H.P. Liddon on the Timeless Nature of Scripture

“Some instruction, no doubt, is to be gathered from the literature of every people; the products of the human mind, in all its phases, and in circumstances the most unpromising, have generally something to tell us. But, on the other hand, there is a great deal in the wisest uninspired literatures that cannot properly be described as permanently or universally instructive; much in that of ancient Greece; much in that of our own country. And therefore, when an Apostle says of a great collection of books of various characters, and on various subjects —embodying the legislation, history, poetry, morals, of a small Eastern people —that whatsoever was contained in them had been set down for the instruction of men of another and a wider faith, living in a later age, and, by implication, for the instruction of all human beings, —this is certainly, when we think of it, an astonishing assertion. Clearly, if the Apostle is to be believed, these books cannot be like any other similar collection of national laws, records, poems, proverbs; there must be in them some quality or qualities which warrant this lofty estimate. 

“Then we may observe that, as books rise in the scale of excellence, whatever their authorship or outward form, they tend towards exhibiting a permanence and universality of interest; they rise above the local and personal accidents of their production, and discover qualities which address themselves to the mind and heart of the human race. 

This is, as we all know, the case to a great extent with Shakespeare. The ascendancy of his genius is entirely independent of the circumstances of his life, of which we know scarcely anything, and of the dramatic form into which he threw his ideas. He has been read, re-read, commented on, discussed, by nine generations of Englishmen; his phrases have passed into the language, so that we constantly quote him without knowing it; his authority as an analyst and exponent of human nature has steadily grown with the advancing years. Nay, despite the eminently English form of his writings, German critics have claimed him as, by reason of the wealth of his thought, a virtual fellow-countryman; and even the peoples of the Latin races, who would have greater difficulty in understanding him, have not been slow to offer him the homage of their sympathy and admiration. 

“And yet, by what an interval is Shakespeare parted from the books of the Hebrew Scriptures His grand dramatic creations, we feel, after all are only the workmanship of a shrewd human observer, with the limitations of a human point of view, and with that restricted moral authority which is all that the highest human genius can claim. But here is a Book which provides for human nature as a whole and which makes this provision with an insight and comprehensiveness that does not belong to the capacity of the most gifted men. Could any merely human authors have stood the test which the Old Testament has stood? Think what it has been to the Jewish people throughout the tragic vicissitudes of their wonderful history. Think what it has been to Christendom. For nineteen centuries it has formed the larger part of the religious handbook of the Christian Church; it has shaped Christian hopes; it has largely governed Christian legislation; it has supplied the language for Christian prayer and praise. The noblest and saintliest souls in Christendom have one after another fed their souls on it, or even on fragments of it; taking a verse, and shutting the spiritual ear to everything else, and in virtue of the concentrated intensity with which they have thus sought, for days, and weeks, and months, and years, to penetrate the inmost secrets of this or that fragment of its consecrated language, rising to heroic heights of effort and endurance. Throughout the Christian centuries the Old Testament has been worked like a mine, which is as far from being exhausted today as in the Apostolic age. Well might the old Hebrew poet cry, 'I am as glad of Thy Word as one that findeth great spoils.' 'The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law, converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure, and giveth wisdom unto the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb.'

“Even those parts of the Old Testament which seem least promising at first sight have some instruction to give us, if we will only look out for it. Those genealogies which occur in historical books sometimes remind us of the awful responsibility which attaches to the trans mission, with the gift of physical life, of a type of character, which we have ourselves formed or modified, to another, perhaps a distant generation or sometimes they suggest the care with which all that bore on the human ancestry of our Lord was preserved in the records of the people of revelation. Those accounts, too, of fierce war and indiscriminate slaughter, such as the extermination of the Canaanites, pourtray the vigour and thoroughness with which we should endeavour to extirpate sins that may long have settled in our hearts. Those minute ritual directions of the Law, which might at first sight read like the rubrics of a system that had for ever passed away, should, as they might, bring before us first one and then another aspect of that to which they pointed the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

H.P. Liddon, The Worth of the Old Testament, A sermon preached Second Sunday of Advent (December 8, 1889)

The Standing Use and Authority of the Old Testament (Part 3)

(continued from 8/21/2015)

Conclusion:

