Spurgeon: October PM
* 10/06/PM
"He had married an Ethiopian woman."
--Numbers 12:1
Strange choice of Moses, but how much more strange the choice
of Him who is a prophet like unto Moses, and greater than he!
Our Lord, who is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage
union with one who confesses herself to be black, because the
sun has looked upon her. It is the wonder of angels that the
love of Jesus should be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. Each
believer must, when filled with a sense of Jesus' love, be also
overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should be lavished
on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our
secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we are
dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and
sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of His
love in His own heart, He could not have found it in us, for it
is not there. Even since our conversion we have been black,
though grace has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself
what we must each subscribe to--"His relation to me is, that I
am sick, and He is the Physician of whom I stand in need. Alas!
how often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I
loose; He buildeth, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ, and He
agreeth with me twenty times a day!" Most tender and faithful
Husband of our souls, pursue Thy gracious work of conforming us
to Thine image, till Thou shalt present even us poor Ethiops
unto Thyself, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Moses
met with opposition because of his marriage, and both himself
and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can we wonder
if this vain world opposes Jesus and His spouse, and especially
when great sinners are converted? for this is ever the
Pharisee's ground of objection, "This man receiveth sinners."
Still is the old cause of quarrel revived, "Because he had
married an Ethiopian woman."