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Jeremiah
Chapter Forty-eight
Jeremiah 48
Chapter Contents
Prophecies against Moab for pride and security. (1-13)
For carnal confidence and contempt of God. (14-47)
Commentary on Jeremiah 48:1-13.
(Read Jeremiah 48:1-13.)
The Chaldeans are to destroy the Moabites. We should be
thankful that we are required to seek the salvation of men's lives, and the
salvation of their souls, not to shed their blood; but we shall be the more
without excuse if we do this pleasant work deceitfully. The cities shall be
laid in ruins, and the country shall be wasted. There will be great sorrow.
There will be great hurry. If any could give wings to sinners, still they could
not fly out of the reach of Divine indignation. There are many who persist in
unrepented iniquity, yet long enjoy outward prosperity. They had been long
corrupt and unreformed, secure and sensual in prosperity. They have no changes
of their peace and prosperity, therefore their hearts and lives are unchanged, Psalm 55:19.
Commentary on Jeremiah 48:14-47.
(Read Jeremiah 48:14-47.)
The destruction of Moab is further prophesied, to awaken
them by national repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a
personal repentance and reformation to prepare for it. In reading this long
roll of threatenings, and mediating on the terror, it will be of more use to us
to keep in view the power of God's anger and the terror of his judgments, and
to have our hearts possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath, than to
search into all the figures and expressions here used. Yet it is not perpetual
destruction. The chapter ends with a promise of their return out of captivity
in the latter days. Even with Moabites God will not contend for ever, nor be
always wroth. The Jews refer it to the days of the Messiah; then the captives
of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin and Satan, shall be brought back by
Divine grace, which shall make them free indeed.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 48
Verse 2
[2] There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they
have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation.
Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.
Heshbon — Heshbon was one of the principal cities of the
Moabites. Probably the enemies sat there in counsel, when they had taken it,
against the other parts of the country.
Verse 3
[3] A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and
great destruction.
Horoniam — Another city of Moab.
Verse 5
[5] For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go
up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of
destruction.
Luhith — To this city the Moabites fled for sanctuary, and
flying made so great an out-cry that their enemies who pursued them heard it.
Verse 6
[6] Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the
wilderness.
And be — Save your lives, though all ye have be lost.
Verse 7
[7] For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy
treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity
with his priests and his princes together.
Trusted — In thy idols.
Chemosh — Chemosh was their principal idol.
Verse 9
[9] Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for
the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.
Give wings — The Moabites have need of wings
like a bird to escape that ruin which is coming upon them.
Verse 11
[11] Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath
settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither
hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent
is not changed.
At ease — The Moabites ever since they began to be a people,
have been a quiet people.
Settled — Like a cask of wine, that has not been racked but has
continued in the same state.
Not emptied — A metaphor of wine which is drawn
out from vessel to vessel, when it is drawn off the lees. It is expounded by
the next words.
Therefore — And this is the reason why they
retain their old sins, pride, presumption, and luxury.
Verse 12
[12] Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I
will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty
his vessels, and break their bottles.
Wanderers — The Chaldeans, who wandered from
their own country to conquer other people.
Break his bottles — He had before
compared the Moabites, to wine settled upon the lees, here he saith, that God
would send those that should not only disturb, but destroy them.
Verse 13
[13] And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of
Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.
Bethel — The golden calves, which Jeroboam set up at Dan and
Bethel.
Verse 16
[16] The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction
hasteth fast.
Is near — Josephus tells us this destruction came upon the
Moabites five years after the siege of Jerusalem.
Verse 17
[17] All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that
know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!
Staff — A staff and a rod are as well, ensigns of power and
government, as instruments to punish offenders.
Verse 18
[18] Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from
thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and
he shall destroy thy strong holds.
Dibon — Dibon, Aroer, and Ataroh were built by the children of
Gad. It should seem the Moabites were not come into the possession of them.
In thirst — It was a place well watered, but
God threatens she should be in thirst, that is, driven into some dry, barren
countries.
The spoiler — The king of Babylon.
Verse 20
[20] Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry;
tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
Arnon — Arnon was the name of a river; it was the border of
Moab: probably the adjacent country or city might take its name from the river.
Verse 25
[25] The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,
saith the LORD.
The horn — That is the beauty and the strength of Moab.
Verse 26
[26] Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against
the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in
derision.
Drunken — Fill him with the intoxicating wine of God's
vengeance.
Verse 27
[27] For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found
among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Was he found — Why didst thou deal by Israel as
men deal by thieves, when they are brought to shame?
Verse 28
[28] O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in
the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's
mouth.
O ye — Still the prophet speaks of the Moabites, as a people
whose armies were routed, and calls to them to leave their houses in cities,
not promising themselves any security, either to or from their houses, or from
the walls of the cities, but to get them to rocks, which are naturally
fortified, and from whence (if from any place) security may be promised.
Verse 30
[30] I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be
so; his lies shall not so effect it.
I know — He shall never execute what he thinks to do.
But — His boastings and his lies, still never effect his
designs.
Verse 31
[31] Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for
all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.
Kir-herez — A city of Moab.
Verse 32
[32] O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping
of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of
Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.
Sibmah — Sibmah was famous in those days for vines.
Jazer — Jazer was it seems first taken, and carried into
captivity.
Verse 36
[36] Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes,
and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the
riches that he hath gotten are perished.
Pipes — The prophet means such pipes as they were wont to use
at funerals, and other sad occasions.
Verse 40
[40] For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an
eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.
He — Nebuchadnezzar shall come swiftly, and spread himself
over Moab.
Verse 43
[43] Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O
inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
Fear — A variety of dangers upon all sides.
Verse 45
[45] They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because
of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the
midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head
of the tumultuous ones.
Heshbon — Heshbon was it seems a place of force.
The crown — That is, the glory.
Verse 47
[47] Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the
latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
Bring again — It seems this is to be understood
of a spiritual reduction of them, by calling them into the kingdom of the
Messiah.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
48 Chapter 48
Verses 1-47
Verse 6
Flee, save your lives.
The Christian’s flight
Such was the warning addressed to Moab by the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel. The Chaldeans were about to lay waste the land of the
Moabites--a punishment which they justly deserved for their iniquities and for
their long-continued opposition to the people of God But even “in wrath the
Lord remembers mercy”; or, to use the beautiful language of the prophet, “He
stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind.” Though Moab shall be
punished, her cities overturned, and the country laid waste and desolate, her
princes, people, and priests carried into captivity, yet an opportunity is
afforded for at least a remnant to escape. “Flee, save your lives, and be like
the heath in the wilderness.”
I. From what are we
to flee? In a word, from everything that would wean his heart from God and
endanger the safety of his soul, the Christian is to flee--“from all evil and
mischief, from sin, from the world, the flesh, and the works of the devil, from
hardness of heart and contempt of God’s Word and commandment.”
