What an Interesting Providence to have heard Pastor Ryken, this morning.

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Here I Raise My Ebenezer? Hither by Thy help I come, and I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home!

__________________________________________________________________________________ Ebenezer Balfour vs. godly Alexander who reared David, who went to his uncle in Kidnapped Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Boston 2 Boston sons died in infancy---

Zechariah 12:7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. Zechariah 12:12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; Zechariah 12:13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; Zechariah 12:14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

In my observation of Zechariah in my devotions; The scripture here makes a real distinction between the mourning of family for the bereaving and the grief of the mother apart. The family of the LORD Jesus they were all. There is a grief of family loss and there is a grief of the mother apart. God boils us together in our griefs. Family grief and mother grief{apart}. This passage is ultimately fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of His people and we enter into it when we come to Him and embrace His sacrifice as efficatious on our behalf.

In a very distant sense, there is an exaltation of those who have become one in Christ, as Gentiles, to exalt our pagan cultures above the Jewish Christians. That is abhorred. We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and not expect our redemption to overshadow, in any way the drawing that God intends, in His providence, whenever in history that drawing may occur. We must be always willing to set our "pagan"perspectives aside for the truth of Christ. This is why we must submit ourselves to a joint effort of the Church Universal in its dominion on the earth. Christ's reign on earth is in and through His Church. We become one in Christ. No longer Jew or Gentile, but "ONE NEW MAN". The only head of the church is Christ and not our individual perspectives. Paul was saying this in so many ways in the New Testament, that if it was wrong for the Jews to exalt circumcision as another level of sanctification; it is certain that those pagan gnostic separations are abhorrent to God. The question in the New Covenant is how much of your cultural mores and systems will you bequeath, as it were, to God's Rule.

I can really imagine Thomas Boston almost losing faith altogether. Lord, I have come to YOU with intention to rear this one in the fear of God and You have given me the darkest providence. In my prayerlife, I have really struggled deeply with first questioning my ability to want to please God and then God's hearing of me in my devoted aspiration, perhaps. God is not culpable, ever! But can I believe in a God who would not hear me in this deepest prayer? Grief against God and grief against self and grief against those whose providences haven't been so very invasive.

Today, I pray for Pastor Ryken and others whose providences have endured the loss of only sons. God grant peace and hope in the rubble of the hearts. In Jesus' Name, Amen.