Turn to Isaiah 50. Isaiah chapter
50. The word of God plainly teaches
that our Lord Jesus Christ died a substance in the place of Adam's,
but not all. Christ himself said, I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He said, I lay down my life.
Then he turned to some others that was in the crowd, and he
said, you are not of my sheep. Someone asked an old minister
one time of the gospel. He said, is your creed in print?
He said, why, yes. You will find it in Isaiah chapter
50. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
law revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant. And as a root out of dry ground,
he hath no form nor commonness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our grief
and carried our sorrow. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. but he was wounded for our sins.
He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes he was healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, and he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter. to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is done. He opened not his mouth. He was
taken from prison, from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off of the land of the living, the transgressions
of my people. And he made his grave for the
wicked, the rich in his death. For he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their. Therefore will
I divide a portion with the great, divide him a portion with the
great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because
he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with
the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many, a transgression. All right, if you will, open
your Bibles with me this evening to Genesis 46. Genesis 46. You remember the
last message was when Joseph sent his brothers back down and
told them to bring your father up here and I'll nourish him
and I'll take care of him. And they went down there and
they told him all that Joseph had said. And they told him that
Joseph was yet alive. And of course, Jacob, he almost
fainted. He said, this just can't be true,
for he didn't believe them. And then they told him all the
words that Joseph said. And you know what Joseph said?
He said, look at all the glory I've got in Egypt. I've got all
the food. I've got all the wealth. I've
got all the power. So come on up here, or come on
down here. And they told him all the things.
And then it says there in verse 27 of chapter 45, And they told him all the words
of Joseph which he had said unto them. And then watch this. And
when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him,
the spirit of Jacob their father revived. Saw the wagons which
Joseph had sent to carry Jacob. Carry him where? To Egypt. Down
into Egypt. And Israel said in verse 28,
it is enough. It is enough. Joseph my son is
yet alive. And he said, I will go down and
see him. before I die. I'm gonna go see
my son. One I hadn't seen in years and years and years and
years. Thought he was dead all these years. It's like getting
somebody resurrected from the dead. It's like receiving somebody
that you thought was dead for years and then one day you find
out they're not. And Jacob's heart was so full
and he was so joyful and he was so thankful and he saw the wagons
and all that had been sent to him and all that he was gonna
carry him back down into Egypt. And this is what I want to deal
with tonight. or Jacob and his whole family going down into
Egypt, going into Egypt. And it says there in verse 1,
and Israel took his journey with all that he had and he came to
Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. Now up to this point for quite
a while we've had much to say about Joseph, how God used Joseph. and all the mistreatment of Joseph
and all the suffering that he went through to be exalted to
the position that he had. Like our Lord Jesus Christ, he
came into this world to suffer, hated and despised and rejected
of his brethren, sold for 30 pieces of silver, went into the
bondage of death itself, went into the bondage of death itself.
and broke its power, broke the power of death, put away sin
by that death, by that suffering, put it away once and for all.
And God now has highly exalted him and set him at his own right
hand. And then we're brought back to
Jacob again, brought back to Jacob. Jacob was very prominent.
Him, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph are the most prominent
people in the Old Testament. And we are brought to remember
Jacob. And Jacob's still the head of the family. Isaac, his
father, is gone, and he's head of the family. He has 12 sons.
And he thought that one of them was gone, and he had 11. But
he come to find out he still had 12 sons. And that is with
Jacob that God made the covenant with. He said, I'm the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's a covenant God. He made
a great covenant with them. And he's the head of a nation.
And the scriptures teaches us that he's the head of a nation,
nation of Israel, that doesn't even exist yet. But he's going
to be the head of that nation. And the message that Joseph has
sent to him, to his father, was believed by Jacob. So down into
Egypt he goes and with his family. And let's start with his journey.