Not only is the former part of Scripture necessary for our edification with regard to the meaning of the latter, but we also find that Christ and his apostles assert that the moral precepts of the Old Testament are the will of God abiding for ever, and enforce the keeping of them, as they are there, and there only, handed down to us in the proper form and order. Yea, the expression for the whole sum of duty, embraced in Christ's injunction, " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," seems to have been taken from, or at least founded upon, that passage in Leviticus 11:44, "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy;" and is repeated by Peter, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." (1 Pet. 1:16). So that not only is the attention of men directed to the tables of the law as they were delivered, and to each command as it appears there singly: "Keep the commandments," but also to all the precepts collectively - to the sum of them all in the very words of the Lawgiver himself in the Old Testament once and again repeated; and, finally, their attention is fixed, by the endearing way in which Christ crowns the Old Testament idea, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The examples of the Old Testament saints are referred to in the New, implying the standing use of such records for our imitation. The instance of Elijah as an example in prayer (James 5:17). The long catalog of "worthies," is remarkable for their faith (Heb. 11). These and a multitude of similar references take for granted a knowledge of the Old Testament, and clearly show its abiding use to Christians in all ages. Besides, there are some particulars of faith and practice, which are learned from, and can only be fully established by the Old Testament. It contains the sublime account of creation, and subsequently narrates the fall of man. The moral obligation of the Sabbath, of baptism, and of the worship of God in the family capacity; the scriptural institution of marriage and of civil rule, and the nature and importance of federal engagements...cannot, we think, be satisfactorily established but by the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The Old seems to contain the history and prophecy of the church in all time and in eternity too. It furnishes examples of lasting influence and the germ of all doctrines, and it guides us in our devotions at the throne of grace. The New may be regarded as an enlargement on the character and sufferings of Christ, as these were witnessed by his disciples; it unfolds the manner of his life and the matter of his teaching, and declares the nature and design of the ordinances and institutions of the New Testament church. We do not say that because of these things greater importance is to be attached to the New than to the Old, but rather that on all the leading doctrines of the Christian religion, much more enlarged and accurate views are obtained by a careful collation of the whole Word of God. Christians are much indebted to many parts of the Old Testament for elevating ideas of the Deity and directions in his worship. What soul-breathings after God are contained therein, suitable to every age and every clime! ... Some are inclined to overlook certain portions of the Old Testament, and labor under the mistake, that the divine character as therein revealed is far different from that in the New . This error seems to arise from incorrect views of the law and the gospel. The thunders of Sinai and the fearful punishments threatened on offenders are the true representations of God's justice in taking vengeance on those who violate his holy law. The minister of the gospel should see the important use of the Old Testament in giving weight to his warnings, and the sinner should be driven by its threats to flee from the wrath of an angry God to the covert of the covenant. This error arises also from an idea entertained that there are not such gospel invitations and comforts contained in the Old as in the New . But though we have the moral law and its accompanying terrors, we have likewise most lively and encouraging traces of the Covenant of Grace. The sinner finds salvation in the Old as well as in the New ; and the terrors of the law as well in the New as in the Old. The "Sun of Righteousness" is equally the light of both: in the one his benign beams burst forth from amid lowering clouds; in the other the clouds may be said to have passed away, and we behold him fully revealed. Certain it is, that much in the Old should no longer be practiced under the New Testament dispensation, for we are come to a more glorious and spiritual economy; but we do not say that such parts as refer to the past economy are no longer useful. On the contrary they are in many ways indispensable - as they declare still the infinitely holy character of the Most High, the necessity of awe and reverence the most profound in approaching him, and of a strict regard to the divine glory and the welfare of the church in administering civil and ecclesiastical law; and taken in connection with the New , we find most valuable aid and direction from these laws and observances in practice obsolete. In short, they are, so to speak, the mold in which the mind of the Church of God in past and present ages was formed and fashioned. To conclude, God as he is in himself, and as he manifests himself in the display of his perfections in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, is presented in his true character in the Bible, taken as a whole. The God who is our hope, our trust, our all, is pleased to give to man this revelation of himself, and The Power of Truth as the Instrument of Union taken from first to last, the view is connected, perfect, and, we had almost said, unbounded. Isolate from the other part, either the Old or New, and a void is left which all created wisdom never can fill up. The Bible, as we have it, is precious and inestimable. It is dependent in all its parts - a golden chain suspended from the eternal throne, its links secure and inseparable. To vary the figure, it is a mine of knowledge, too deep for man, where every new discovery leads to others more valuable still, and thus we may go on from one degree of Scriptural wealth to another, until we arrive at the source and fountain of all; there to enjoy the riches of his glory.

"This book, this holy book, on ev'ry line

Marked with the seal of high divinity,

On every leaf bedewed with drops of love

Divine, and with the eternal heraldry

The Standing Use and Authority of the Old Testament (Part 2)

(continued from 8/18/2015)

1^st Instead of finding fault with the Jews for reading the Old Testament, the very reverse was the case. They are reproved by the Savior for their carelessness in not receiving and acting upon the statements laid down therein. Said he to the chief priests and elders of the people, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?” Matt. 21: 42. To the multitude, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words." John 5: 46-47. Whence may we not see the very way in which the Jews are yet to be brought to a knowledge of the truth; not, indeed, by a laying aside or neglect of the Old Testament, but by a reverential study of it, and the blessing of the Spirit accompanying it; and that thus the veil of ignorance shall be removed, and they brought to bow at the feet of the Great Teacher himself? Then shall he say to them like as he did to the two disciples that journeyed with him to Emmaus: "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" Luke 24: 25. Such references plainly intimate not only the necessity and importance of these writings, but stimulate to a continued and close examination of their bearing in order to a cordial reception of the truths which he taught.

2^nd When Jesus was tempted of the devil, though he could, by the arm of his omnipotence, have at once hurled him and his legions back whence they came, defeated; yet, strange to say, he suffered the deceiver to confront him - the Innocent One - and taking upon him our infirmities, he employed against Satan the weapons he would have us to wield. He set us an example that we should follow in his steps. By the words of the Old Testament Scriptures did Christ oppose his arch insinuations, thereby inculcating their use, and teaching us not only to resist the devil and he will flee from us; but that these same Scriptures are the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, the weapon of attack in the armor of righteousness provided by the Captain of our salvation.

3^rd Not only have we Christ's example, which we should follow, but his plain and pointed command: "Search the Scriptures." John 5: 39. This, of course, at the time in which it was spoken, referred to the Old Testament, and thereby its authority and use are established to all generations.

