Vindication

‘And they shall know.’—Ezek. vi. 10; xxxvi. 38, etc.
‘IF they only knew!’ How often we say or think A this when ‘they ‘ misunderstand and misjudge a person, a position, or an action, just because £ they’ do not know what we know! How we chafe against their speaking evil of things which they know not, and most of all when ‘they’ speak wrongly or unworthily of a person whom we know much better than ‘they’ do! Ah! if they only knew!
This grieving sense of the injustice of ignorance rises to a feeling which needs much tempering of faith and patience when we see our God Himself misunderstood and misjudged. Oh, how they ‘ daily mistake’ His words and His character, and how it does pain us! How we do want them to know what He is, even so far as we are privileged to know Him 1 How every word whicli shows they do not know His exceeding great love and absolute goodness, and the sublime balancing of all His attributes, jars upon us and distresses us, and causes a quick up-glance of His little children who have known the Father, and an involuntary closer nestling of their hand in His, as if they wanted to give Him fresh assurance of their love and confidence, just because these others do not know Him!
What an added grandeur it gives to our anticipations of the day when every eye shall see Him, that He, our Father, will be known at last to be what He is, and that Jesus, our Lord and Master, will be seen in His own glory, and can never, never be misunderstood any more? One revels in the thought of this great and eternal vindication of Him whom we love ; His ways, His works, His word all justified, and Himself revealed to the silenced universe, henceforth only to receive honour and glory and blessing! It seems as if we should almost forget our own share in the glory and joy of His coming in this transcendent satisfaction.
‘And they shall know!’ It is one of the shining threads that run all through the Bible, a supply indeed for the heart’s desire of those who delight in the Lord. It is never long out of sight, judgments and mercies being alike sent for this great purpose, that men may know that Jehovah is Most High over all the earth. For this the waters of the Red Sea receded and returned again; for this Jordan was dried up; for this Goliath was delivered into David’s hand; for this 185,000 of the Assyrians were smitten by God’s angel; and many more instances. Throughout Ezekiel it seems the very keyword, recurring seventy-five times as the divine reason of divine doings, that they may ‘know that I am the Lord.’1 Is there not a peculiar solace in this?