Look what it says in verse 1. And Israel, you notice it says
Israel, Israel. took his journey. How did he
become Israel? You remember in Genesis 32 when
a man wrestled with him all night? Tell me your name. You don't
need to know my name. And he laid hold of him, and
he changed his name, and he changed his walk. And he says, Now thou
art a prince with God, there no longer Jacob, but now you
are Israel, a prince with God. And God named him Israel that
night. And Jacob's walk from that day
forward He never was the same kind of person. And so Israel
took his journey, the name that God named him, and with all that
he had, everything that he had in this world, had it all gathered
up, and he came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the
God of his father Isaac. Now what a change, what a change
this man is going to go through and what he is going through.
He had dwelt in Canaan in the land of promise for years and
years and years and even while he was here in Canaan, that's
where Joseph was sold out of. And while he dwelt in Cana, that's
where he buried his wife, Rachel, the love of his life. Well, he
served 14 years for her because he loved her so greatly. And
then she had a child, Benjamin, and she died when Benjamin died.
She died when she was having Benjamin. And that's why he called
him the son of his right hand. And he took, and she died, and
he took Rachel, and he buried her. And what he's doing is he's
leaving the land of promise the land that He had promised to
Abraham, the land He had promised to Isaac. He said, Abraham, look
as far as you can see, east, west, north, or south, He said,
as far as you can see, this is yours, this is yours, and I'm
going to make a great nation out of you, and I'm going to
bless you, and I'm going to make you the father of many nations.
And here he is, he's leaving the land of promise, the one
that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and himself. And then it says
he came to Beersheba. There are some things about Beersheba.
And I see, you know, I watch the news sometimes and there'll
be an Israel and there'll be a sign going down to Bathsheba. And it don't say Sheba, it says
Bathsheba. And that place still exists,
Bathsheba. And they was going down there
and this is where Abraham, the first place you mentioned it
at is Abraham and there he offers sacrifice. Go over with me to
Genesis 21 and verse 31. Just look at this thing called
Bathsheba where he stopped at. Genesis 21, 31. This is Abraham
offering sacrifices here. His grandfather, Abraham, offered
sacrifices here. And look what it says. He says
in verse 31, Thus they made a covenant at
Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up, and Phicol
the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land
of Philistines. And Abraham planted a grove in
Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting
God." And that's where we first meet. He offered a sacrifice
there. That's where he met. And there he planted a tree while
he was there. And he, after offering Isaac,
where Isaac lived and had a revelation of the Lord. Look over here in
Genesis 26. This is where Abraham offered sacrifices there,
and he dwelt there after offering Isaac. After he had offered Isaac
up, he came back, and that's where he dwelt. He dwelt in Beersheba.
He went up on that mountainside, and he offered his son Isaac,
and the Scripture says he'd come back, and he built an offer,
and stayed there at Beersheba. Now look what he says here in
Genesis 26, 23. This is where Isaac had a revelation
from the Lord. Verse 23, and he went up, from
thence to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared unto him
the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father.
Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply
thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he built an altar there,
and called upon the name of the Lord, and listen to this, and
pitched his tent there. Where at? At Beersheba, at Beersheba. So this is where Jacob's going
back, he's going back where his father, grandfather offered sacrifices
and where he dwelt, he's going back where his father offered
sacrifices and built an altar and he's going back right where
everyone was, where he was raised and he went back there And the
scripture said, and offer sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. What did he mean, unto the God
of his father Isaac? Because the God that made a covenant
with my father and my grandfather and now with me, I want to go
where I was raised and I'm going to go offer sacrifices there
to the God of my father Isaac. And he stopped to offer sacrifices
there at Bathsheba and worshiped the God of his father Isaac,
the God who made a promise. And Isaac was the son of promise.
And then God gave a revelation to Jacob. Look what happens now.
