Our God doesn’t ask us to understand everything that he does, or to grasp the manifold purposes which he simultaneously pursues, but he does ask us to trust him in these things. The wonderful position of peace and safety which the believer can arrive at is the knowledge that God is wise beyond all our power to reckon. We can bring to him all our fears, all our anxieties and troubles, knowing that he understands the perfect resolution to these things, and even sends these trials as the means by which to perplex us so that in our perplexity we turn to him for help and learn deeper trust. In coming to Christ we come to one in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We come to one who is utterly fair in handling what we tell him and who will never take advantage of our ignorance or weakness but has our good, our eternal good, at heart. Thanks be to God that though we have friends on earth, no one compares to the Lord. We may unburden ourselves to those who share our pilgrimage on earth, but none of them can adequately take upon themselves our concerns or undertake to supply all our needs, but he can. We may have pastors whom Christ has given to the church, and there is a natural tendency to see them as proxies for the Lord, their teaching as representing the Lord’s doctrine, their characters as representing the character of their master, and for this reason it is so important that pastors should emulate the Lord they represent. But in truth, even the best of pastors fall short of the Lord, and we are not to trust in man but in God. Therefore no pastor should lord it over the flock and believers must ultimately come directly to Christ himself for their consolation. No human being can stand between us and our God.