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In every spiritual work for God there is need for one, several, or many (according to the size of the work) to be continually on the alert to detect the approach of the enemy of souls. For where there is no vision the people perish, the work languishes, prayer runs thin. A favorite wile of that enemy is to create a preoccupation with the messengers, the brothers, the Ishmaelites. But the watcher is not deceived; he looks past the servants and sees their master. (“Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?”) Then, for he has boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, he meets his foe and his Lord’s foe there. In no other place can that foe be met and foiled and his sting drawn out. His devices may appear to succeed, but they are powerless to injure, and in the end his attack fails miserably.
The watcher learns many things as he is taught to watch. He learns never to be tired of loving, never to be shocked or startled out of his peace in Christ, never to be astonished by anything the devil does, never for one moment to forget that though he may be baffled his Captain is not and never can be. Every high thing was cast down at Calvary. Principalities and powers were spoiled there. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them. We have to do with a conquered, not a conquering, foe; we follow a Captain who is unconquerable.
When the worker for God is in heaviness because of the souls committed to his care, when he travails in spirit and does not see the fruit of his travail, when he sees no way to deal with some deadly thing that has sprung to life in their midst, he has peace even in the moment of keenest anxiety in remembering the sovereignty of his Lord. And if he has to take action and knows not what to do, the words He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee, trusted to the full, will be like the Lord’s “Peace, be still” to the winds and the waves. There will be a great calm. If something must be done immediately then a way will be shown. If it be possible to wait there will be peace until clearness comes, and when it is given there will be strength to act.
And so we return to Milton and his unshakable confidence. The vast design of Providence is design, not accident. Brothers, Ishmaelites, messengers, the doings of the opposing powers, however ably directed by a master hand, all have their place in that design. The secret things belong unto the Lord, “and ever best found in the close.”