The Just can rely on God, but Egypt will fail the guilty
3 min • Digitized on January 17, 2022
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 175
By Venerable Louis of Granada
In studying the inestimable treasures of hope you have some idea of one of the blessings of which the wicked are deprived. Whatever hope remains to them is dead; destroyed by sin, it can produce none of the glorious fruits we have been considering.
Distrust and fear as inevitably accompany a bad conscience as the shadow does the body. Hence the happiness of the sinner is the measure of his hope. He sets his heart upon the vanities and follies of the world; he rejoices in them; he glories in them; and in them he hopes in the time of affliction.
It is of such hope that God speaks when He says: “The hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the winds, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm; and a smoke which is scattered abroad by the wind.” [Wisdom v. 15.]
Can you imagine a weaker or a vainer confidence than this? But it is not only vain, it is deceptive and injurious. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord. Egypt is man, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit; and the Lord shall put down His hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be confounded together.” [Isaias xxxi. 1, 3.]
Behold, dear Christian, the difference between the hope of the just and the hope of the wicked. One is of the flesh, the other of the spirit; one is centred in man, the other in God. And even as God exceeds man, so does the hope of the just exceed that of the sinner.
Therefore, the prophet exhorts us: “Put not your trust in princes; in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God; Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.” [Ps. cxiv. 3, 5, 6.]
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God. They are bound, and have fallen; but we are risen, and are set upright.” [Ps. xix. 8, 9.]
Thus we see that our hopes are realized according to that upon which they rest—in ruin and destruction, or in honor and victory.