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Deuteronomy Chapter
Four
Deuteronomy 4
Chapter Contents
Earnest exhortations to obedience, and dissuasives from
idolatry. (1-23) Warnings against disobedience, and promises of mercy. (24-40)
Cities of refuge appointed. (41-49)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:1-23
(Read Deuteronomy 4:1-23)
The power and love of God to Israel are here made the
ground and reason of a number of cautions and serious warnings; and although
there is much reference to their national covenant, yet all may be applied to
those who live under the gospel. What are laws made for but to be observed and
obeyed? Our obedience as individuals cannot merit salvation; but it is the only
evidence that we are partakers of the gift of God, which is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, Considering how many temptations we are compassed with, and
what corrupt desires we have in our bosoms, we have great need to keep our
hearts with all diligence. Those cannot walk aright, who walk carelessly. Moses
charges particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry. He shows how weak the
temptation would be to those who thought aright; for these pretended gods, the
sun, moon, and stars, were only blessings which the Lord their God had imparted
to all nations. It is absurd to worship them; shall we serve those that were
made to serve us? Take heed lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God.
We must take heed lest at any time we forget our religion. Care, caution, and
watchfulness, are helps against a bad memory.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:24-40
(Read Deuteronomy 4:24-40)
Moses urged the greatness, glory, and goodness of God.
Did we consider what a God he is with whom we have to do, we should surely make
conscience of our duty to him, and not dare to sin against him. Shall we forsake
a merciful God, who will never forsake us, if we are faithful unto him? Whither
can we go? Let us be held to our duty by the bonds of love, and prevailed with
by the mercies of God to cleave to him. Moses urged God's authority over them,
and their obligations to him. In keeping God's commandments they would act
wisely for themselves. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. Those who enjoy
the benefit of Divine light and laws, ought to support their character for
wisdom and honour, that God may be glorified thereby. Those who call upon God,
shall certainly find him within call, ready to give an answer of peace to every
prayer of faith. All these statutes and judgments of the Divine law are just
and righteous, above the statutes and judgments of any of the nations. What
they saw at mount Sinai, gave an earnest of the day of judgment, in which the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire. They must also remember what they
heard at mount Sinai. God manifests himself in the works of the creation,
without speech or language, yet their voice is heard, Psalm 19:1,3; but to Israel he made himself
known by speech and language, condescending to their weakness. The rise of this
nation was quite different from the origin of all other nations. See the
reasons of free grace; we are not beloved for our own sakes, but for Christ's
sake. Moses urged the certain benefit and advantage of obedience. This argument
he had begun with, verse 1, That ye may live, and go in and possess
the land; and this he concludes with, verse 40, That it may go well with thee, and
with thy children after thee. He reminds them that their prosperity would
depend upon their piety. Apostacy from God would undoubtedly be the ruin of
their nation. He foresees their revolt from God to idols. Those, and those
only, shall find God to their comfort, who seek him with all their heart.
Afflictions engage and quicken us to seek God; and, by the grace of God working
with them, many are thus brought back to their right mind. When these things
are come upon thee, turn to the Lord thy God, for thou seest what comes of
turning from him. Let all the arguments be laid together, and then say, if
religion has not reason on its side. None cast off the government of their God,
but those who first abandon the understanding of a man.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:41-49
(Read Deuteronomy 4:41-49)
Here is the introduction to another discourse, or sermon,
Moses preached to Israel, which we have in the following chapters. He sets the
law before them, as the rule they were to work by, the way they were to walk
in. He sets it before them, as the glass in which they were to see their
natural face, that, looking into this perfect law of liberty, they might
continue therein. These are the laws, given when Israel was newly come out of
Egypt; and they were now repeated. Moses gave these laws in charge, while they
encamped over against Beth-peor, an idol place of the Moabites. Their present
triumphs were a powerful argument for obedience. And we should understand our
own situation as sinners, and the nature of that gracious covenant to which we
are invited. Therein greater things are shown to us than ever Israel saw from
mount Sinai; greater mercies are given to us than they experienced in the wilderness,
or in Canaan. One speaks to us, who is of infinitely greater dignity than
Moses; who bare our sins upon the cross; and pleads with us by His dying love.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 4
Verse 1
[1] Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and
unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go
in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
The statutes — The laws which concern the
worship and service of God.
The judgments — The laws concerning your duties
to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God.
Verse 6
[6] Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and
your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these
statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
In the sight of the nations — For though the
generality of Heathens in the latter ages, did through inveterate prejudices
condemn the laws of the Hebrews, yet it is certain, the wisest Heathens did
highly approve of them, so that they made use of divers of them, and translated
them into their own laws and constitutions; and Moses, the giver of these laws,
hath been mentioned with great honour for his wisdom and learning by many of
them. And particularly the old Heathen oracle expressly said, that the
Chaldeans or Hebrews, who worshipped the uncreated God, were the only wise men.
Verse 7
[7] For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh
unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
So nigh — By glorious miracles, by the pledges of his special
presence, by the operations of his grace, and particularly by his readiness to
hear our prayers, and to give us those succours which we call upon him for.
Verse 8
[8] And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes
and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
So righteous — Whereby he implies that the true
greatness of a nation doth not consist in pomp or power, or largeness of
empire, as commonly men think, but in the righteousness of its laws.
Verse 10
[10] Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy
God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I
will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that
they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
Thou stoodest — Some of them stood there in their
own persons, though then they were but young, the rest in the loins of their
parents.
Verse 11
[11] And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the
mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and
thick darkness.
The midst of heaven — Flaming up into the
air, which is often called heaven.
Verse 12
[12] And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the
fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a
voice.
No similitude — No resemblance or representation
of God, whereby either his essence, or properties, or actions were represented,
such as were usual among the Heathens.
Verse 14
[14] And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you
statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to
possess it.
Statutes and judgments — The ceremonial and
judicial laws which are here distinguished from the moral, or the ten
commandments.
Verse 15
[15] Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw
no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of
the midst of the fire:
In Horeb — God, who in other places and times did appear in a
similitude in the fashion of a man, now in this most solemn appearance, when he
comes to give eternal laws for the direction of the Israelites in the worship
of God, and in their duty to men, purposely avoids all such representations, to
shew that he abhors all worship of images, or of himself by images of what kind
soever, because he is the invisible God, and cannot be represented by any
visible image.
Verse 16
[16] Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image,
the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Lest ye corrupt yourselves — Your ways, by
worshipping God in a corrupt manner.
Verse 19
[19] And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when
thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven,
shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God
hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
Driven — Strongly inclined.
Which the Lord hath divided unto all nations — Which are not Gods,
but creatures, made not for the worship, but for the use of men; yea, of the
meanest and most barbarous people under heaven, and therefore cannot without
great absurdity be worshipped, especially by you who are so much advanced above
other nations in wisdom and knowledge, and in this, that you are my peculiar
people.
Verse 24
[24] For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous
God.
A consuming fire — A just and terrible
God, who, notwithstanding his special relation to thee, will severely punish
thee, if thou provoke him.
A jealous God — Who being espoused to thee, will
be highly incensed against thee, (if thou follow after other lovers, or commit
whoredom with idols) and will bear no rival or partner.
Verse 28
[28] And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands,
wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Ye shall serve Gods — You shall be
compelled by men, and given up by me to idolatry. So that very thing which was
your choice, shall be your punishment: it being just and usual for God to
punish one sin by giving men up to another.
Verse 29
[29] But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God,
thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
If from thence thou seek the Lord — Whatever place we are
in, we may from thence seek him. There is no part of the earth which has a gulf
fixt between it and heaven.
Verse 30
[30] When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are
come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and
shalt be obedient unto his voice;
In the latter days — In succeeding ages.
Verse 32
[32] For ask now of the days that are past, which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one
side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this
great thing is, or hath been heard like it?
The one side of heaven — That is, of the earth
under heaven. Ask all the inhabitants of the world.
Verse 33
[33] Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of
the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?
And live — And was not overwhelmed and consumed by such a
glorious appearance.
Verse 34
[34] Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the
midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war,
and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors,
according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
By temptations — Temptations is the general title,
which is explained by the following particulars, signs, and wonders, etc. which
are called temptations, because they were trials both to the Egyptians and
Israelites, whether they would be induced to believe and obey God or no.
By terrors — Raised in the minds of the
Egyptians, or, by terrible things done among them.
Verse 37
[37] And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose
their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power
out of Egypt;
In his sight — Keeping his eye fixed upon him,
as the father doth on his beloved child.
Verse 44
[44] And this is the law which Moses set before the children
of Israel:
This is the law — More punctually expressed in the
following chapter, to which these words are a preface.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
04 Chapter 4
Verses 1-40
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the
judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and
possess the land.
Moses’ discourse
1. In general it is the use and application of the foregoing history.
It comes in by way of inference from it (Deuteronomy 4:1). This use we should make
of the review of God’s providences, we should by them be quickened to duty and
obedience. The histories of ancient times should, in like manner, be improved
by us.
2. The scope of his discourse is to persuade them to keep close to
God, and to His service, and not to forsake Him for any other god, nor in any
instance to decline from their duty to Him. Now, observe what he saith to them
with a great deal of Divine rhetoric: First, by way of exhortation and
direction; secondly, by way of motive and argument, to enforce his
exhortations.
I. See here how he
charges and commands them, and shows them what is good, and what the Lord
required of them.
1. He demands their diligent attention to the Word of God, and to the
statutes and judgments that were taught them. “Hearken, O Israel.” He means not
only that they must now give him the hearing, but that whenever the book of the
law was read to them, or read by them, they should be attentive to it.
2. He charges them to preserve the Divine law pure and entire among
them (Deuteronomy 4:2). Keep it pure, and do
not add to it; keep it entire, and do not diminish from it. Not in practice; so
some: Ye shall not add, by committing the evil which the law forbids; nor
diminish, by omitting the good which the law requires. Not in opinion; so
others: Ye shall not add your own inventions, as if the Divine institution were
defective; nor introduce, much less impose, any rites of religious worship
other than what God has appointed; nor shall ye diminish, or set aside,
anything that is appointed as needless or superfluous God’s work is perfect;
nothing can be put to it, or taken from it, but it makes it the worse (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
3. He charges them to keep God’s commandments (Deuteronomy 4:2), to do them (verss 5,
14), to keep and do them (Deuteronomy 4:16), to perform the
covenant (Deuteronomy 4:13). Hearing must be in
order to doing; knowing in order to practice. God’s commandments were the way
they must walk in, the rule they must keep to. What are laws made for but to be
observed and obeyed?
4. He charges them to be very strict and careful in their observance
of the law (Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 4:15; Deuteronomy 4:23). Those that would be
religious must be very cautious, and walk circumspectly. Consider how many
temptations we are compassed about with, and what corrupt inclinations we have
in our own bosoms.
5. He charges them particularly to take heed of the sin of idolatry,
which of all other they would be most tempted to by the customs of the nations,
were most addicted to by the corruption of their hearts, and would be most
provoking to God, and of most pernicious consequence to themselves (Deuteronomy 4:15-16). Two sorts of
idolatry he cautions them against.
6. He charges them to teach their children to observe the law of God
(Deuteronomy 4:9-10).
7. He charges them never to forget their duty (Deuteronomy 4:23). Though God is ever
mindful of the covenant, we are apt to forget it; and that is at the bottom of
all our departures from God. Care and holy watchfulness are the best helps
against a bad memory. These are the directions and commands he gives them.
II. Let us see now
what are motives or arguments with which he backs these exhortations. How doth
he order the cause before them, and fill his mouth with arguments? And a great
deal he has to say on God’s behalf. Some of his topics are indeed peculiar to
that people, yet applicable to us. But upon the whole it is evident that
religion has reason on its side, the powerful charms of which all that are
irreligious wilfully stop their ears to.
1. He urges the greatness, glory, and goodness of God. Did we
consider what a God He is with whom we have to do, we would surely make conscience
of our duty to Him, and would not dare to sin against Him. He reminds them here
that the Lord Jehovah is the one only living and true God. That He is a
consuming fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24). That yet He is a
merciful God (Deuteronomy 4:31). It comes in here as an
encouragement to repentance, but might serve as an inducement to obedience, and
a consideration proper to prevent their apostasy. Shall we forsake a merciful
God who will never forsake us, as it follows here, if we be faithful unto Him?
Whither can we go to mend ourselves?
2. He urges their relation to this God, His authority over them, and
their obligations to Him. The commandments you are to keep and do are not mine,
saith Moses, not my inventions, not my injunctions, but they are the
commandments of the Lord, framed by infinite wisdom, enacted by sovereign
power.
3. He urges the wisdom of being religious (Deuteronomy 4:6). “For this is your
wisdom in the sight of the nations.” In keeping God’s commandments they would
act wisely for themselves. This is your wisdom. It is not only agreeable to
right reason, but highly conducive to our true interest (Job 28:28). They would answer the
expectations of their neighbours, who, upon reading or hearing the precepts of
the law that was given them, would conclude that certainly the people that were
governed by this law were a wise and understanding people.
4. He urges the singular advantages they enjoyed by virtue of the
happy establishment they were under (Deuteronomy 4:7-8).
5. He urges God’s glorious appearances to them at Mount Sinai when He
gave them this law.
6. He urges God’s gracious appearances for them in bringing them out
of Egypt, from the iron furnace, where they laboured in the fire, forming them
into a people, and then taking them to be His own people, a people of
inheritance (Deuteronomy 4:20). This he mentions again
(verses 84, 37, 38). Never did God do such a thing for any people.
7. He urges God’s righteous appearance against them, sometimes for
their sins. He instanceth particularly in the matter of Peor (Deuteronomy 4:34). He also takes notice
again of God’s displeasure against himself (Deuteronomy 4:12; Deuteronomy 4:22). “The Lord was angry
with me for your sakes.” Others suffering for our sakes should grieve us more
than our own.
8. He urges the certain benefit and advantage of obedience. This
argument he begins with, That ye may live, and go in and possess the land (Deuteronomy 4:1). And this he concludes
with, “That it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee” (Deuteronomy 4:40). He reminds them that
they were upon their good behaviour, their prosperity would depend upon their
piety. If they kept God’s precepts He would undoubtedly fulfil His promises.
9. He urges the fatal consequences of their apostasy from God, that
it would undoubtedly be the ruin of their nation. This he enlarges upon (Deuteronomy 4:25-31), where God’s
faithfulness to His covenant encourageth us to hope that He will not reject us
though we are driven to Him by affliction. If we at length remember the
covenant, we shall find that He has not forgotten it. Now let all these
arguments be laid together, and then say whether religion has not reason on its
side. None cast off the government of their God but those that have first
abandoned the understanding of a man. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
God’s dealings with His people
I. In reviewing
the gracious dealings of God towards us, the great difficulty is to know at
what point to begin. As a people, and as individuals, to God alone are we
indebted for the multiplied sources of hope and enjoyment. We live under a mild
and well-balanced constitution, and under the shadow of equitable laws. We
possess a fruitful soil and temperate seasons. We enjoy an open Bible, and
therefore have the full light of Divine revelation. We are favoured likewise
with a pure faith and the reformed religion.
II. “Hearken
therefore, O Israel,” was the inference of Moses on a review of the dealings of
God towards the Jews: “Hearken, therefore, to His statutes and judgments so as
to do them.” The Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, contain the
records of God’s will, and His statutes for us. To hearken to these precepts we
are bound both by duty and by gratitude. These are the strongest forces which
can be applied to the mind of man.
III. By obedience
only can we secure mercies yet to come. Of this Moses warned the Israelites:
“Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments,
which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the
land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.” The promises vouchsafed to
them had reference to temporal things. These could only be secured by obedience.
The promises granted to us in the Gospel relate both to time and to eternity,
for “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that
now is, and of that which is to come.” (H. J. Hastings, M. A.)
Hearken
Moses called upon Israel to “hearken.” Who can hear? Who
has ever met a man, in any congregation, that could listen? What is wanted
today may be described as good hearers. It is not given to man to rush away
from his business, place himself down suddenly in the sanctuary, and call for
revelations that he can appreciate. Men must be prepared to hear as well as
prepared to preach. To “hearken” is not a mechanical exercise. The word
“hearken” is charged with profound meaning; it represents the act of acute,
ritual, profound, fervent attention. He who “hearkens” is in an attitude of
eagerness--as if he would complete the speech, anticipate it, or elicit from
the speaker a broader eloquence by the gratitude and expectancy of his own
attention. Would that they who say much about speaking would learn the elements
of good listening!--so learned, they would be dispossessed of themselves, their
ears would be purged of all noises and tumults and rival competitions; and
importunity being dismissed, anxiety being suspended, and the soul set in a
posture of expectation, would receive even from slow-speaking Moses statutes
and precepts ,solemn as eternity, and rich as the thought of God. “He that hath
ears to hear,”--not for noises to please,--“let him hear.” Such hearing is
almost equal to praying; such listening never was disappointed. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
The Bible the wisdom of nation
Consider--
I. That the Bible
brings greatness to a nation; because--
1. When received and obeyed, it brings God’s blessing with it.
2. It elevates the national character.
II. That it is the
duty of all to have a personal acquaintance with the Scriptures, and to
instruct the young in them. (S. Hayman, B. A.)