II. For what are we
to flee? The life of your soul is concerned; and unless you flee from what
stands in your way to God, and blocks up your return to Him, the wrath of God
will assuredly overtake you, and you will become a prey to your enemies, to
those who seek your life. It is for glory, and honour, and immortality we
should flee--blessings of infinite value, prizes beyond all price--nay, far
beyond the power of human tongue to tell of their inestimable preciousness; we
should flee for the favour of God, the forgiveness of our sins, the worth of
our souls, the love and glory of Christ, and the beauty and happiness of
holiness. And we should hasten our flight, for the time is short, and death
advancing.
III. Where should we
flee? “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we
believe,” &c. Such was Simon Peter’s declaration. Such is the confession of
God’s people still. To the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, must the
sinner flee. He must go as he is, and “he like the heath in the wilderness,”
destitute of fruit or value, fit only for fuel, and seek to be engrafted in the
living Vine. For Moab, we may observe, was commanded merely to “flee.” Whatever
would oppose their progress should be put away. (C. A. Maginn, M. A.)
Flee for your life
I. Whence you are
to flee.
II. where you are
to flee.
III. How you are to
flee.
IV. When you are to
flee
V. Why you are to
flee. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Verse 10
Cursed be he, that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully.
The sin of lukewarmness in acquiring, and advancing, a knowledge
of Christ
I. As it concerns
our religious belief and resolution. Some, professedly earnest in their search
of truth, make no other use of the light that is given them than to dispute and
philosophise about it. Others, acknowledging the testimonies advanced in favour
of it, are discouraged by the difficulties which it presents: consulting, yet
dreading to be instructed; the slaves of their appetites, more than of their
errors, rejecting truth manifested to them, because it would break the fetters
which they love. Others again, still more deceitful in their work, convinced,
in a great degree, of religious truth in their own minds, yet judge not of it
by the light which it leaves there, but by its effect on the rest of mankind.
The knowledge of Divine truth must spring from penitence and humility. Cease to
have an earthly interest in wishing to find religion false, and you will soon
perceive it to be true. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God; His
grace shall then be sufficient for you, and will lead you into all truth. But
cursed is he that doeth any work of that God deceitfully, who, whilst He giveth
His grace to the
humble and sincere, has always scorned the prevaricating and the proud.
II. The silence
which we observe in defence of Christ, amidst the clamours of the profane
against Him. God wants not your aid to support His truth. But He wants to see
His pretended servants not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: and, although He
actually wants not your aid, if He choose to adopt any other method of
preserving His truth in the world, yet it appears to be the method, which in
His wisdom He has adopted, to disseminate it by means of man to man. Your
silence will be taken advantage of by the enemies of your Saviour: and they
will think that he, who says nothing, has nothing to say. He, that is not with
Me, saith our Saviour, is against Me. Let it not be said that the world has its defenders, and that
Jesus Christ has none.
III. An
accommodation of the solemn truths of the Gospel to the wishes or prejudices of
those with whom we are concerned. Thousands are the miseries that might have
been spared this world if the professed believers in God had all been true to
their trust. How many a brother might have been prevented from imbruing his
hands in a brother’s blood, if they, to whom the cause of dispute was referred,
had been firm to the dictates
of truth. But the false notions of honour which their friends felt in the moment of anger, they
in their cool moments will sanction and applaud: and, palliating, by every
modification, the sin of murder, will deliberately second a black and wicked
passion, and calmly behold two fellow-creatures, who trusted to their decision,
attempting to hurl each other into the presence of their eternal Judge! (G.
Mathew, M. A.)
Of lukewarmness and zeal
I. Here then is
the duty of us all.
1. He that serves God with the body without the soul serves God
deceitfully. “My son, give Me thy heart”; and though I cannot think that nature
was so sacramental as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the
triangle of the heart, yet it is certain that the heart of man is God’s special
portion, and every angle ought to point towards Him.
2. He that serves God with the soul without the body, when both can be conjoined,
“doth the work of the Lord deceitfully.” Paphnutius, whose knees were cut for
the testimony of Jesus, was not obliged to worship with the humble flexures of the
bending penitents; and blind Bartimeus could not read the holy lines of the
law, and therefore that part of the work was not his duty; and God shall not
call Lazarus to account for not giving alms, nor St. Peter and St. John for not
giving silver and gold to the lame man, nor Epaphroditus for not keeping his fasting
days when he had his sickness. But when God hath made the body an apt minister to the soul, and hath
given money for alms, and power to protect the oppressed, and knees to serve in
prayer, and hands to serve our needs, then the soul alone is not to work.
3. They are “deceitful in the Lord’s work,” that reserve one faculty
for sin, or one sin for themselves; or one action to please their appetite, and
many for religion. We reprove a sinning brother, but do it with a pompous
spirit; we separate from scandal, and do it with glory, and a gaudy heart; we
are charitable to the poor, but will not forgive our unkind enemies; or, we
pour relief into their bags, but please ourselves and drink drunk, and hope to
commute with God, giving the fruit of our labours or effluxes of money for the
sin of our souls: and upon this account it is, that two of the noblest graces
of a Christian are to very many persons made a savour of death, though they
were intended for the beginning and the promotion of an eternal life; and those
are faith and charity.
4. There is one deceit more yet, in the matter of the extension of
our duty, destroying the integrity of its constitution: for they do the work of
God deceitfully, who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evil,
and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion.
Many persons think themselves fairly assoilzied, because they are no adulterers,
no rebels, no drunkards, not of scandalous lives: in the meantime, like the
Laodiceans, they are “naked and poor”; they have no catalogue of good things
registered in heaven, no treasures m the repositories of the poor, neither have
t e poor often prayed concerning them, “Lord, remember Thy servants for this
thing at the day or judgment.”
5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitful workers, those that promise
to God, but mean not to pay what they once intended; people that are confident
in the day of ease, and fail in the danger; they that pray passionately for a
grace, and if it be not obtained at that price, go no farther, and never
contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer; such as delight in
forms and outsides, and regard not the substance and design of every
institution; that pretend one duty to excuse another; religion against charity,
or piety to parents against duty to God, private promises against public duty,
the keeping of an oath against breaking of a commandment, honour against
modesty, reputation against piety, the love of the world in civil instances to
countenance enmity against God; these are the deceitful workers of God’s work;
they make a schism m the duties of religion, and a war in heaven worse than
that between Michael and the dragon; for they divide the Spirit of God and
distinguish His commandments into parties and factions; by seeking an excuse,
sometimes they destroy the integrity and perfect constitution of duty, or they
do something whereby the effect and usefulness of the duty is hindered:
concerning all which this only can be said, they who serve God with a lame
sacrifice and an imperfect duty--a duty defective in its constituent parts--can
never enjoy God; because He can never be divided.
