IF THOU HADST KNOWN
by Dr. Vance Havner
O ne OF the saddest laments ever to escape hu man lips is the oft-repeated cry, “ If only I had known!” The motorist who drove to tragedy on the railroad tracks means “ If only I had been the train!” Hospitals are filled with wrecks who would have lived more moderately if only they had known. No man means to be a drunkard or to de stroy his body when he sets out in the way of sin. If we realized the consequences, we would do some thing about the cause. Many a pauper, if he had known, would have made preparation for the rainy day. Think o f the tragedy of lost youth. Many an old man has said, “ If I had known then what I know now, I would have remembered my Creator in the days of my youth.” If only youth knew how to live and old age could! I f we had known that dear ones would be so suddenly snatched from us we would have been kinder: “What use for the rope if it be not flung Till the swimmers grasp to the rock be clung? What worth is eulogy’s blandest breath When whispered in ears that are hushed in death? No! No! If you have a word o f cheer, Speak it while I am alive to hear.” Consider a more serious application. Our Lord is weeping over Jerusalem. He has come to the lost sheep o f the house o f Israel and they have not recognized the Shepherd. He has come unto His own and His own have received Him not. Now He laments, “ IF THOU HADST KNOWN, even thou,
at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.” Then He describes the coming destruction of Jerusalem, fulfilled to the letter forty years later: “ For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and com pass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, BECAUSE THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THE VISITA TION.” “ IF THOU HADST KNOWN . . . THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITA TION” : therein lies the sad story o f Israel’s re jection and misery to this day. Therein lies a seri ous message for us as well. THEY DID NOT KNOW HIM WHEN HE CAME THE FIRST TIME IN THE VISITATION OF GRACE. How oft would He have gathered His people but they would not. He came to Nazareth and could do no mighty works because of their unbelief. He came to Gadara and they were more concerned over the loss of hogs than the presence of God’s Son. Strangely enough, the scribes, the religious experts of His time, the Scripture stu dents, the prophecy specialists, were blindest of all. There stood one among them whom they knew not, as John the Baptist said. Think o f the Son of God growing up in your town, preaching in the neighborhood, performing miracles before your eyes, and yet you do not know the time of your visitation! So it was and so it will be when He comes
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DECEMBER, 1967
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