“FOR HE CARETH FOR YOU”

I Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." I wonder if you may not be reading this as I did for a long time, Casting all your care upon Him; and He will care for you". This statement makes "casting our cares on Him" a condition of His caring for us. But what He says urges on us to cast our cares on Him "For (because) he careth for us". "For He careth for you" is an argument, the reason why, we should "cast all our care on Him". He cares for us whether we cast our care on Him or not.

God promises to do many things for His people on condition they trust, obey, or respond in the proper way. The following will come to your minds: Psalm 37:5 "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 55:22 "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Matthew 11:18 "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

The Lord cares for His people whether they trust Him, commit their ways unto Kim, cast their burdens upon Him, obey Him, take His yoke upon them, or whatever be their response or lack of response to Him. God cares for His people. "He careth for you!" Take it one hundred

MEDITATIONS ON THE WORD

percent. Don't discount it one iota. You will be tempted to pare it down a bit, but don't do it. There it stands, "He careth for you", in its glory, in its grace, in its simplicity, in its power. God's love is in it, His justice is in it, His grace is in it, His power is in it, His wisdom is in it, His eternal design is in it, "He careth for you!" There it stands, immutable. It must be true! God the Holy Spirit, who cannot lie, said it. "He careth for you!" It is so simple, you cannot misunderstand it. It is glorious in its grace, it is sublime in its sovereignty, solacing in its simplicity, and persuasive in its power. "He careth for you!" Do you want any more said to induce you to cast every care on Him?

But whether you do or whether you do not, "He careth for you!"

We see the demonstration that God cares for His people. First, in His choice of them: Ephesians 1:4 "According as He hath chosen us in Him (Christ Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Second, in the name He gave to Mary's virgin-born Son before His birth! Matthew l:21b "Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins." Third, by His sojourned here in the flesh: John 12:47 "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." Fourth, by Christ's death: I Peter 2:24 "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed." Fifth, by Christ's resurrection Romans 4:25 "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Sixth, by the high-priestly work of Christ Jesus in heaven: Hebrew 7:25 "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Seventh, by the coming of Christ Jesus to raise the dead: I Corinthians 15:22-23 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." Jesus said repeatedly in John 6 "I will raise him up at the last day."

"FOR HE CARETH FOR YOU"

These are scriptures that show God's working in His sovereignty, power, wisdom, and grace, in time and in eternity to accomplish the care of His people unto their complete deliverance from sin and all its consequences. This unspeakable blessedness is the gracious lot of everyone who believes in Christ Jesus. Are you in this sphere of God's care unto salvation? Have you by Christ Jesus had "access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God"?

Now, back to "For God careth for you" as it applies to His redeemed ones as they sojourn here. "For God careth for you" is the argument that we should cast our every care upon Him. But whether we do or don't "God careth for you". As a child of God you may not be receiving instruction from His Word; you may be living in disobedience: you may be heedless of His warnings; you may be deaf to His appeals; you may be indifferent to His providences that bless you or that make your heart ache. But this condition does not alter the fact that "He careth for you". It does alter the manner in which He cares for you. The mother, the wise mother caresses her child, and an hour later she stands him out in the floor and nettles his legs with a switch. Is this a capricious act? Not at all. Both acts of the mother are her ways of caring for her child! Both are acts of love. The conduct of the child has made the manner of care change. This is easy to see. It is clear that this principle is involved in God's care for His people, and often times this is the reason for God's manner of care. God is caring for His people at all times for reasons of His own, in the manner that suits His purpose. God's people doubtless often times suffer much distress of mind because they do not understand God's motives and manner of caring for them. He certainly has given us adequate instruction about this, but on this, as other things Jesus would have to say, "O fools and slow of heart to believe all the scriptures have taught."

The Scriptures, Old and New, are full of the records of God caring for His people. Romans 15:4 "For whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning,

MEDITATIONS ON THE WORD

that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."

At once Job comes to your mind as you think on this matter. Job was God's brag saint. Satan challenged God's praise of Job, and God put Job to the test by allowing Satan to afflict him. Job did not know God's design in all the sore afflictions that befell him. He did not know that God was putting him to this test. He was suffering and enduring it by faith. Up to this time it could be said, "God is caring for Job! See how He has hedged him about. God is pleased with Job and He is filling him with good things of this world." All that was true, but now since every thing is changed, we know and Job knew, not because he knew God's purpose, but because he knew God, that God was caring for him still.

God deals with His saints according to His sovereign purposes. He does not ask our permission, neither does He tell us why. In Job's case the latter years of Job were far better than the first, but this is not always the case with all of God's saints. God did not allow Satan to touch Job's life. God does not put that limitation on Satan in dealing with many of His saints, as all the martyrs from Abel down the ages show. It could be said to Job through all experiences, "For God carelh for you".

So it could be said to Jacob in all his hard and disappointing experiences, "He careth for you". Jacob's crooked and deceiving ways determined God's method of caring for him. It was not arbitrary altogether, but it was on the principle of "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Nevertheless, God uses this principle, as hard as it is, to care for His saints. In the case of Jacob, along with the principle of sowing and reaping, we see the long range purpose of God in His manner of caring for Jacob and his family. Joseph is sold down into Egypt by his brothers, and his coat of many colors is dipped in the blood of a kid and sent back to his father. He recognized it and said, "It is my son's coat; and evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces." Thus did his sons deceive him. Had he not deceived his old father? Jacob

"FOR HE CARETH FOR YOU"

mourns for his favorite son. Joseph in Egypt, through many heart aches, comes to great power. He conserves food during the years of plenty and dispenses it during the years of famine. His brothers come to him to buy grain. He knows them. They do not know him. On the second visit he makes himself known to them. He says to them, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life ... So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God."

In thinking on these things we naturally think of David, a man after God's own heart. David sowed and also did he reap. Much of the record of God's care for David is on this principle. But He cared for His saint. The deeper his sorrow in his reaping the sweeter were the songs of this sweet singer in Israel.

Time will fail us to mention multitudes of others,— Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, John, James, Paul and the others. These all show that God in His own sovereign, purposeful, saint-edifying, Christ-honoring ways "careih for you." Then, "Casting every care upon Him; for He careth for you."