II. The next
inquiry is into the intention of our duty. “Cursed is he that doeth the work of
the Lord negligently,” or remissly: as our duty must be whole, so it must be
fervent; for a languishing body may have all its parts, and yet be useless to
many purposes of nature. And you may reckon all the joints of a dead man, but
the heart is cold, and the joints are stiff and fit for nothing but for the
little people that creep in graves: and so are very many men; if you lure up
the accounts of their religion, they can reckon days and months of religion,
various offices, charity and prayers, reading and meditation, faith and
knowledge: catechism and sacraments, duty to God, and duty to princes, paying
debts and provision for children, confessions and tears, discipline in
families, and love of good people; and, it may be, you shall not improve their
numbers, or find any lines unfilled in their tables of accounts; but when you
have handled all this, and considered, you will find at last you have taken a
dead man by the hand, there is not a finger wanting, but they are stiff as
icicles, and without flexure as the legs of elephants.
1. In every action of religion God expects such a warmth and a holy
fire to go along, that it may be able to enkindle the wood upon the altar, and
consume the sacrifice; but God hates an indifferent spirit. Earnestness and
vivacity, quickness and delight, perfect choice of the service, and a delight
in the prosecution, is all that the spirit of a man can yield towards his
religion. The outward work is the effect of the body; but if a man does it
heartily and with all his mind, then religion hath wings, and moves upon wheels
of fire; and therefore, when our blessed Saviour made those capitulars and
canons of religion, to “love God,” and to “love our neighbour,” besides that
the material part of the duty, “love,” is founded in the spirit, as its natural
seat, he also gives three words to involve the spirit in the action, and but
one for the body: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and, lastly, “with all thy
strength.” If it be in motion, a lukewarm religion is pleasing to God; for God
hates it not for its imperfection, and its natural measures of proceeding; but
if it stands still and rests there, it is a state against the designs, and
against the perfection of God: and it hath in it these evils:
2. It concerns us next to inquire concerning the duty in its proper
instances, that we may perceive to what parts and degrees of duty it amounts;
we shall find it especially in the duties of faith, of prayer, and of charity.
Cursed laziness
These words form a scriptural bomb which might with advantage be
thrown into the midst of a great many of our Churches, where everything
pertaining to the service is gone through in a precise and proper manner, but
where there is an utter absence of zeal, enthusiasm, and Christlike
earnestness. In the A.V. this passage does not attract much attention. That a
curse should be hurled at the head of the traitor who does “the work of the
Lord deceitfully” surprises no one. But to find a curse aimed at the merely
negligent worker makes us pause, and think, and ask ourselves questions. The
persons here referred to are amongst those who are doing “the work of the
Lord.”--They profess and call themselves Christians. They have entered the
kingdom of God, and by so doing they have enrolled themselves as servants of
Christ, and are pledged to do His will. For be it never forgotten, the two must
go together--namely, salvation and service. When in the sixteenth century
Martin Luther blew the reveille of the Reformation, the slumbering Churches
were roused and rallied by the call; and breaking off the fetters of delusion
and superstition which had previously bound them, they joyously inscribed on
their banner “Salvation by faith.” And for three centuries that blessed truth
has been floating before the eyes of reformed Europe. But “Truth” though it is,
it is not the whole truth. The time has more than come for the uplifting of
another banner with an inscription completing and explaining the first, by
declaring that “Faith without works is dead.” Soul-saving faith makes
soul-saving men. I do not think that any man is ever saved except by the direct or indirect
intervention of some other man. Christ alone can call the Lazarus forth, but
there is a stone to be rolled away before, and there are wrappings to be
removed after the miracle is wrought. And hence God is but working out His own
economy in demanding that every member of His kingdom shall be a servant and a
worker. Through all time the test of saintship is service. But this is not all.
The Divine claim is not exhausted by the mere demand for work. It is declared
again and again that no service is acceptable unless it be rendered with the
whole heart. Partial, perfunctory, half-hearted service He sternly rejects; and
upon those who mock Him by offering it He pours His righteous wrath. What think
you is the greatest of all the obstacles which impede the progress of the
kingdom of Christ? It is the negligence or laziness of its members. To be an
idler in the world is bad enough, but to be an idler in the Church is ten
thousand times worse. It is an act of impious and audacious hypocrisy, and he
who is guilty of it stands before God and man self-branded as an impostor. We
often Bear and speak of “Church work,” but if we would speak correctly that
phrase must be discarded. There is no such thing as “Church work.” The work in
question is God’s work, and as such if for no other reason claims our best energies.
If any of us were commissioned to do work for the king would we not tax our
powers to the very uttermost in order to present it as perfect as possible?
Much more should we do so when the commission comes from the Court of heaven.
“The King’s business requireth haste,” and all who are engaged in it must
acquit themselves as servants of “the Most High God.” Dull sloth must be shaken
off, and with hearts aglow with zeal and eyes aflame with earnestness we must
give ourselves to the task committed to our care. Remember also the intrinsic
importance of the work itself. Have you ever been present at a critical
surgical operation? What earnestness, what concentrated attention, what careful
precautions against the dreaded possibility! How is all this tension of
faculties brought about? It is created by the importance of the work in hand.
It is a case of life or death, in which negligence would mean murder. Ay! and
when the Christian worker is alive to his duty, and all that it involves,
negligence is impossible. It is fraught with possibilities which cannot be
told. Its issues belong not to time but eternity. Look around you and see how
active and earnest are the forces arrayed against us. From centre to
circumference the kingdom of darkness thrills and throbs with earnestness.
Every subject is a soldier, and being s soldier he fights. Every subject is a
servant, and being a servant he serves. There is no dilly-dallying or
make-believe in the enemy’s camp. Then why should there be any in ours? Has the
Cross no longer its power? Has the sacred passion exhausted its inspirations?
Does the love of Christ no longer constrain and the Holy Ghost no longer
energise? (Joseph Muir.)
Half-and-half religion
If you are not to make religion the principal thing in your lives,
don’t go in for it. It is better, and much easier, to go in for it entirely,
than half and half--merely flirting with it. It was the saying of a shrewd
thinker: “If it is worth while being a Christian at all, it is better to he a
downright Christian”
Verse 11-12
Moab hath been at ease from him youth, and he hath settled on his
lees.
