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Morning and Evening

February 24, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy upon Jerusalem? . . . And the Lord answered the angel . . . with good words and comfortable words." — Zechariah 1:12,13 · KJV

What a sweet answer to an anxious question! This night let us rejoice in it. O Zion, there are good things in store for you; your time of travail shall soon be over, your children shall be brought forth, your captivity shall end. Bear the rod patiently for a season, and in the darkness still trust in God, for His love burns toward you. God loves the church with a love too deep for human imagination; He loves her with all His infinite heart. Therefore let her sons take heart: she cannot be far from prosperity to whom God speaks "good words and comfortable words." What these comfortable words are the prophet goes on to tell us: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy." The Lord loves His church so much that He cannot bear for her to go astray to others; and when she has done so, He cannot endure that she should suffer too much or too heavily. He will not have His enemies afflict her; He is displeased with them because they add to her misery. When God seems most to leave His church, His heart is warm toward her. History shows that whenever God uses a rod to chasten His servants, He always breaks it afterward, as if He loathed the rod that gave His children pain. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." God has not forgotten us because He smites; His blows are no evidence of a lack of love. And if this is true of His church as a whole, it must also be true of each individual member. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: He who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved. Draw near to Him and be at peace.