My text is sadly true with reference to many; “She did not know that I
gave her corn and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold,
which they prepared for Baal.” They prepared for God’s enemies what
God himself had given to them, and what he meant to be used only for
his own glory.
IV. And now my fourth observation is this: THIS PERVERSION OFTEN MOVES GOD
TO WITHDRAW HIS MISUSED GIFTS.
“Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my
wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax.”
God has given to many of you a great many mercies. Remember that,
if you become proud of them, if because you have become fat, like
Jeshurun, you begin to kick, he can take his gifts away. If you forsake
God, who made you, and lightly esteem the Rock of your salvation, he
will forsake you, and withdraw his bounty.
He can withdraw his gifts easily. “Riches certainly make themselves
wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” You have seen the
crows on the ploughed field, have you not? There they are, blackening
the ground. But clap you hands, and they are gone. So have we often
seen it with a man’s wealth. There has been a little change in the
money market, some little turn in commerce, and all his money has
taken to itself wings, and flown away. Is it health and strength that you
have, or great wit? Ah, sir, a puff of wind may take away life; a little
gas may be fatal to health! We know not what dependent creatures we
are. God can easily take away the blessings which he gives, therefore
let us remember him in the use of them. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or
drink, do all to the glory of God.”
Moreover, God can take away his gifts unexpectedly. In the text, he
says, “I will take away my corn in the time thereof,” that is, in harvest,
“and my wine in the season thereof,” that is, just at the time of vintage.
When it seems as if the harvest and vintage were secure, God would
send a sudden blight upon both, and they would perish. God can take
things away when they almost touch the tips of our fingers, and he can
easily deprive us of misused blessings at the very moment when we
think we are most sure of them. “There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup
and the lip;” and there is many an occasion of final disappointment
when we think we have succeeded. We are only secure as we trust in
the Giver of all good.
God can take away these thing rightfully. What would you do yourself
if you had one whom you fed who was always kidding against you?
Would you feed a dog that was always barking at you, and trying to fly
at you, and do you mischief? Is it not right that God should take away
providential benefits from men when they misuse them, and pervert
them to his dishonour? It is of his grace that these things are ours at
all; he has but to withdraw that grace, and to deal with us as we
deserve, and lo! We are impoverished at once.
If God does take these things away, I would pray that he may take
them from you mercifully. I was riding one day with a young
gentleman, who was leading a very reckless life indeed, but whose
father was a very gracious man. I found that the son had taken to
horse-racing, and I said, “That is right; go on as fast as you can. Till
you have lost every penny you have, you will scarcely be willing to
turn to God. Young fellows like you do not often come home, except
round by the swine-trough. When you get down to that, then, I trust,
you will cry to God for mercy, and say, ‘I will arise, and go to my
father.’ ” He was very astonished at my advice; but I think it was the
right thing to say under the circumstances.
How often have I seen something of this sort take place! The Lord has
taken away from a man wealth, or he has taken away health, or else
the man has fallen into dishonour; the Lord takes away the corn in the
time thereof, and the wine in the season thereof, and then it happens,
as we have it in the verse before the text, the afflicted one says, “I will
go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than
now.” So long as you come to Christ, I do not mind if you come round
by “Weeping-Cross.” Even if you come with a broken leg, with the loss
of an eye, or with consumption making a prey of you, it will be well; if
only your souls be saved, and you come home to your great Father, we
will be glad. But why do you want to be whipped to Christ? Why not
come willingly? Why do you need to have these truths burnt into you
as with a hot iron? Why not learn them easily. “Be ye not as the horse,
or as the mule, which have no understanding; whose mouth must be
held in with bit and bridle.” Be not hard-mouthed with God, for he
will master you, if he once take you by the hand. If he means to bless
you, he will conquer you, though he may have to use rough measures
with you. By-and-by, when he has broken you in, he will deal with you
in all the infinite tenderness of his compassion; and you will
acknowledge that even his roughness was all the result of his love to
you.
Now, I close by saying that the Lord may take these things away from
us justly. He sometimes withdraws his bounty without intending
mercy. The sufferings of guilty men here are like the first days of a
horrible tempest that will continue for ever and ever. If they will not
turn to him when he calls in mercy, but continue to reject his love,
then will he begin to speak in thunder, and the first storm of his
righteous wrath shall only be the beginning of an endless hurricane.
“Ye sinners, seek his grace,
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of his cross,
And find salvation there.”
I have tried to speak very earnestly; but if I have failed to speak as
tenderly as I would, may the great Master forgive! Oh, that you would
acknowledge your indebtedness to God! Oh, that you would cast away
your idols! “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God.”
God grant that you may be led by the blessed Spirit to yield yourself to
him who has given you so much cause to trust him, and to his name
shall be eternal honour! Amen, and amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
