六月八日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/06/0608.mp3″]
经文: 现在要看我的话，向你应验不应验。（民数记十一：23）
上帝应许摩西要在旷野中赐肉给百姓吃，时间是整整一个月。摩西因为被不信所压倒，观望周围环境，不知道上帝将如何应验此应许。他所看的是被造之物，而不是“造物主”。造物主是否期待由被造之物来替祂应验祂的应许呢？不，祂给了应许，就以自己的全能来使之之应验。祂所说的，都必应验。祂的应许并不依靠人的微小力量来应验。我们很容易就能看出摩西所犯的错误，然而，我们何尝不是常常犯相同的错误？上帝应许供应我们所需，我们却只期待被造之物去行上帝所应许之事。然后，因为我们明白被造之物是软弱的、是无力的，于是就陷入了不信。为什么我们全然不看人？你是否爬上阿尔卑斯山顶去感受夏天的溽暑？你是否会旅行到北极去采集在阳光中成熟之果子？从软弱中去寻找能力，期望被造之物完成造物者之工作，没有什么比这种作法更愚蠢的了。信心不是根基于以可见的方法来完成上帝的应许。反之，是依赖不可见之上帝的完全充足。祂必作成祂所说的。我们清楚明白了一切责任全在主的身上以后，岂敢再沈缅于不信中？上帝的问话有力地在敲击我们的心，祂说：“耶和华的膀臂岂是缩短了么？”（民十一：23）“现在要看我的话，向你应验不应验。”
Evening, June 8
Scripture: “Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”(Numbers 11:23)
God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But doth the Creator expect the creature to fulfil his promise for him? No; he who makes the promise ever fulfils it by his own unaided omnipotence. If he speaks, it is done－done by himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfilment upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at once perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly we do the same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why look we to that quarter at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the Creator’s work. Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will most surely do as he hath said. If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the creature, we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes home mightily to us: “Has the Lord’s hand waxed short?” May it happen, too, in his mercy, that with the question there may flash upon our souls that blessed declaration, “Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”