The shrill trumpet of admonition
For a considerable season the country of Moab had been free from the
inroads of war and the terrors of pestilence. The nation had, therefore, become
so conceitedly secure, that the lord said, “We have heard the pride of Moab (he
is exceeding proud), his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the
haughtiness of his heart.” The people became vain, hectoring, and boastful, and
mocked at their afflicted neighbours the Israelites, manifesting ungenerous joy
in their sorrows. “For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among
thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.” From this
pride sprang luxury and all those other vices which find a convenient lair in
the repose of unbroken prosperity. The warriors of Moab said, “We are mighty
and strong men for the war”; as vainglorious sinners, they defied all law and
power; trusting in Chemosh, they despised Jehovah, and magnified themselves
against the Lord. The prophet compares that country to wine which has been
allowed to stand unstirred and unmoved: it settles on its lees, grows strong,
retains its aroma, and gathers
daffy fresh body and spirit. “But,” saith he, “the day shall come when God
shall shake this undisturbed liquor, when He shall send wandering bands of
Chaldeans that shall waste the country, so that the bottles shall be broken and
the vessels shall be emptied, and the proud prosperity of Moab shall end in utter desolation.”
The fact that continued prosperity breeds carnal security, is not only proved
by the instance of Moab, but is lamentably confirmed in the history of others.
I. I shall first
speak to the unconverted, the godless, the prayerless, the Christless.
1. The bold offenders who are at ease in open sin. They began life
with iniquity, and they have made terrible progress in it. They go from
iniquity to iniquity, as the vulture from carcass to carcass; they labour in
the way of evil, as men dig for hid treasure; “And they say, How doth God know?
and is there knowledge in the Most High?” “And if He doth know,” say they,
“what care we? Who is Jehovah, that we should obey Him? Who is the Almighty,
that we should tremble at His word?” Yet, Oh, ye haughty ones, take heed, for
Pharaoh, who was your prototype in the olden days, found the way of pride to be
hard at the end.
2. A far more common form of that carelessness which is so
destructive, is that of men who give themselves wholly up to the world’s
business. Such men, for instance, as one whom Christ called “Fool.” Gain is the
world’s summum bonum, the chief of all mortal good, the main chance, the
prime object, the barometer of success in life, the one thing needful, the
heart’s delight. And yet, Oh, worldlings, who succeed in getting gain, and are
esteemed to be shrewd and prudent, Jesus Christ calls you fools, and He is no
thrower about of hard terms where they are not deserved. “Thou fool,” said He,
and why! Because the man’s soul would be required of him; and then whose would
those things be which he had gathered together?
3. A third case is more common still, the man who forgets God and
lives in slothful ease. It is not enough to abstain from outward sin, and so to
be negatively moral; unless you bring forth fruits unto righteousness, you have
not the life of God in you; and however much you may be at ease, there shall
come a rough awakening to your slumbers, and the shrill sound of the
archangel’s trumpet shall be to you no other than the blast of the trumpet of
condemnation, because ye took your ease when ye should have served your God.
4. There are many in the professing Christian Church Who are in me
same state as Moab. They have the virgin’s lamp, but they have no oil in the
vessel with their lamps; and yet so comfortable are these professors, that they
slumber and sleep. Remember, you may think yourself a believer, and everybody
else may think so too, and you may fail to find out your error until it is too
late to rectify it; you may persevere for years in “the way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Be ye not, Oh, ye
professors, like Moab, that had settled upon his lees!
5. Equally true is this of the mass of moral men who are destitute of
faith in Jesus. “I have no doubt but what it will be all right with me at last.
I pay my neighbours their own; I give a guinea to a hospital, when they ask me
for it; I am a first-rate tradesman. Of course, I have sown a few wild oats,
and I still indulge a little; but who does not? Who dares deny that I am a
good-hearted fellow?” Do you envy him? You may sooner envy the dead in their
graves because they suffer no pain.
II. We speak to the
believer. A Christian man finds himself for a long time without any remarkable
trouble: his children are spared to him, his home is happy, his business
extremely prosperous--he has, in fact, all that heart can wish; when he looks
round about him he can say with David, “The lines are fallen unto me in
pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” Now, the danger is that he
should think too highly of these secondary things, and should say to himself,
“My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved.” He has not been poured
from vessel to vessel; he has not been sternly tried by Providence, or sorely
tempted by the devil; he has not been led to question his own conversion, he
has fallen into a profound calm, a deep dead peace, a horrible lethargy, and
his inmost heart has lost all spiritual energy. The great disease of England is
consumption, but I suppose it would be difficult to describe the causes and
workings of consumption and decline. The same kind of disease is common among
Christians. It is not that many Christians fall into outward sin, and so on,
but throughout our Churches we have scores who are in a spiritual
consumption--their powers are all feeble and decaying. The rapid results of
this consumption are just these: a man in such a state soon gives up communion
with God; it is not quite gone at first, but it is suspended. His walk with God
is broken and occasional. His prayers very soon suffer. By degrees, his
conversation is not what it used to be. He was once very earnest for Christ,
and would introduce religious topics in all companies. He has become discreet
now, and holds his tongue. He is quite ready to gossip about the price of
wheat, and how the markets are, and the state of politics, and whether you have
been to see the Sultan; but he has no words for Jesus Christ, the King in His
beauty. Spiritual topics have departed from his general conversation. And now,
strange to say, “the minister does not preach as he used to do”: at least, the
back-slider says so. The reason why I think he is mistaken, is, that the Word
of God itself is not so sweet to him as it once was; and surely the Bible
cannot have altered! After a while the professor slackens a good deal in his
liberality; he does not think the cause of God is worth the expense that he used
to spend upon it; and as to his own personal efforts to win souls, he does not
give up his Sunday-school class, nor his street preaching, nor distributing of
tracts, perhaps, but he does all mechanically, it is a mere routine. He might
just as well be an automaton, and be wound up, only the fault is, that he is
not wound up, and he does not do his work as he should do; or, if he does it
outwardly, there is none of the life of God in what he does. Very much of this
sluggishness is brought on by long-continued
respite from trouble. It were better to be in perpetual storms, and to be
driven to-and-fro in the whirlwind, and to cling to God, than to founder at sea
in the most peaceful and halcyon days. The great secret danger coming out of
all this is, that when a man reaches the state of carnal security, he is ready
for any evil. We have heard of two negroes who were accustomed to go into the
bush to pray, and each of them had trodden a little path in the grass.
