all the things that are against you; to enumerate them one by one, to let them have their full weight of misery, then to take a look also at the things that do not seem against us?...
For the anxiety of unbelief, however apparently justified by circumstances, is apt to concentrate all our attention upon the things that seem evil, make us unmindful of many things that are still cause for rejoicing, and tempt us to become guilty of gross exaggeration of the things that seem against us...
We count the evils ten times, a hundred times, the blessings but once!
The sorrows and miseries crowd in upon our soul, the darkness envelops our heart, the thought of all our misfortunes (for such we are prone to call them in that state of mind, even thought we know that the very word is coined by the ungodly!) solely occupy our mind, till we see nothing but evils about us and the darkness of despair ahead. We become unmindful of the good things of God, of the thousands of reasons to rejoice, of the abundance of blessings, of reasons to be comforted and to rejoice which He still lavishes upon us!
Such was surely the case with Jacob, when he cried out: All these things are against me!
What things?
As Jacob beholds them now, at this moment of faltering faith and deep despair, they are to be enumerated as follows: "Me have ye bereaved of children; Joseph is not; Simeon is not; and ye will take Benjamin away."
But how greatly exaggerated is the evil of the things in these words of the complaining patriarch! How dark the picture is drawn of his present circumstances! How utterly forgetful he appears to be of all the goodness of the Lord over him. How he must ignore hundreds of blessings to make these statements!
For, notice the sweeping statement: me ye have bereaved of children! Did not the Lord give him far more than He ever gave to Abraham or Isaac his fathers, to see the realization of His covenant in twelve sons and one daughter? While he spake of being bereaved of children, was he not surrounded by eleven of them? Was the statement, then, not marked by gross exaggeration; did he not exceed far beyond the bounds of truth in making it, and was he not oblivious of God's goodness over him? Besides, was it, from Jacob's viewpoint and as far as he knew, not an injustice to the brethren, when he accused them of being guilty in the matter? True, they actually were guilty of Joseph's disappearance, but of this the old father was not cognizant; as far as he knew a wild beast had devoured him. In the matter of Simeon's absence they surely were innocent. Then again, Jacob's viewpoint of unbelief causes him to mention the case of Joseph in one breath with that of Simeon and Benjamin: Joseph is not and Simeon is not and ye will take Benjamin away! This also was not a statement of reality. For Simeon was not dead but in Egypt and the brethren had plainly explained that he would be released and return home with them, if only they might take Benjamin to that strange ruler in proof that they were honest men. Neither was it true that the brethren would take Benjamin away in the sense implied in the statement of the grieving father.
How greatly unjust and guilty of exaggeration, how unmindful of all the blessings Jehovah had bestowed on him is the patriarch as he thus wails and bemoans his condition!
Yet, is not the experience of Jacob a common one?
Is it not always characteristic of unbelief, of a faltering faith, that we enhance the evil things till we see nothing but them, and are unmindful, forgetful and unthankful with respect to the blessings the Lord showers down upon us? Is it not true, when the Lord takes away from us one that is dear to our heart, that often we are apt to concentrate all our mind and heart upon the deceased and forget the living loved ones? Do we not often extend our cares and worries far beyond the present day, so that when we are thrust out of our position, when times of abundance are passed and a period of scarcity, of want, of lack of labor and money arrives, we become forgetful of the fact, that the Lord cares for His people every day, that each day we receive our daily bread?...
O we of little faith!
Is God dead? Or did He turn against His people?
If He is the ever living God, and if He be unchangeably for us, why concentrate all our attention with careworn hearts and minds upon the things that are, nay, that seem evil and become forgetful of all His benefits ?...
Why not search for all the tokens of His loving-kindness, which are always more than we can count?
If God be for us who can be against us?
* * * * *
"All these things are against me!"
How untrue, how directly against reality was this statement of the patriarch!
That it was so untrue, and that he nevertheless uttered it, was due to the fact that at this moment he lost sight of his God!
This is evident already from the fact that he speaks of things being against him.
In the darkness of unbelief we can see things and nothing but things and forget that the Most High holds the reins and that He controls and rules with absolute sovereignty over all things. These things appear to have power against us, they seem to plot and conspire, they appear to be implacable and merciless, they cooperate for our destruction. We feel helpless and defenseless over against these things. In this darkness of unbelief it is not surprising that fear of them takes hold of our hearts and that we cry out with the patriarch: all these things are against me!
Reality is that things are nothing!
The truth is that above all things stands the living God, and that men and devils and powers and principalities, and heights and depths, and life and death, and things present and things to come are in His Almighty hand and can do nothing against His will, they always must accomplish what He wills them to do.
The fact is that this almighty God is for His people! He is for them from eternity and His loving-kindness over them moved Him to arrange all His divine counsel in such a way that all things must work together for good to them that love God! He is for them in time, and He governs all things according to His counsel so that they may be conducive to the eternal salvation of the elect! He manifested that He is for them in unfathomable love, for He gave His only begotten Son into the depth of shame and reproach and of the suffering of death and hell that they might live! What shall we then say to these things? What shall we say, if things seem to conspire, if men rave against us, if the powers of darkness unite to destroy us, if very death and hell rise up against us? What shall we say to them? Shall we be afraid and complain that all these things are actually against us? Nay, but we shall say, that God is for us, and if God be for us nothing can be against us! . . . .
We shall say: He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!
Nothing can separate us from His love! For He is God!
He is the Almighty against whom no living or dead things can prevail, whose will they must surely accomplish. He is the All-wise, who never makes errors, whose counsel is perfect, who will surely realize the purpose unto which He made and governs all things. He is unchangeably faithful, whose loving-kindness is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, who will never fail nor forsake us, who is for us forever!...
If He be for us, all things must be for us!
They were not against Jacob but for him, though he could not see this. Had he had control of things he would have made an end to the famine in Canaan, kept the brethren home, left Simeon in Egypt for fear that Benjamin might be taken away, and all things would have been against him.
Joseph was living, Simeon was living, Benjamin must go, and all must serve the purpose to unite them again and save a great people alive!
It is no different with us, though the way be contrary to our plans.
Only climb through enveloping darkness to the heights of faith, and say: God is for us! All is well!
H. H.
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