But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God.
The blessedness of cleaving to the Lord
Moses spoke like a father during the closing days of his life to
those who “were then alive.” There is a reference here to the multitudes who
had fallen in the desert because they did not cleave, etc. They cared not for
Him who had delivered them. Moses reminds them of the declension of many to the
idolatry of Baal Peor, to which they were tempted by those who wished to bring
a curse on Israel. He recalls the terrible punishment which overtook the
sinners (Numbers 25:1-18). But those who cleaved
to the Lord remained in life. This was to be an example to the people to whom
Moses spoke, when they realised in this how truly the Lord is a jealous God.
I. The special
regard of Jehovah for those who cleave to Him.
1. He watches over their temporal existence, and does not permit it
to be snatched away like that of many stoners, unexpectedly and before the
times.
2. True, we do not now think that an early death is a punishment for
falling away from God. With us it is not the same as with Israel. Their reward
was first the earthly Canaan. To us is the promise of a heavenly inheritance.
Then to die was to lose the promised land; now it is the way of entrance to the
heavenly country. Therefore the Lord often takes some of those who cleave to
Him early from earth, as if they were His specially favoured ones.
3. Still, one has often the impression that some are called hence sooner
than should have been. And this may seem either a mark of favour or the
reverse--of favour, since the poor sinner is saved from further sinning, and
may be brought to himself before death’s solemn advent; or of unfavour, since
it seems as if it ought to have been otherwise.
II. The special
help and deliverance given to those who cleave to God.
1. Those who cleave to Him experience deliverance from sickness, from
trouble and death; in war and pestilence, so that they are not suddenly
snatched away; whilst many others--although we dare not judge who--who are
accustomed to live according to their lusts, have little safeguard.
2. At all events, what Moses says in regard to this life applies to
us in regard to the future life. There It will be declared, None is lost who
have cleaved to the Lord, ‘they are alive every one this day.’”
3. Whereas those will not be found who have never sought after God or
His Son Jesus.
4. If we would live in time and eternity, then we must cleave
to the Lord, “flee from idolatry” and all the abominations that cleave to it. (J.
C. Blumhardt.)
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding.
The wisdom of being holy
Moses, the man of God, having, by the appointment of heaven,
delivered to the Israelites most excellent laws and commandments, pathetically
exhorts them in this chapter to keep those laws and observe those commandments.
1. That these laws and statutes, which God gave the Israelites,
contained in them an inestimable treasure of wisdom, for those words, “This is
your wisdom,” may refer to the statutes and judgments, the wise and
well-ordered laws which were given to the people. Or, secondly, these words may
be applied to the keeping of those laws and statutes, “Keep them and do them,
for this,” i.e. this keeping and doing of them, “is your wisdom and your
understanding.” Your diligent observing and practising of these laws and
statutes are an eminent part of wisdom. The best and chiefest wisdom is to be
religious, and to live in the fear of God. And this is the sense of the great
Lawgiver in my text, “Keep and do the statutes and judgments which I have
taught you,” saith he, “for this is your wisdom and understanding.” As much as
to say, he that lives a holy and godly life, he that walks innocently and
uprightly, and conscientiously observes the Divine laws, doth truly deserve the
name of a wise man. I will show you that a virtuous and righteous man is master
of the greatest understanding and highest prudence, and that to be good and
wise are one and the same thing. I premise this, then, that there are two
essential parts of true wisdom. The first is to understand and judge aright of
things, to think of them as indeed they are; the second is to act according to
the appreciation and judgment of things, to shun the evil which we discover to
be such, and to choose and embrace what we know to be right and good. This I
offer as an exact idea of true wisdom; and accordingly you shall see that the
person who leads a virtuous and holy life is the only wise man. First, then, he
hath the truest notions and conceptions of things, he hath arrived unto a right
discerning of what is just and good. His understanding (which is the basis of
all religion) is duly informed, and his principles are the best and truest.
Error and a depraved judgment being the source of the greatest immoralities in
the world, a wise man first of all endeavours to lay aside all vitiated opinions.
His care is therefore to remove all wrong opinions and mistakes about things.
He labours to think aright, and to bring himself as soon as may be to true
apprehensions. New, then, holy and righteous men may be believed to have
attained to this first part of true wisdom, because they have right notions of
themselves, their souls and bodies, of the things of this world, and of God the
Supreme Governor of all. The other essential part of wisdom is to act according
to this apprehension and judgment of things, to live according to these
excellent notions and maxims. And here I shall further demonstrate to you that
piety and wisdom are terms convertible, and that it is impossible to be wise
unless we be religious. In general, then, I say this, for a man to act
according to his knowledge, to live according to what he possesseth, is all
argument of a wise man, and the contrary is great folly and weakness.
Certainly, the Author of the Christian religion would not institute anything
that is contradictory and inconsistent with itself; and yet such should
Christianity be after the rate of some men’s behaviour, who, glorying in the
name of Christians, act in opposition to the laws and rules of Christianity.
That is the best religion, and worthy of its heavenly Author, which displays
itself in the actions and deportments of men, which restrains them from beloved
vices, checks their most pleasurable lusts, and is ever visible and operative
in their lives. Most men know and every day experience the world to be vain,
vice to be dangerous, and integrity and honesty to be the choicest possessions;
and yet herein they betray their prodigious folly, that their lives and
practices are no ways suitable to those notions; for they inordinately love the
world, and prosecute its vanities; they live as if there were no danger at all
in the commission of sin, and they act as if honesty were the blemish of a
man’s life. Thus they walk antipodes to themselves, they run counter to their
own persuasions, they baffle their own judgments, they contradict their own
apprehensions. This is the guide of the world, and it savours of the highest
imprudence and folly imaginable. It must be an act, then, of great wisdom to
walk accurately and circumspectly.
1. He must needs be voted for a wise man who makes choice of the
greatest good, and pitcheth on the chief and best end, and minds the things of
the highest concernment. This no sober and intelligent person can deny; and by
this it is that a godly man proves himself to be the possessor of true wisdom (Psalms 4:6). The folly of men is seen in
nothing more than in their huge mistakes about their chief good; and therefore
here every good man is exceeding cautious, and with great deliberation chooseth
that which he knows to be absolutely good and indispensably necessary. And what
is that? Happiness. And what is that happiness? It is briefly this, to live in
the enjoyment of God, to love Him and to be loved by Him, to partake of His favour
here and of His glory hereafter.
2. He that is truly wise after he hath propounded to himself and
chosen the chiefest good, will find out, and then use the best and fittest
means for the attaining of that end. And on this account likewise, holiness is
the best wisdom. The Christian man sits down and seriously considers the method
which is prescribed him, in order to his happiness, recollecting that
peremptory decision of St. Peter, “Neither is there salvation in any other, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby they must be
saved.” This is the method which the Gospel prescribes, this is the plain road
to heaven, and he resolves to continue in it to the end of his days.
3. True wisdom teacheth us to regard this end and these means in the
first place, and to employ ourselves about them betimes. Where delays and
demurs may prove exceedingly dangerous a wise man counts it his interest to
make haste, and to make sure of his happiness the first thing he doth. No
prudent person will trust to that which is uncertain, frail, and flitting.
4. It is approved wisdom to part with a lesser good that we may make
ourselves sure of a far greater, and to undergo some lighter evils to put
ourselves out of danger of falling into those which are more heavy and
grievous. The fencer receives a blow on his arm to save his head. In a great
tempest the richest lading is cast into the sea, to secure the vessel and the
passengers’ lives. We are willing to recover health and prolong life by
abstinence and great severity on the body. We are contented to be sick that we
may be well. We submit, to save our life, to the loss of a limb; we let a part
go to save the whole. All these actions are thought to be regulated by right
reason, and were ever recorded as instances of human prudence. And on the same
score must he that is truly religious be concluded to be the owner of singular
prudence and discretion. He denieth himself the sinful pleasures of the world,
and by that means assures to himself those pleasures which are at God’s right
hand for evermore.
5. It is certain, and it will hardly meet with any gainsayer, that
that person proves himself to be wise and prudent who, seeing the uncertainty
and changeableness of this present state, makes certain provision for the future.
This is the wisdom of a godly man; he takes a prospect of the
other world whilst he stands upon this.
1. The poor pretenders to wisdom are baffled, and the mere shows and
semblances of it in the world are utterly disgraced. You must know, then, that
there is a seeming counterfeit wisdom; and there is a real and substantial
wisdom, which justly deserves that name.
2. From what hath been said there is a plain discovery of true and
substantial wisdom. I have let you see that it is a very large and comprehensive
thing: it consists both in knowledge and practice. It is not only a right
judgment of those things which are Divine, and appertain to faith and
obedience, but it is acting according to that knowledge and judgment of those
Divine matters.
3. That hence we have a demonstration of the excellency of religion
and a holy life, and consequently a prevalent motive to the embracing of them.
There cannot be a greater incentive to godliness than this, that it is the
greatest wisdom. This doctrine concerns us all. Seeing the fear of the Lord is
the beginning, the head, the main part of wisdom, let it be our chief study how
we may fear and worship God aright, and walk uprightly in the whole course of
our lives, and let us be afraid of nothing so much as offending God and doing
that which is sinful. (J. Edwards, D. D.)
The influence of revealed truth upon a nation
I. That the
possession of the revealed truth of God is the most distinguished privilege of
a nation.
1. It is the duty of every man thus possessing the revelation which
God has given to acquaint himself with it.
2. As God has thus made it the duty of every individual to inquire
and to learn, so has He secured to them the means of instruction, by raising up
an order of men whose business it is to teach; to make known the statutes and
judgments which He has given.
3. We see this, likewise, in the solemn duty, binding on every
parent, to teach these statutes and judgments to his children.
II. That from the
general diffusion of this truth those practical results can alone be expected
which shall make these solemn words applicable: “Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people.”
1. You will all allow, that in proportion as a nation is made
righteous, in that proportion it becomes wise and great.
2. We may calculate with certainty on another effect. Whenever the
truth of God is extensively diffused through a nation its morality will be
improved.
3. A nation will be thus made wise and understanding, because it will
be preserved from dangerous errors, and especially from wasting infidelity.
4. Another great effect of the general diffusion of the truth of God
is the establishment of civil order and peace.
5. The greatest happiness will result from this general diffusion of
the revealed truth of God. (R. Watson.)
Britain’s privileges and obligations
I. As a nation we
enjoy valuable advantages and blessings.
1. Liberty.
2. Political power and eminence.
3. Diffusion of God’s Word. Number and influence of pious and holy
men.
II. That our
valuable advantages and blessings as a nation place us under momentous
obligations to the God by whom they were bestowed.
1. An obligation to gratitude.
2. An obligation to repentance.
3. An obligation to the maintenance and diffusion of Divine truth. (Dr.
Parsons.)
The Bible the wisdom of a nation
Parting words are generally impressive words. In this, the last of
the books of the Pentateuch, Moses delivered to the people of Israel his
parting counsels. He sets before them, in words of expostulation and warning,
good and evil--life and death. And not only does he give them these impressive
exhortations, but, foreseeing--for God was pleased to give him a revelation of
it (Deuteronomy 31:16)--that their deceitful
hearts would turn aside, he utters the plainest predictions of the judgments
which have since overtaken them. We see, then, that Israel’s safety was
identified with her adherence to pure and undefiled religion. At the time when
all the nations of the earth beside were in darkness, she was made the
depository of the knowledge of the true and only God. Still, while these things
are so, and while we cannot admit the idea of a peculiar people in the sense in
which Israel was, it is impossible for those who acknowledge that “the Lord is
King,” and that He is “Judge of all the earth,” to doubt that, as with
individuals, so with nations, a high measure of Divine favour involves of
necessity a proportionate degree of national responsibility. Holding those feelings,
we shall be brought to acknowledge that, nationally, we have ourselves much in
the sight of God to answer for.
I. In the first
place, then, the Bible brings greatness to a nation, because, when received and
obeyed, it brings God’s blessing with it. The glory of Israel was the presence
of Jehovah amongst them. There was no nation--to use the words of Moses in the
text--that had God so nigh them as had they. In their journeys through the
wilderness He was visibly present in the pillar of cloud; and afterwards, in
the temple which was founded on Mount Moriah to His praise, the Holy of holies
sufficiently indicated to them His special abode with them. When He departed
from them their safeguard was withdrawn: the enemy made Jerusalem, hitherto
invincible, a heap of stones. Similarly, our own land, at the period of the
Reformation, received the Holy Scriptures, and since then, in their possession
and use, has obtained from God innumerable blessings: religion has extended
itself in renewed vitality amongst us; and this great nation has become a wise
and understanding people. But, apart from the security which the fear of the
Lord brings with it, we shall see that--
II. The Bible
brings greatness to a nation because it elevates the national character. I do
not seek to palliate our multitudinous sins. Still, even now, Britain I do
believe to be the stronghold of pure, because scriptural, religion. The Bible
is not yet dethroned from the affections of her people; and, for tiffs reason,
the basis of the national character is yet sound.
III. The duty of
personal acquaintance with the Scriptures and of instructing the young out of
them. (S. Hayman, B. A.)
Security of the established religion the wisdom of the nation
I. The exercise of
religion is the principal end of every government and consequently an act of
the truest wisdom.
1. It is of no small advantage to the mutual correspondence of the
members of a community that religion is agreeable both to the natural tendency
of every particular man’s mind, and the general consent of all nations
interweaving it in their several constitutions. Because as, on the one hand,
whatever notion is so universal cannot be destroyed without the greatest
violence to human nature; so, on the other hand, it is an obvious fixed point
in which all the members may the most easily be supposed to centre, and will in
course, if duly cultivated, be not only a bond of union between God and man,
but also between one man and another.
2. The many happy consequences and natural good effects of religion
are so serviceable to a state as upon the most cogent arguments to recommend
the exercise of it to every wise government as its principal end.
(a) If we consider the governing part of a nation. As nothing can
temper the greatness and power of a prince more than a just sense of religion,
so neither can anything more recommend him to the love and reverence of his
people.
(b) If we consider what shall render people most tractable and
obedient to governors, we shall find that Christianity must certainly have the
most beneficial effect.
II. A settled form
of religion is, as the means, most conducive to that end, and therefore an
improvement of the wisdom. For however religion, naturally speaking, may not
consist in form, and we may allow that a person supposed separate from all
community may practise it without any form; yet, besides that, even in that
case the want of a fixed method may create many inconsistencies, and in time
destroy his religion. So that though forms are not always of the essence of the
thing formed, yet, at least, they are the means of promoting and even
preserving it; and accordingly in all acts of government, in the sessions of
all great councils, there are settled methods of proceeding; and particularly
in the practice of the law, there are forms of process, terms, garb, rules of
court, and other formalities which, though not the essence of the law, yet are
the means of the execution of it. The same reason therefore which prescribes a
settled form to all other acts of society prescribes it to religion also.
1. It is to be feared lest too great a latitude of worship should
destroy religion itself, and the liberty, as nowadays stretched beyond the
design of the toleration of every man serving God in his own way, should end in
not serving Him at all.
2. Supposing Christianity in general were not endangered from a
boundless latitude, nor liable to be lost in the confusion; yet, at least, the
better part of it, Protestantism, must needs run a mighty hazard from so
unlimited a variety.
3. A boundless latitude of worship may not only prove destructive to
religion in general, and Protestantism in particular, but, what even men of the
loosest principles ought to be concerned for, will also disturb the peace of a
nation. For as religion has not only the most universal, but even the most
powerful sway over men’s minds, so it will be heard wherever it pleases to
exert its voice; and the very calves of Dan and Bethel shall be able to divide
the kingdom of Israel from that of Judah.
III. A due provision
for the security and advancement of such a settled form is the only completion
of that wisdom. With regard to this notion was it that our pious reformers
established it by law, and for a further security did their successors appoint
penalties and settle a test. (John Savage, M. A.)
The national greatness of Britain, its causes, dangers, and
preservation
Canaan was evidently the glory of all the earth, and Israel the
most renowned of all people; in wealth, in intelligence, in honour, and in
victory the Hebrew nation exceeded all the nations by which it was surrounded.