4^th In the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Epistles, we have 'its perusal commended and enjoined, and its statements introduced to corroborate the truths published. Of the Christians in Thessalonica, it is recorded as exemplary and praiseworthy; they "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Acts 17: 11. Again, "the righteousness of God without the law" is said to be now " manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;" and this is explained in the next verse to be "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe," - a righteousness "without the law" in this sense, that our personal obedience has no influence in procuring the sinner's justification, "by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." Rom . 3: 20, 21, 22. And this righteousness of faith then is "witnessed by the law and the prophets" - the usual expression among the writers of the New Testament, for the Old. How important the testimony, both by reason of the witness, which is the Spirit himself, and because of the object, which is Christ with all new covenant benefits for our salvation. We have the Old Testament so interwoven with the apostles' instructions that to separate the two would be to rend and destroy the whole. Their connection is so completely established in the Epistles, their harmony so clearly maintained, that, by neglecting the Old, we render the New , as far as we are concerned, in many places, useless and unmeaning. The Epistle to the Hebrews would be unintelligible without Leviticus—the perpetual reference to the former dispensation renders necessary the continuance of this book for our instruction. Moreover, how could we aright understand the Epistle to the Romans, and the words "atonement," "reconciliation," "blood," &c , without the Pentateuch? Is it not by a constant reference to the Old, and by comparing Scripture with Scripture, that our ideas are properly formed and enlarged? In truth, the distinguishing doctrines of the Church of Christ regarding his substitutionary sufferings, his resurrection, his exaltation, and the exercise of his mediatorial power over the nations, can only be fully proved by having recourse to the Old Testament in connection with the New. 

The Standing Use and Authority of the Old Testament (Part 1)

This and the following two posts are an article published in the January 1855 issue of the Reformed Presbyterian. No author is named.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;" and this applies to the Old as well as to the New Testament. The practice of placing these two portions of Holy Writ in contrast, as if to show that the former no longer continues to be a rule of faith and manners, is extremely absurd, and evinces deplorable ignorance of the spirit and tenor of the Scriptures. God is one, he changeth not; and, therefore, his revelations to man exhibit constantly and connectedly his abiding moral character. Although some parts of his Word may, and when necessary for us, do, condescend to the low position, attainments, and habits of those to whom they are committed, or they may respect observances enjoined on the Old Testament church, the obligation of which passes away in the lapse of time; yet we are not to conclude that these are useless or unimportant portions. Far from it, for even in these the authority and character of the one unchanging Jehovah are abundantly evident, and their study assists us in our conceptions of the Most High, and in estimating our duty towards him. Taken as a whole, the authority of the Old is established by the very same argument as that of the New Testament, and the reasoning in the case is, if possible, more manifest and conclusive, and the evidence more overpowering. The writers of the Old Testament appeal to miracles in proof of their mission, and some of these are most wonderful. But waiving this consideration, we may notice that the prophecies contained in many of the books are alone sufficient to establish their divine authority.

1st. The prophecies regarding the Jewish nation are most remarkable, relating to their days of prosperity and adversity, their captivities and returns, their being outcasts among the nations, and their final restoration to their own land. In short, all the particulars of that people's history are recorded with minutest accuracy of detail from the writers' days down along the future; and we have but to read the Old Testament, to this day, in order to know the past, present, and future condition of the Israelitish nation.

2d. The predictions about our Savior are full and varied, and manifest their divine origin. Every trait in his character is fully displayed; all his mediatorial engagements from everlasting or ever the earth was, his unique sufferings, and his unparalleled rewards are unfolded in the Old Testament in the ancient solitary predictions - in a ritual burdened with the announcement of a Savior to come - in the beautifully pure and spiritual Messianic Psalms, exalted in thought to the very throne of the Eternal - in the singularly graphic, but glowing descriptions of enraptured prophets, carried away without and above themselves in heavenly visions. In all, the conceptions as they are presented to us in the Old Testament are not only elevating, they are above all mere human efforts, and divine. And thus presented and accredited, the history of the Covenant of Grace is more full in many respects in the Old than in the New Testament.

3d. The miraculous preservation of these writings is a most powerful argument for their authority. Since they were written, nations great and mighty, that figured in earth's history, have passed away; monuments have crumbled into dust; tomes innumerable have perished in Old Time's withering embrace; and now, in these last days, even his own eventful youth had become shrouded in oblivion, but for these ancient writings, which, dictated and preserved by him who directs all events, have survived all changes - dare we say it - unchanged as their Author. Internally considered, their authority and use cannot be questioned. The grand system of morals which they contain, owes its origin to God alone. It is pure, simple, unsparing and comprehensive, every way manifesting the holy, just, and wise character of the one true and eternal God; and its use and importance are unchanging and constant. The standing, use and authority of the Old Testament are clearly proved from the teaching of Christ and his apostles. They seem to have inculcated most particularly the study of the Bible, in order that the character and doctrines of the Messiah may be properly understood. Not only are the prophets, who foretold Christ, introduced to upbraid their ignorance; but the books of Moses, the Psalms, and every department of the Old Testament are made the basis of their remarks, and brought to bear on the things then being accomplished.

Joseph as a Type of the Suffering Savior (part 3)

THE SUFFERING SAVIOUR— THE SAVED AND LOST.

Genesis 40.

This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Luke 2:34, 35.

Then were there two thieves crucified with him; one on the right hand and another on the left. — Matthew 27:38.

Did it depend on our remembering him — had it depended even on that penitent and pardoned thief remembering him — to fix and determine how soon Jesus should come to his kingdom, — who can tell but that he might have been left dying, or dead, — as Joseph was left languishing in the prison, — aye! to this very hour. Thanks be to God, it was the Father's remembrance of him, and not ours that was to bring our Joseph out of his dungeon to his royal court; — to bring Jesus from his cross to his crown. It is ours to ask him to remember us in his kingdom. Nor will he ever fail to do so.