Presently one of them grew cold, and was soon found in open sin; his black
brother warned him that he knew it would come to that, because the grass grew
on the path that led to the place of prayer. Ah! we do not know to what we may
descend when we begin to go down hill; down, down, down, is easy and pleasant
to the flesh, but if we knew where it would end, we should pray God that we
might sooner die than live to plunge into the terrors of that descent. I must
pass on to observe God’s cure for this malady. His usual way is by pouring our
settled wine from vessel to vessel. If we cannot bear prosperity, the Lord will
not continue it to us. We may pamper our children and spoil them; but the
Divine Father will not. Staying for a while in the valley of Aosta, in Northern
Italy, we found the air to be heavy, close, and humid with pestilential
exhalations. We were oppressed and feverish--one’s life did not seem worth a
pin. We could not breathe freely, our lungs had a sense of having a hundred
atmospheres piled upon them. Presently, at midday, there came a thunder-clap,
attended by big drops of rain and a stiff gale of wind, which grew into a
perfect tornado, tearing down the trees; then followed what the poet calls
“sonorous hail,” and then again the lightning flash, and the thunder peal on
peal echoing along the Alps. But how delightful was the effect, how we all went
out upon the verandah to look at the lightning, and enjoy the music of the
thunder! How cool the air and bracing! How delightful to walk out in the cool
evening after the storm! Then you could breathe and feel a joy in life. Full
often it is thus with the Christian after trouble. What ought we to do if we
are prospering? We should remember that prevention is better than cure, and if
God is prospering us, the way to prevent lethargy is--be very grateful for the
prosperity which you are enjoying; do not pray for trouble--you will have it
quickly enough without asking for it; be grateful for your prosperity, but make
use of it. Do all you possibly can for God while He prospers you in business;
try to live very close to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ease injurious to Christian character
I have somewhere read the following incident in the life of a
distinguished botanist. Being exiled from his native land, he obtained
employment as an under-gardener in the service of a nobleman. While he was in
this situation, his master received a valuable plant, the nature and habits of
which were unknown to him. It was given to the gardener to be taken care of;
and he, fancying it to be a tropical production, put it into the hothouse (for
it was winter), and dealt with it as with the others under the glass. But it
began to wither away and decay. And the strange under-gardener asked permission
to examine it. As soon as he looked at it he said, “This is an Arctic plant;
you are killing it by the tropical heat into which you have introduced it.” So
he took it outside, and exposed it to the frost, and, to the dismay of the
head-gardener, heaped pieces of ice around the flower-pot; but the result
vindicated his wisdom, for straightway it began to recover, and was soon as
strong as ever. Now, such a plant is Christian character. It is not difficulty
that is dangerous to it, but ease. Put it into a hothouse, separate it from the
world, surround it with luxury, hedge it in from every opposition, and you take
the surest means of killing it. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Emptied from vessel to
vessel.
The blessing of disturbance
The illustration is taken from the manner in which wine is
prepared. The juice of the grape, at first thick and impure, is allowed to
ferment. Then it is left for a time undisturbed, until a sediment, here called
“lees,” is precipitated. After that it is drawn off into another vessel so
carefully that all the matter so precipitated is left behind, and this emptying
of it “from vessel to vessel” is repeated again and again, until the offensive
odour that came at first from the “must” is gone, and it becomes clear and
beautiful. Now, by the analogy of this process, familiar even to the common
people of a vine-growing country, the prophet accounts for the character and
condition of Moab as a nation. In the providence of God nothing had come to
unsettle that people. No external enemy had attacked them. No great national
disaster had ever fallen on them. We have here explained to us the reason why
we are, as we phrase it, so frequently “upset” in life. We complain that we are
never allowed to become “settled.” Ever, as we think we have reached some place
of rest, there comes a new upheaval to shake us up and out, so that we cry, “Is
there to be no end of these changes?” As well talk of a ship as settled in the
midst of the ever-restless, ever-changeful ocean, as talk of a man being
settled in life. But, in the light of this verse, such repeated disturbance is
recognised as a blessing.
I. What there is
in these “emptyings” that fits them to promote our spiritual advancement.
1. Such dispensations have in them an influence which is well
calculated to reveal us to ourselves. Sudden emergency is a sure opener of a
man’s eyes to his own defects. He may contrive to get on, in seasons of
prosperity and outward calm, without becoming conscious of the weak points of
his character; but let him be thrown, all at once, upon his own resources by
the coming upon him of some crushing calamity, and he will then find out whether he has that
within him that can stand the strain that has been put upon him. It was a
shrewd remark of Andrew Fuller, that “a man has only as much religion as he can
command in the day of trial”; and if he have no religion at all, his trouble
will make that manifest to him. Just as the strain of the storm tells where the
ship is weakest, and stirs up the mariner to have it strengthened there, so the
pressure of trial reveals the defects of character which still adhere to the
Christian. One affliction may disclose an infirmity of temper; another may
discover a weakness of faith; a third may make it evident that the power of
some old habit is not yet entirely broken; and thus, from this constant
revelation to him of the evils that still remain in him, he is led, under the
guidance of the Holy Ghost, to the attainment of a higher measure of holiness
than other-wise he could have reached.
2. The frequent unsettlements which come upon us in God’s providence
have a tendency to shake us out of ourselves. We find that where we thought
ourselves wise we have been supremely foolish. Where we imagined that we had
taken all possible contingencies into the account, we discover that we had left
no place for God. So our most matured schemes have been abortive, our most
cherished hopes have been blasted; yea, just when we conceived that now at
length we had reached our ultimatum, and were beginning to congratulate
ourselves on the prospect of repose, there came a sudden reverse, which emptied
us out again, and we were compelled to begin anew. Thus we are brought to
distrust ourselves. We find that it will not do to “lean” always “to our own
understanding.” By many bitter failures we are made to acknowledge that “it is
not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” and then by the Spirit of God we
are led up to confidence in Jehovah. We have heard enough of the success of the
millionaire; let us hear more now of the success of the unsuccessful--yea, of
the success of soul that sometimes comes through the ruin of earthly fortune
and the blighting of our fondest plans. Character is nobler than riches or
position, and the growth of that in holiness and stability ought to be the
highest aim, as it will be the noblest achievement of life.
3. These frequent unsettlements have a tendency to keep us from being
wedded to the world, or from thinking of rooting ourselves permanently here.
Some years ago, while rambling with a friend in the neighbourhood of
Windermere, we came upon a house surrounded by the most beautiful shrubs I ever
saw, and I was naturally led to make some inquiry concerning them. My companion
informed me that, by a judicious system of transplanting, constantly pursued,
the proprietor was able to bring them to the highest perfection. I thought at once
of the manner in which God, by continuous transplanting, keeps His people fresh
and beautiful, and prevents them from becoming too closely attached to the
world. To be weaned from earth is one of the means of making us seek our
spiritual food from heaven; and the trials of earth, transplanting us from
place to place and from plan to plan, tend to prepare us for the great
transplanting which is to take us from this world altogether, and root us in
the garden of the Lord
above.
II. The particular
qualities of character which providential unsettlements are most calculated to
foster.
1. Purity of motive and conduct; and where shall we find a better
illustration of that than in the history of Jacob? He began life as a
supplanter. He out-bargained Esau. He imposed on Isaac. He out-generaled Laban.