Now, England is a great nation, and compared even with enlightened countries,
it assumes an imposing splendour; and if viewed in contrast even with the
cultivated nations of the continent of Europe, it stands at the head of them
all. Its commercial enterprise, its civil and religious character, its
indomitable industry, its multiplied comforts, and the distinguished reputation
which it has in all the nations of the earth, place it alone--far above any
other country. It is natural for a man to look at England, and to ask, “How is
this?” And having discovered the fact of this greatness, and the causes of it,
the inquiry naturally suggests itself, “How is this greatness to be perpetuated
and increased?”
I. The causes of
Britain’s greatness.
1. The first thing mentioned in the text, and which is presented
throughout this book, is that the nation’s greatness consists in having the
knowledge of the true God; and this is peculiar in respect to England. God is
nigh unto this nation, and has given it the knowledge of Himself, and this is
the foundation of our prosperity.
2. Another cause mentioned in the text, and which may also be
ascribed to Britain, is our multitudinous and wonderful deliverances. If anyone
will open the pages of history and read them, he will see how this country has
risen among the nations of the earth by the remarkable power of the hand of the
Lord.
3. Another means which this text prescribes is the institution and
preservation of the Christian ministry. This agency has distributed
knowledge--this has nerved the people with right principles--this has taught
them industry, benevolence, and all the social virtues--and, above all, it has
exhibited to the people the way of salvation by Christ, and furnished motives
to holiness, and to every kind benevolent act, of which even the learned
amongst the heathen were all ignorant.
4. Again, the text points out another means of promoting this
greatness, and that is the communication of religious knowledge to the young.
5. Another point is the influence of a praying community; “for what
nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God
is, in all things that we call upon Him for?” What a multitude of praying
people--formed by the Gospel--live in Britain! This has doubtless been a
greater security to her than all her wooden walls, or than all her large
armies. Prayer is a benevolence which any man can confer on kings or on
statesmen, and the only thing very many have to do with them is to pray for
them.
6. I will mention one other source of her greatness, and that is her
unrestricted possession of the Divine Word, and the laws of the land being
largely founded on the laws of that book. What a blessing has the Bible been!
Among our mercies are the statutes and laws by which we are governed taken
principally from this book. Much imperfection, it is true, still remains in
these laws; and many of us have grievous complaints to make about them; but,
viewed as a nation amongst other nations, there are no laws like those of
Britain, because they more closely conform to the laws of God than those of any
existing nation; and they are being brought nearer to the blessed book of God;
but still, as they are, they are looked upon with envy as the glory of the
world.
II. The dangers to
which the possession of this greatness exposes us. The first which Moses
presents to them was self-conceit. If not very watchful over prosperity,
luxuriousness, the indulgence of fleshly appetites, indolence, and neglect of
others, come in with it taking rest, and lying down in the nest which we have
made so comfortable for ourselves, and never looking over it to see the
miseries of those who have not got a nest, and for whom it is our duty to
assist in making one, that they may be as happy as we are. See how these sins
are abroad amongst us!--how prevalent are pride and forgetfulness of God,
Sabbath profanation, rejection of the Gospel, luxuriousness, prodigality, and
many other sins.
III. The means of
preserving and of perpetuating this greatness. There are two modes of doing
this, which are particularly referred to in the text. The first is personal
piety, and the second the instruction of the rising generation.
1. Amidst the greatness and dignity of Britain there is reason to
fear that personal piety is falling off. Never, as a nation, was Britain more
exalted; yet observe, while this exaltation continues, all sections of the
Church are complaining of the want of vital fire. With a few exceptions the
Churches represent trees that have not been rained upon--they want those
showers from heaven which fill the heart with gladness and piety. It is of the
utmost moment that your piety should be of the highest stamp, and that you may
maintain and improve it, you must labour; it must be your ambition--your holy
joy--to be a sort of being above everybody else in the Church. Nothing can
compensate for the loss of communion with God in the closet; and if you are
addicting yourselves to any of the fond pleasures of the day--misspending your
time which has been taken by popular opinion from your employers, and, instead
of devoting yourselves to the work of God, enjoying pleasures and
amusements--if you are doing this, your poor soul will suffer, and you will
require more heavenly grace to sustain you than before.
2. Another thing the text proposes is religious instruction in the
family: “Teach thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” The way to pardon and peace
through the Cross must be made known; this great subject must not be kept back
from the children. (James Sherman.)
The conditions of national greatness
You see from this that the fame and wisdom of Israel are to be
tested solely by her obedience to the laws of God. For every nation under the
sun there is no other criterion. Mankind has many tests: God has but one. If
the ideal of the nation be righteous, she will be great and strong. If the
ideal of the nation be base or evil, she will sooner or later perish because of
her iniquity.
I. The ideal of
many nations has been delight in war. They have not cared to have any annals
which were not written in blood. Such a people were the Assyrians of Scripture.
In the hall of Sargon, that king has had himself represented stabbing and
butchering his captives with his own hands; and, in the one domestic scene
found among these sculpturings of horror and bloodshed (you may see it in the
British Museum), the son of Sennacherib is seated in a vine-clad arbour at a
feast, opposite to him is his queen among her maidens, and close behind the
queen hangs from the branch of a palm tree a ghastly human head, with an iron
ring driven through the lip. Well, did it prosper, this bloody city? Read the
prophet Nahum for answer, and you will see how soon it passed away in fire and
sword, amid the wrath and hatred of the nations. And did war-loving Egypt fare
better? We see the serried ranks of the numberless archers, we read the pompous
enumeration of the victories of her Rameses; but Egypt snapped like one of her
own river reeds before the might of Persia, and the fellaheen have scooped
their millstones out of the face of the Rameses, the most colossal statue in
the world.
II. But there has
been another ideal of nations--not war in its cruelty, but general glory; not
the tyranny and vengeance of armies, but their pomp and fame. This, until she
learnt wisdom by bitterly humiliating experience, was the ideal of France. The
nation which follows glory follows a “will-o’-the-wisp’’ which flickers over
the marshes of death; the nation which follows duty has its eye fixed on the
polar star.
III. Again, any
nations in the East, from natural slavishness and insolence of temperament, in
the West from unwarrantable fetish worship of the mere letter of Scripture, and
even that grossly misinterpreted, have cherished the grovelling idea of
absolutism--the crawling at the feet of some royal house, the deification of
some human divinity. So it was under the cruel despotisms of Asia; so it was
under the wicked deified Caesars; so it was for whole cycles in China; so it
was till quite recently in Russia. From this debased notion--that mankind has
no nobler destiny than to be made the footstool of a few families; that kings
have a right Divine to govern wrong; that nations ought to deliver themselves,
bound hand and foot, to the arbitrary caprices of men who may chance to be as
despicable as a Sardanapalus, a Nero, or a John--the blood, and the good sense,
and the God-fearing manhood, and the mighty passion for liberty in the breasts
of our fathers saved us.
IV. Other nations,
again, many of them, have had as their ideal the gaining of wealth and thirst
for gold. Of all false gods, at once the meanest, and the one who most assumes
the air of injured innocence and perfect respectability, is Mammon. What has
this kind of wealth ever done for men and for nations? Was ever any man the
better for having coffers full of gold? But who shall measure the guilt that is
often incurred to fill them? Men do not disbelieve Christ, but they sell Him.
By individual superiority to Mammon, let us help England to rise superior to
this base idolatry. “You glory.” said Oliver Cromwell, “in the ditch which
guards your shores. I tell you, your ditch will not save you if you do not
reform yourselves.”
V. Once more; it
some nations have had a false idea of absolutism, many, and especially modern
nations, have had a false ideal of liberty. There is no ideal more grand and
inspiring than that of true freedom. But what is freedom? It is the correlative
of order; it is the function of righteousness. Its home, too, like that of law,
is the bosom of God; its voice the harmony of the world. Liberty is not the
liberty to do wrong unchecked. To be free is not synonymous with infinite
facilities for drunkenness, any more than it is synonymous with infinite
facilities for burglary; but to be free, as Milton said, is the same thing as
to be pious, to be temperate, and to be magnanimous--
“He
is a freeman whom the truth makes free;
And
all are slaves beside.”
The
description “every man did that which was right in his own eyes,” which is
rapidly becoming our national ideal, is a description not of heroic freedom,
but of hideous anarchy. A man’s liberty ends, and ought to end, when that
liberty becomes the curse of his neighbours. “Oh Liberty, what crimes are
committed in thy name!”
VI. What, then, is
a great nation’s one and only true ideal, if it is to be indeed a wise and
understanding people? The frivolous may sneer and the faithless may deride, but
it is duty and it is righteousness. That is as much the law of Christ as it is
the law of Sinai. If a nation be not the uplifter of this banner it is nothing,
and it is doomed in due time to fall. And that is why the Bible, when men will
read it by the light of truth and not of pseudo-religious theories, is still
the best statesman’s manual. For it will teach him several things. It will
teach him that progress is the appointed, inevitable law of human life, and
that it is a deadly error to suppose that we are sent into the world only to
preserve and not to improve; and it will teach him to honour man simply as man,
and to regard all men, from the highest to the lowest, as absolutely equal
before the bar of justice. It will teach him that always and invariably the
unjust gains and the immoral practices of the class must be put down in the interests
of the community, and that the interests of the community are subordinate
always to those of the nation. And it will teach him that the true glory of
nations lies, not in the splendid misery of war, but in the dissemination of
honourable happiness, and the encouragement of righteousness, and the
suppression of vice. And it will teach him that the true wealth of a nation is
not in gold and silver, but in the souls of strong, contented, and
self-respecting men. When statesmen have learnt all these lessons they will not
be long in learning others. Nations will aim at only such conditions of life
and government as shall make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong.
Statesmen will not toil for reward; they will hold allegiance to the loftiest
ideal of their faith in Christ dearer than all the glories of place and all the
claims of party. Like Edmund Burke, they will bring to politics “a horror of
clime, a deep humanity, a keen sensibility, a singular vivacity and sincerity
of conscience.” Like Sir Robert Peel, they will, amid all the chequered
fortunes of their career, be able to turn from the storm without to the
sunshine of an approving heart within. They will not be afraid to cut against
the grain of godless prejudice; they will not be sophisticated by the
prudential maxims of an immoral acquiescence: they will sweeten with words of
justice and gentleness the conflicts of party; they will be quick to the
encouragement of virtue; and they will be firm and fearless to the prompt,
inflexible suppression and extirpation--so far as powers of government can do
it--of all open and soul destroying vice. (Dean Farrar.)
And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and
Judgments so righteous?
A righteous Bible
The appeal of Moses is the eternal appeal of the Bible. That is
the appeal to common sense and to common honesty. The commandments are not
described as eloquent, marvellous intellectual conceptions, great advances in
ethical thinking. Moses asks, What other nation can produce a Bible so
righteous! Any Bible must go down that is not righteous above all other things,
how high soever the varied attributes by which any book may be characterised.
What is the moral tone of the Bible? Pure, righteous, true, holy. What are the
great commandments of the Book? “Love,” “love,”--twice love. The first
object?--“God”; the second?--“thy neighbour.” This is the strength of
the Bible; and we can all begin at this point to inquire into the remainder of
the Book. Men may ask bewildering questions about the archaeology and the so
called science of the Bible, and may even puzzle the uncultured reader with
many a question relating to spiritual mysteries; but taken from end to end, the
Bible is charged with righteousness: it will have the neighbour loved as the
man himself; it will have the harvest like the seed time; it will insist upon
right balances and full weights; it will have no concealed iniquities; it
carries its candle of flame with fire never kindled upon earth into the secrets
of the mind and the chambers of the soul and the hidden places of motive and
purpose and ultimate, but unexpressed, intent. The Word of God is sharp,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the
joints and marrow. It is a righteous Word. The Bible has a thousand weapons in
its armoury: not the lightest, not the weakest is its magnificent morality, its
heavenly righteousness, its incorruptible integrity. It shakes off the wicked
man; it will have no communion with darkness; it strikes the liar on the mouth;
it avoids the unholy follower. This is--let us repeat--the argument of Moses,
and it is the eternal argument of Christianity. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Bible and civilisation
Wendell Phillips once said: “The answer to the Shaster is India;
the answer to Confucianism is China; the answer to the Koran is Turkey; the
answer to the Bible is the Christian civilisation of Protestant Europe and
America.” (J. S. Gilbert, M. A.)
The national utility of the Bible
It is impossible to estimate the amount of evil which mankind
would experience in their civil capacity were the Scriptures no longer
considered of Divine origin, nor constituted the ultimate standard of all moral
and political obligation. All reverence for the laws would cease, for the
lawgiver would have only his own authority, or the mere glimmerings of the law
of nature, to enforce his commands; while those who had to obey the laws would
soon have every just and equitable principle banished from their minds, and
every sacred feeling obliterated from their bosoms. The whole fabric of society
would soon go to pieces if men were removed beyond the sphere of the public and
private sanctions of scriptural morality. (J. Blakey.)
The glory of Israel
Moses reminds the people that God has chosen them as His special
possession, and that this had been shown during forty years, and that if they
would remain a people forever blessed it must be under the protection and
blessing of God. They were highly favoured above all other peoples--for Jehovah
the true God was theirs, and would be known among His people by this gracious
name. And all the peoples around saw how great things God had done for
Israel--how gloriously and graciously He had led His people. This was one
reason why Israel should cleave to the Lord, who would plainly thus reveal
Himself as the true God, the Holy One of Israel. From all this Israel should
have learned--
I. To prize highly
their relation to God.
1. They should have learned to realise what it was to be under the
peculiar care of God, and how great and glorious was their fellowship with Him.
Theirs was not merely to be a great and glorious history in the past. God was
not merely to be the God who had mightily manifested Himself to their fathers,
and then withheld His presence. Rather there was the promise that if they
continued to call upon Him wonderful manifestations of grace and help would be
given.
2. How blessed Israel was so long as they continued to call on God,
prayed for His protection in faith, and kept in the way of His commandments! It
was no hard thing to draw near to God. Priest and prophet were given to prepare
the way, and each Israelite might experience the truth of the text for himself.
But it was otherwise with Israel. In them we see--
II. The danger of
neglecting to call upon God.
1. Israel went on their own way, according to their own will; and in
order that they might not be stopped by listening to the voice of reason they
no longer called upon God; they no longer sought His near presence.
2. Therefore, however He would have been pleased to draw near to
them, He could do so no more, because they desired it not. Thus did Israel, and
even when they inquired of His way they did not follow it.
3. How speedily, therefore, were they brought low; for all depended
on their calling on God, and Him alone.
III. The spiritual
Israel must call on God.
1. Even among the early believers to whom with visible manifestation
the Holy Ghost came, whose voice and counsel they might ever hear, there was
the temptation to walk more according to the flesh than according to the
Spirit. Some neglected to hear His voice, and gave themselves up to the lusts
of the flesh.
2. Then true believing calling on God ceased, the Lord came no more
nigh to them, and the Holy Ghost was grieved.
3. Let us learn in simple faith to pray to and call upon Him. Then
should we hope that all things would again become new in us, would be otherwise
with us; and how glorious could our lives become! (J. C. Blumhardt.)
Verse 9
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes have seen.
An important admonition
I. In what
respects we are bound to “take heed to” ourselves.
1. Take heed to your health. When this is gone, how tedious and
tasteless is life! The wretched subject of disease is ready to exclaim (Job 12:4; Job 12:13-15), Oh, what pain are some
poor creatures doomed to bear! But in numberless instances some of the severest
afflictions to which mankind are subject are the fruits of their own folly.
Keep the body under: let your diet, your rest, your well-regulated tempers tend
to the health of the human frame, not to its destruction.
2. Take heed to your character. “A Christian is the highest style of
man.” In this quality is associated every holy temper and disposition. There is
faith with its eagle eye, love with its burning flame, peace with its placid
smile, humility with its lowly aspect, patience with its soothing balm, and as
much of the heavenly treasure as can be conveyed into an earthen vessel.
Therefore “take heed to” attain this character; and then be careful to preserve
it.
3. Take heed to your souls. They are dark, and must be on lightened;
guilty, and must be pardoned; enslaved, and must be redeemed; polluted, and
must be sanctified; in danger, and must be saved.
4. Take heed to your time. Time wasted is existence lost; used, is
life. Therefore part with it as with money, sparing it, and never paying a
moment but in purchase of its worth.
5. Take heed to your conduct.
II. The reasons why
the advice in the text should be followed.
1. The character of the speaker is the first motive I will bring
before you. It is the eternal Jehovah; “the God in whose hand your breath is,
and whose are all your ways” (Daniel 5:23).
2. The reasonableness of the requisition is another argument why you
should “take heed to” yourselves. Even animals which are governed by mere
instinct “take heed to” themselves. In many cases they refuse to eat what would
be injurious to them, and fly from danger the moment they perceive it; and
shall reason fail to do for you what instinct accomplishes for them? (Jeremiah 8:7.)
