The Numbered Hairs

“BUT THE VERY HAIRS OF YOUR HEAD ARE ALL NUMBERED.”

Matthew x. 30.

H

OW considerate of our fears is the Lord Jesus! He knew that his people would be persecuted, and he sought to cheer them.

In how sweet and homely a way he puts things! He deigns to speak about the hairs of our head. Here is a proverb, simple in words, but sublime in sense.

We think we see four things in this sentence.

I. FORE-ORDINATION. The text may be read, “have all been numbered.” It is of the past as well as of the present.

1. Its extent. Predestination extends to every thing.

All the man; his being as a whole is foreknown. 4< In thy book all my members were written:” Ps. cxxxix. 16. All that concerns him is foreknown; even to his hair, which may be shorn from him without damage to life or health. All that he does; even the least and most casual thought, or act. (52)

All that he undergoes. This may affect his hair so as to change its color; but every hair blanched with sorrow is numbered.

2. Its source. The counting is done by the Lord.

3. Its lessons. Jesus mentions this fore-ordination

for a purpose.

To make us brave under trial.
To teach us to be submissive.
To help us to be hopeful.
To induce us to be joyful.

4. Its influence. It ennobles us to be thus minutely predestinated.

If God arranges even our hairs, we are honored indeed.

To be the subject of a divine purpose of grace is glorious.

II. KNOWLEDGE. We are known so well as to have

our hairs counted. Concerning this divine knowledge let us note —

1. Its character.

Minute. 4< The very hairs of your head.” Complete. The whole man, spirit, soul, and

body, is thus most assuredly well known to

the Omniscient Lord.
Pre-eminent. God knows us better than we

know ourselves, or than others know us;

for neither we nor they have numbered the

hairs of our head. Tender. Thus a mother values each hair of

her darling’s head. Sympathetic, God enters into those trails, those years, and those sicknesses which are registered in a man’s hair.

Constant. Not a hair falls from our head

without God.
2. Its lessons.

Concerning consecration, we are taught that our least precious parts are the Lord’s, and are included in the royal inventory. Let us not use even our hair for vanity.

Concerning prayer. Our heavenly Father
knoweth what things we have need of. We
do not pray to inform him of our case.

COD corn ing our circumstances. These are be fore the divine mind, be they little or great. Since trifling matters like our hairs are catalogued by Providence, we are assured that greater concerns are before the Father’s eye.

III. VALUATION. The hairs of our head are counted because valued.

These were poor saints who were thus highly esteemed.

The numbering mentioned in the text suggests several questions.

If each hair is valued, what must their heads be worth?

What must their bodies be worth?

What must their souls be worth?

What must they have cost the Lord, their Redeemer?

How can it be thought that he will lose one

of them?

Ought we not greatly to esteem them? Is it not our duty, our honor, our joy to seek

after such of them as are not yet called by

grace?

IV. PRESERVATION. The hairs of their head are all numbered, because they are to be preserved from all evil.

1. From the smallest real loss we are secured by

promise. “There shall not a hair of your head perish:” Luke xxi. 18.

2. From persecution we shall be rescued. “Fear

not them:” Matt. x. 28.

3. From accident. Nothing can harm us unless

the Lord permits.

4. From necessity. You shall not die of hunger,

or thirst, or nakedness. God will keep each hair of your head.

5. From sickness. It shall sanctify rather than

injure you.

6. From death. In death we are not losers, but

infinite gainers. Resurrection will restore

the whole man.

Let us for ourselves trust, and not be afraid. Let us set a high value upon souls, and feel an earnest love for them.

PINS.

“Hairs” — of which ye yourselves are heedless. Who cares for the hairs once dragged out by a comb? A hair is a proverbial expression for an utter trifle. — John Albert Bengel

If God numbers their hairs, much more does he number their heads, and take care of their lives, their comforts, their souls. This intimates that God takes more care of them than they do of themselves. They who are solicitous to number their money, and goods, and cattle, yet were never careful to number their hairs, which fall, and are lost, and they never miss them: but God numbers the hairs of his people, and not a hair of their head shall perish: Luke xxi. 18. ISot the least hurt shall be done them, but upon a valuable consideration: so precious to God are his saints, and their lives and deaths! — Matthew Henry.

There are who sigh that no fond heart is theirs, None love them best — Oh! vain and seltish sigh!

Out of the bosom of His love He spares — The Father spares the Son, for thee to die:

For thee He died — for thee He lives again:

O’er thee He watches in His boundless reign.

Thou art as much His care, as if beside Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or earth:

Thus HUM beams pour alike their glorious tide To light up worlds, or wake an insect’s mirth:

They shine and shine with uuexhaushed store —

Thou art thy Saviour’s darling — seek no more.

John Keble.

An Italian martyr, in the sixteenth century, was most cruelly treated in the prisons of the Inquisition. His brother, who with great difficulty obtained an interview with him, was deeply affected by the sight of his sufferings. “My brother,” said the prisoner, “if you are a Christian, why do you distress yourself thus? Do you not know that a leaf cannot fall to the ground without the will of God? Comfort yourself in Christ Jesus, for the present troubles are not to be compared with the glory to come.”

If pestilence stalk through the land, ye say” This is God’s doing; n Is it not also his doing when an aphis creepeth on a rosebud? — If an avalanche roll from its Alp, ye tremble at the will of Providence;

Is not that will concerned when the sear leaves fall from the poplar?

Martin F. Tapper.