Evening, August 5
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Numbers 32:6
"Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"
Numbers 32:6
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been
unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and
had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We
have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints
in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the church of
Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled
in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or
excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of the fall, and if we
fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the curse of
Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye
here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of
Jesus becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and
abundantly rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and
fervent ministers shame us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from
trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would
fain escape the cross and yet wear the crown; to them the question for
this evening's meditation is very applicable. If the most precious are
tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? If the diamond must
be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made perfect without suffering?
Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing because our bark is
on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better than our
Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It
is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken
couch for a soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first
resigned to the divine will, groweth by the energy of grace to be
pleased with it, and so learns to gather lilies at the cross foot, and,
like Samson, to find honey in the lion.