3. The dangers that await you afford another reason for the adoption
of the advice in the text. Had you literally to walk in a road beset with
snares, where you were liable to be entrapped every moment, would not the
perils of your path be a sufficient inducement for you to “take heed to”
yourselves? And do not more fearful dangers await you in your spiritual career?
(R. Treffry.)
On experience-its use, its neglect, and its abuse
I. Under the first
head, that of its use, it may be said, in general, that there is no knowledge
so useful as that which is gained by experience.
1. Events are better remembered than precepts, and indeed it seems
but just that that acquisition should turn out to be valuable which is so often
dearly paid for with tears. He who heeds not the warnings of his elders, or his
books, to abstain from excess, may be taught by sickness a lesson of moderation
which he will not forget. Severe losses may now induce him to be prudent and
provident who never till now could be brought to believe that prodigality begat
want, or that riches had wings.
2. Besides the great personal benefits which flow from experience, it
is also the source of more extended usefulness. For the guidance of life and
conduct, there is no kind of wisdom which we can so confidently and
beneficially communicate as the lessons of experience. And it is the high
gratification of the virtuous old man that the trials which he has borne, the
successes which he has enjoyed, place at his disposal the best means both of
ensuring his own security, uprightness, and of relieving the perplexities and
guiding the steps of the young and inexperienced. He who has gathered wisdom
from many years can impart to others the legacies which each year has left him,
and live while they are enjoyed, nor grow any poorer by making others richer.
II. It is a
melancholy truth, that wisdom which may be so easily, I might say naturally,
acquired is often neglected; wisdom, too, which, as we have seen, is so useful
in the direction of our conduct, and in our intercourse with others. There is
hardly a more pitiable object than a man who cannot, or will not, learn wisdom
from experience; one who, to use the expressions of our text, forgets the
things which his eyes have seen, and they depart from his heart all the days of
his life. To brood over our cares, and too fondly to indulge our sorrows, and
thus unfit ourselves for the active duties of life, is indeed unchristian and
irrational; but both religion and reason require us to contemplate and force
instruction from every wayward event for our future security and quiet; like
Jacob, to hold every heaven-sent grief with which we have wrestled, and not to
let it go till it has blessed us. We are wrong in being always so very anxious
to drive away unpleasant thoughts; we must let them remain till they have cured
us; we might as well drive away the surgeon from our doors who came to perform
a painful though necessary operation. We must learn to look upon the
occurrences of life not as insulated facts, but as borrowing illustration from
the past, and reflecting it upon the future.
III. Of the neglect
of experience we should speak with concern, with pity, or with reprobations--of
its abuse we can speak only with the most unqualified abhorrence. By the abuse
of experience I mean experience in the arts of the world employed not to warn,
but to ensnare the simple and unsuspecting, and experience of its vices
employed not to admonish but to correct innocence. (H. W. Beecher.)
The spiritual benefits of retrospection
It is to be feared that to many (so habitually unmindful are they
of what they have been permitted to witness, both in the wider sphere of public
and the more contracted one of private life) experiences are somewhat like the
stern lights of a ship, which serve to illumine only that part of the water
over which she has just sailed. It is far otherwise when, through the agency of
supernatural grace communicated in answer to the prayer of faith, experience is
sanctified, for it then becomes strongly conducive to spiritual health. If it
be the province of Hope to paint the bow of promise upon the cloud, it is that
of Memory to gather rays of the light of direction from the past, and to cause
them to shine upon the path of religious duty, which is beset by so many
temptations that every encouragement is needed, lest the travellers “faint
because of the way.” Now, in directing your attention to some of the functions
which a religiously disciplined memory performs in connection with the life of
faith--
I. I would first
ask you to observe that it is one of its offices to teach Christians to keep a
more accurate register of their mercies than they are naturally disposed to do;
to train them in resistance of the dangerous tendency to dwell with circumstantial
precision, and often even selfish exaggeration, upon their trials. It is
Memory’s office to embalm their blessings, to preserve them from the decay to
which time and the influence of an evil world would otherwise subject them.
II. Memory has also
functions of momentous importance in connection with the true repentance to
which we are called by Him who alone can enable us to “sorrow after a godly
sort.” It is the office of a rightly trained memory to remove the concealments
by which we seek to hide our delinquencies from ourselves, to dwell with
emphasis upon passages in our history from referring to which we would
naturally desire to escape, to keep the unwelcome but wholesome truth of our
unworthiness before us that we may really feel our need of pardon and earnestly
seek it where alone it can be found. In cases, too (which it is to be feared
are very far from uncommon), in which spiritual declension has begun--cases of
“backsliding in heart”--the memory of the past has much to effect in connection
with the restoration of those who have so declined. The contrast which memory
would lead them to institute between the comparatively happy time when they
kept in the way of duty and the troublous time when they forsook it has been
one which, rendered practically influential by the operation of the Spirit of
Grace, has led them back to tread that path in which only rest can be found for
the soul. Scripture is replete with testimony to the value of the past in
preparing us for doing God’s will in that portion of the future which may be
granted us, teaching those who are to take our places when we are called away
by the inevitable summons to be in their time ready to “serve their generation
according to that will.” To this consideration, namely, that of the responsibility
which rests upon us to do all that lies in our power to bring up “the rising
generation” in the service of Christ, we are led by the words of the final
clause, “Teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” If those addressed in the
words of the text could refer their children to the past for lessons of
spiritual wisdom, they who are living under the new and better covenant cannot
fail to find counsels in the retrospect of their experience to impress upon
youthful minds. They may tell how they have seen evidences, how the fond hopes
of religious parents can be blighted by the ungodliness of children, how they
have seen health shattered by intemperance, brilliant prospects clouded by
yielding to the allurements of a world at enmity with God! They may tell how
they have witnessed exemplifications of the truth of those words quoted by an
inspired Christian teacher from an heathen author, “Evil communications corrupt
good manners.” Or they may turn from painful to pleasurable reminiscences. They
may tell of instances of the beneficial results of “the nurture and admonition”
in which children were brought up to live for Christ. They may speak of homes
lightened by the joy imparted to souls influenced by the grace of God. (C.
E. Tisdall.)
Diligent soul keeping
I. What soul
keeping is. It is the keeping of a living being, and not of a mere inanimate
thing. To have the charge of a priceless jewel is only the matter of wrapping
it carefully up, putting it away in a safe place, and giving it an occasional
look. But it is an altogether different matter to have the charge of a child.
That means constant attention, perpetual claim on wisdom and self-denial. And
soul keeping is the charge of a living being. Keeping a living creature, so as
to help it to maintain vigour and grow into its very best, means--
1. That we must get to know and understand it; and such a knowledge
includes the peculiarities of the individual as well as the general
characteristics of the class or species to which it belongs. It means--
2. That we must adapt our ways to it, putting ourselves upon all
efforts and upon all restraints that may be necessary in order to do our very
best in its behalf. But it also means--
3. That in some things we make it take our ways, for it is the most
serious responsibility of our trust that we have to put the impress of our own
will and our own example on the living being we have in charge. We must, in
some things, adapt ourselves to it, and in some other things make it shape its
conduct to our wish. If we can take the deeper view, we may apprehend that the
soul is the self. But just now another view will be more suggestive to us. We
are to think of the “soul” as a trust from God--a “self” given to ourselves to
keep for God, a living being put into our charge, as men put an animal from
foreign climes, or a plant, into our care. And this becomes our chief life
concern--to keep, in health, in vigour, in all due activity, that living thing,
our soul. A figure may be taken from the ways of our doctors. It is true that
they are concerned with the forms and features and expressions of positive
disease; but they have a trust which is of far more importance. Our vitality is
committed to their care. And mothers follow along the same lines. They are
watchful, indeed, of every spot on the body or weakness in the limb of their
children; but wise mothers are most anxious about keeping up the vitality,
nourishing the very springs of life. There are the possibilities of throwing
off the germs of disease, and unfolding into ideal completeness of beauty, in
manhood or womanhood, if only the life can be kept in health and vigour. And so
the Christian should be supremely concerned about the trust he has from God,
and keep “his soul with all diligence.”
II. What kinds of
care it involves.
1. We must be watchful of what goes into it. We put injurious things
out of the way of children; but we too often fail in the equally important duty
of putting evil things that seek entrance out of the way of our souls. But our
Lord reminded us--
2. That we should be equally watchful of what comes out. He said,
“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,. . .and these defile the man.” This is
the complication of our “keeping.” We have to check the soul from giving
expression to the bad things that are in it, because they grow strong by
expression. But the kind of care involved in soul keeping may be put in another
way.
It includes--
1. Taking care of the soul’s atmosphere. We say of plants and of
persons, “The climate does not agree with them: they never will be healthy
while they remain in it!” Our scientific teachers tell us that there is one
element in the air we breathe which is absolutely and partly intellectual. The
proper food for the emotional is all that goes under the name of prayer. The
proper food for the intellectual is all that goes under the name of truth. Add
this, that there is a practical side to the soul life, the food of which is
duty, and we know that which it is fitting we should provide--prayer, truth,
duty.
2. Taking care of the soul’s neighbours. “Evil communications corrupt
good manners. They who would keep their souls should not even “stand in the way
of sinners”: much less can they venture to sit in the seat of the scornful.”
III. What
difficulties have soul keepers to overcome? Their name is “Legion.” But we may
profitably fix our attention on two.
1. The outwardness of men’s interests nowadays. We live in the
street, and the hall, and the drawing room, rather than in the prayer chamber,
and the “tower of vision”; and this makes soul keeping so hard
2. The pressure of bodily, and business, and family claims. Like Dr.
Chalmers we are “bustled out of our spirituality.” Our time is seized upon by
the “world,” and when he has done his daily will with us we are weary, too
weary for the things of God. He who would keep his soul must meet and master
these difficulties, and persistently set first, in his seekings, “the kingdom
of God and His righteousness.” (The Weekly Pulpit.)
On the benefits of experience and reflection
The great source of all human knowledge is experience and that
experience which teaches us practical wisdom, and informs us of the many evils
that constantly wait on life, is acquired chiefly by observation and
reflection. The historian makes it his peculiar glory that, by faithfully
recording the fates of kingdoms, by delineating the virtues which raised some
to magnificence, and the vices which brought others gradually to destruction,
he anticipates the future by a true representation of the past, and teaches men
wisdom by the examples of others. But though, from the short period of human
life, the narrowness of our views, and other causes, we are obliged to recur to
the experience of those who went before us for almost all our knowledge; yet
the few events that happen to ourselves, or that fall within the circle of our
own observation, make a far more lasting impression on us, and have a much
greater influence over the heart.
I. First, let me
exhort you, when you “ponder in the path of life,” not to let the remembrance
of your disappointments, whatever they might have been, “depart from your
hearts.” If the Sufferance of them has been grievous, let the remembrance of
them be profitable. If they have crossed your inclinations, or withheld from
you fancied pleasures, let them not die away without producing their proper
effect in moderating the passions and inspiring that patient fortitude which,
aided by prayer, will enable us, amidst all the storms of life, to maintain a
character of dignified composure, resignation, and contentment.
II. Next to the
disappointments of life, I wish you to reflect on the sorrows which you might
have experienced. As the land is more grateful to the mariner after his vessel
has been dashed against the rocks, and he himself has struggled with the waves
of life, so is the recovery of peace to those who have escaped the storms of
adversity. Many are the advantages we derive from this severe monitor, if we
knew how to enjoy them. She seldom fails to soften and improve the heart.
III. Let me now
direct your attention to a subject in which we are all equally interested--I
mean “the house of mourning” and the chambers of death. Here also let us
endeavour to learn what lessons experience would teach us. It is not in the
giddy and fantastic scenes of pleasure that the mind improves in wisdom or in
virtue; these, for the most part, are acquired by habits of reflection, and by
taking such views of human affairs as dispose the soul to thought and
meditation. For this cause the “house of mourning” is a house replete with instruction,
and is on that account wisely preferred to the “house of feasting.” It is there
that our religious principles acquire an energy not to be derived perhaps from
any other source. It is there that those truths which were announced to us as
glad tidings from heaven, and those duties which are founded on reason and
contemplation, are strengthened and improved by the softest and most powerful
emotions of the heart. In these melancholy moments we feel our own weakness and
see the vanities of life. Temptations to guilt and misery no longer court us
under the delusive forms of pleasure, and sin appears in all its native
deformity. We confess the vice and folly of every mean pursuit, and the mind
flees to the religion of Christ for comfort and support. (J. Hewlett, B. D.)
“Take heed to thyself,” etc
In the business of life there are three parties concerned, three
parties of whose existence it behoves us to be equally and intensely conscious.
These three are God on the one hand and our own individual souls on the other,
and the one Mediator, Jesus Christ, who alone can join the two into one.
1. There is all the difference in the world between saying, Bear
yourselves in mind, and saying, Bear in mind always the three, God and Christ
and yourselves, whom Christ unites to God. For then there is no risk of
selfishness, nor of idolatry, whether of ourselves or of anything else; we do
but desire to keep alive and vigorous, not any false or evil life in us, but
our true and most precious life, the life of God in and through His Son. But
what we see happen very often is just the opposite to this. The life in
ourselves, of which we are keenly conscious, never for an instant forgetting
it, is but the life of our appetites and passions, and this life is quite
distinct from God and from Christ. But while this life is very vigorous, our
better life slumbers; we have our own desires, and they are evil, but we take
our neighbour’s knowledge and faith and call them our own, and we live and
believe according to our neighbour’s notions; so our nobler life shrinks up to
nothing, and our sense of truth perishes from want of exercise.
2. In combining a keen sense of our own soul’s life with the sense of
God and of Christ there is no room for pride or presumption, but the very
contrary. We hold our knowledge and our faith but as God’s gifts, and are sure
of them only so far as His power and wisdom and goodness are our warrant. Our
knowledge, in fact, is but faith; we have no grounds for knowing as of
ourselves, but great grounds for believing that God’s appointed evidence is
true, and that in believing it we are trusting Him. (T. Arnold, D. D.)
Israel admonished
I. The evil
anticipated--forgetfulness of their own past experience of God’s gracious
dealings. “Lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen,” etc.
1. We cannot suppose that Moses thought it possible they should so
far lose all traces of these events as that they should not, by any
circumstance, be brought to remembrance.
2. But these things might be so forgotten--so little and so lightly
thought of, as to depart from “their hearts,” so as to have no influence there.
No correcting influence; error might be corrected by a heart-affecting
remembrance of God’s distinguishing judgments and mercies (Deuteronomy 4:3-4), but such remembrance
would be necessary. No chastening influence, such as that intended in Deuteronomy 4:5-20; consequently no
cheering influence, such as Deuteronomy 4:36-40 might impart. In
short, “the things which their eyes had seen” might be so forgotten as to
produce no saving effect.
3. And Christians are as liable to this calamity as the Israelites
were.
4. The greatness of the evil may be inferred from the greatness of
the punishment threatened--the loss of God’s gracious presence for direction,
defence, etc. (Deuteronomy 4:7); the loss of Canaan (Deuteronomy 4:27); and the heaviest of
temporal calamities (Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 28:16).
II. The preventives
recommended. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul,” etc. The text
suggests the necessity of--
1. Holy jealousy. “Take heed; keep thy soul.” Nothing is more
dangerous than self-sufficiency and presumption; a vain confidence in what is
called “a good heart.” Moses intimates that the soul needs watching and
keeping.
2. Holy vigilance. Only take heed, and keep thy soul diligently. This
advice is necessary because of our natural disposition to wander, and because
of the allurements to which we are exposed. Grace may raise and sustain us. The
soul may wander on wicked things; and such is its weakness that no man can say
into what sin he may not fall. David fell into adultery and murder. Therefore
“keep thy soul diligently.” Resist beginnings. But we are, perhaps, in greater
danger from things which do not shock our sense of propriety, etc., but which
serve, nevertheless, to divert our minds, and so to prevent a steady attention
to “the one thing needful,” such as business, company, amusement, literature,
etc. Therefore “keep thy soul” within proper bounds. Watch her motions, and
check them ere they become irregular or excessive.
3. Holy exercises. Indolence is at once disgraceful and injurious.
Satan finds the idle employment. What has been already advised includes much of
exercise. But in addition we may say, Diligently meditate on God’s gracious dealings
with you in former days, and examine what progress you make (Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:11-18). Diligently pray for
a continuance and increase of His favours. (Sketches of Four Hundred
Sermons.)
