Evening, October 6
Go To Morning Reading
“He had married an Ethiopian woman.”
Numbers 12:1
Strange choice of Moses, but how much more strange the choice of him
who is a prophet like unto Moses, and greater than he! Our Lord, who
is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage union with one who
confesses herself to be black, because the sun has looked upon her.
It is the wonder of angels that the love of Jesus should be set upon
poor, lost, guilty men. Each believer must, when filled with a sense
of Jesus’ love, be also overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should
be lavished on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we
do our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we
are dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and
sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of his love
in his own heart, he could not have found it in us, for it is not
there. Even since our conversion we have been black, though grace
has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself what we must each
subscribe to—“His relation to me is, that I am sick, and he is the Physician of
whom I stand in need. Alas! how often I play fast and loose with Christ!
He bindeth, I loose; he buildeth, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ,
and he agreeth with me twenty times a day!” Most tender and faithful Husband of our souls, pursue thy gracious
work of conforming us to thine image, till thou shalt present even
us poor Ethiopians unto thyself, without spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing. Moses met with opposition because of his marriage, and
both himself and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can
we wonder if this vain world opposes Jesus and his spouse, and especially
when great sinners are converted? for this is ever the Pharisee’s ground of objection, “This man receiveth sinners.” Still is the old cause of quarrel revived, “Because he had married an Ethiopian woman.”