We cannot admire him, and we are not drawn to him then. But when he lay on his
death-bed, no characteristics strike us more than his honesty in dealing with
his sons, and his sincerity in dealing with God. And how was that
transformation wrought? “By the Spirit of God,” you answer, and you answer
well; but I would supplement your statement by putting it thus, “By the Spirit
of God, through and in connection with the frequent unsettlements to which he
was subjected.”
2. They tend to foster strength, either for endurance or for action.
Take for example, here, the case of Abraham. He was tried in Canaan and in
Egypt; he was tested by the long delay in the fulfilment of the promise in
regard to Isaac, and by the domestic discord that arose concerning Ishmael; and
his wrestlings with these afflictions developed in him, by the grace of God,
that spiritual might in which he conquered on the mount of the Lord, when he
earned for himself the title of “the father of the faithful.”
3. The recurrence of these “emptying” processes deepens the sympathy
and widens the charity of the Christian. Indeed hazard the assertion that no
man can be called complete in character who has not been subjected to them. It
is in this very relation that our Lord Himself is said to have been “made
perfect through suffering,” and each of us has doubtless had an experience of
his own which enables him to understand what seems at first so strange.
Experience is thus the mother of sympathy and charity. The older a Christian
grows he learns to feel for others more, and to condemn them less, and he is a
true “son of consolation” only in the proportion in which be is able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith he himself is comforted
of God. What I have been saying, then, all tends toward these two propositions,
namely, that unbroken prosperity would be a curse to a man, and not a blessing;
and that providential unsettlements, when rightly interpreted and improved, are
really favours, though they do come draped in sadness. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The discipline of sorrow
I trust it is the wish of each of us that God’s will be
done in us and about us: I trust it is our daily prayer, not so much that God
would give us what we wish, as that He would teach us, simply and completely,
to submit our will to His, and that He would give us grace and strength to bear
whatever He may send. Let us seek that the utterance of our hearts may be that
of the blind Galileo; who said, “It has pleased God that it should be so; and
it must please me too.” And yet
it is natural to us to wish that it might please God to lead us
by as easy and pleasant
a way as may be: that it might please God to appoint us as peaceful and happy a
life as possible, and to send us just as little evil and sorrow as may suffice
to work upon us the wholesome results of evil and sorrow. God has made us so,
that we wish for what is pleasant, and shrink from what is painful. But it does
not follow that the thing we like best is the best thing for us. And the text
tells us that a life of unbroken ease, a life in which all goes well with us,
is a most perilous thing. The kingdom of Moab had enjoyed long tranquillity,
though there were troublesome neighbours near, and though it was a state of no
great power: it had pleased God to order it so. “Moab had been at ease from his
youth.” Then comes the comparison to wine: Moab had not been subjected to
captivity, nor to other changes and troubles which are to a nation what pouring
from one vessel to another is to wine: thus he had remained standing upon the
lees, losing no part of his original strength and flavour. The suggestion is,
that Moab was not good to start with: and he had not been tried with processes
which might indeed have been painful, but in which he would have got rid of a
good deal of the evil that was in him at the first. Moab had been secure in
prosperity: and so he had remained the same as at the beginning,--all his bad
qualities being only confirmed by time and use. Now the great lesson from all
this is, that there is spiritual danger in the quiet lot, and in the quiet
heart: that it is not God’s purpose that those He loves should enjoy entire
worldly tranquillity; that there is something good for you and me, in care,
unrest, disquiet, sorrow, bereavement, disappointment, perplexity--in all that
breaks up that perilous calm, in which we grow too well satisfied with this
world, and in which we feel ourselves too little dependent on our Saviour and
our Comforter; and in which we come too much to feel as if things went on in
their own way, forgetting that God directs them all; and in which we fail to
realise it, that the one thing needful is something quite different from
worldly enjoyment or worldly gain. So you see, how in love and mercy, and
tender consideration for our best good, our Father sends us trouble.
Philosophers vex and bewilder themselves in trying to explain how there is such
a thing as evil in this world: we do not pretend to understand that, but one
thing we do know perfectly, we know why evil and sorrow have been sent into our
own lot and heart. They have come to make sure that we shall not “settle on our
lees”: they have come to keep this world from engrossing our affection: they
have come to wean us from this world by making us feel its bitterness: they
have come to teach us the grand, all-comprehending lesson, that if we want what
will satisfy our souls, we must go to Christ and find it there. Yes, it is not
good for us in this world to be evenly at peace: and thus sorrow is God’s
discipline, and disappointment, and bereavement,--in short, everything that is
painful and disquieting,--all being sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. And
here is a truth we cannot remember too seriously. In all our troubles we cannot
too earnestly and constantly pray for the presence and influence of the Holy
Ghost. For sorrow does not necessarily sanctify; it is just as likely to sour,
if left to its natural tendencies. You who have known many trials: you who have
watched by the dying bed, and bent over the grave: you who set your heart on
things which God said were never to be: you whose sensitive nature makes the
little worries of daffy life sit very heavily on you, and whose quick heart and
fancy eat the enjoyment out of your life by suggesting a hundred anxieties and
fears: let me ask, Have all these things been sanctified to wean you from this
world, and make you feel that your portion must be in Christ and seek it there:
or do you still cling to the earth, and refuse to profit by your Heavenly
Father’s teaching through all these trials and cares? Every grief that these
hearts have ever known was a sharp lesson given by the best Teacher: and was
meant to show us that this world will not do; and that if we want peace and
rest for our souls, we must look for them in our Saviour. Now, do you accept
that lesson heartily? (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Spiritual dislodgments
Observe--
1. How God manages, on a large scale, in the common matters of life,
to keep us in a process of change, and prevent our lapsing into a state of
security such as we desire. The very scheme of life appears to be itself a
grand decanting process, where change follows change, and all are emptied from
vessel to vessel. Here and there a man, like Moab, stands upon his lees, and commonly
with the same effect. Fire, flood, famine, sickness in all forms and guises,
wait upon us, seen or unseen, and we run the gauntlet through them, calling it
life. And the design appears to be to turn us hither and thither, allowing us
no chance to stagnate m any sort of benefit or security. Even the most
successful, who seem, in one view, to go straight on to their mark, get on
after all, rather by a dexterous and continual shifting, so as to keep their
balance and exactly meet the changing conditions that befall them. Nor is there
anything to sentimentalise over in this ever-shifting, overturning process,
which must be encountered in all the works of life; no place for
sighing--vanity of vanities. There is no vanity in it, more than in the mill
that winnows and separates the grain.
2. That the radical evil of human character, as being under sin,
consists in a determination to have our own way, which determination must be
somehow reduced and extirpated. Hence the necessity that our experience be so
appointed as to shako us loose continually from our purpose, or from all
security and rest in it. The coarse and bitter flavour of our self-will is
reduced in this manner, and gradually fined away. If we could stand on our
lees, in continual peace and serenity, if success were made secure, subject to
no change or surprise, what, on the other hand, should we do more certainly
than stay by our evil mind, and take it as a matter of course that our will is
to be done; the very thing above all others of which we most need to be cured.
