Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 6– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“[Moses] married an Ethiopian woman.'”

—Numbers 12:1

Some considered it strange that Moses would choose an Ethiopian woman for a wife; after all, why would he marry a foreigner– someone outside of Israel?  But how much more strange is the choice of the one who is a prophet like Moses, though greater! Our Lord Jesus has even more strangely married a people whose hearts are foreign to righteousness and whose spiritual skin has been toughened by the scorching heat of sin. It is the wonder of angels that the love of Jesus should be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. When we reflect on Jesus’ love for us, we must be overwhelmed that such love should be lavished upon objects so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and dark-heartedness, we are dissolved in grateful admiration of God’s free and sovereign grace.

Jesus must have found the cause of his love in his own heart, for he could not have found it in us. Even since our conversion, we have been tainted with sin, though grace has beautified us. Rutherford said of himself what we also must say ourselves: “[God’s] relation to me is that I am sick, and he is the Physician of whom I stand in need. Sadly, I often play fast and loose with Christ! He binds, I loose; he builds, I cast down; I quarrel with Christ, and he is kind toward me all day long!”

Most tender and faithful Husband of our souls, pursue your gracious work of conforming us to your image until you present even us poor foreigners unto yourself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Moses encountered opposition because of his marriage to a foreigner, and both himself and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can we wonder if this vain world opposes Jesus and his spouse– especially when great sinners are converted? The Pharisees always objected, “This man receives sinners.” Jesus, like Moses, “has married an Ethiopian woman.” [M&E]