Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/343

Rh pose of good, for Israel and all mankind. We can not fathom all God's purposes, nor measure all His wisdom and love. We can only say with the Psalmist

And with the great prophet of old, we must say again, as we have already said more than once:

{{ppoem| For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways. And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah LV, 8-9.)

We can not measure God's wisdom and goodness and love by our little, human standards. We can only trust in Him with perfect faith that, whatever happens to us and to all people, it will somehow surely be for the best in the end, that nothing in life merely happens, and above all, nothing happens for evil alone; but God's hand is in everything, and His love watches over all His children and protects them and leads them on, for He is our shepherd. And so, when grief and pain and trial come to us, as they must at some time come to all men, we need not despair nor complain, but remember that everything cometh from God for some deep purpose of goodness and love, even though we may not understand.

One story of the rabbis well illustrates this thought. There was once a slave upon whom his master had bestowed many gifts, and whom he had always treated with uniform kindness. And the slave loved his master in return and did his every bidding loyally and gladly. But one day the friends of the master said to him, "Thy slave loves thee only because of thy good gifts. Withhold these, or do evil unto him, and thou wilt see his love vanish". Thereupon the master summoned the slave, and silently gave to him some fruit which {{nop}}\n{{smallrefs}}