He will not forget his having shared our imprisonment, our condemnation, our guilt and doom. All that he endured with us and for us, when he took his place beside us, and accepted as his own our criminality and our curse, must ever be fresh in his mind and heart. Joseph's fellow-sufferer might cease to think, in his prosperity, of the pains of their common distress; but our fellow-sufferer is ever mindful of the agony of the time when he made common cause with us, and bore instead of us our sin and sorrow. Therefore we may ask our fellow-sufferer to remember us with somewhat more of confidence than Joseph may have felt when he asked his fellow-sufferer to remember him. For have we not his own gracious words, — "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me" (Is. 49:15, 16).

II. The case of the chief baker stands out in sad contrast to that of his companion in tribulation (ver. 16-19). He had not been so ready to place his trust in Joseph, and to own him as entitled to speak for God. Rather, as we may too probably gather from the whole scope of the narrative, he had continued incredulous, perhaps contemptuous. When Joseph spoke so simply, — "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me the dreams I pray you," — he may have been inclined to rail at him, saying: If thou be such a favourite of heaven, save thyself. Wouldst thou be where thou art, if God were so with thee as to warrant thine assumption of being his mouthpiece? So this unbeliever may have derided Joseph's claim at first. But now his comrade's good fortune, as he perhaps accounts it, tempts and encourages him to try his chance. He may have the luck to get as favourable a response from the oracle; and, at all events, it can do no harm to make the experiment. He, too, will now tell his dream, and abide the issue.

Alas! it is only ominous of evil. The servant of the Lord can speak of nothing but judgment. And if the doomed man should still affect to be skeptical, and set coming wrath at defiance, three short days are enough to dispel his miserable delusion, and prove Joseph a true prophet, alike of death and of deliverance. "It came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler to his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand; but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them" (ver.20-22).

1. Thus "one is taken and another left." For that, in the first place, is a lesson to be learned from this prison-scene. It is as it was in the days of Noah; and as it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man: "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Luke 17:34-36). Even so it seems good in God's sight. Any two of us may be together in the same prison or in the same palace, — in the same trial or in the same triumph, — in the same sorrow or in the same joy, — sleeping together in the same bed, — grinding together at the same mill, — working or walking together in the same field; both apparently alike good, — both destined surely to be alike safe. But how long can we reckon on our companionship lasting? How soon and how suddenly may that saying come true; "One shall be taken, the other left?" How does it concern every one of us, in the view of that separating and sifting day, to be looking out for himself individually. Whoever I may be with in bed, at the mill, in the field, my being with him then will avail me nothing. Let me give earnest heed myself to the things which belong to my peace, before they be forever hid from my eyes. And let mo remember the Lord's own solemn and emphatic warning: “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it (Luke 17:33).

2. If Joseph was "set for the fall" of one and "the rising again" of another, and "for a sign that should be spoken against that the thoughts" — if not of many yet of some—"hearts should be revealed" (Luke 2:34, 35), — behold a greater than Joseph is here. Jesus is still set forth before our eyes, crucified between two malefactors. His cross draws the line sharply between them. Both alike are sinners, breakers of the law. Both alike are guilty, justly condemned. Both alike are utterly helpless in their condemnation. But that central cross discriminates between them! It sets them, near as they are, at infinite distance apart!

On one side is the man of broken spirit, of contrite heart, accepting the punishment of his sin, consenting to lose his life that he may preserve it, — to have no life of his own, that he may owe all his life to Christ. On the other side is he who still seeks to save his life, — who even in the jaws of inevitable death will not give in, — who will not renounce his own poor conceit of innocence, goodness, and security, and agree to accept life in Christ, as the free gift of God.

On which of these sides art thou my brother? To which of these two crosses, on the right and on the left of Christ's cross, art thou billing to be nailed? Wilt thou be crucified with Christ,— trusting in him, praying to him, looking to him, believing his sure word, " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise?" Or wilt thou be crucified without Christ, — near him, but yet without him, — setting him at naught, and thyself alone braving the terror of the Lord, of which his crucifixion is so sure and sad a presage and pledge?

3. If Joseph said to the man whose sentence of release he had pronounced, Think of me — and if he had some good ground for thinking that his friend ought to think of him, and would think of him — how much more may he who is greater than Joseph, and who procures for us — not by the interpretation of a dream merely but by what costs him something more than that — a sentence of release from doom and restoration to favour infinitely more valuable than the butler got — how much more may he, I say, prefer such a request to us — Remember me. Surely it is a sad thing if our hearts have not a better memory for Jesus than this man had for Joseph. And yet what need of constant watchfulness and prayer that such ingratitude may not be ours! And what reason to bless God have we in the fact, that so many means and appliances are provided for helping us always to remember him — his blessed word ever in our hands ; his gracious gospel preached to us; the holy sacrament of communion; his Spirit taking of what is his and showing it to us.

4. If it had been Joseph who had been asked to remember his fellow-sufferer, that asking would not have been in vain. Jesus at all events will not suffer any one of us to say to him in vain, "Lord, remember me, now that thou art come to thy kingdom!" "We have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."

When we appeal to him, by his remembrance of all his own sufferings to remember us in our sufferings, the appeal touches his heart. Remember, Lord, thy loving-kindnesses. Call to mind all thy dealings with the sick, the sorrowful, the poor, in the days of thy flesh. Call to mind all thine own trials and afflictions manifold. Remember us. Lord; and show in thy remembrance of us that thou art "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."