It would not even do for us to be uniformly successful in our best meant and
holiest works, our prayers, our acts of sacrifice, our sacred enjoyments; for
we should very soon fall back into the subtle power of our self-will, and begin
to imagine, in our vanity, that we are doing something ourselves.
3. That our evils are generally hidden from us till they are
discovered to us by some kind of trial or adversity. What good man ever fell
into a time of deep chastening who did not find some cunning infatuation by
which he was holden broken up, and some new discovery made of himself? The
veils of pride are rent, the rock of self-opinion is shattered, and he is
reduced to a point of gentleness and tenderness that allows him to suffer a
true conviction concerning what was hidden from his sight. Nor is anything so
effectual in this way as to meet some great overthrow that interrupts the whole
course of life; all the better if it dislodges him even in his Christian works
and appointments. What was I doing, he now asks, that I must needs be thrown
out of my holiest engagements? for what fault was I brought under this
discipline?
4. That we are prepared in this manner for the gracious and refining
work of the Spirit in us. Under some great calamity or sorrow, the loss of a
child, the visitations of bodily pain, a failure in business, the slanders of
an enemy, a persecution for the truth or for righteousness’ sake, how tender
and open to God does the soul become!
5. Too great quiet and security, long continued, are likely to allow
the reaction or the recovered power of our old sins, and must not therefore be
suffered. Suppose a man is converted as a politician--there is nothing wrong
certainly in being a politician--but how subtle is the power of those old
habits and affinities in which he lived, and how likely are they, if he goes
straight on by a course of prosperous ambition, to be finally corrupted by
their subtle reaction. When he is defeated, therefore, a little further on, by
untoward combinations, and thrown out of all hope in this direction, let him
not think it hard that he is less successful now in the way of Christ, than he
was before in the way of his natural ambition. God understands him, and is
leading him off, not unlikely, to some other engagement, that He may get him
clear of the sediment on which he stands. In the same way, doubtless, it is
that another is driven out of his business by a failure, another out of his
family expectations by death and bereavement, another out of his very industry
and his living by a loss of health, another out of prayers and expectations
that were rooted in presumption, another out of works of beneficence that
associated pride and vanity, another out of the ministry of Christ, where, by
self-indulgence, or in some other way, his natural infirmities were rather
increased than corrected. There is no engagement, however sacred, from which
God will not sometimes separate us, that He may clear us of our sediment and
the reactions of our hidden evils.
Application--
1. It brings a lesson of admonition to the class of worldly men who
are continually prospering in the things of this life. “Because they have no
changes, therefore they fear not God.” I commend it to your deepest and most
thoughtful attention.
2. Others, again, have been visited by many and great adversities,
emptied about from vessel to vessel all their lives long, still wondering what
it means, while still they adhere to their sins. There is, alas! no harder kind
of life than this, a life of continual discipline that really teaches nothing.
Is it so with
you, or is it not? There is no class of beings more to be pitied than defeated
men, who have gotten nothing out of their defeat but that dry sorrow of the
world which makes it only more barren, and therefore more insupportable.
3. It is necessary, in the review of this subject, to remind any
genuine Christian what benefits he ought to receive in the trials and changes
through which he is called to pass. Receive them meekly, rather, and bow down
to them gladly. Bid them welcome when they come, and, if they come not, ask for
them; lift up your cry unto God, and beseech Him that by any means He will
correct you, and purify you, and separate you to Himself. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Alternations in religious experience
Transitions from elevation to depression of soul, from “joy
and peace in believing,” to spiritual anxiety, arc beneficial as disturbing
perilous security, as leading to such critical scrutiny of conduct and of the
motives which underlie it, as reveals shortcomings which there would be no
effort to detect were spiritual enjoyment to continue unbroken, In such ease of
soul the feeling of security--though not, perhaps, finding audible expression
in the words, “I shall never be moved, Thou, Lord, of Thy goodness, hast made
my hill so strong,” might find in them a fitting description. Then, a season
comes when God, for a time, hides His face and causes trouble, when the
chastened soul is taught humility, and mercifully roused from a dangerous state
of over-confidence. To be left, Moab-like, “at ease,” so as never to be subject
to apprehensions and doubts, would indeed be detrimental to the health of the
soul, and therefore, by wisely contrived changes, alternations experienced in
that life which “is hid with Christ in God,” the Christian is experimentally
taught that salvation is not promised to the experience of feelings, however
ardent, but to “patient continuance in well-doing,” to “endurance unto the
end,” to gradual progress in conformity to the will of Him who has made
obedience to His commandments the test of the genuineness of professed
discipleship. In the way by which heaven is to be reached, there are salutary
changes from one kind to another of spiritual experience, and by their means
invaluable lessons are conveyed to the soul. If there be a tendency to become
less vigilant, to “restrain prayer before God,” to grow remiss in religious
exercises, public and private, there is a change to the experience of some
humiliating conviction. If, on the other hand, there be a tendency to spiritual
dejection, which if too long dominant, would have the effect of paralysing
effort, there is a change to an experience animating and consolatory. Whether
God manifests His power in the soul by gladdening it with tokens of His favour,
or depresses it with a painful sense of their withdrawal, He is, all the while,
educating it for immortality. But further. For all who carefully observe it
there is spiritual teaching in what the Church terms, in one of her
comprehensive prayers, “the sundry and manifold changes of the world.”
Evidences of mutability and uncertainty in the world external to us, are set
before us in order that we may be disciplined for that “life immortal,” which
is promised to those who “walk by faith.” The present state is designed to be
one of pupilage for a higher and a nobler, and no sadder aspect of it can be
imagined than when it is viewed as a season of opportunity wasted, a life in
which nothing has been learned which is of profit to the imperishable soul. Of
momentous import, therefore, is the consideration, whether you be really
advantaged by the teaching of those mutabilities. The manner in which
prosperity and adversity are borne, the effect which these opposite experiences
produce upon character, the spirit in which benefits upon the one hand, and
trials upon the other, are received--it is to that you must look if you be
desirous of arriving at a reliable conclusion as to whether or not you be
spiritually disciplined under God’s providential dispensations. May the mutable
nature of all sublunary things be so impressed upon you, as an influential
conviction, that the result may be the sure fixing of your hearts “where true
joys are to be found.” (C. E. Tisdall, D. D.)
Divine plan in changes
Why these constant removals from town to town; from church to
church; from situation to situation? Why this perpetual change and revolution
in our plans? Why this incessant going into captivity to irksome and trying
circumstances? All this is part of God’s manufacture of the wine of life. We
must be emptied from vessel to vessel, else we should settle on our lees, and
become thick and raw and unpalatable, when the next change comes in your life,
do not fear it. The blessed God will see to it that no drop of the precious fluid
shall be spilt on the ground. With the tenderest care He conducts the whole operation.
