六月二十日
我必出令，将以色列家分散在列国中，好像用筛子筛谷，连一粒也不落在地上。（摩9：9）
我们每一次经过筛子筛都是出于神的命令和允准。当撒但加手在约伯身上的时候，必须得到神的允许他才能去。我们经过筛，也可说是天父直接的工作，因爲经上说：“我必筛以色列家。”（改译）撒但像雇工一样，或许他手里拿着筛子，想把谷毁坏了，但是大权却操在全地的大主宰手里，他要籍这过程洁净谷，而仇敌却欲借此施行毁坏。
神的仓中最宝贵的谷都是已经筛过的，但是想到禾耙和筛子都是直接操在神的手里，他爲了他的荣耀和我们永久的好处才加在我们身上，那末我们就当得安慰幷要赞美他。主耶稣当然要使用他手中的扇子，要把宝贵的和卑贱的、好的和坏的分开。以色列人中不都是以色列人；仓中的谷不都是干净的粮食，因此筛簸的工作是少不了的。在筛子里真正有分量的东西才有力量。糠秕必在风前被吹散，只留下粒粒坚实的谷粒。神的谷粒必然十分安全，就是最小的颗粒也有被保全的应许。
神自己筛，因此是一种严格而可怕的工作；他到处筛他们“在列国中”，他筛得很彻底、很有效，“连一粒也不落在地上”，一切谷粒，最小、最轻、最瘪的谷都不会落在地上。每一位信徒在神的眼中都是宝贵的；牧人不肯失去一只羊，珠宝商不肯失去一粒金钢石，母亲不愿失去一个孩子，人人都不愿失去身体的任何一部份，照样神也不愿失去一个得赎的人。不论我们多麽微小，只要我们是属神的，我们就当快乐，因爲我们必在基督耶稣里被保守。
June
20
“For,
lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like
as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the
earth.” — Amos 9:9
Every sifting comes by divine command and
permission. Satan must ask leave before he can lay a finger upon Job. Nay,
more, in some sense our siftings are directly the work of heaven, for the text
says, “I will sift the house of Israel.” Satan, like a drudge, may
hold the sieve, hoping to destroy the corn; but the overruling hand of the
Master is accomplishing the purity of the grain by the very process which the
enemy intended to be destructive. Precious, but much sifted corn of the Lord’s
floor, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directeth both flail and
sieve to His own glory, and to thine eternal profit.
The Lord Jesus will surely use the fan
which is in His hand, and will divide the precious from the vile. All are not
Israel that are of Israel; the heap on the barn floor is not clean provender,
and hence the winnowing process must be performed. In the sieve true weight
alone has power. Husks and chaff being devoid of substance must fly before the
wind, and only solid corn will remain.
Observe the complete safety of the Lord’s
wheat; even the least grain has a promise of preservation. God Himself sifts,
and therefore it is stern and terrible work; He sifts them in all places,
“among all nations”; He sifts them in the most effectual manner,
“like as corn is sifted in a sieve”; and yet for all this, not the
smallest, lightest, or most shrivelled grain, is permitted to fall to the ground.
Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd
would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child,
nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of His redeemed
people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord’s, we may rejoice that we
are preserved in Christ Jesus.
