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Then came the voice from heaven; not recognizing faith as in the case of Abraham,
but remembering the promise made to Abraham, viz.:--
"Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad WHERE HE IS" (Gen. 21: 17).
The lad was Ishmael; Where he is was under a shrub dying of thirst. "I will make him
a great nation" (verse 18) was the promise.
"And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water" (Gen. 21: 19).
It does not say that God made a well; He simply opened the woman's eyes.
Are there rams caught by the horns in every thicket? Are there wells of water in every
desert? It appears so. Maybe instead of praying for deliverances we should seek the ever
opened eye.
#6.
"The End."
pp. 170, 171
Psalm 73: reveals the fact that it is necessary to look from the right standpoint,
especially when the providential and dispensational dealings of God are concerned.
Asaph saw the proud and the wicked, and observed that they often flourished, and were at
ease, whereas the righteous were plagued all the day long, and chastened every morning.
He said, "I was envious at the foolish". Then something happens to clear his vision,
something adjusts his focus. He shall sees the same wicked, but no longer with envious
eyes. He now can see the slippery place whereon their feet stand, he sees how quickly
desolation falls upon their prosperity. Where once he envied the ill-gotten wealth, or
unchastened ease of the proud, he now says:--
"There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (verse 25).
Verse 17 contains the secret of the change in Asaph:--
"Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end."
Not only may we there understand the end of the wicked, but the end in its fuller and
vaster meaning. The word translated "end" is also rendered "the latter days"
(Numb. 24: 14; Deut. 4: 20, etc.), and "latter end" (Deut. 8: 16, etc.). Psa. 37:
brings the "end" of the wicked and the righteous together for comparison:--
"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But
the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off"
(verses 37, 38).