Perhaps there is a counterpart to this incessant change from place to place in the
perpetual flux of our emotions. We never feel the same for long together. We
are constantly being emptied from one blessed frame into another, not quite so
joyous or peaceful. We have to hold the most heavenly emotions with a light
hand, not knowing how soon they may have passed. And it is well. Otherwise we
should never lose the taste of our proud self-complacency. (F. B. Meyer, B.
A.)
Verse 17
How is the strong staff broken.
The strong staff and the beautiful rod
I. The purposes of
our Heavenly Father in great bereavements.
1. To teach us that we should not misplace our trust.
2. To convince us of our sins and to sever us from them.
3. To teach us His own independence of the instruments He employs.
4. To remind us of the sovereignty of God.
5. To exhibit His wise and watchful providence.
II. The duties to
which we are, and such scenes, specially called.
1. We are to exercise submission.
2. That we should profit by the example of those who have died in the
Lord.
3. That we should cease from man and put our trust in God. (W.
R. Williams.)
The horn of Moab is cut off.
The history of Moab
The first charge brought against Moab is self-confidence, self-trust,
self-sufficiency (Jeremiah 48:7). This makes us
contemporaries of the Moabites. We thought they were an ancient people, but
behold how human they are, how English, how like ourselves and our children!
They were so pleased with the stone wall they had put up; they measured it, and
admired it, and said that it would save them from the high wind and the mighty
storm. It was enough--high enough, broad enough, impenetrable, invincible. Now
that is the kind of reasoning which God will not allow in human life. He
demands that human life be lived in Himself, and not in things that our own
hands have made. We are to be taught distinctly that we do not live in
ourselves; that in ourselves we have actually no life; that we have nothing
that we have not received, and in that spirit alone we are to hold life and to
live. It would seem to be easy to put our whole trust in the living God, and
yet it is the most difficult of all lessons. We will persist, even in
opposition to many theories of our own to the contrary, that we are
self-contained, self-consisting, and self-managing; and herein arises God’s
perpetual controversy with mankind. There is, too, so much to favour the
temptation. It looks as if we could do most things; that as we have so much we
might easily have more. God says to us in every day’s providence, You are here
for a purpose; you are here for a little time; you now but begin to be; every
lesson you must learn, and every commandment you must keep. It is against that
arrangement that we chafe, just as the little child chafes against parental
authority and loving restraint. From the history of Moab we see that even
blessings may be perverted, and sacred privileges may be turned into occasions
of self-destruction (Jeremiah 48:11). Too much ease, too
little upset, too little anxiety, too little trouble will kill any soul. To
come into a business made to your hands, to have a fortune left you, and to
have everything prearranged, is to be exposed to very peculiar and urgent
temptation. Thank God for the rough places in your lives. They are unpleasant,
but they are disciplinary. They are like steep hills, but remember that great
temples and blessed sanctuaries stand at the top of them. When discipline is
not endured gradually it is brought to bear upon the life as an overwhelming
judgment. This is the burden of the text. Two classes of persons should
consider this. First, those who have daily discipline; they should say, Better
have discipline a little at, a time, as we are able to bear it. “Whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth.” “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” These daily chafings and
frettings are nard to bear, these daily disappointments are sharp thorns thrust
into the very eyes; yet who knows what the judgment would be were it all to
come at once? I will rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: no
temptation has happened unto me but such as is common to men; by and by the
explanation will come, and then I shall be able to say, He hath done all things
well. Then the lesson should be well considered by those who seem to escape
discipline of God. The volcano is a long time in gathering all its fiery
energy, but the outburst is momentary, and who can measure the destruction
which follows? Christ may well say, “What I say unto one, I say unto all,
Watch,”--even those who have apparently least necessity to watch, should not
relax their vigils for a moment. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall See how frightful m the humiliation to which God can bring a man or
a people. Look at the picture of Moab--horn cut off, the arm broken, the man
drunk but not with wine, and reeling in helplessness, the proud one wallowing
in his vomit and laughed to derision! We cannot, however, rest here: for the
mercy of the Lord endureth for ever. Mercy triumphs over judgment. The
destruction, therefore, was not arbitrary, but moral, being based upon an
assigned reason. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before
a fall.” We should say, therefore, that this verse was the concluding verse in
the whole history of Moab. What can there be after destruction? With men this
is impossible, but with God all things are possible. The chapter does not end
with the forty-second verse, but with the forty-seventh, and this is how it reads,
“Yet will I bring again,” &c. One would fain construe these words into a
hopeful omen. Out of what extremities cannot God deliver mankind? Let the most
desponding rekindle their hope, and the most distant prodigal hear his father’s
voice. Who can set bounds to the mercy of God? Yet must there be no trifling,
even with a Gospel of hope. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 28
Dwell in the rock, and be like the dove.
Dove and rock
I. God shows much
compassion not only to friends but to foes.
1. It is for Moab--guilty, apostate, persecuting Moab--that God
expresses all this compassionate concern.
2. The New Testament is filled with warnings, invitations, and
promises, addressed to those who are farthest off from God, intermingled with
signal instances of the conversion of hardened transgressors.
II. God would have
us forsake false refuges and avail ourselves of the true. The wild doves and
pigeons of the East delight in cool and inaccessible places. They build their
nests in cliffs and caverns, overhanging fearful precipices, where man cannot
tread. Learn the importance of shunning false confidences, and of resting our
hope of salvation where alone it can be safe. God would have human weakness
rely on almighty strength; human ignorance on almighty wisdom; human sinfulness
on almighty mercy. The finite needs the Infinite; the sinner, the Saviour.
III. Contemptuous
neglect of warnings and mercies aggravates final consequences. This was the
case with Moab.
1. We may not presume on God’s mercy and forbearance. The longer the
judgment delays, the heavier its
weight of woe.
2. Despair is to be banished. The atonement is all-sufficient.
3. Delay must be avoided. God’s voice is always “To-day”; Satan’s.
To-morrow.” 4, We must not be satisfied with our own safety, but aim at leading
others to flee as doves to “the Rock.” (Homiletic Magazine.)
Because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.
Riches are ever liable to perish
Prosperity is not to be deemed the greatest security. The lofty
unbending cedar is more exposed to the injurious blast than the lowly shrub.
The little pinnace rides safely along the shore, while the gallant ship
advancing is wrecked. Those sheep which have the most wool are generally the
soonest fleeced. Poverty is its own defence against robbery. Who would snake
those trees upon which there is no fruit? (T. Secker.).
──《The Biblical Illustrator》