I TELL YOU OF THEM by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 25.

“I TELL YOU OF THEM.”

By T.

BEHOLD, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isa. 42:9. The foregoing is the Word of the Lord, and it is both true and encouraging. The Lord declares “new things.” And the most wonderful part of it is that our heavenly Father can say in truth, “Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

This infinite foreknowledge is not seen alone in the field of prophecy. While it is true that the Lord has foretold the history of the world in advance, it is also true that He has foreseen every perplexity, and need, and sin, and failure of mankind, and has caused a Book to be written that meets every case.

The man who is well-nigh sinking in despair may turn to God’s great Book, and find principles set forth, and unfailing promises given, that will fill his soul with an unconquerable courage. And it makes no difference what is the nature of the trouble, or what the varied temperaments and dispositions that are called to pass thru these afflictions; the Lord foresaw it all, and caused promises to be set as gems in His Word to meet the peculiarities of each. And thus does the Lord show how much He has thought about us. He has gone into the details of each life so as to discover every difficulty that would arise, and then framed power-laden promises to meet them. How wonderful this is! And how it should fill our souls with confidence in the Lord! It is not alone in the great affairs that go to make up the history of the nations that the Lord has exercised His foreknowledge, but in every one of the individual trials that we each have to meet, He has made it strikingly manifest that “before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

The individual who has a living experience in the truth of the Lord finds indescribable delight in his personal knowledge of these divine facts. The one who does not have this personal experience, and who is naturally inclined to quibble, may wish to argue the matter. But it is not a matter for argument; it is a matter of fact and experience. We do not argue with men to convince them that there is a moon; we simply point them to the orb of night when she is shining in her strength, and tell them to behold her. If a man should desire to argue with us against the reality of the moon’s being in the heavens, we would consider the matter too ridiculous for serious consideration. A fact is a fact, and the only thing we can do is to accept it. It is a waste of time and also a manifest weakness to indulge in arguments about the authenticity of established facts.

Professing Christians should spend their time in learning the truths of God’s Word, and as they do this they will be gaining experiences day by day that will enable them to affirm these truths so clearly that they will carry a conviction that can not be made by mere argument. It is said of Christ, “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Matt. 7:29. When the Master taught, He told them what He knew to be true; consequently He could speak with “authority.” He is our Example in all things. We should learn His methods of presenting the Gospel.

As we learn more and more of the breadth and fulness of the Lord’s foreknowledge; as we see more and more how fully this applies to every detail of our lives; as we read God’s promises, our minds filled with amazement at the thought of their being so framed thousands of years ago that they apply accurately to our cases just now, how ardently can we say, “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands.” Isa. 42:10-12. T.