(This and the previous two posts are from Chapter 54 of Robert Candlish's Studies in Genesis, published in 1868.)

Joseph as a Type of the Suffering Savior (part 2)

THE SUFFERING SAVIOUR— THE SAVED AND LOST.

Genesis 40.

This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Luke 2:34, 35.

Then were there two thieves crucified with him; one on the right hand and another on the left. — Matthew 27:38.

In that position he was "charged with them and served them" (ver. 1). It was a double function. He waited upon them and was their attendant, — responsible doubtless in that capacity for their safe custody, — but not authorized to act as their superior, — only entitled to officiate as their servant. For they were evidently persons of some rank and consideration in Pharaoh's court, — although the precise position of each is about as hard to be ascertained as his offence;— and as unimportant and irrelevant, for any practical purpose, if it could be ascertained. They were chiefs in their respective departments. They may have been guilty of fraud, — of what in meaner men would be called theft. Under some such accusation probably they were suffering, having Joseph between them, ready to serve and be of use to them. Thus "they continued a season in ward."

The day, however, now dawns that is to decide their respective fates. In the morning, Joseph visits them, as usual; and finding them discomposed, he naturally asks the reason, "wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?” Carelessly perhaps, and as a mere matter of civility, they inform him, — "We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it." And they are somewhat startled, we may be sure, by Joseph's reply: — "Do not interpretations belong to God] tell me them, I pray you " (ver. 6-8).

For it might well be deemed a strange reply from such a one as Joseph must have appeared to them to be. Who was he that he should dare to speak in so high a tone, and undertake so confidently what he avows to be a divine office? A servant, — one who ministered to them in humble guise, — a prisoner, — a convict, — one whom they may have been disposed to treat with supercilious indifference or despiteful indignity, — a poor degraded Israelite, — in their proud eyes contemptible. What wonder if both of these more reputable victims of the frowns of power should have laughed to scorn the lofty pretentions of one who was more a victim than themselves?

They may have done so, both of them, at first. But if so, one of them at least speedily relents. For we begin here to recognize a distinction between them. And the distinction is vital and fatal.

I. The chief butler, at once and unhesitatingly, told his dream (ver. 9-15). His doing so, and the result of his doing so, are in several views not a little remarkable.

1. He acted in faith. He believed Joseph's own assurance, — for it was virtually an assurance on Joseph's part, — of his having a commission from God to interpret the dream. And it was this faith that made him tell it. It was no child's play, or holiday-sport, between Joseph and these men — no mere trick of ingenious riddle-reading and guess-work. It was not an affair of magic, or legerdemain, or vulgar fortune-telling — a conjuror practicing his sleight-of-hand maneuvers and manipulations — an oneiromantist, or dream-prophet, with his jargon of symbols and occult senses, affecting to weave the idle thoughts of a tossing bed into a plausible web of fate. Joseph at least is in earnest. His trumpet gives no uncertain sound. He assumes the prophetic character, as decidedly as Daniel did when he stood before Nebuchadnezzar — or Christ when he comforted the dying thief. He undertakes to speak for God — to speak as the oracle of God. It is avowedly on that footing that he invites his companions to tell him their dreams; he would not on any other footing encourage them to expect any satisfaction from him. And therefore, when the chief butler proceeded to act upon the invitation, it must have been from a decided persuasion, on his part, of the reality of Joseph's claim. But for some such conviction, we cannot imagine that he would have received Joseph's proposal otherwise than with ridicule and abuse. There was that, however, about Joseph which inspired confidence in his divine mission. "He spake as one having authority," and not as the soothsayers — "not as the scribes."

2. The faith thus exercised meets with an immediate recompense; as well it may, for it is of no ordinary sort. In opening his mind to Joseph, the chief butler virtually acknowledges him as a chosen servant of God, entitled to declare his will, and on his behalf to show things to come. He does so, in spite of outward appearances and outward circumstances.

He sees through the veil of suffering and shame a divine grace and glory shining forth in this seeming culprit. The truth being its own witness — the divine Spirit in Joseph's soul making his presence there even outwardly manifest — the man perceives that he is a prophet, one whom God has sent and sealed. And he makes known to him his dream accordingly.

3. The dream and its interpretation are both of God; being God's method of revelation — the method of revelation which he saw fit on this, as on other occasions, to adopt. It is idle to be speculating about the principles and laws of this sort of divine communication; estimating the probability of the dream beforehand, or laying down the supposed rules of its subsequent explanation. To dream about a vine, with its buds, and blossoms, and clusters, and ripe grapes, and to connect all the particulars of the dream with a scene in Pharaoh's palace — the dreamer himself doing his office as cup-bearer, pressing the grapes into the cup, and giving the cup into the monarch's hands — all that may seem natural enough, and well fitted to suggest sage remarks as to the working of the mind in sleep. Any shrewd deceiver, we may be apt to think, might take the hint and gratify the credulous dupe consulting him, with a flattering prediction in the line of what was obviously running in his head. But nothing of that sort will suit the parties here, or fit into their relation to one another. There is no room for the supposition of this being anything like an ordinary case of dream-telling and dream-interpreting, after the fashion of what has sometimes been reduced almost to a system or a science — the art of turning to account man's inveterate superstitious proneness to pry into futurity. The whole must be accepted as altogether the Lord's doing.

