The sharp trial of which you speak, fraud and theft, the rifling of your earthly goods, is but a skirmish in the great war. We are too apt to cry out as if our treasures were in this world, and to forget where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Yet the Lord who permits the enemy’s malice knows our frame, and He hears the groanings of His children when their comforts are torn away. It is not a small thing to feel the snare of wicked men closing about your name and substance; but in this, as in all calamities, there is a divine purpose that works through the mischief for your enduring good.
The worldling will tell you to push ahead on your own account, to trust to your own wits and the safeguard of strong passwords. But the believer learns, often through loss, that the Lord alone is our keeper. He exalteth the low tree, and abaseth the high. If He should suffer this present storm to blow, it may be to teach you that your real portion lies beyond the reach of any human thief, even that inheritance laid up in Christ for His elect. There is no attribute more comforting than the doctrine of divine sovereignty when the schemes of the ungodly press in. He sees, He appoints, He bounds the evil; and though we need not justify His ways, we may rest in this resolve: though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
The enemy who inspires these frauds is but the same old serpent who sought to sift Job as wheat. He had a mind to prove that the patriarch served God for gain; but when the flocks and herds were stolen, Job worshipped and sinned not. The arch-enemy will fly away confounded from you if you are able to resist him while darkness covers your soul. If you conquer him in your hour of grief, you conquer indeed! The Lord permits trial because He knows that His wisdom and Divine Grace have made you able to bear it. The honor of a Christian is to obey in detail, not forgetting any point of duty, even when the tempter dangles fear and anxiety before the eye.
For your comfort, remember that divine interpositions come in the way of deliverance from floods of trouble. Have you not experienced them? What remarkable preservations of life and limb, what narrow escapes, what mysterious checks upon the wicked have you enjoyed? Not miraculous, certainly, but full of wonder for all that. His divine Spirit wrought all your works in you, and here you are this day to say, “He hath delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” The same hand that stayed the lion from harming David can baffle the password-changer and the forger of false accounts. Pray on, and expect the divine surprise. He can save the most obstinate and bring opposers to the feet of Jesus. Plead with Him to do so in the case of these very offenders.
Yet fix your hopes more solidly than on the recovery of any earthly account. What is all the wealth of the world compared with the unsearchable riches of Christ? The white-robed righteousness of the Divine Redeemer is proof against all the depredations of earth and hell. When we lose a little money or peace of mind, it is a blessed thrust that sends us nearer to that treasure which never can be diminished. Your true history is not written in ledgers or credit reports, but in the Lamb’s book of life. There is more to be seen in a child of God than in any other person, shall I tell you his history? He was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, redeemed by precious blood, called by the Spirit, kept by the power of God, and is soon to be glorified with the King eternal. Let the thief pick at the lock of your earthly door; he cannot touch that mansion above.
The divine presence with you dissolves difficulties. When the church only needs the presence of God in the midst of her, all the systems of error flow down at His feet like glaciers melting in the summer’s sun. So for the individual believer: one glimpse of Christ’s love, one whisper of His Spirit, and the oppressions of men seem light indeed. We are willing to take the divine love with every possible drawback, for the love of our Father is a weight of glory, and all the sorrows of time are but light afflictions, and they last but for a moment. The last enemy, Death itself, is to be destroyed; what then are these lesser foes but opportunities for faith to show her heavenly birth?
Plead, therefore, the blood of Jesus over your household, and then trust. Remember that the Lord alone is your instructor, and as the eagle stirreth up her nest and fluttereth over her young, so He may be teaching you to fly higher, nearer the sun of His own heart. Some of us never can forget the rapture all divine when He showed us His hands and His feet, and said, “I have suffered all this for you; weep no more.” There was peculiar gentleness about that. And the same gentleness extends to the minor trials of this life. He who hath delivered our souls from the pit will deliver our names from the mire. Only let your eyes be fixed not on the fraud, but on the Fraught-with-love Redeemer who bids you cast all your care upon Him.
The enemy is real, but the Friend of sinners is more real still. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. With the psalmist, you may yet sing of deliverance, and with Paul you may gladly suffer the loss of all things, and count them but dung, that you may win Christ and be found in Him.