Worms should be made kings!
(Thomas Watson, "The Beatitudes" 1660)
"Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father
delights to give you the kingdom!" Luke 12:32
See here the mercy and bounty of God, who has prepared
a kingdom for His people. It is a favor that we poor worms
should be allowed to live. But that worms should be made
kings—this is divine bounty! It is mercy to pardon us—but it
is rich mercy to crown us! 'Behold, what kind of love is this!'
Earthly princes may bestow great gifts on their subjects—but
they keep the kingdom to themselves. Though Pharaoh advanced
Joseph to honor and gave him a ring from his finger—yet he kept
the kingdom to himself. 'Only in the throne will I be greater than
you' (Genesis 41:40). But God gives a kingdom to His people—He
sets them upon the throne!
How David admires the goodness of God in bestowing upon him
a temporal kingdom. 'Then king David went in, and sat before the
Lord and said—Who am I, O Lord God—and what is my house, that
You have brought me hitherto?' (2 Samuel 7:18). He wondered
that God should take him from the sheepfold—and set him on the
throne—that God should turn his shepherd's staff into a king's
scepter! O then, how may the saints admire the riches of grace—
that God should give them a glorious kingdom above all the
princes of the earth—nay, far above all heavens!
God thinks nothing too good for His children. We many times think
much of a tear, a prayer, or to sacrifice a sin for Him—but He does
not think a kingdom is too much to bestow upon us! How will the
saints read over the lectures of free grace in heaven, and trumpet
forth the praises of that God, who has crowned them with such
astonishing loving-kindness!
See here, that which may make the people of God long for death.
Then, they shall enter upon their glorious kingdom! Indeed the
wicked may fear death. It will not lead them to a kingdom—but to
a horrid prison. Hell is the jail where they must lie rotting forever
with the devil and his demons!
HT: Grace Gems
Thoughts on the Way Home
