Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you… It is not here said God will never Afflict His people. Sorrow is the heirloom of royal hulls as well as of lowly huts. It is well it should be so, for sorrow is useful; man cannot bear ceaseless sunshine, he needs the intercepting cloud. In the second place, it is not here said that God will never bereave His people. A vacant chair is in every home and by every fireside. It may seem a very severe lesson, but it is a very necessary one — if death never cast his cold, dark shadow upon your fireside, you would begin to worship that fireside; you would incline to make this earthly tabernacle your home. In the next place, it is not said here that men, or even Christians, will never die; that is not so. It does seem to us sometimes inexplicable, if Christ has destroyed death, that Christians should still die. The Answer is, He has not destroyed death as a fact; but He has done better, He has left the fact, but out of the bosom of the cold fact He,has evoked blessings that more than compensate for all its bitterness. God not having promised these things to us, has however said to us what is far better — He will never forsake His people. He will be with them in any one or in all of these together, their peace and support. His omniscience will always watch you with a sentinel eye that never closes, His omnipresence will always reach and help you — if you go to the ends of the earth. The Lord will not forsake His people. No palace walls, however thick, no guards, however brave, no breadth of sea, no number of miles, no impassable desert, shall intercept the visits or arrest the interposition of God. There is not a sting in the human heart, there is not a shadow, however blighting, on the human soul, which God sees not. When all God's billows, and afflictions, And troubles pass over you, a light brighter than the brightest star, even the morning star, will rise upon you, and. a voice louder than the noise of the sea waves, and more musical by far, will bring comfort to your heart: "It is I; be not Afraid." But in viewing this blessed promise, that God will not forsake His people, let me notice some of the circumstances in which He will not forsake, or, interpreted in the positive form, He will be specially present, for all God's negatives are most expressive; His promise, "I will not forsake you," is the strongest form of saying, "The Lord will Always and everywhere be with His people." 1. Well, God will not forsake you in affliction, and trials, and difficulties, when all you loved is lost, when all you counted on has put forth unexpected wings and fled; — and need I say we live in a period when no man is certain that the honest possessions of to-day will be his property to-morrow; and perhaps the lesson that God is teaching us amid all the mutations of this age is not to set our hearts upon uncertain riches. 2. In the second place, God will not forsake you in the time and during the pain of bereavement. And if this be so, if it be God that interposes, if it be God that takes the pilgrim home, then what is our inference? There are no such things as accidental deaths. 3. God will not forsake His people when entrusted with great responsibilities. When you are called upon to fulfil great duties, never forget to plead God's great promise. All that is in God is with us, and for us, so that the inexhaustible capital, on which a Christian can draw, is the omnipresence, the omniscience, the omnipotence, the love of God his Father in heaven. The reason why God does not forsake you and me is that He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, so that it cannot be exhausted. Another reason is because He has been pleased to make us His people. God does not forsake us for His name's sake, because He has been pleased to make us His people. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. |
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