Evening, January 4
Go To Morning Reading
“And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.”
Genesis 42:8
This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance
with the Lord Jesus; it may be well tonight to consider a kindred
topic, namely, our heavenly Joseph's knowledge of us . This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest
knowledge of him. “His eyes beheld our substance, yet being imperfect, and in his book
all our members were written, when as yet there was none of them.” Before we had a being in the world we had a being in his heart. When
we were enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness, and our
wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed
him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well
beloved, and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his chosen,
but always beheld them as objects of his infinite affection. “The Lord knoweth them that are his,” is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children
who sit at the table.
But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother , and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts
from him, and allowed him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him,
and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled against him, and paid
him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone forth, and we
could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived
it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even
now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows
of us. We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether.
It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side,
for then it would be a hopeless case for us. He will not say to us,
“I never knew you,” but he will confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile
will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the world.