Spurgeon: June PM
* 06/08/PM
"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 fulfillment
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."