Natural Law
By George Matheson

      "The Lord brought an east wind...and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts"

      (Exod. 10:13).

      One is inclined to ask, Why bring the east wind at all? God was about to send a special providence for the deliverance of His people from Egypt. He was about to inflict the Egyptians with a plague of locusts. The locusts were to be His special providence, the evidence of His supreme power. Why then, does He not bring the locusts at once! Why evoke the intervention of an east wind! Would it not sound more majestic if it had simply been written, "God sent out a swarm of locusts created for the purpose of setting His people free"! Instead of that, the action of God takes the form of natural law, "The Lord brought an east wind; and, when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts." Why send His message in a common chariot when it might fly on heavenly wings!

      Is there not even something disappointing in the words "when it was morning"! Why should God's act have been so long in working the cure! Is not the whole passage an encouragement of men to say, "Oh, it was all done by natural causes"! Yes--and to add, "All natural causes are Divine causes." For, why is this passage written? It is just to tell us that when we see a Divine benefit coming through an east wind, or any other wind, we are not to say that on this account it comes less direct from God. It is just to tell us that when we ask God's help we ought to expect that the answer will be sent through natural channels, through human channels. It is just to tell us that when the actual heavens are silent we are not to say that there is no voice from our Father. We are to seek the answer to our prayers, not in an opening of the sky, not in an angel's wing, not in a mystic trance, but in the seeming accidents of every day--in the meeting with a friend, in the crossing of a street, in the hearing of a sermon, in the reading of a book, in the listening to a song, in the vision of a scene of beauty. We are to live in the solemn expectation that, any day of our lives, the things which environ us may become God's messengers.