O, for Faith to Believe God's Testimony!
"Then
a lord on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and
said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing
be? And he said, Behold; thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou
shalt not eat thereof." -II Kings 7:2 [KJV]
My soul, do not fail to remark, from the numberless instances given upon record in scripture, how the sin of unbelief is bound up in our very nature. Every man is of himself disposed to it. The subtilty of Satan induced this among the masterpieces of his devilish art. Hence nothing but an act of sovereign grace can bring a cure. What the prophet promised, in the midst of dearth, of so sudden and so great a supply of bread, appeared so incredible to human reason, that this unbelieving lord, on whose hand the king of Israel leaned, and perhaps in whose judgment he had great confidence, brake out into the indecent expression, that nothing less than the Lord's making windows in heaven could accomplish it.
But the event, to Israel's joy, and his punishment, literally took place: and such was the pressure of the people for bread, at the gate of the city, that the unbelieving lord was trodden to death. And what is thine instruction, my soul, in the spiritual illustration of this scripture history? The Lord need not make windows in heaven, to rain down the bread of life for the famine of thy soul.
Jesus Himself, the true bread of God, is come down, that whosoever believeth on Him may eat and live for ever. Oh! for faith to give credit to God's testimony of His dear Son: and both to see, and to eat of Him, and to live for ever. Lord! I would say, "Evermore give me this bread!"
-preacher Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)
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