Spurgeon: January PM
* 01/04/PM
"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 to-night 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.