Verse 2, And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night,
and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. He went
from being Israel back to being Jacob. And you notice God called
his name twice, Jacob, Jacob. Got to tell him, Remember, remember,
you're still flesh. Remember, you're still in this
world. Remember how weak and frail you are. You remember that,
Jacob. Remember, I was the one that
changed your name. Jacob, Jacob. He used his name
twice, and he did the same in Abraham. In Genesis 22, he said
when he was fixing to stick the knife and slay his son, God said
to Abraham, Abraham. Stop, stop. And yet it's his
old name. Doesn't call him Israel. What
are you supposed to do when God speaks to you? What are you supposed
to do? Old Jacob said, oh, listen, here I am. I imagine he was probably
trembling and said, here I am. God spoke to him in a vision.
You know, in Hebrews 1, it says, God, who at divers time, divers
ways in times past, spake unto the fathers by the prophets and
by visions, by dreams, and many other things, divers manners.
He spoke to them, and this is one of the ways that he spoke
to them, in a vision. And he came to him in a vision.
There's Jacob. He's asleep. And God came to
him and appeared to him and said, listen, Jacob, Jacob, uses his
old name. And all he can say is, Lord,
I'm here. I'm here. What are you going to do? He's
probably wondering, what in the world is the Lord going to do
with me? What is he going to do to me? And that's all we can
say, Lord, here I am. I'm weak. I'm frail. I have no
strength. I have no abilities. And the
only way I can worship you is through a sacrifice. The only
way I can approach you is through a sacrifice. And then God comes
to him. And look what he says in verse
3. He said, I am God. I am God. The God of thy father. The God of thy father. Now that's
two names, two ways he revealed himself to Jacob right here,
in a two-fold name. First he says, I am God. What
that means is, I am the Almighty. I'm the all-powerful. I'm the
one with all the power, with all the rights, with all the
authority. I am God. Jacob, I'm God. I'm Almighty
God. And then he calls him, secondly,
he says, I'm the God of thy father. Not only am I the Mighty God,
but I'm a coveted God. And I made a covenant with you. I made a covenant with you. And
then look what he says to him there in verse 3 again. Fear
not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great
nation. And I'll go down with you into
Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again, and Joseph shall
put his hand upon your eyes. God gave a fourfold promise,
fourfold promise to Jacob. four-fold promise of what's gonna
happen. He says, when you go into Egypt,
don't be afraid to go down there. Don't fear afraid to leave the
land of promise. Because when you go down into
Egypt, I'm gonna make of you a great nation, a great nation. And you think about Israel. You
think about Israel back when it's, and they had David the
king, Hezekiah the king, Solomon the king. At one time, it was
considered the greatest nation, and everybody was afraid of them,
and people came from all over to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And our Lord said, A greater than Solomon is here. He said,
I'm going to make of you a great nation. Not one man. He's going
to take one man. He said, I'm going to make you
a great nation. And then look what else he says. And I'm going
to go down into Egypt with you. Where you go, I go. I'm going
to go down there with you. You're not going down there by
yourself. You're not going by yourself, so I'm going to go
down there with you. And ain't that a blessing to all of us?
Oh, what a blessing. That wherever we go, God's there
too. God's there too. I mean, beloved,
I didn't even know God until I was way up in my 20s. and yet
there wasn't a place that I went that God wasn't there. What was
He doing? He had a covenant between Him
and His Son, and God in His sovereign mercy put me in that blessed
covenant, and He made a promise to His Son. He said, Son, I'm
gonna give you a people, and I was one of those people. And
I was here yonder from pillar to post, went into war, and I'll
tell you what, beloved, I didn't think I'd ever come out of there
alive, but God brought me out of there alive. And then when
I came out of there, I didn't come out in my right mind, and
God gave me back my right mind. Why? Because wherever you go,
I'm gonna go with you and watch it. I've got sheep, I've got
sheep that's in this world, and there's only two kind of sheep
in this world, two kind of sheep. found sheep lost sheep but if
they're sheep just mark it down christ said they'll hear my voice
and they will follow me That's gonna happen, that's gonna happen.
And you know how often it takes? It may take just one time, just
one time. Don't never give up on anybody.