4. It is so accepted by the chief butler himself. If it was in faith, believing Joseph to be what he professed to be, that he told him his dream at first, much more now, in faith, he must have received the interpretation of his dream as from heaven. Joseph had not said, Tell me the dream, and I will see if I can find a possible or likely meaning in it. He had appealed to God, and announced himself as able and authorised to put God's own infallible meaning on it. It was on that understanding that the man had placed his case in Joseph's hands. Clearly, therefore, Joseph's word must have been to him as God's. "Within three days" thou shalt be, as it were, "in paradise," — taken from the prison to the king's palace and the king's presence — no longer languishing in the torture of condemnation, but safe from wrath and high in favour. Such salvation does Joseph announce to his fellow-sufferer.

5. Is it too much for Joseph to couple with the announcement of this salvation, so simple and touching a request as this: — " But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon"? Can anything be more reasonable? Can anything be more pathetic?

It is not here, as it was in the instance of one greater than Joseph, when he spoke peace to the poor criminal hanging on a cross beside him. Then the petition to be remembered in the kingdom came from the malefactor to the Saviour; here it comes from the saviour to the malefactor. The situation is simply reversed. It is his fellow-sufferer who says to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest unto thy kingdom;" — it is Joseph who for himself makes virtually this same request of his fellow-sufferer, — "Think on me when it shall be well with thee." There is no risk whatever, in the case of the one petition, of its being forgotten or overlooked. Alas! there is but too much risk in the case of the other. When it is the deliverer, the saviour — for such, to all intents and purposes was Joseph's position here — who begs a favour of the party delivered, there is but too great a likelihood of his finding that he has begged it in vain. What ground for thankfulness is ours when we reflect, that the party needing deliverance, when he begs a favour of his deliverer, can never incur the hazard of any such sad disappointment!

Joseph might doubt whether the man who owed so much to him would indeed think of him when he was once himself out of the fellowship of suffering which had made them so much akin. We may be very sure that Jesus in his exaltation will remember us. It is not that we can make out a better case, or show more cause why we should be remembered. Joseph's plea is stronger far, upon the merits, than any plea of ours can possibly be. He can appeal to his blameless innocency, his spotless righteousness. He has done nothing to deserve the dungeon; he is well worthy of a better destiny. And the man to whom he appeals is surely bound to him by most affecting ties, of communion in disgrace and sorrow, and communion also in sympathy and kindness, given and received. What, in comparison, is our plea? We have well merited the worst that can befall us. And the Man to whom we appeal is he whom we have pierced! But he will not neglect our appeal to him, as we, like Joseph's friend the butler, might be found but too apt to neglect his appeal to us. 

Joseph as a Type of the Suffering Savior (part 1)

THE SUFFERING SAVIOUR— THE SAVED AND LOST.

Genesis 40.

This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Luke 2:34, 35.

Then were there two thieves crucified with him; one on the right hand and another on the left. — Matthew 27:38.

The successive steps or stages of Joseph's humiliation may be briefly recapitulated.

1.    He is sent by his father on an errand of kindness to his brethren — and with his whole heart he goes on that errand, determined to seek and find them, however far they may have wandered from home.

2.    He comes to his own, and his own do not receive him. A plot is formed against him the moment he appears in sight. The dreamer must be got rid of. "This is the heir; come let us kill him."

3.    They will kill him, if needful, themselves. But they think it better to deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. It is a shrewd device — like that of the Jews long after — to make Pilate do their work — to get him who came to visit them in love disposed of, not by them, but by the men of another nation.

4.    Joseph is valued and sold — cheaply valued, treacherously sold.

5.    As a servant he is found in Egypt, dwelling among Pharaoh's servants — and yet so dwelling among them as to give evidence of his being a child of heaven, gracious, true, and fair ; and to give promise, also of some high destiny in store for him.

6.    He is led into solitary temptation, assailed with solicitations appealing to three of the strongest principles in our human nature — appetite, ostentation, ambition; — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. He is virtually offered all that can gratify his utmost wishes for pleasure, pomp, and power — if he will only worship a devil.

7.    His tempter, foiled in flattery, tries persecution. A liar, like him who is "a liar from the beginning, and the father of it," Joseph's assailant prevails against him by false testimony, and so succeeds in having him condemned.

8.    Brought under condemnation, having guilt imputed to him, laden with obloquy, doomed to a servile punishment, Joseph is still so marked as God's own child, that amid all the darkness of his unmerited suffering, he is recognized, by the very officer appointed to carry out his sentence, as a righteous man.

Thus, with mingled evidences of grace and degradation — of a high character and a lowly state — Joseph comes to sound the depths of his appointed humiliation. And now we find him, even in the lowest of these depths — as it were, on the cross itself — still owned and honoured by God; appointed to be an arbiter of destiny, if I may so speak, to those between whom his cross stands; and that in such a manner as evidently to prepare the way for his own approaching exaltation.

It is the close of his humiliation, therefore, that is now to be considered.

Joseph in prison, at the extreme point of his humiliation, appears as the dispenser of life and death among his fellow-prisoners. He is the instrument or occasion of a decisive separation between the two whom he finds involved in the same condemnation with himself. He fixes authoritatively and conclusively their opposite destinations.

From the first, he is not altogether under a cloud; what he really is in himself, shines out from beneath his prison-garb, in spite of the drawbacks of his prison-state (ver. 1-4). Not only does he find favour, — the Lord being with him and showing him mercy, — in the sight of the keeper of the prison, — but even the captain of the guard, Potiphar himself, seems to have relented.

