Evening, January 4
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Genesis 42:8
"And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him."
Genesis 42:8
This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with
the Lord Jesus; it may be well tonight to consider a kindred topic,
namely, our heavenly Joseph's knowledge of us. This was most blessedly
perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of him. "His eyes
beheld our substance, yet being imperfect, and in his book all our
members were written, when as yet there was none of them." Before we
had a being in the world we had a being in his heart. When we were
enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness, and our
wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed
him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well
beloved, and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his
chosen, but always beheld them as objects of his infinite affection.
"The Lord knoweth them that are his," is as true of the prodigals who
are feeding swine as of the children who sit at the table.
But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance
grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him
no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his
words. We rebelled against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun
of Righteousness shone forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came
down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those
days are over with us; yet even now it is but little that we know of
Jesus compared with what he knows of us. We have but begun to study
him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed circumstance that
the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a hopeless case
for us. He will not say to us, "I never knew you," but he will confess
our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest
himself to us as he doth not unto the world.