Memory in religion
Let us just a moment longer think about memory, and what we
owe to it. Our sense of personal identity is due to memory. If we had no memory
of the past our lives would be a series of links not joined into a chain, and a
host of beads without anything to string them together; there would be nothing
to show us or make us feel that our life yesterday or today had any special
connection, or were pages in the same book of history of the same person; and
with the loss of this sense of personal identity would go all sense of personal
responsibility and of continuous or energetic action. We would always be
falling back again to our old starting point, and would lose every night what
we gained every day. But memory is the subtle weaver that weaves all the
various movements and events of every day into one continuous whole, into one
conscientiously responsible and permanent life. The memory, then, is most necessary
for the acquisition of wisdom. It is by the golden grain of experience
treasured up in memory that we grow rich in practical wisdom. Some people,
indeed, never seem to learn by what they pass through. They live in the present
moment, without thought of yesterday and without hope of tomorrow, and all that
happens is apparently forgotten just as soon as it is over. It is a precious
gift, then, that God has given to us in memory, and its cultivation is
indispensable and its proper use for all manhood and for all useful life. And
now in our text Moses seeks to enlist this great power of memory on the side of
religion--“Lest thou forget,” he says. And if Moses could thus appeal so
forcibly to the people in his day, calling upon their memories to witness what
God had done for them in Egypt and the desert, entitling Him to their grateful
and obedient services, how much more may our memory be appealed to in these
days. While it is true, however, that the memory to which Moses appeals has
such a marvellous power, yet diseases and defects of memory are very common.
There is no part of our complex mental system which is so liable to get
disordered as memory. Certain events of the past seem, at times, to pass from
the spirit’s vision when disease is beginning, even things which we should
fancy a man could never forget--his own home, his relatives, and his ordinary
work. Even when there is no actual disease, yet serious and dangerous defects
of memory are very common. A slovenly and unreliable memory is a very common
fault. We forget things because we are not interested in them. As we hear a
fact which appeals to something in us, satisfying some desire, supplying some
want, we appropriate it at once, we allow the tendrils of affection and desire
to twine around it, and we fondly treasure it in our hearts. Then we will
remember it forever, and can recall it in every hour of need. We might say, in
fact, that defects of memory arise from improper training. We do not learn to
concentrate our mind upon our work; we do not know how to fix our attention; we
do not make an effort to understand things we read and hear. Take the reading
of a book. Many readers turn over page after page, having read each of them, as
they assure themselves, but nothing on any page makes any impression upon them,
or only some striking incident or accident. Now, such defects of memory can be
cured to a very large extent before they run into permanent weakness or mental
disease, and while we have the opportunity surely it is worth our while to make
an earnest and continuous effort to try to do it. And so with regard to
religion. The root of much error and evil, of many difficulties in life and
transgressions in action, lies in sins of memory. We remember, all of us, the
facts of Bible history, but we have never cared to acknowledge their
application. Now there are many things which tend to increase the defects of
memory when we have to do with religious things. There is often no one to
remind us of the lessons we have learned or the promises we have made; there is
often no one to check us for our forgetfulness and wanderings, no voice from
heaven speaks to us, no instantaneous punishment falls upon us for neglecting
and forgetting them. Besides, the things that it is necessary for us to
remember often produce pain when they are recalled, and the fear of pain
paralyses our memory, while the rush of the world and of life sweeps us on to
other thoughts and other things. If we only felt the importance of remembering
these things the work would be half done. I know a lady, a Sabbath school
teacher in the town of Newport, who has had the unique record that, as scholar
and teacher, she has attended a school in that town for fifty-two years without
a break. To her it was a matter of supreme importance to be in her place
Sabbath after Sabbath, and everything in her week’s work was arranged
accordingly. There was no danger that she would ever be absent or forget her
Sabbath school when the hour for going to it arrived. If we get into the habit
of forgetting our duty and the promise of God we are at the mercy of foes and
in danger of the wrath of God, as Moses said; for God does not forget. But even
to remember well is not enough. It is but a means to an end. There are some
people who have prodigious memories, and they are very proud of it; some even
make their livelihood by it. They can repeat a whole book after they have once
read it. Often such a memory is only a wonder passing across the sky of life
like a comet, and leaving no light and blessing behind. Sometimes it is a sign
of mental disease, so that the other faculties of mind will soon be clouded. A
splendid memory is a good thing, but it needs to be balanced by good judgment
and needs to be actively used if it is to be the blessing it ought to be. When
we turn to religion we find that there are many people who can remember well
religious facts and doctrine, and arguments to prove them, but what use is it
to them? Does it lead them to exercise self-control or self-denial? Alas, no!
If memory is to be of use to us we must be true to memory as to conscience, we
must be warned by what has happened in the past in the spiritual world; it must
never be forgotten, so that we never go wilfully into the same temptation or
commit the same mistake twice. In the verse out of which our text is taken, and
at the end of it, there is one thing specially mentioned as necessary if memory
is to be of use, and that is, that the things we remember we must teach to
others. “Teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons,” and thus help to fix them in
our mind in an accurate and orderly fashion. There is not one in this audience,
I fancy, to whom the text does not appeal. It appeals to the young, “Lest thou
forget.” You are strong and hopeful, and ever pushing up. There are some things
a man can never forget with safety. “As a man sows, so shall he reap: for all
these things God will bring, thee into judgment.” This text appeals to the
prosperous. You look back with honest pride upon the days when others started
side by side with you, with all the advantages you had, but they have fallen
far behind and you have gone right ahead. Everything you have touched has
turned to gold, Oh, the text appeals to you. There is no spot on earth more
slippery or dangerous than the mountain top of prosperity. It is God who has
given thee the power to get wealth and all these blessings, and He will
continue them to you as a blessing as long as you use them to the glory of His
Name. Our text appeals to the poor and lowly. The hand of God has been heavy
upon you. Through no fault of your own you have fallen behind in the race of
life. The text comes home to you, “Lest thou forget.” It may be that sometimes
bitter thoughts take possession of your heart, envious thoughts against your
fellows, and you are tempted to wrap yourselves up in selfish misanthropic
thoughts, and then you lose all the benefit of all the lessons that God has
been taking so much trouble to teach you. But there is no danger if you will
only remember that God rules the world, that God makes no mistake, that God has
promised to make all things work for good to those who love Him. (W. Park,
M. A.)
Lest we forget
How good a gift is memory! Of all the gracious benefits conferred
on mortal men by God there is none more useful, none more precious. By memory
we are enabled to lay by a store of precious thoughts and gracious
reminiscences against the days to come. By memory we can stud our minds with
promises and precepts from the Word of God, as the midnight heavens are studded
with the twinkling of stars. But alas! memory has fallen with the rest of our
powers. Do you not know from sad experience how readily evil is retained? When
you would fain erase it from the page, the dark letters still appear. Things
that we thought we had with a tenacious grip are torn away from us, or slip
from our grasp, and the place that knew them knows them no more. Our memories
have failed us. By a good memory I mean a memory that lets slip that which is
not worth holding, and holds as with a death grip that which is most worth preserving.
I. Notice first,
that God graciously gives warning of the danger. Is not this right good of Him?
1. He knows us thoroughly--better, far better, than we know
ourselves. The people of His choice were prone to forget Him, therefore did He
constantly sound this warning note. To them, I suppose, it seemed impossible,
certainly improbable, that they would forget the things that their eyes had
seen. Forget Egypt, the furnace of iron? You would have thought that these
experiences had been burned into them by the very fire of the furnace through
which they passed. Forget their redemption and deliverance, the night of the
Passover, and the passage of the Red Sea? Forget God, who had delivered them
times out of number, who had spoken to them out of the midst of the fire? This
same sad principle holds good today. We used to think that the experiences of
our early Christian life would linger with us and influence us for good through
all our days. As one who says “I will remember,” and makes a knot in his handkerchief
in order to assist his memory, and then forgets why he made the knot, so our
efforts to remember God and the things of God have proved fruitless. Are you
not aware--let it be a matter for sorrowful confession if so--that you have
sometimes forgotten that you have been purged from your old sins? You have been
indulging in them again. That looks as if you had forgotten the cleansing from
them. The peril still exists, but to be forewarned is to he forearmed.
Moreover, God knows just when and where this peril is likely to be greatest. If
you will turn to Deuteronomy 6:12 you will understand my
meaning better. There is much meaning in the “then.” You must read what
precedes it in Deuteronomy 6:10. There is no season so
perilous, in this particular, as the season of prosperity. The fear is that
when all things are crowding into us, God should be crowded out. You will find
it comparatively easy to remember God and to recollect His dealings with you in
the past when laid upon a bed of sickness, or when bereaved or troubled.
Sometimes God permits these dispensations to give us a pause in the rush of
life, and opportunity to call to remembrance.
II. He supplies
valuable instruction. He does not content Himself with waving a red flag before
us; He stops the train, and gives instructions to the driver and the guard.
“Take heed to thyself.” It means literally, “Be watchful.” This is just where
we fail, as a rule; the watchtower is deserted. Strengthen the guard rather
than reduce it, and see to it that everything that would enter the mind is
challenged as it approaches, and that all that would go out that should remain
within the walls is prevented from passing through the portals. “Keep thy soul
diligently.” It is the same idea as we have already mentioned. As one might
call to another whom he saw to be in danger, “Look out,--look out!” Here is a
further instruction, “Teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” “For whose
benefit, think you, is this instruction given? for that of the sons and of the
grandsons? Yea, verily; but do they reap all the benefit? I tell you,
sirs, one of the best ways to remember things that are most worth remembering
is to pass them on to others.
III. I have this
further to say, that He provides welcome aids to memory. He remembers our
frame, He knows that we are but dust; therefore does He come to our assistance.
He calls us like little children to His kindergarten school, and makes the
learning easy. There are ways of schooling the mind and training the memory;
there are certain aids and helps. The law of association serves a good purpose
in this respect, and object lessons lend always a pleasing succour. Certainly
it is so in the things of God. To Israel God gave the Passover, constantly
repeating it to remind them of that wondrous night when He brought them out of
the house of bondage with a high hand and an outstretched arm. To Israel He
gave the varied ritual of the Mosaic dispensation, that they might never forget
the doctrines of sin and of salvation, and that without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. To Israel He gave the ark, in which was the pot of
manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of stone. All these were aids to
memory. After just this fashion God deals with His spiritual Israel, providing
aids to memory, lest we forget. Heavenly influences are with us constantly,
angel ministries work for our help and succour; holy exercises, if we do but
engage in them in the right spirit, tend in the same direction. Prayer brings
us to the mercy seat, and sends us full-handed home. Praise puts a harp into
our hands, and causes us to sing our thankfulness to God. The ordinances of worship
and opportunities for service all help to keep us in touch with heaven, and to
keep our hearts aglow with godliness. The Word is one of God’s aids to memory.
You can hide the Word of the Lord in your heart, lest you forget. I would have
you remember, too, that the ordinances that the Saviour has established are for
this same purpose. Think of believers’ baptism. The Lord’s Supper is instituted
for this same purpose; it is a reminder of all that has passed in connection
with our spiritual experience. “This do,” said He, “in remembrance of Me.” How
often we pray the prayer of the dying thief, “Lord, remember me.” It is a right
good prayer. Mothers may forget their children rather than that Jesus should
have us out of His mind, but I tell what is possible--that you and I should
forget Him. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
Memory aided by sight and instruction
We may have no memory for words: had we committed the lesson to an
intellectual recollection we might have been excused for forgetting somewhat of
its continuity and exactness; the point is, that we are called to remember
things which our eyes have seen. The eye is meant to be the ally of the memory.
Many men can only remember through the vision; they have no memory for things
abstract, but once let them see dearly an object or a writing, and they say
they can hold the vision evermore. God’s providence appeals to the eye; God’s
witnesses are eyewitnesses--not inventors, but men who can speak to
transactions which have come under their immediate and personal observation;
they have seen and tasted and handled of the Word of Life. What a loss it is to
forget the noble past! How treacherous is the memory of ingratitude; all
favours have gone for nothing; all kind words, all stimulating exhortations,
all great and ennobling prayers--forgotten in one criminal act. To empty the
memory is to silence the tongue of praise; not to cherish the recollection is
to lose the keenest stimulus which can be applied to the excitement and
progress of the soul. On the other hand, he whose memory is rich has a song for
every day; he who recollects the past in all its deliverances, in all its
sudden brightnesses, in all its revelations and appearances, cannot be
terrified or chased by the spirit of fear; he lives a quiet life, deep as the
peace of God. Can Moses suggest any way of keeping the memory of God’s
providences quick and fresh? He lays down the true way of accomplishing this
purpose: “Teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons,”--in other words, speak
about them, dwell upon them, magnify them, be grateful for them; put down the
day, the date, the punctual time when the great deliverances occurred, and when
the splendid revelations were granted; and go over the history line by line and
page by page, and thus keep the recollection verdant, quick as life, bright as
light. What a reproach to those Christians who are dumb! How much they lose who
never speak about God! To speak of the mercies of God is to increase the power
of witness at another point. We first see, then we teach. The teaching of others
is not to come until there has been clear perception on our own part. The
eyewitness is doubly strong in whatever testimony he may make: not only can he
tell a clear story from end to end, he can sign it with both hands, he can
attest it with the certainty and precision of a man who has seen the things to
which he sets his signature. Our Christianity amounts to nothing if it is not a
personal experience. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Teach them thy sons.
Instruction of children
An Englishman visiting Sweden, noticing their care for educating
children who are taken from the streets and highways and placed in special
schools, inquired if it were not costly. He received the suggestive answer,
“Yes, it is costly, but not dear. We Swedes are not rich enough to let a child
grow up in ignorance, misery, and crime, to become a scourge to society as well
as a disgrace to himself.” (The Lantern.)
Training of children
As Alexander the Great attained to have such a puissant army,
whereby he conquered the world, by having children born and brought up in his
camp, whereby they became so well acquainted and exercised with weapons from
their swaddling clothes that they looked for no other wealth or country but to
fight; even so, if thou wouldst have thy children either to do great matters,
or to live honestly by their own virtuous endeavours, thou must acquaint them
with painstaking in their youth, and so bring them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord. (Cawdray.)
The echo of childhood’s years
One of the most memorable incidents of my boyhood was the hearing
of a remarkable echo at a famous health resort. Long after the voice had
sounded there came back the echo of it, so distinct and clear as to seem a
response. Is not the echo a parable of life? Childhood’s years cannot be recalled,
nor its actions repeated; yet they will re-echo for us in the coming days
sounds of gladness or of sorrow as their character may have been. Through the
corridors of memory the melody of a pure, noble, and unselfish youth will be
heard, gladdening the heart of age when the days of action have given place to
the days of reminiscence. (Great Thoughts.)
Verse 14
That ye might do them.
Knowledge and practice
I. God is the one
great source both of truth and of authority.
1. The office of every true teacher is to unfold the revelation of
the Eternal, whether in nature, in history, or in the written Word.
2. The office of every true lawgiver and ruler is to expound and
enforce the precepts and commandments of the Lord of lords. There is no sound
knowledge, and no law worthy of reverence, which does not emanate from the
Supreme.
II. True religion
corresponds to the composite nature of man, as a being possessed of intelligence
and endowed with will.
1. False religions are one-sided: they either embody certain theories
and doctrines and neglect morality, or they prescribe certain services without
basing them on eternal truth.
2. Judaism appealed to the understanding in its many statements
regarding God and regarding human life; it appealed to the practical nature in
its rigid prescriptions of duty, its rigid prohibitions of sin.
3. Christianity is the highest example of the combination of the
doctrinal and the moral, laying a foundation of truth and love, and rearing
upon it an edifice of obedience and holiness.
III. Acceptable
obedience consists in at once receiving the Gospel and doing the will of
Christ. An empty profession of faith and a soulless conformity of conduct are
alike repugnant to a heart-searching God. The true Christian shows his faith by
his works. (Family Churchman.)
The Lord hath taken you.
, to be unto Him a people of inheritance.
The chosen of the Lord
I. The people
alluded to.
1. The title they may claim. “The chosen of God.”
2. The mercy shown. “The Lord hath taken you.”
3. The practical result. “Hath brought you forth.”
II. The place
whence removed. “The iron furnace.”
1. The rigour of the imprisonment.
2. The bitterness of the position. The land of Egypt is always used
in Scripture to represent the kingdom of Satan. And so the idea here developed
is the deliverance of God’s Church
III. The position
provided. It is worthy of notice that this position is not one of mere selfish
gratification. It is one that promoted first and chiefly the glory of God.
There are two particulars given.
1. God selected and delivered His people that they may be His people.
This is a condition of high honour--to be the people of the Most High is worthy
of an archangel. It is a condition of blessed security. The people of God are
as the apple of His eye. He will guide and protect them as the most precious
treasures. It is a position of glorious anticipation.
2. God selects His people that they may be His inheritance. (Preacher’s
Analyst.)
God’s heritage
Israel was the only people on earth chosen by God of old. This
came to pass because of the faith of Abraham. God was the God of Abraham’s
posterity. The choice was absolute and universal. All might go forth from
Egypt. Young and old, man and wife, sick and sound, etc., etc. In brief, all
that pertained to the people might go forth over the Red Sea and sing God’s
praise. How great, then, was the Divine mercy! And what hope does this give us
in view of the thought that there will be many received into the kingdom of
heaven--a number greater and more comprehensive, it may be, than men sometimes
think.