For it must be Potiphar who, receiving from the king the two officers with whom he is wroth, puts them where Joseph is confined, and charges Joseph with the care of them. As commanding the king's body-guard, he had charge of the state-prison, — which was indeed part of his own house, — with a subordinate keeper under him; — a common arrangement in old eastern despotisms. That being his position, it was easy for him to consign Joseph to imprisonment without trial, or with such trial as he might choose to count sufficient. And it was equally easy for him to have other state prisoners associated with Joseph, and placed under his superintendence, if he so chose. That he should have so chosen in this instance, need not appear strange or surprising. Perhaps he doubted all along the truth of the accusation against Joseph, and suspected its unworthy motive, although he felt himself constrained to yield to influence and importunity that he dared not withstand, and sacrifice to the malice of disappointed desire, one in whom he had no fault to find. Or if at first credulous, and naturally inflamed with sudden wrath, he may have begun, on cooler reflection and better information, to change his mind. Or he may have received such reports of Joseph's demeanour in prison, from his subordinate officer, as to cause a revulsion of feeling, — and his old confidence may thus be beginning to return. At all events, it is by his order and with his consent that Joseph is placed, — as it was by

Pilate's order that Jesus was placed, — between the two malefactors. 

Patrick Fairbairn on the Conquest of Canaan

On the contrary, we affirm that, if contemplated in the broad and comprehensive light in which Scripture itself presents them to our view, they may be read with satisfaction, though certainly not without awe; that there is not an essential element belonging to them, which does not equally enter into the principles of the Gospel dispensation; and that any difference which may here present itself between the Old and the New is, as in all other cases, a difference merely in form, but founded upon an essential agreement. This will appear whether it is viewed in respect to the Canaanites, to the Israelites, or to the times of the Gospel dispensation.

1. Viewed, first of all, in respect to the Canaanites as the execution of deserved judgment on their sins (in which light Scripture uniformly represents it, so far as they are concerned), there is nothing in it to offend the feelings of any well-constituted Christian mind. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, God appears as the righteous Judge and avenger of sin, and does so not unfrequently by the infliction of fearful things in righteousness. If we can contemplate Him bringing on the cities of the plain the vengeance of eternal fire, because their sins had waxed great and were come up to heaven; or, at a later period, even in Gospel times, can reflect how the wrath was made to fall on the Jewish nation to the uttermost; or, finally, can think of impenitent sinners being appointed, in the world to come, to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever and ever ; — if we can contemplate such things entering into the administration of God, without any disturbance to our convictions that the Judge of all the earth does only what is right, it were surely unreasonable to complain of the severities exercised on the foul inhabitants of Canaan. Their abominations were of a kind that might be said emphatically to cry to Heaven — such idolatrous rites as tended to defile their very consciences, and the habitual practice of pollutions which were a disgrace to humanity. The land is represented as incapable of bearing any longer the mass of defilements which overspread it, as even ‘vomiting out its inhabitants;' and ‘therefore,' it is added, ‘the Lord visited their iniquity upon them.’ Nor was this vengeance taken on them summarily: the time of judgment was preceded by a long season of forbearance, during which they were plied with many calls to repentance. So early as the age of Abraham, the Lord manifested Himself toward them both in the way of judgment and of mercy, - of judgment, by the awful destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, cutting off the most infected portion, that the rest might fear, and turn from their evil ways; of mercy, by raising up in the midst of them such eminent saints as Abraham and Melchizedek. That period, and the one immediately succeeding, was peculiarly the day of their merciful visitation. But they knew it not; and so, according to God's usual method of dealing, He gradually removed the candlestick out of its place — withdrew His witnesses to another region, in consequence of which the darkness continually deepened, and the iniquity of the people at last became full. Then only was it that the cloud of divine wrath began to threaten them with overwhelming destruction — not, however, even then, without giving awful indications of its approach by the wonders wrought in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and again hanging long in suspense during the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness, as if waiting till further space had been given for repentance. But as all proved in vain, mercy at length gave place to judgment, according to the principle common alike to all dispensations: 'He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy;' and, ‘Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.' In plain terms, whenever iniquity has reached its last stage, the judgment of Heaven is at hand. This principle was as strikingly exemplified in the case of the Jews after our Lord's appearing, as in the case of these Canaanites before. In the parables of the barren fig-tree and the wicked husbandmen in the vineyard, the same place is assigned it in the Christian dispensation which it formerly held in the Jewish. And in the experience of all who, despite of merciful invitations and solemn threatenings, perish from the way of life, it must find an attestation so much more appalling than the one now referred to, as a lost eternity exceeds in evil the direst calamities of time. In fine, the very same may be said of the objections brought against the destruction of the Canaanites, which was said by Richard Baxter of many of the controversies started in his day: ‘The true root of all the difference is, whether there be a God and a life to come.' Grant only a moral government and a time of retribution, and such cases as those under consideration become not only just, but necessary.

2. Again, let the judgment executed upon the Canaanites be viewed in respect to the instruments employed in enforcing it — the Israelites — and in this aspect also nothing will be found in it at variance with the great principles of truth and righteousness. The Canaanites, it is to be understood, in this view of the matter, deserved destruction, and were actually doomed to it by a divine sentence. But must not the execution of such a sentence by the hand of the Israelites have tended to produce a hardening effect upon the minds of the conquerors? Was it not fitted to lead them to regard themselves as the appointed executors of Heaven's vengeance, wherever they themselves might deem this to be due, and to render their example a most dangerous precedent for every wild enthusiast who might choose to allege a commission from Heaven to pillage and destroy his fellow-men? Charges of this description have not infrequently been advanced; but they evidently proceed on the tacit assumption that there was in reality no doom of Heaven pronounced against the Canaanites, and no special commission given to the Israelites to execute it — this ignoring one part of the sacred narrative for the purpose of throwing discredit on another. Or it is implied that God must be debarred from carrying on His administration in such a way as may best suit the ends of divine wisdom, because human fraud or folly may take encouragement from thence to practise an unwarranted and improper imitation.