It may take just one message, one message to cross the sheep's
path and God himself save them right then and there. But he
crosses the sheep, you say, well, my family's this and my family,
listen, as long as there's hope, life, there's hope. All it takes
is them to get under the sound of the gospel one time. God's
got the power to Spirits a heart just like that he can draw back
that arrow that gospel and he can Put it right dead center
in the heart and that heart will start crying out Oh Lord have
mercy on me, but he said I'll never leave you and I'll never
forsake you I'll never no never no never no never Leave thee
nor forsake and that's what he's telling Jacob He said you're
going down to Egypt, but I'm gonna go down there with you
I'm gonna go with you. And then look what he says there.
Again in verse four, now I'll go down with you and lead you.
Here's the third thing, and I will also surely bring thee up again. I'm going to send you down there,
but I'm going to bring you back. That's not going to be your dwelling
place. Egypt is not going to be your home. Egypt is not going
to be your permanent place. Egypt is not going to be the
place where I'm going to make a nation out of. I'm going to
say, I'm going to bring you back up out of Egypt. And bless God,
one of these days, God's gonna bring us up out of Egypt. We're in Egypt right now. We're
in Egypt and in the wilderness. I'm telling you, we're like Israel,
running around in the desert, just going in circles. But one
of these days, God's gonna take us, and we're gonna cross that
River Jordan, and when we cross that River Jordan, it'll be like
dry land, and we're gonna go, go! And he gonna bring us up
out of Egypt, and take us into his blessed presence. And you
know what he tells his people? He says, you know, said, you're
a holy nation. If he made Jacob a nation and
makes him a great nation, you know what? He says, we were a
holy nation. We're a holy people. Every one
of God's elect, they're God's nation. They're God's people.
A holy nation. What makes them holy? God said
they were. That's all it takes to be holy.
God tell you you are. Well, I don't do nothing to be
holy. Of course you don't. I don't either. And you never
will. But God said, You're a holy nation unto me, a peculiar people,
a peculiar people. And then he said, I'm gonna surely
bring you up again. Some people's already left Egypt,
you know, and God done took them from this world and took them
to glory. And then look what he says, and we'll get to this
in a minute, and we'll find out what this means. And Joseph shall
put his hand upon thine eyes. Oh my, four promises. Jacob goes
down into Egypt as a family, as a family. And when He comes
back out, He comes out as a nation. And this family will become as
the stars in heaven in multitude. That's what God said about them.
And the first thing He says, you know, He said, I'm going
to make of thee a great nation. You know where God builds His
church? In this old world, in this Egypt, in this awful place,
this place here. You know, and Of course, we'll
see it in Exodus. They were put under hard, hard
task, hard task. But there's where they were,
God separated them from Egypt and everybody else. And beloved,
God separates us out of Egypt and he builds his church right
here in this old, dry, barren, desolate place called the world. It was into Egypt. Lord said, I'll go down with
you. It was into Egypt. Jesus Christ came into this world.
He came here to save His people and make of them a great nation.
