Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3290
“Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening.” Ezekiel 33:22.
PERHAPS in the special senses in which Ezekiel uses this expression, we shall not expect to feel “the hand of the Lord” upon us. God may not call us to prophesy as Ezekiel did, although in the Scriptural use of the word, “prophesy,” the preacher of the Word is still called to deliver the message which he has received from his Lord’s lips. The days of special visions and voices and prophesying have passed away, but we can still say with Peter, “We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the day star arise in your hearts.”
I think, however, that we may use our text with some profit in other senses—“The hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening.” So we will enquire, first, what hand was this?Secondly, what time was this? And then, thirdly, what teaching is there for us in this incident?
I. So first, let us ask, WHAT HAND WAS THIS? The answer is very clearly stated in the text, “the hand of the Lord.” We will examine this expression, first, in its connection with the Lord’s people, and then in its relation to sinners in whom a gracious work is beginning.
First, then, looking at this expression in its connection with the Lord’s people, I remark that sometimes, “the hand of the Lord” is laid very heavily upon them in chastisement. It is no unusual thing for a child of God to say, “The hand of the Lord was upon me”—and often he has not merely to add, “in the evening”—but he can truthfully say, “All day long His hand has been heavily laid upon me.” There are some of God’s children who are very frequently the subjects of His chastening, and if any of you have come here smarting under the blows of His rod, you must not murmur, for this is the treatment that is meted out to all the rest of the Lord’s family. It is through much tribulation that they enter the Kingdom, so let not any one of us take up the lamentation of Jeremiah, “I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath”—but let us all expect to follow in the footsteps of the flock, well knowing that—
“The path of sorrow, and that path, alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.” Be not astonished, therefore, if “the hand of the Lord” is laid upon you, thus, for, “if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?” Yet while you feel the weight of God’s hand upon you, never forget that it is your Father’shand. Whatever form your trial may take—whether it is the loss of a child or of a parent, or the withdrawal of temporal prosperity, or the smiting of the body with aches and pains—the rod is never in any hand but the paternal one and even while the Father smites, He loves. Let this be your comfort, that it is not the hand of an enemy that is upon you—you are not suffering from a crushing blow from the foeman’s mailed hand, but the stroke, whether it is heavy or light, is wholly caused by your loving Father’s hand!
“The hand of the Lord” is also a humbling hand. When God lays His afflicting hand upon us, He takes away much of our fancied beauty and lets us see the ugliness of our natural deformity. We thought we were very patient until we had need of patience—and then we found what a murmuring, discontented spirit we had within us! Perhaps you, my Brother, thought you were a strong Believer until your present trial came. But now you have proved how feeble your faith really is. You imagined that you were better than the rest of God’s saints because you could sing when they could only groan. But now you have hard work to keep from groaning yourself! It is a blessed thing when the blows of God’s rod lay us low at our Father’s feet. The safest option for all children of God is to lie flat upon the Rock of Ages. With all the joy and confidence that I trust we feel when we reflect upon our Lord’s promises and His solemn oath and Covenant, yet
when we think of our own imperfections and unfaithfulness, we are compelled to bow very humbly before the Throne of Grace.
Turning to another side of the subject, let me say that there is no reason why the hand of the Lord should not be upon us without our having any particular trouble. When we have come up to God’s House to worship Him, I trust that we have often felt “the hand of the Lord” upon us, pressing us down very low in a sense of our own weakness and unwor-thiness. There are other things beside affliction that can humble us beneath the mighty hand of God! When Peter’s boat began to sink because it was full of fish, Peter, too, went down and he cried to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” When we think of all the Lord’s goodness to us, we cry out, somewhat as David did, “Who are we, O Lord, and what is our house, that You have done such great things for us?” If we have “the hand of the Lord” upon us in this sense, it will not crush us, nor drive us to despondency or death—it will make us realize our own nothingness while it will also give us a grateful sense of our Lord’s loving kindness and condescension in dealing so graciously with us!