I. Israel was
God’s heritage.
1. He calls them His heritage. He desired at least to have one spot
on earth whilst as yet all earth was subject to the prince of this world. Such
could only come through a faithful man, who had become free from this
servitude. Such was Abraham, who was commanded to sojourn in Canaan. This land
God chose as His own; and the people to whom He gave it were to be inheritors
of the land, and therefore a people of inheritance unto Him.
2. Thus Moses warned them that in this land, which was a consecrated
land, no idolatry must find place. It was to be separated from all lands in
which the prince of this world had sway. The land remained consecrated to God,
His peculiar possession even when defiled by the people, i.e. when it
took on the character of a heathen land, and because of this was, for a time,
forsaken, as during the Exile.
II. The whole earth
is now God’s.
1. Since Christ died Canaan ceased to be the especially holy land
consecrated to God. Now the whole earth belongs to Him, for now the prince of
the world has been ousted. Every spot is now God’s holy land, where God’s
children gather together--where the true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent
are worshipped. Humanity is now God’s heritage, purchased by the blood of
Christ.
2. The idea, therefore, that Israel will again have to occupy Canaan
as God’s inheritance has no support, for the whole earth is the Lord’s, all is
equally His, as once Canaan was. God will have Himself to be acknowledged
everywhere as once He was in Canaan. Wherefore, then, now a holy land in
opposition to other lands? Now we sing with the angels, “Holy,” etc., “the
whole earth is full of His glory,” i.e. the glory of God is to be
extolled now everywhere as once in Canaan. Therefore the Lord said to His
disciples: “Blessed are the meek,” etc.
not
only citizens of the erstwhile holy land only, but of the whole world.
3. May we, through our faith and our reliance on God and Him whom He
has sent, make every place holy ground, as the possession of God’s inheritance.
For He fills all with the fulness of His Divine glory, or will yet fill all. (J.
C. Blumhardt.)
God’s deliverance of Israel out of the iron furnace
First, for the terms of their deliverance, to speak of them, which
are here propounded two manner of ways, in the general and in the particular.
The general, Egypt. The particular, the furnace of iron.
I. We begin first
of all with the general proposition, which, though it be last in order of
Scripture, yet is first in order of nature, and that is Egypt. This was the
place which they were delivered from, which when we have considered how
miserable a place it was, and especially to them, we shall see the greatness of
their deliverance. The place, I say, in general was Egypt, which we find these
Israelites to be very often put in mind of in Scripture upon all occasions (Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 16:12; Deuteronomy 24:18; Deuteronomy 24:22).
1. It was a place of exile or peregrination. This the Scripture does
very much insist on. That they were strangers in the land of Egypt (Psalms 114:1). The world to the children
of God is but as the land of strangers. It is heaven which is their proper home
and their Father’s house. It should make them the more willing to go when God
calls them by seasonable dissolution, in that here they are but in a land of
strangers. That was not all, nor the main thing, which was considerable in
Egypt.
2. It was, moreover, a land of idolaters. There is matter of
pollution. It was hard for Israel to be long in Egypt, and not in a great
measure to partake with them in their idolatries. Oh, it is a great mercy to be
kept from sinful allurements, especially considering what inclinations are in
ourselves to the closing with them, we have a nature in us which is like dry
tinder to these sparks. And therefore to be prevented from the occasion is so
much the greater advantage. As there is pollution in these things in regard of
nature, so there is offensiveness in regard of grace. Evil examples and
temptations, if they do not defile us, yet they cannot but offend and grieve us
and expose us more to sin, so they trouble us and expose us more to grief,
prove wearisome and tedious to us. There is also danger in them, too, in regard
to the consequents. Danger both to body and soul. For ourselves, let us bless
God that He has graciously given us the opportunities of knowledge, and
delivered us from the Egypt both of Paganism and Popery.
II. The second is
as it is laid down in particular, and that is the iron furnace (1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4).
1. First, here is affliction in general compared to a furnace (Isaiah 48:10). Afflictions are the fiery
trial to test God’s people, and purge away the dross (1 Peter 4:12).
2. For this affliction in particular which now happened to Israel, it
is called the iron furnace. Both in the letter and in the moral. In the letter.
First, because those furnaces which they wrought in were such as in which iron
was melted. And so from the work they were employed in, furnaces of iron. But
then secondly, of iron in the moral. First, an hard and laborious employment.
Iron is an emblem of severity. Then, secondly, as from the sharpness of it, so
from the continuance of it likewise (Psalm evil. 20). The use which we are to
make of this observation to ourselves is therefore, first, not to wonder at it,
or to think much of it, but to expect it. The refiner puts the gold into the
furnace, and the potter puts the clay into the fire, and both of them to very
good purpose; and so does God. Again, we should be careful to find afflictions
to have this efficacy upon us, to wit, of refining us.
III. The Author of
their deliverance, and that is expressed here to be God himself the Lord.
1. First, it is He alone hath the bowels, it is He alone that hath
the strength. Deliverance of others out of trouble is an act of pity and
compassion. Now, none but only God has so much of this in them towards the
Church; we shall see in the book of the Lamentations the complaining of the
want of commiseration in others towards her; but this God hath in Him
abundance.
2. Secondly, none but He hath the strength. The adversaries of the
Church are potent, and therefore need to have one of power to deal with them.
And this is God Himself; the Almighty and All-sufficient. Therefore still let
Him be both repaired to, as also acknowledged in such providences as these are.
IV. The manner of
it. This we have expressed in two words, “Taken you and brought you forth.”
Though one might have served the turn for the signification of the deliverance,
yet two are made use of to make it so much the more emphatical.
1. First, an emphasis of appropriation, “taken you,” that is, laid
claim unto you, as a man that seizes upon that which is his own when it is in
the hand of strangers.
2. Secondly, as there is in it an emphasis of appropriation, so
likewise an emphasis of affection. “He hath taken you,” that is, with a great
deal of tenderness and regard unto you (Deuteronomy 22:11).
“Hath brought you,” and this, as well as the other, hath a double
force in it.
1. First, there is power in it. “Bring you forth,” that is, forced
you forth, whether your enemies would or no.
2. Secondly, there is also solemnity in it. “He brought them forth,” i.e.
in triumph, as with a strong hand so with a stretched-out arm, as the
Scripture also expresses it (Deuteronomy 5:15). Now, from both these
expressions together we see the thing itself sufficiently declared, that God
did at last deliver His people out of captivity (Psalms 81:6; Psalms 81:8; Psalms 81:13). Though God suffers His
servants sometimes to fall into the hand of their enemies, yet He does at
length free them from them. This He doth upon divers considerations. First, out
of His own compassion (Psalms 103:9; Isaiah 57:16). Secondly, out of respect
to His people, lest they should be discouraged and provoked to evil (Psalms 125:3). Thirdly, out of regard to
the enemies, lest they should insult (Deuteronomy 32:26-27). Let this,
therefore, be the use which we make of it to ourselves. First, to expect it,
whereas yet it is not. Secondly, to acknowledge it, and to improve it there
where it is. And so much may suffice to have spoken of the first general part
of the text, namely, the deliverance itself.
V. The end or
consequent of this deliverance, and that we have in these words, “To be unto
Him a people of inheritance as ye are this day.” In which passage we have again
two particulars. First, the design itself, and secondly, the amplification of
it.” The design itself, “To be unto Him a people of inheritance.” The
amplification of it. “As ye are this day.” I begin with the first, namely, the
design itself, To be unto Him a people of inheritance, This is that which God
aimed at concerning Israel. Now, this may again admit of a double
interpretation, either so as for Him to be their inheritance, or else so as for
them to be His. The Scripture makes mention of either in sundry places. First,
for Him to be theirs. This is the privilege of God’s people. That the Lord
Himself is their portion and inheritance and so expresses Himself to be to them
(Psalms 16:5). David, speaking of himself,
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup: Thou maintainest
the lot. And so of Levi it is said, that the Lord is his inheritance (Deuteronomy 10:9). And the Church, (Lamentations 3:24) “The Lord is my
portion,” etc. This is a great comfort to the godly, and to those which are
most destitute amongst them, to live upon the power of this truth, what though
they have none of the great inheritance of the world. Yet as long as they have
a portion in God they have that which may abundantly satisfy them, and keep
them from dejection, forasmuch as from henceforth no good thing shall be
wanting unto them, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” How so? It
follows in the next words, “And I will be his God,” etc. (Revelation 21:7). The second is for them
to be His. This is another thing which the Scripture makes mention of (Psalms 33:12; Deuteronomy 32:9; Psalms 28:9). An inheritance contains
three things in it. First, some good and advantage. Secondly, peculiarity and
propriety of interest. Thirdly, succession and derivation of it to posterity.
Now, according to all these notions of it does God make choice of His people to
be an inheritance to Himself. This, therefore, first of all teaches us what we
ourselves should be, namely, such as are wholly devoted and consecrated to Him
(1 Corinthians 6:20). We are the
inheritance of God, therefore we should not suffer Satan to get possession of
us, nor any evil to prevail upon us. Secondly, here is matter of comfort to the
true Church and people of God, that being His inheritance He will therefore
take care of them and protect them, and keep them from evil. I desire now,
further, to enforce it as a duty which is belonging to you to take care of it
especially; we should all in our several opportunities endeavour the
continuance of the Church in succeeding time. That God may have to Himself a
portion and people of inheritance, even when we are in our graves. This is
done, first of all, by being good in our own generation. Secondly, by taking
care of others, and educating them in His fear. Now, further, we may look upon
it also as a consequent, and so see the connection of these two both together.
How did God, bringing His people forth out of Egypt, make them to be to Him a
people of inheritance, namely, thus far, as they had now larger opportunities
for the serving of Him afforded unto them than while they were in Egypt, they
were there restrained in regard of the idolatrous people, which they were
mingled withal, but now being escaped they were more at liberty. This,
therefore, is the advantage which we should still make of such opportunities (Luke 1:74-75). And so much of the first
particular observable in this second general, namely, the design itself to be,
etc. The second is the amplification of it. “As ye are this day.” In which
clause we have three things especially hinted to us concerning God. First, the
accomplishment of His purposes. Secondly, the certainty of His promises.
Thirdly, the continuance of His performances. Now, from hence will follow
another point as our duty, which is here also to be observed, and that is, that
we are accordingly to call them to our minds, and so from thence make them
fresh unto us, as if done at this present time. It is that which Moses
endeavours to make these Israelites do here in the text, who reminds them of a
mercy which was done many years ago for them, as if it had been done for them
just at that time. This is the scope of this narration, and this also hath been
the practice of the saints of God in other places (Psalms 78:1; Psalms 78:6). (T. Herren, D. D.)
I must die in this land.
The death of Moses
1. Though a life may appear to us to receive the crown of failure, it
may for all that be acceptable in God’s sight. No life on earth is complete,
for its completion and fulness is destroyed by sin. Just as a man in things
temporal often falls short of being successful, so does a man in things
eternal. But the latter knows his life will receive its completion hereafter.
2. God is very strict with His children. The service of God is not to
be trifled with. If we are careless we may prevent ourselves from obtaining
some spiritual success in this world which might be a crowning point to our
life.
3. Moses was alone at his death. We must die alone. Our friends
cannot pass through the dark valley with us. But stay--must we be really alone?
The Prince of Life will be with us with His rod and staff, if we ask Him.
4. Moses could not lead the Israelites into Canaan; that was the work
of Joshua. Moses, by giving us the moral law, cannot lead us into heaven. The
moral law in the hand of Moses is unable to accomplish that which the precious
blood of Jesus alone can do. Is Jesus our Leader? (The Weekly Pulpit.)
Verse 24
Even a jealous God.
The jealousy of God
The assertion that such a quality as this belongs to God as
one of the attributes of His moral character involves a number of deep and
awful considerations; they seem to include the love as well as the holiness and
justice of the Deity in one complex idea; and to form, from the union of these
qualities in one attribute of jealousy, a touching, as well as a tremendous,
picture of His feelings towards us. For let us remark, first, that the
existence of jealousy in God implies the previous existence of love. If He had
not loved us Himself He would have been indifferent to our dispositions towards
Him. If He had not felt that love was due from us to Him, as a return for love
already exercised towards us, He would not have resented its being withheld,
nor made use of this phrase as declaratory of the state of His affections. In
agreement with this idea we find that jealousy in God is never spoken of except
with a reference to those whom, in one sense or other, He has called and chosen
as His own; whose love therefore He has a right to claim as due to Himself, in
virtue of some covenant relation; and whose love He has excited by some
previous exercise of favour and benevolence. Any wandering of affections, any
deviation from the truth of allegiance, however slight it may seem to the eye
of indifference, carries wounds and provocation to that of jealousy, and we may
therefore say that such behaviour as this, when existing in the people of God,
is calculated to excite in Him a feeling of resentment analogous to that which
unrequited love and infidelity excite in the heart of man. Let us also remark
that this attribute is peculiar to the true God, to the Jehovah of our worship.
The idols of heathenism were imagined to be ready to share their honours with
another, and were never supposed to object to the devotions which were paid to
deities of other names or of other lands. They felt that they had no exclusive
prerogative to power. They felt, or rather their worshippers felt, that even
while they were the objects of adoration, they had no absolute dominion. And
what was then true with regard to them is equally true with regard to the idols
and idolaters of the world at present. They have no jealousy of one another.
They are only jealous of God, and exhibit no feelings of the sort except when
He is the object of attraction. Again, let us remark that the natural objects
of jealousy are the affections of the heart. Justice may, in some respects, be
thought to fulfil the object of jealousy, but justice is a gross and inactive
feeling in comparison with jealousy. The slights and wanderings which inflict
anguish unspeakable on the heart cannot be put into a balance and have the
extent of their criminality noted by weight. How, then, can we imagine that
justice is the only attribute with which those are concerned whose duty it is
to love God with all their heart, and who are directed to worship Him in spirit
and in truth, if they would worship Him acceptably at all? Under faith in this
attribute of God it is not merely actual sin that we are told to deprecate in
ourselves, or in others, but it is the love of other things than God. Have we
gone, for instance, to seek pleasure in the company of His enemies? Have we
sought our bread in ways which are not His? Have we looked for comfort and
peace and enjoyment in other objects than in His favour? Have we been betrayed
into forgetfulness of His love in the hour of trial? Have we felt coldly in His
service? Whatever our own opinions may have been on such subjects, and whatever
may be the system of the world, we cannot deny, and we cannot doubt, that
these, and all such wanderings of the heart, must be provocations to a jealous
God. It is perhaps from considering in this manner the attribute of jealousy in
God that we are best able to appreciate the danger of what is commonly called
the world. The world sees the justice of God, and the world fears it, and
therefore it is cautious of advising anything which may seem to provoke it. But
if the words of our text be true--“If the Lord our God be a consuming fire,
even a jealous God, what are the terrors of His justice compared with those of
His jealousy? Compared with jealousy, justice seems a cold, deliberating
principle. It comes, but its very name implies that it comes slowly and
maturely. It comes, but it may be pleaded with; it may be reasoned against; it
may be retarded or mollified by our reasonings. But jealousy is like fire. It
comes to act, to consume; and little has the world gained for its votaries by
teaching them to try not to offend the justice of God, while it encourages them
daily to provoke His jealousy. For, lastly, let us remark on this subject the
violence of those feelings which jealousy brings into action. Do we not see
that among, ourselves it bursts at once the tenderest ties of which the heart
of man is conscious? Founded on justice as its principle, but quickened by
resentment in its action, it seems the most tremendous quality which we are
capable of provoking against ourselves; and indeed, as it is peculiarly
directed against that which is thought to be of all sins the most
offensive--the sin of ingratitude--and of ingratitude, not for favours, but for
love--it may well excite terror in those against whom it may be directed from
our Maker. Let us close this subject with considering the degree in which we
ourselves may be in danger of experiencing its exercise. If jealousy, which
arises from love and proceeds only from love, is to be in proportion to that
love which it proceeds from, what jealousy can be compared to that with which
God is jealous now towards His people? (H. Raikes, M. A.)
If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.
Conversions encouraged
I. First, then,
there is a time mentioned. “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord . . . When
thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee even in the
latter days.”
1. The time in which the Lord bids you seek Him, O you unforgiven
ones, is, first of all, “from thence”--that is, from the condition into which
you have fallen, or the position which you now occupy. Today, even today, He
bids you seek Him “with all your heart and with all your soul.”
2. With regard to the time of turning, it is well worthy of our
notice that we are specially encouraged to turn unto the Lord if we are in a
painful plight. Our text says, “When thou art in tribulation.” Are you sick?
