“I know their sufferings.” Exodus 3:7
The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows”; and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us?
He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, you silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What you know not now, you shall know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows your soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working.
He is the Master, and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own. We are to obey, not to judge: “The servant does not know what his master is doing.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every laborer on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.
He is the Head. All understanding centers there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfills for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be forever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to know only what you choose to reveal.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
