Evening, June 8

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or
   not."

  Numbers 11:23

   God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole
   month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses,
   being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and
   is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the
   creature instead of the Creator. But doth the Creator expect the
   creature to fulfil his promise for him? No; he who makes the promise
   ever fulfils it by his own unaided omnipotence. If he speaks, it is
   done--done by himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfilment
   upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at once
   perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly we do the
   same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature
   to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the
   creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why look we to
   that quarter at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits
   ripened in the sun? Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did
   this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature
   to do the Creator's work. Let us, then, put the question on the right
   footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible
   means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of
   the invisible God, who will most surely do as he hath said. If after
   clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the
   creature, we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes
   home mightily to us: "Has the Lord's hand waxed short?" May it happen,
   too, in his mercy, that with the question there may flash upon our
   souls that blessed declaration, "Thou shalt see now whether my word
   shall come to pass unto thee or not."