Does your weakness increase upon you? Are you apprehensive that this sickness
may even be unto death? When thou art in such tribulation, then thou mayest
return to Him. A sick body should lead us the more earnestly to seek healing
for our sick soul. Are you poor, have you come down from a comfortable position
to one of hard labour and of scant provision? When thou art in this
tribulation, then turn to the Lord, for He has sent thee this need to make thee
see thy yet greater necessity, even thy need of Himself.
3. Notice further, when you feel that the judgments of God have begun
to overtake you, then you may come to Him: “When thou art in tribulation and
all these things” - these threatened things - “are come upon thee.”
4. There is yet one more word which appears to me to contain great
comfort in it, and it is this, “even in the latter days.” It is a beautiful
sight, though it is mingled with much sadness, to see a very old man become a
babe in Christ--to see him, after he has been so many years the proud, wayward,
self-confident master of himself, at last learning wisdom and sitting at Jesus
feet. They hang up in the cathedrals and public halls old banners which have
long been carried by the enemy into the thick of the fight. If they have been
torn by shot and shell, so much the more do the captors value them: the older
the standard the more honour is it, it seems, to seize it as a trophy.
II. But now look at
the way appointed. To find mercy, “what are we bidden to do? “If from thence
thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.”
1. We have not, then, to bring anything to God, but to seek Him. We
have not to seek a righteousness to bring to Him, nor seek a state of heart
which will fit us for Him, but to seek Him at once. Salvation is not by doing,
nor by being, nor by feeling, but simply by believing. We are not to be content
with self, but to seek the Lord. Being ourselves unworthy, we are to find
worthiness in Jesus.
2. We are also to grasp the Lord as ours, for the text says, “Thou
shalt seek the Lord thy God.” Sinners, that is a part of saving faith, to take
God to be your God; if He is only another man’s God, He cannot save you; He
must be yours to trust and love and serve all your days, or you will be lost.
3. Now, mark God’s directions--“If thou seek Him with all thy heart
and with all thy soul.” There must be no pretence about this seeking. If you
desire to be saved, there must be no playing and trifling and feigning. The
search must be real, sincere, and earnest, intense, thorough going, or it will
be a failure.
4. The text further adds that we are to turn to Him. Did you notice
the 30th verse--“If thou turn to the Lord thy God”? It must be a thorough turn.
You are looking now towards the world--you must turn in the opposite direction,
and look Godward. It must not be an apparent turn, but a real change of the
nature, a turning of the entire soul; a turning with repentance for the past,
with confidence in Christ for the present, and with holy desires for the
future. Heart, soul, life, speech, action, all must be changed.
5. Then it is added, “and be obedient to His voice,” for we cannot be
saved in disobedience; Christ is not come to save His people in their sins, but
from their sins.
III. Thirdly, the
text contains very rich encouragements. How does it run?
1. “For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake
thee.” Catch at that, sinner,--“He will not forsake thee.” If He were to say,
“Let him alone, Ephraim is given unto idols,” it would be all over with you;
but if you seek Him, He will not say, “Let him alone,” nor take His Holy Spirit
from you. You are not yet given up, I hope, or you would not have been here.
2. And then it is added, “Neither destroy thee.” You have been afraid
He would; you have often thought the earth would open and swallow you: you have
been afraid to fall asleep lest you should never wake again; but the Lord will
not destroy you; nay, rather He will reveal His saving power in you.
3. There is a sweeter word still in the 29th verse, “Thou shalt find
Him if thou seek Him.” What more, poor sinner, what more dost thou want?
4. Then there are two reasons given: “For the Lord thy God is a
merciful God.” Oh guilty soul, the Lord does not want to destroy you. Judgment
is His strange work. Oh soul, God has such a care for man. He waits to be
gracious, and His Spirit goes forth towards sinners; therefore return to Him.
5. Now dwell upon that last argument - “He will not forget the
covenant of thy fathers.” The covenant always keeps open the path between God
and man. The Lord has made a covenant concerning poor sinners with His Son
Jesus Christ. He has laid help upon One that is mighty, and given Him for a covenant
to the people. He evermore remembers Jesus, and how He kept that covenant; He
calls to mind His sighs and death throes, and He fulfils His promise for the
great Sufferer’s sake. God’s grace has kept His covenant on the behalf of men;
God is even eager, to forgive, that He may reward Christ, and give Him to see
of the travail of His soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeking God
I. What is
involved in seeking God?
1. A sense of dissatisfaction with distance from Him. When men have
all they want they do not set out upon a quest. Only the heart that feels the
destitution and misery of being without God will address itself to this quest.
2. A conviction that God is to be found. Men do not seek for fruits
and grain upon the ocean, but they seek them with assurance from the soil they
till. Doubtless many, searching in the wrong direction, have exclaimed, “Who
can, by searching, find out God?” But those who look for the Eternal in His
Word, and especially in the person of His Son, cannot look in vain.
3. The seeking for God to be successful must be sincere, earnest,
diligent--i.e. “with all thy heart and with all thy soul”--more eagerly
and resolutely than men in the East sought for hidden treasure, than men seek
for health, knowledge, wealth or fame. Those who thus seek for Christ--“the
pearl of great price”--are not far from Him.
III. What is
promised to those who thus seek God?
1. They shall find the Object of their desire: “They that seek Me
early shall find Me. Not like the search for the philosopher’s stone, which men
foolishly wasted life in endeavouring to find.
2. They shall find God in Christ.
3. In Christ they shall find “rest to their souls,” joy, life
eternal. They who find Christ find Him never to lose Him, or aught that He
bestows. (Family Churchman.)
Great sinners encouraged to return to God
I. A few cases to
which this language applies.
1. “I have gone great lengths in sin. I was a drunkard and
blasphemer. God has now brought me into trouble; I cannot live long, and yet
fear to die.” “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord,” etc.
2. “I was born of religious parents, I was long weary of religion,
and wished to be free. At length my father died, and I gave myself up to evil,
and now no one cares for my soul.” “But if from thence,” etc.
3. “My conduct has been correct and orderly; but I have prided myself
upon it; I have lived a Pharisee. Now I feel the need of something with which
to appear before God.” Well, “If from thence,” etc.
4. “I have made a profession of religion and thought well of my
state, but indulged in secret sins, and afterwards in outward transgressions,
and now I am all outcast; everyone shuns me.” “But if from thence,” etc.
5. “Though I have not lost my character, yet I have lost my peace of
mind; I am a backslider.” “But if from thence, etc.
II. The grounds on
which this encouragement rests. (A. Fuller.)
The penitent certain of acceptance
I. Now, the first
thing that strikes us in this address is, that it is based upon the
anticipation that the Jews would abuse their Maker’s blessings; that comfort
would breed luxury, and luxury would wean the heart from God; that His place
would be usurped by idols, till He should be provoked to withdraw His favour
and protection. All this is foreseen as the natural propensity of the human
heart. And yet, though evil is spoken of as the inevitable consequence of sin,
the case was not desperate; however disgraced they might be by the tyranny of
men, or degraded by the bondage of Satan, they might still find mercy from the
Being they had incensed. But there is another feeling which is met by the
gracious assurance of our text, which is very apt to prove a stumbling block to
those whose eyes are newly opened to their sins.
II. We might
persuade ourselves that God will not utterly cast off those who seek Him in
sincerity and truth; but how can we tell whether our feelings are earnest
enough, and pure enough, and abiding enough to prevail with Him to listen to
our prayer? As long as we thought we might trifle with safety we put off
religion to a more convenient season; and it was not till our fears became
intolerable that we besought Him heartily that He would save us; but terror is
not conversion, and who will ensure that the present feelings will be lasting
if the danger be withdrawn? or who can tell whether, indeed, they are anything
but a foretaste of eternal torment? Again, would not the world continue to be
dear to us if its gifts were not embittered by Providence? We turn to God in
our trouble; but it is the mere selfishness of those who find that they have no
other comforter. Will He be satisfied with such a worthless offering as this?
Oh! well may Scripture say that “His ways are not as our ways,” when it
declares at the same time that such applications are welcome to Him. We bring
to Him little but disappointed hopes and blighted feelings and enfeebled
health; we have tried every broken cistern before we would apply to the
fountain; and even when we come at last, we come rather to escape impending
punishment than from any regret for having violated our duty towards Him; and
yet He scorns us not. The aged sinner, who is tottering towards the tomb, he
may bring the poor remains of an ill-spent life, and find himself received at
the eleventh hour. The widowed mourner, who placed all her happiness below till
death snatched it from her, she may turn to the God of all consolation, and
find Him a husband to herself, and a father to the fatherless around her. The
convert, in all his newborn indignation, though he is sensible that he is more
anxious to escape the wrath to come than the evil which provokes it, shall be
accepted according to that he hath, and more shall be imparted for his
improvement. I do not say that such motives are the purest or the strongest by
which we can be actuated; but I say the question is whether our hearts are
really changed or no, and not in what motive the change may have originated. Do
you ask, then, whether your feelings are such as will prevail upon God to
listen to your prayers? Prove them by acting immediately and perseveringly upon
them. The tree is known by the fruit which it produces; and those, be sure, are
proper feelings which bring you in a state of humiliation to the Cross of
Christ. (J. Stainforth, M. A.)
God to be found by seeking
I. Notice a few
cases to which this language applies.
1. The openly profane and immoral.
2. Those who were religiously educated.
3. The formal professor.
4. The backslider. The dying sinner.
II. Observe the
grounds on which the encouragement rests.
1. The character of God.
2. The work of Christ.
3. The promises of the Gospel.
4. Scriptural examples of pardoned and accepted sinners.
III. Improve the
subject.
1. It takes away all ground of excuse from the impenitent.
2. It takes away all ground of despair from the contrite. (G.
Brooks.)
Those that seek God shall find Him
At one place to which I went I saw a dear soul to whom I put the
question, “Are you converted?” “I was once”--given with, oh, such a
disconsolate aspect!--“I was once, but that is all gone. I was a worker for Him
once,” he said, with a sob, “but it is all different now.” My heart went out to
that one. Why? There is a fire in a room, and you are crouching in a cold
comer, far away from the fire. You do not say that the fire has forsaken you.
Oh no, you have left the fire; conscious of that fact, you go back to it, and
are soon again basking in its warmth. Ah, those who seek Him find Him, and He
is so loving and so forgiving, in spite of all the hard thoughts which you had
of Him. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (W. Haslam.)
Earnest seeking successful
Success in this world comes only to those who exhibit
determination. Can we hope for salvation unless our mind is truly set upon it?
Grace makes a man be as resolved to be saved as the beggar was to get to Jesus
and gain his sight. “I must see him,” said an applicant at the door of a public
person. “You cannot see him,” said the servant; but the man waited at the door.
A friend went out to him and said, “You cannot see the master, but I can give
you an answer;” “No,” said the importunate pleader, “I will stay all night on
the doorstep, but I will see the man himself. He alone will serve my turn.” You
do not wonder that, after many rebuffs, he ultimately gained his point. It
would be an infinitely greater wonder if an importunate sinner did not obtain
an audience from the Lord Jesus. If you must have grace, you shall have it. If
you will not be put off you shall not be put off. Whether things look
favourable or unfavourable, press on till you find Jesus, and you shall find
Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Trouble often drives people to God
There is a story told that in the olden time Artaxerxes and
another great king were engaged in a furious fight. In the middle of the battle
an eclipse happened, and such was the horror of the warriors that they made
peace then and there. Happy will you be if your trouble will cause you to fly
to the arms of God. If you tell your troubles to Him you put them into the
grave; if you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again like the
stone of Sisyphus. The springs at the base of the Alpine mountains are fullest
when the summer sun has dried and parched the verdure in the valleys below. The
heat that has burned the arid plains has melted mountain glacier and snow, and
increased the volume of the mountain streams. Thus when adversity has dried the
springs of earthly comfort, the saint has the fulness of the springs of
salvation.
The heart reached by adversity
The four seasons once determined to try which could quickest roach
the heart of a stone. Spring coaxed the stone with its gentle breezes, and made
flowers encircle it, and trees to shoot out their branches and embower it, but
all to no purpose, The stone remained indifferent to the beauties of the
spring, nor would it yield its heart to its gentle caresses. Summer came next,
and caused the sun to shine on the stone, hoping to melt its obdurate heart;
but though the surface of the stone grew warm, it quickly became cold again when
not under the influence of the summer sun’s rays. Summer thus being unable by
any degree of warmth to penetrate the flinty nature of the stone, gave place to
autumn. Believing that the stone had been treated with too much kindness, the
autumn withered the flowers and stripped the trees of their leaves, and
threatened and blustered, but still the stone remained impassive. Winter came
next. First it sent strong winds, which laid the stone bare, then it sent a
cold rain, and next a hard frost, which cleaved the stone and laid bare its
heart. So many a heart, which neither gentleness, warmth, nor threats can
touch, is reached by adversity. (A. Freeman.)
Verse 32
Ask now of the days that are past.
Inquiry of the past
1. The past may refer to--
2. Inquiry of the past.
(a) Thoughtlessness.
(b) Guilt.
(c) A false philosophy.
(a) Because the past is in existence now.
(b) Because for the past we are responsible.
(c) Because the past is full of useful lessons.
I. Ask of past
blessings. How have they been received?
1. The blessings.
Prayers answered, inspiring and uplifting influences imparted,
help rendered, soul’s need supplied, strength in trial, light in darkness,
wisdom in ignorance, discipline to purify and perfect.
2. Their reception. Have they been received--
II. Ask of past
opportunities. How have they been used?
1. Opportunities of getting good.
2. Opportunities of doing good.
III. Ask of past
sills. Have they been repented of and pardoned?
1. Sins of omission.
2. Sins of commission.
The days that are past
An imperial philosopher, having divided time into the past,
the present, and the future, says, we should give the past to oblivion, the
present to duty, and the future to Providence. Now, we admire two of these
admonitions. We readily give the future to Providence, and we ought to give the
present to duty, so that “whatsoever our hands find to do, we may do it with
our might.” But we can never consent to give the past to oblivion. “God
requires that which is past,” and He requires us to remember it.
I. The past days
of others, those who have lived before us.
1. See that your aim in this be not only, or principally, mere
amusement; but endeavour to derive lessons mental and moral, and religious
instruction, from the characters and the events recorded.
2. Secondly, beware how you place implicit confidence in history.
Endeavour to distinguish between fiction and truth.
3. Relinquish the prejudice which Solomon assails when he says, “Ask
not why the former days were better than these, for thou dost not wisely
concerning this matter.” No, the thing is not true; we ought to be wiser than
the ancients, for we are much more ancient than they. Certainly, the world is
older now than it was ages ago. Surely mankind are not incapable of
intellectual or moral progression and improvement.
II. Those of
yourselves: those which you have passed through in your own history and
experience. These come nearer home, and are more easily reviewed and compared.
There is something very solemn in the thought of days that are past; past,
never to return, while their moral results remain forever as subjects of future
responsibility. And who has not to reckon upon days that are past? for time,
like tide, stays for no man.
1. Let us ask, then, what they have to say concerning the world. Mr.
Savage has strikingly remarked, “I never knew any of the people of the world
praise it at parting.” Nor need we wonder at this: we should wonder if they
did. They have been too much in it, they have seen too much of it, they have
been too much deceived by it, to recommend it to others, when dying, from their
own history and experience.
2. “Ask the days that are past” what they have to say concerning
yourselves. Have they not shown you many things with which you were formerly
unacquainted, and filled you with surprise and regret? Ah! how many convictions
have you violated, how many resolutions have you broken? Instead of the
paradise you promised yourself, you have found yourselves in a wilderness. Have
not your dependencies often proved broken reeds--not only unable to sustain
your hopes, but which have “pierced you through with many sorrows”? And yet
will not these “days that are past” also tell you something else? Will they not
tell you that life has been at least a chequered scene If you have been in the
wilderness, have you not found grace in the sanctuary Have you not had there
the fiery, cloudy pillar to guide you? Have you not had the manna to sustain
you? Have you not had the waters from the rock to refresh you? Have you not had
some of the grapes of Eshcol?
3. “Ask of the days that are past” what they have to say concerning
the Scriptures.