Now look what it says here in verse 5. Let me just make a few
comments on this. And Jacob rose up, stopped all
for sacrifices. God gave him a vision, made him
four blessed promises. And Jacob rose up from Bathsheba
and the sons of Israel. Now see he went from Jacob back
to Israel again. and the sons of Israel carried
Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives
in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took
their cattle and all their goods which they had gotten in the
land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seeds
with seed with him, his sons and his sons' sons with him,
his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with
him into Egypt." He brought every one of them. Look over here in
verse 26, what happens here, look what he says, and all the
souls, you notice now God calls us souls, all the souls that
came with Jacob into Egypt which came out of his loins his family,
his children and grandchildren. Besides Jacob's sons, wives,
and all the souls were threescore and six." Threescore and six. Sixty-six people. And the sons
of Joseph which were born him in Egypt were two souls. So all
the souls of the house of Jacob were threescore and ten. That's how many people went down
there. There were some already there,
Joseph and his son and Jacob. Took 766 people with him into
Egypt. Came back out with a million,
a million. And then look at this meeting that happened between
him and Joseph. And he sent Judah, verse 28,
that's the kingly tribe. He sent Judah before him unto
Joseph, because Joseph told him where he wanted them to go. We're
going to give them the best land that there is in Egypt. And he
sent Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his face unto Goshen,
the land of Goshen. That's the best land that there
was in Egypt. And they came into the land of
Goshen. Now watch what happens now. And
Joseph made ready his chariot. and went up to meet Israel, his
father, to Goshen. He went up where he came to meet
his father and presented himself unto him, and listen to this,
and he fell on his, and wept on his neck a good, good wow. Oh, this is my father. Oh, I've
missed my father. My father yet alive, that's the
first thing he wanted to know. Is my father yet alive? And Israel
said unto Joseph, kind of like Simeon did when he saw the Lord
Jesus Christ. Israel said unto Joseph, Now
let me die, now let me die, since I've seen thy face, because thou
art yet alive. And that's the way they was when
our Lord resurrected from the dead. That's what Simeon said
to them, let me die. But when they saw the Lord Jesus
resurrected, they were glad, because he was living, yet alive. And in looking at Jacob's life
from the time that Joseph is taken away from him, taken away,
sent him out to check on his brethren. And they sold him into
Egypt. Judah, the one that went down
there, he said, was the one that sold Joseph and sold him into
Egypt. And oh, what a blessed, blessed
revelation of God's providence, of God's grace and God's truth
to his people. You know, we see in this Joseph,
Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, we see the greatness of God's purpose.
Greatness of God's purpose. When God has a purpose, it don't
come to pass just like that. Things don't happen just that
way. He makes so He has a purpose and He started that purpose to
have a nation. to have a people, a peculiar
people, and look at the things that happened to bring that to
pass. All the things that happened.
First of all, Jacob. First thing about Jacob is that
God said, I love him. I love Jacob. I love him. Well, he's a supplanter. He's
a deceiver. He's a conniver. You better watch
him. Don't trade nickels with him.
God said, I love him. I love him. And then he had to
go away and get away from his brother Esau and let God send
him way over. He went over there and worked
and labored. And for two wives, one was given
to him that he didn't love, and then he labored seven more years
for that other one. And while he was down there,
God blessed him greatly. He had 12 sons. And then one
day, he sent his son Joseph. Go out! Go out! Check on your
brothers, see that they're all well." They get down there and
they say, this is that dreamer, this is that boy that says, one
of these days we're going to bow down before him, let's do
away with him. And Jacob's heart's broken, he
weeps and he cries, and then his wife dies when she's having
their last baby, Joseph's down in Egypt. Jacob thinks he's dead,
he buries his wife, he's got a little baby to raise, Benjamin,
and everything and all those things happen. He sent a seven
year famine in the land. You know why he sent a famine?
To get Joseph on the throne and to get Jacob into Egypt. You
say, that's an awful tough way to get people down there. Listen,
God's, that's what we mean when we say all things work together. Jacob, Joseph going into Egypt,
it worked for his good and his glory and for the good of his
father, his brothers, and his whole family. It was good for
all of them. And all mine, all things are
gonna work to fulfill it. When God said, I'll make of thee
a great nation, you know what it takes for them to make a great
nation? They stayed down there 430 years, 430 years. And then they made a law, said
kill every male child because these slaves, if they ever decide,
and that's what they call them, slaves, made slaves out of them. And said, these slaves may rise
up against us. I'll tell you what we need to
do. Let's kill all the male children. And that's when Moses, God put
his hand on Moses. And so 430 years later, here
they come about, over two million. I'll make of thee a great nation.
Also, I will surely bring you up again. He said, surely I'll
bring you up again. And Joseph shall put his hands
on your eyes. And I'm sure that Jacob did not
understand the significance of what God said when God gave him
this fourfold promise. He didn't understand all the
promises. He thought he was just going to go down into Egypt until
the famine was over and he's going to come back. But that's
not the way God purposed it for him to happen. And then when
he says, Joseph, put his hands upon your eyes, you know what
that means? That when you die, Joseph's gonna take his hand.
