The following was written by Inglis Fleming (1859-1955) (One of his grandsons was Pete Fleming, one of the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in 1956.)
‘”Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.” Psa. 149:5. “Any bird can sing in the daytime; God gives songs in the night,” it has been remarked.
Above all the power of trial and weariness and pain, the Holy Spirit of God can lift the suffering Christian, so that “in the night” of testing and “upon their beds” of affliction, they may sing aloud with joy.
Happy is the believer who, confident in his God, can thus rise above his present circumstances and rejoice in the Lord. Such an one, in the spirit of Habakkuk of old, may exultingly say,
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.” Hab. 3:17-19.
To the Jew, the fig tree, the vine, the olive, the fields, the flocks and the herds spoke of prosperity. Without these and their produce, famine would stare them in the face. Habakkuk’s confidence is of a marked character therefore. Is not such faith to be followed? May we not say that it honors God and is delighted in by Him?
“How great is Thy goodness,” exclaims David, “which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!” Psa. 31:19.
Paul could write from the Roman imprisonment which he was enduring, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” Phil. 4:4.
“Songs in the night” are these. And perhaps the night seasons are allowed to come upon us in order that such songs may rise from our hearts.
Amid the changing circumstances of life we may not be able to rejoice in them, but the Lord in His all-sufficiency is above all circumstances. In Him let us rejoice, as we journey on to our everlasting portion.
“And there in mine inheritance,
My kingly palace home:
The leaf may fall and wither,
Not less the spring will come.
Like winds and rains of winter,
These earthly sighs and tears,
Till the golden summer dawneth
Of the endless year of years.”‘https://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/fleming/songs1.html
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32)
‘This verse has always been difficult to understand. If Jesus was God, how could He be ignorant of the time of His second coming? Indeed He was, and is, God, but He also was, and is, man. This is a part of the mystery of the divine/human nature of Christ. In the gospel record, we see frequent evidences of His humanity (He grew weary, for example, and suffered pain), but also many evidences of deity (His virgin birth, His resurrection and ascension, as well as His perfect words and deeds).
He had been in glory with the Father from eternity (John 17:24), but when He became man, “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), except for sin. As a child, He “increased in wisdom and stature” like any other human (Luke 2:52). Through diligent study (as a man), He acquired great wisdom in the Scriptures and the plan of God. After His baptism and the acknowledgment from heaven of His divine Sonship (e.g., Matthew 3:16-17), He increasingly manifested various aspects of His deity, but He still remained fully human.
With respect to the time of the end, this depends in some degree on human activity. For example, He said that “the gospel must first be published among all nations” (Mark 13:10), and only God the Father could foresee just when men will have accomplished this. Although the glorified Son presumably now shares this knowledge, in His self-imposed human limitations He did not.
In no way does this compromise His deity. In our own finite humanity, we cannot comprehend fully the mystery of the divine/human nature of Christ, but He has given us more than sufficient reason to believe His Word!’https://www.icr.org/article/12648/?utm_source=phplist9294&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=March+12+-+The+Limited+Knowledge+of+Jesus
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