It is profoundly interesting to witness the scene enacted on the high places of Baal, to mark the grand question at stake, to listen to the speakers, to be admitted behind the scenes on such a momentous occasion. How little did Israel know or imagine what was going on between Jehovah and the enemy. It may be they were murmuring in their tents at the very moment in the which God was setting forth their perfection by the tongue of the covetous prophet. Balak would fain have Israel cursed, but, blessed be God, He will not suffer any one to curse His people. He may have to deal with them Himself, in secret, about many things; but He will not suffer another to move his tongue against them. He may have to expose them to themselves, but He will not allow a stranger to expose them. This is a point of deepest interest. The great question is not so much what the enemy may think of God’s people, or what they may think about themselves, or what they may think of one another. The real—the all-important question is, What does God think about them? He knows exactly all that concerns them, all that they are, all that they have done, all that is in them. Every thing stands clearly revealed to His all-penetrating eye. The deepest secrets of the heart, of the nature, and of the life are all known to Him. Neither angels, men, nor devils know us as God knows us. God knows us perfectly, and it is with Him we have to do; and we can say, in the triumphant language of the apostle, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. viii.) God sees us, thinks of us, speaks about us, acts towards us, according to what He Himself has made us and wrought for us, according to the perfection of His own work. “Beholders many faults may find;” but, as regards our standing, our God sees us only in the comeliness of Christ: we are perfect in Him. When God looks at His people, He beholds in them His own workmanship; and it is to the glory of His holy name, and to the praise of His salvation, that not a blemish should be seen on those who are His—those whom He, in sovereign grace, has made His own. His character, His name, His glory, and the perfection of His work are all involved in the standing of those with whom He has linked Himself. Hence, therefore, the moment any enemy or accuser enters the scene, Jehovah places Himself in front to receive and answer the accusation; and His answer is always founded, not upon what His people are in themselves, but upon what He has made them through the perfection of His own work. His glory is linked with them, and in vindicating them, He maintains His own glory. He places Himself between them and every accusing tongue. His glory demands that they should be presented in all the comeliness which He has put upon them. If the enemy comes to curse and accuse, Jehovah answers him by pouring forth the rich current of His everlasting complacency in those whom He has chosen for Himself, and whom He has made fit to be in His presence forever.