That Joseph that you've missed, that Joseph that you love, that
Joseph that saved you, that Joseph that fed you, that Joseph that
had all the authority and all the power and gave you the best
that there is, gonna put his hand on your eyes, gonna close
them. That's what that means. And God
uses temporary circumstances to his eternal purpose. And I
tell you, beloved, all you got to do is look at the life of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He read Isaiah 53 tonight, and
everything in Isaiah 53 has to do with our Lord Jesus Christ's
suffering. And then in that suffering, in
that suffering, He put away all the sins. The thing is that in
all that suffering, that God made His soul an offering for
sin. And he bore the iniquities of many, and by his stripes were
healed, wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities. And
our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world like Joseph. Joseph
was hated and despised. He didn't know what was going
to happen to him, but our Lord knew exactly what was going to
happen to him. And he came and offered himself willingly. And
I tell you, God uses temporary circumstances to bring his eternal
purposes to pass. I mean, just It don't look like
anything's happening. Sometimes it looks like God's
being awful rough with us. It just seems rough whenever
you get the news that you're sick and you're going to die.
That seems harsh. It seems harsh when you get a
heart attack or you feel bad and something bad happens to
you. But God does everything in His wisdom and in His power.
And I tell you what, beloved, what a blessed way to go. We've
got to leave here some way. And we're in Egypt, and God's
built His nation here in Egypt. Wednesday, that's going to be
a great exodus one of these days, and it ain't going to be Moses
that brings us out. It's just going to be the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself who's going to descend with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel. THEN we'll all rise up to meet
Him in there. Oh, listen, and then not only
that, but there's a reality of God's guidance. You think of
Joseph, Jacob, Christ, you, anybody else, God leads them step by
step by step by step. Joseph in prison, next thing
you know, he's on the throne. People are bowing down before
him as he goes through the streets. People have to bow before him. God said every knee's gonna bow,
and every tongue's gonna confess. God's guidance is real. God's
guidance is precious. God's guidance is blessed. The
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. John 10 says this,
and the Lord Jesus Christ puts forth his sheep, and then he
walks before them, and they follow him. He walks before us and we
follow him. He said he will guide the meek into truth. He said
I will guide them for my name's sake. And I want God to guide
me, don't you? I want him to order my steps.
I tell you what, when I take a step, mark it down, it's gonna
be the wrong one. It's gonna be the wrong one.
And then, oh, the wisdom of his love, the wisdom of God in his
love. I know some people think it looks
like God's love's not very wise. I heard Scott Richardson say
one time, if we had God's power, we'd change everything. If we
had God's wisdom, we wouldn't change nothing, wouldn't change
a thing, wouldn't change a thing. Jacob had the promise of the
land of Canaan. But boy, when he goes down there,
there's gonna come up a king who knew not Joseph. And he had
the promise of the land of Canaan, and he had to leave it. They
went down there and stayed 430 years. The thing is, when they
went down there, they didn't see the end, what his purpose
was, what his will was in the long haul. And beloved, this
is one thing that we do know. We know the end. We know what
God's, we don't know what it is for us in this life as far
as what's gonna happen to us here. But we know what his end
purpose is, is to change us and conform us every single one,
the image. You reckon that'll happen? Whom
he justified, them he also called. And whom he called, what did
he do to them? Glorified. Passed. And oh, God's wisdom
and love is like himself. It's unchangeable. What he promised,
he'll perform. And we have to trust where we
can't trace. God abides faithful in the dark
as well as the light, in our trials as well as our triumphs.
And if the only way we can trust Him is in the light and not in
the dark, it's not good. We got to trust Him in the dark
just as well as we do in the daylight, don't we? Because I
tell you what, a lot of times we just don't know. And all we
can do is just say, it's the Lord, it's the Lord. We just
wait, we just wait.