IF the children will keep me company, we will take a little journey together into the fields of Scripture to learn there some important, and I trust, profitable lessons, which the trees may teach us. We may also find, as we note the various differences in the nature of the trees, as they were first planted, and continue to grow upon the earth by the hand of a merciful and faithful Creator, that they speak to us in many ways, as illustrations, which God permits and encourages us to consider.
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen; for I will hasten My word to perform it.”
Now, it is interesting to know that the word “Almond,” means “hasten”; and so we see how the Lord could show Jeremiah that He was about to “hasten His word” when he was looking at the rod of an almond tree before him. But the word that God was about to hasten to perform at this time, when Jeremiah lived, was one of the most solemn warnings to His backsliding people—the Jews —of the judgment He was soon to bring upon them. But the people would not listen to the prophet’s voice, but set their faces against him, and turned their ears away from him.
The judgment, however, overtook them, as God is always faithful to His word, and they were carried as captives, away from their own land to Babylon.
It is just the same today, dear readers, for only a few people really believe what the Bible says about the judgment that is soon to come upon this world. If they did believe it, don’t you think they would immediately flee to Jesus, as a refuge, from the wrath to come?
But, now, turn with me to another Scripture, where the word “hasten,” occurs, and then I shall leave you to think over the little talk we have had, until another time when, I trust, the Lord will permit us again to speak of these precious things.
The Scripture I refer to, you will find in Proverbs 19:22Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. (Proverbs 19:2): “Also that the soul be without knowledge it is not good: and he that ‘hasteth’ with his feet sinneth.” You remember what Jesus said about the prodigal (Luke 15.) leaving his father’s house of plenty, and his return to that home from a field of famine. He meant that as a picture of you and me. But let us ask: What is it to “hasten with the feet”? “It is taking only a single step away from God.” As soon as the feet of that son had crossed the threshold of his father’s door, he was “sinning”; he was on his wayward and downward course which leads to everlasting destruction.
He was lost!
But you know he came back again, being very sorry for having sinned so grievously against that dear and loving father. And where did the father meet his returning child? At the door of the house which he had left? No, the father hastened (“ran”) to meet him, while as yet, the son was in the field of the far country.
Remember, then, that while we have hastened to get away from God, He has, also, hastened to meet us, if we have, indeed, turned our faces towards Him, as lost and helpless ones.
ML 12/16/1900