The mystery and standing problem of the Old Testament is the coexistence of goodness and sorrow, and the mystery still remains, and ever will remain, a fact. It is partially alleviated if we remember that one main purpose of all our sorrows is to lead us to this confidence.
1. The call to faith is the true voice of all our sorrows.
It seems easy to trust when all is bright, but really it is just as hard, only we can more easily deceive ourselves, when physical well-being makes us comfortable. We are less conscious of our own emptiness, we mask our poverty from ourselves, we do not seem to need God so much. But sorrow reveals our need to us. Other props are struck away, and it is either collapse or Him. We learn the vanity, the transiency, of all besides.
Sorrow reveals God, as the pillar of cloud glowed brighter when the evening fell. Sorrow is meant to awaken the powers that are apt to sleep in prosperity.
So the true voice of all our griefs is' Come up hither.' They call us to trust, as nightfall calls us to light up our lamps. The snow keeps the hidden seeds warm; shepherds burn heather on the hillside that young grass may spring.
2. The call to faith echoes from the voice of the Servant.
Jesus in His darkness rested on God, and in all His sorrows was yet anointed with the oil of gladness. In every pang He has been before us. The rack is sanctified because He has been stretched upon it.
3. The substance of the call. It is to trust, not to anything more. No attempts to stifle tears are required. There is no sin in sorrow. The emotions which we feel to God in bright days are not appropriate at such times. There are seasons in every life when all that we can say is, Truly this is a grief, and I will bear it.'
What then is required? Assurance of God's loving will sending sorrow. Assurance of God's strengthening presence in it, assurance of deliverance from it. These, not more, are required; these are the elements of the faith here called for.
Such faith may co-exist with the keenest sense of loss. The true attitude in sorrow .may be gathered from Christ's at the grave of Lazarus, contrasted with the excessive mourning of the sisters, and the feigned grief of the Jews.
There are times when the most that we can do is to trust even in the great darkness, Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.' Submissive silence is sometimes the most eloquent confession of faith. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.'
4. The blessed results of such faith.
It is implied that we may find all that we need, and more, in God. Have we to mourn friends? In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.' Have we lost wealth? We have in Him a treasure that moth or rust cannot touch. Are our hopes blasted? Happy is He, whose hope is in the Lord his God.' Is our health broken? I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance.' The Lord is able to give thee much more than these.'
How can we face the troubles of life without Him? God calls us when in darkness, and by the darkness, to trust in His name and stay ourselves on Him. Happy are we if we answer Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.'
