The land you contend for is but a shadow; the court’s decree will pass as a vapor, but the inheritance of the saints is eternal. To set your hopes on a favorable ruling is to lean upon a splintered reed, yet the Lord bids you cast every care upon Him. You ask for success, pray rather that His will be done, and that your hearts be made meek. The promise which came to Israel was sure: you shall dwell in the land in safety, but only if they kept His statutes. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these earthly parcels will find their proper place beneath your feet or be taken from you as a release, a year of rest to the land. The poor shall never cease out of the land, and disputes will rise like thorns, but the man who feareth the Lord shall not be moved by the verdict of men.
What is the use of a legal victory if it breeds a barren soul? The Lord your God goeth before you as a shield, and He will thrust out the enemies, but these real enemies are not the adversary in the courtroom, but the unbelief and pride that lodge in the breast. You have seen great deliverances, and yet you tremble at a hearing of civil words. Remember Moses upon the hill: your cause is upheld by the uplifted hands of your Intercessor, and what is the loss of an acre if Christ be yours? The way you hear this affliction determines all. Hear heedfully, with faith, not with the ear of flesh that craves present exaltation. The hearing of faith cometh by the Word of God; it is the Spirit’s school. There is a blessed hearing that brings not earthly gold, but the mercy of God, which is peculiarly yours, and proves you to be children of the Most High.
Bring your sins out, your anxious grasping, your hard thoughts of Providence, and lay them before the Throne. You are not summoned to the bar of God’s justice to pay a debt you owe, for Christ has discharged the whole tremendous debt due to divine law. Under that crimson canopy no flash of penalty can strike you. Then why live as slaves to the courtroom’s breath? Come, let us go into His tabernacles; let us dwell where justice and mercy kiss, where the onycha of His blood distills a sweet savor, and where the verdict of the Cross overrides all earthly tribunals. That which is born of the Spirit cannot be bound by the writs of men. Advance, then, in the divine life, appropriating the mercy that is set before you, and leave the outcome to Him who orders all things after the counsel of His will. If the land be restored, dedicate it to His service; if it be stripped away, still He shall be your portion, and you shall eat your fill and dwell in peace eternal. Trial shall but test and sweeten your faith, and give you a foretaste of heaven upon earth, where no moth nor rust corrupts, and no surveyor’s line can enter. Amen.