Spurgeon: February PM
* 02/24/PM
"O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy upon
Jerusalem? . . . And the Lord answered the angel . . . with good
words and comfortable words."
--Zechariah 1:12,Zechariah 1:13
What a sweet answer to an anxious enquiry! This night let us
rejoice in it. O Zion, there are good things in store for thee;
thy time of travail shall soon be over; thy children shall be
brought forth; thy captivity shall end. Bear patiently the rod
for a season, and under the darkness still trust in God, for His
love burneth towards thee. God loves the church with a love too
deep for human imagination: He loves her with all His infinite
heart. Therefore let her sons be of good courage; she cannot be
far from prosperity to whom God speaketh "good words and
comfortable words." What these comfortable words are the prophet
goes on to tell us: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion
with a great jealousy." The Lord loves His church so much that
He cannot bear that she should go astray to others; and when she
has done so, He cannot endure that she should suffer too much or
too heavily. He will not have his enemies afflict her: He is
displeased with them because they increase her misery. When God
seems most to leave His church, His heart is warm towards her.
History shows that whenever God uses a rod to chasten His
servants, He always breaks it afterwards, as if He loathed the
rod which gave his children pain. "Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." God hath not
forgotten us because He smites--His blows are no evidences of
want of love. If this is true of His church collectively , it
is of necessity true also of each individual member . You may
fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: He who
counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger
of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly
as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint
He ever loved. Approach Him and be at peace.