Thoughts of this description carry their own refutation along with them. The commission given to the Israelites was limited to the one task of sweeping the land of Canaan of its original occupants. But this manifestly conferred on them no right to deal out the same measure of severity to others; and so far from creating a thirst for human blood, in cases where they had no authority to shed it, they even fainted in fulfilling their commission to extirpate the people of Canaan. This, however, is only the negative side of the question; and viewed in another and more positive aspect, the employment of the Israelites to execute this work of judgment was eminently calculated to produce a salutary impression upon their minds, and to promote the ends for which the judgment was appointed. For what could be conceived so thoroughly fitted to implant in their hearts an abiding conviction of the evil of idolatry and its foul abominations — to convert their abhorrence of these into a national, permanent characteristic — as their being obliged to enter on their settled inheritance by a terrible infliction of judgment upon its former occupants for polluting it with such enormities? Thus the very foundations of their national existence raised a solemn warning against defection from the pure worship of God; and the visitation of divine wrath against the ungodliness of men accomplished by their own hands, and interwoven with the records of their history at its most eventful period, stood as a perpetual witness against them, if they should ever turn aside to folly. Happy had it been for them, if they had been as careful to remember the lesson as God was to have it suitably impressed upon their minds.

3. But the propriety and even moral necessity of the course pursued become manifest, when we view the proceeding in its typical bearing — the respect it had to Gospel times. There were reasons, as we have seen, connected with the Canaanites themselves and the surrounding nations, sufficient to justify the whole that was done ; But we cannot see the entire design of it, or even perceive its leading object, without looking further, and connecting it with the higher purposes of God respecting His kingdom among men. What He sought in Canaan was an inheritance, — a place of rest and blessing for His people, but still only a temporary inheritance, and as such a type and pledge of that final rest which remains for the people of God. All, therefore, had to be arranged concerning the one, so as fitly to represent and image the higher and more important things which belong to the other; that the past and the temporary might serve as a mirror in which to foreshadow the future and abiding; and that the principles of God's dealing toward His Church might be seen to be essentially the same, whether displayed on the theatre of present or of eternal realities. It was partly at least, on this account, that the place chosen for the inheritance of Israel was allowed, in the first instance, to become in a peculiar sense the region of pollution, — a region that required to be sanctified by an act of divine judgment upon its corrupt possessors, and thereby fitted for becoming the home and heritage of saints. In this way alone could the things done concerning it shadow forth and prepare for the final possession of a glorified world, — an inheritance which also needs to be redeemed from the powers of darkness that meanwhile overspread it with their corruptions, and which must be sanctified by terrible acts of judgment upon their ungodliness, before it can become the meet abode of saints in glory. The spirit of antichrist must be judged and cast out; Babylon, the mother of abominations, which has made the earth drunk with the wine of her fornications, must come in remembrance before God, and receive the due reward of her sins; so that woes of judgment and executions of vengeance most precede the Church's occupation of her purchased inheritance, similar in kind to those which put Israel in possession of the land of Canaan. What, indeed, are the scenes presented to our view in the concluding chapters of Revelation, but an expansion to the affairs of a world, and the destinies of a coming eternity, of those which we find depicted in the wars of Joshua? In these awful scenes we behold, on the one hand, the Captain of Salvation, of whom Joshua was but an imperfect type, going forth to victory with the company of a redeemed and elect Church, supported by the word of God, and the resistless artillery of heaven; while, on the other hand, we see the doomed enemies of God and the Church long borne with, but now at last delivered to judgment — the wrath falling on them to the uttermost, — and, when the world has been finally relieved of their abominations, the new heavens and the new earth rising into view, where righteousness, pure and undefiled, is to have its perennial habitation.

From: The Typology of Scripture.

Old Testament Verses Concerning Predestination

Genesis 21:12-13 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

Exodus 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Exodus 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

Deuteronomy 4:37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:15 Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

Deuteronomy 32:8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

Joshua 11:20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

1 Samuel 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

1 Kings 12:15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

1 Kings 20:42 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.

2 Kings 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

2 Chronicles 6:6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Job 23:13 But he [is] in one [mind], and who can turn him? and [what] his soul desireth, even [that] he doeth.

Job 23:14 For he performeth [the thing that is] appointed for me: and many such [things are] with him.

Psalms 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Psalms 9:9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Psalms 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalms 27:1 { [A Psalm] of David.} The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalms 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

(Psalms 33:12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Psalms 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous [is] of the LORD: [he is] their strength in the time of trouble.

Psalms 48:14 For this God [is] our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide [even] unto death.

Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

Psalms 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: [are they] not in thy book?

Psalms 56:13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: [wilt] not [thou deliver] my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

Psalms 57:2 I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth [all things] for me.

Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

Psalms 78:67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

Psalms 105:17-22 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: 19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. 20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

Psalms 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he [is] God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalms 118:24 This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalms 135:4 For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

Isaiah 41:13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isaiah 43:5 Fear not: for I [am] with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

Isaiah 43:6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

Isaiah 43:7 [Even] every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Isaiah 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

Isaiah 49:15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [my] hands; thy walls [are] continually before me.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Malachi 1:2-3 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness...