Evening, August 14, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“I am aware of their sufferings.” — Exodus 3:7

The child cheers up as he sings, “This my father knows;” so shall not we be comforted as we perceive that our dear Friend and the tender husband of our soul knows all about us?

1. He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, my nervous, trembling heart, which worries about all things great and trivial! What you do not know now, you shall know later, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows your soul is in hardships. Why does the patient need to analyze all the medicine, or evaluate 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 illegible characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make everything clear in the end, however mysterious the process.
2. He is the Master, and has sufficient knowledge to guide us outside of our knowing; we are to obey, not to judge: “The slave does not understand what his master is doing.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every carpenter on the project? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the potter’s wheel cannot guess the plans of the Master as to the shape of the pattern it shall receive, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-examined, and certainly not by one so ignorant as I am.
3. He is the Head. All understanding centers there. What ability to judge has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should a limb have a brain of its own when the head fulfills for it every intellectual function? Here, then, must the believer place his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be the eye, and heart, and head for us forever, and let us be content to know only what you choose to reveal.