4. “Ask the days that are past” what they have to say concerning our
Lord and Saviour. Ask them whether He has not been a good Master; whether you
cannot say at the end of ten, or twenty, or thirty, or forty, or sixty years,
“Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Lord.” Ask them whether He has not
been a good Master; whether you cannot say at the end of ten, or twenty, or
thirty, or forty, or sixty years, “Thou has dealt well with Thy servant, O
Lord.” Ask them whether He has not been your powerful Helper and your kindest
Friend. Three conclusions are derivable from this:--
The voice of the past
Time is a great mystery. “Time,” says Carlyle, “is forever very
literally a miracle--a thing to strike us dumb; for we have no word to speak
about it.” Strictly speaking, it is we who move, and time stands still,
although the contrary appears to be the ease; as to travellers in any speedy
kind of locomotion, the objects close at hand seem to flit rapidly past them,
whereas they know that it is themselves that are in motion. Of nothing are we
more slow to think than of the nature and value of time, both as regards its
highest present uses and its relation to that eternity from which, by Divine
fiat, it was first drawn, and into which it shall finally return. “The past” is
a very solemn word. It is irrevocably gone, marked on the part of us all by manifold
follies and sins; replete with painful accusations of conscience. Although the
past is so irrevocably gone from our reach that it cannot be used for the
purpose for which it was originally given,--that of living in its duration to
God,--yet a serious review of the past year, for instance, may and, if rightly
made, must, be productive of profit to us all. Just as the ship which has been
totally wrecked, although it can no more traverse the sea, yet its shattered
planks may be rendered serviceable for many useful purposes. Let us ask of the
days that are past--
I. That we may
entertain a humbling consciousness of our own unprofitableness in the use we
have made of our time. Constituted as we are, it is imperative upon us that we
should give much of our attention to the care of the body and to the regulation
of our temporal affairs; yet it is a humbling reflection that beings possessed
of such amazing capacities as those enfolded in every human soul, should have
so much of their attention engaged in things which bear unequivocal marks of
insignificance. Much of the past year has passed in sleep, in providing and
partaking of food, in humble domestic arrangements, in the dull routine of
business or the idle lassitude of relaxation. And who amongst us can plead
guiltless to such charges as these? Who can say of the past year, “Its time has
gone just as I could have wished; I could not desire any future year to be
better spent than this has been”? Alas! none.
II. That we may
have a grateful sense of the Divine goodness and forbearance.
III. That we may, by
Divine help, resolve to correct in the future those things which have been
evils in the past. (J. Foster.)
The goodness of God displayed in creation, providence, and
redemption
I. View the text
as the language of a contemplative and spiritual mind, retired from the cares
of the world, surveying with pious delight the wonders of creation, and tracing
in all the works of God the glory and goodness of their Almighty Maker.
Universal nature proclaims the glory of God. This earth which we inhabit, the
ground upon which we tread, declare to us the greatness and mercy of the
Almighty. How great is its beauty! How beneficial its fruits! By its liberal
provision all former generations have been supported, and from its unexhausted
magazines and varied resources all nations are supplied with food and raiment.
When, from the inanimate creation, the Christian turns his views to the animal
world, he traces there the footsteps of the Almighty, and the operations of His
hand. The beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea,
their shape and figure, their infinite variety, the fit season of their
production, their skill in procuring food, and especially their utility to man,
all testify that the earth is replenished with the Creator’s goodness. Man
himself is the perfection of this lower world. Let the Christian, from himself
and the wonders around him, rise to the contemplation of the heavenly bodies.
These celestial luminaries instruct as well as shine. And perhaps, could we
wing our way “beyond this visible diurnal sphere,” and soar above these rolling
planets, we should discover other suns, other stars, other and perhaps nobler
systems, established through the boundless regions of space. But here inquiry
stops; here our views terminate; yet from such a survey of the heavens and the
earth we feel an elevating impulse: we are lost in wonder and admiration.
II. Consider the
text as the reflection of a child of providence, after a serious and devout
review of the dispensations of God to himself and to others. Nothing yields us
so certain a conviction of the providence of God, or evinces so fully its
extent, equity, and care, as the consideration of the experience of it which we
ourselves have had. It will therefore be the frequent and delightful employment
of good men to recall the memory of God’s great goodness, and to reflect upon
the measures of His providence with them in former years. They gratefully
contemplate the Divine care which protected them from many dangers. But with
still Greater satisfaction the Christian reflects upon the care of providence
extended to his spiritual concerns. To Thee, my God, I ascribe all the glory
and the praise of all that I am, and all that I enjoy! To the silent, secret, effectual
influences of Thy Spirit I owe the pleasures of religion which I experience; to
the unseen hand of Thy providence conducting me through the mazes of the world
I ascribe that comfortable situation in life which I have attained. But the
Christian confines not his contemplations upon providence to himself, or the
inconsiderable transactions of his own life. He extends his prospect, and sees
God ruling over all; he views the Almighty sitting upon His throne of justice
and judgment, dispensing to every man a just proportion of good and evil,
according to the counsel of His sovereign will. Numberless events in the course
of providence, indeed, are to him dark and intricate; he cannot penetrate into
their causes, nor assign any satisfactory reason for them. But he checks every
hasty, unguarded thought and expression upon the subject. He knows that only a
small corner of the plan of Divine administration is made known to him; how
these partial evils shall promote the general good, and display the glory of the
sovereign Disposer, he cannot now explain. But a scene far more bright and
joyous opens upon the Christian’s view in the conduct of the Almighty
respecting the redemption of man. He contemplates, with astonishment, that plan
of wisdom and grace into which angels desire to look. He views the kingdom of
Christ advancing in the world, mean and contemptible in its origin, opposed in
its progress by the hostile persecuting spirit of the rulers of the world, yet
gathering strength from every wound, spreading far and wide, including, in
process of time, a great part of the habitable world, and now established on
such solid permanent foundations as affords warrant, even upon principles of
human probability, for believing that no weapon formed against its interests shall
finally prosper. These are subjects which, to the pious, contemplative
Christian, afford inexhaustible matter of delightful meditation and praise.
III. Consider the
text as the breathings of the Christian when adoring the unsearchable riches of
Christ Jesus, and ascribing all his salvation to unmerited sovereign grace.
This is the noblest theme of all. A Christian beholds with delight the Supreme
Judge passing an act of indemnity, and acquitting the sinner from the charge of
guilt, restoring to favour and adopting him into His family. I conclude with a
few practical inferences:--
1. Consider how unsearchable must be the greatness, and how ineffable
the glory, of that God who does so great things for the children of men.
2. Observe the ingratitude, the guilt, and danger of impertinent
sinners, who remain at ease without God and without Christ in this life.
3. Let the children of God give glory to their heavenly Father for
all His mercies. (A. Bonar.)
Did ever people hear the
voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire?--
The speciality of the Bible
This is the eternal challenge of the Bible. The appeal may be
regarded as a call to the study of comparative religion There are many
religions in the world gather them up rote one view, extend the inquiry far and
wide, through time and space, and see whether the Bible does not separate
itself from all other books by miracles that cannot be rivalled and by
excellences that cannot be equalled. The Bible simply wants to be heard, to be
read, and to be understood. It asks nothing from its ablest teachers but a
paraphrase true to its own spirit and tone. It will not have addition; it will
have expansion: it will not be decorated from the outside; it asks that its
root may have full scope to express in leaf and blossom and bud and fruit all
the bloom of its beauty and all the wealth of its uses. This is the position
Moses occupies: we cannot amend the position; we accept it. Note the speciality
which Moses fixes upon. He asks a question--“Did ever people hear the voice of
God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?”--if
so, prove it. The challenge is not a lame one. The Bible awaits the evidences.
We, if earnest men, should be in quest of the best book, without asking who
wrote it or by what authority was it written. If it speak to us as no other
book can speak, we are bound to accept it. Christianity says in effect--What
other religion is there that deals with sin as I deal with it? I do not ignore
it; I do not hasten over it; I do not treat it as a mere incident, or a
cutaneous affection which superficial means may subdue and which proper
attention may remove. What other religion, theory, philosophy, grapples with
sin as Christianity does? It will penetrate it, cleave it asunder, analyse it,
search into it, and never rest until it gets out of the soul the last fibre of
the bad root, the last stain of the fatal poison. Let us be fair to facts;
whether we are in the Church or out of the Church, whether we belong to this
section or to that section, do let us in common decency acknowledge that
Christianity, come whence it may, does grapple with infinite energy with sin.
The appeal of Christianity also is--“Ask now of the days that are past, which
were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask
from the one side of heaven unto the other,” whether any other religion tries
to make the same kind of men that Christianity makes? Let us judge the tree by
its fruit. We are not superstitious or fanatical or narrow-minded; we do ask
the question, and insist upon an answer, Does any other religion make such men
as Christianity makes? Here Christianity must be judged by its purpose, by its
own written word and claim, and not wholly by the men themselves, because we
are still in the land of bondage in many particulars: we are in the flesh; we
suffer from a thousand weaknesses; Christianity, therefore, must be judged in
its declared intention regarding the culture of manhood. What kind of men does
Christianity want to make? Weak men? It never made one weak man. Strong men,
valiant men, men of the keenest mind, men of the largest judgment, men of the
most generous disposition; if that is the kind of men Christianity wants to
make, where is the religion that can excel or equal Christianity in that
purpose? Produce the men! Judge by facts. Where Christianity has entered into a
life, what has it done with that life? Can it be proved that Christianity,
fairly understood and thoroughly received, has soured the temper, narrowed the
sympathies, dwarfed the noble ambitions of the soul? Has Christianity ever made
unhappy homes, unrighteous parents? Let the challenge be thoroughly understood
and frankly replied to. Christianity lives visibly in the Christian.
Christianity wants to put away all other evidence, argument, and wordy
encounter, and to be able to say, Judge me by my children; judge me by my
believers; I am what they are. Therefore, if the Church of the Living God could
stand up complete in the purpose of its Redeemer and Sanctifier, the snowy
pureness of its character, the lofty dignity of its moral temper would abash
every assailant and silence every accuser. Do not be harsh, or point with
mocking finger to some poor weak soul, and say, If this man represents
Christianity we do not want to know further what Christianity is. Christianity
can only be judged by the Book which reveals it, by the Christ who founded it,
and by the noble history which has surrounded it. So we accept and repeat this
challenge. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Unto thee it was shewed.
All national and individual responsibility to God peculiarly
applicable to Britain, both as a Church and State
I. That while all
nations and all people are bound to serve the lord, and are accountable to Him
for so doing or not, according to the opportunities they possess and the
privileges with which they are favoured for knowing His character and learning
His truth and will, some nations and people are more peculiarly engaged thus to
serve Him, and are under a correspondent degree of responsibility for doing so
or not; because some nations and people are more highly favoured than others in
all these respects, and are distinguished by greater privileges and
opportunities for knowing and doing the Divine will than many others, who are,
notwithstanding, all accountable unto God. Now, in order to place this truth in
its proper light, let us suppose a case whose propriety and certainty few, we
expect, will be disposed to dispute. And, to begin with--
1. Individuals, let us suppose the case of one man, born and bred a
pure heathen; another, brought up with some degree of opportunity for gaining
the true knowledge of God, etc., in civilised life; and a third, in the same
condition, in full possession of the Word of truth and salvation. The great law
of man’s universal responsibility, amidst all this variety of condition,
equally applies to them all. But the advantages which the one possesses over
the other bind the one in a more powerful manner to the duty enforced. And when
you arrive at the greatest measure of privilege, do you not behold its
accompanying claims rising to the same point, and bearing an even requisition
with the highest elevation?
2. Nations. Nations are nothing more than vast numbers of
individuals, located in various parts of the earth, and cemented by certain
laws and regulations in orderly and social compact. The same truths, therefore,
which apply to one person will surely extend to ten thousand, or to as many
millions, of the human family thus connected together.
3. Whether the doctrine we inculcate is founded upon, and stands in
agreement with, the pure Word of God. Did not the very mercies and privileges
which the Lord bestowed upon Israel lay them under peculiar obligations, and
bind them in an especial manner to love and serve Him?
II. Where does the
truth thus propounded and established fall in its full weight; and to whom does
it more peculiarly apply in all its authority and aggravation? The inquiry
evidently regards the past and the present time.
1. The past time. Where, in the ages that are passed, are we to look
for such a nation or people? Must we not at once fix our attention upon Israel
of old, and say, Thou art that nation, and thou art that people? What wonders
did God work on their behalf! What large and unmerited mercies did He bestow on
them! What astonishing deliverances did He vouchsafe to them! But must our
inquiries terminate here?
2. The present time. Many nations are presented to our view. Some
great and strong; others weak and debased. Some altogether enshrouded in
heathen blindness; others groaning under Mohammedan tyranny and delusion. Some
rent with internal convulsions; others sitting down in comparative quiet. Some,
once mighty and renowned, merged in the general streams of rival powers, and
known no more as separate kingdoms, except in the records of their ancient
exploits and fame. But amidst all this national and political chaos presented
to our view can we fix on no spot which in a more especial manner is more
highly favoured than any other? Yes, we can. Like some tall majestic oak amidst
the under wood of the forest, or like the cloud-capped mountain contrasted with
the hillocks of the plain, or like the stately man-of-war amidst the wharfage
of the port, there is one nation amidst all the diversified tribes of man which
stands thus conspicuous in the view, and thus crowned with privileges and
blessings! Oh England, my beloved place and nation, thou wearest this crown!
thou standest on this elevation! Not only in common with all others, but above
and beyond all others, hast thou been blessed and crowned with loving kindness
and tender mercies! What hath not the Lord done for thee?
2. As a church, as great as thy mercies as a nation? He hath not left
thee without witness; not merely, as He testified to the heathen, “giving rain
from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filling our hearts with food and
gladness”; but as He deals with His own inheritance, sending to thee the truths
of His Word and the messages of His salvation. Do we, as a nation, church, or
people, live up to these privileges, and bring forth the fruit which God so
justly requires at our hands? Are the mercies we possess prized as they ought
to be? Are they improved as they ought to be? Is God honoured and glorified as
tie ought to be? Is the Gospel of peace valued as it ought to be? Is the Word
of life received as it ought to be? Do we walk in the statutes and ordinances
of God as we ought to do? (R. Shittler.)
The revelation of God
I. In his name. Is
it answered, “That is only a word”? But what are words? People do not forge and
utter words as they please. They cannot be made or unmade by votes of
assemblies or edicts of kings. They are chronic. They come into existence by a
law of nature. They are carved out of unstable air by a supernatural power. To
call God’s Word or name “priest craft” is itself cant. A set of priests could
no more have created it than they could an ocean or a mountain range. Matthew
Arnold says, “God means the Brilliant in the sky.” But what makes it to shine,
and to wear the blue firmament for a robe? There could have been no name if no
Lord,--as no names for plant, beast, earth, sea, but that these things were,
and to do aught in His name is to do it by His strength and for His honour.
Caesar may be a myth, and Eve in the garden a tale, but no appellations can
overrate the Eternal.
II. In his work:
what He does shows what He is. All the phrases which sceptics think so lightly
of are but the labels of His wonders. “But all the Bibles,” says the denier,
are human compositions written in time: show me the sacred books that not
affirm a God out of us. What is out of us is not so easy to say. The whole
creation is somehow in our thought. I have a feeling that fetches down from
Orion. My imagination girdles the Pleiades. God is not less to me because He
exists not externally but in the consciousness of my own bosom, and I cannot
dismiss my guest. If no characters by Him were ever entered on a paper leaf,
stone tablet from Sinai, or Egyptian column, do we not find His engraving in
living organisms and on the vast layers of the globe? “Providence” is one of
these obstinate, indestructible words in the daily discourse of mankind. A
great, forthreaching, unbaffled, and unending plan, a purpose through the ages,
one must be worse than colour blind not to see, with a steady
accomplishment,--style it fitness, adjustment, design, as you will. Not a nook
of nature but is His workshop, not an event without His procedure.
III. In his nature
or image. Had He left no sign manual of His authorship in our frame all else
were to us a dumb show. Why do beasts and insects not perceive the drift of the
plot on this broad external stage? Because, even in their innocence, they
cannot yet come to themselves, and in themselves find their Father. But what
features of His face are unveiled to us?
1. First, of sincerity, the open look. Why can we not be free from
this candid bond, but that the Divinity reveals within us His essence of truth,
as a claim beyond convenience or uses of the hour, so infinite that no liar can
be content till he has confessed? After what long and stubborn perjury, from at
last being convinced by some co-conspirator that falsehood is kindest and best,
a quickened conscience forces the wretched deceiver, man or woman, in mutual
crime, to own at last even the forswearing, and throw off the disguise that
hinders peace with God!
2. Next, the line of rectitude in this countenance we pray God to lift
upon us, and which He never quite withdraws. Truth is right speech, and
righteousness is true conduct. If your neighbour will not rest in any wrong you
do him, you will be the last to be satisfied with your own unfairness, because
Deity is equity in your vital parts.
3. There is one more lineament in that face whose glance we cannot
escape: it is goodness. But the goodness must be more than doting on one
person, however winsome and dear. I know an earnest love; but God save me from
an exclusive one, and keep me from wishing or enduring the monopoly of a human
heart! We may be partial to one person, like the sun flattering some mountain
top or blazing back from some windowed tower as he rises or sets; but be we
also impartial as the sun, making the whole earth his reflection and flinging
his radiance through the sky.
IV. In the
healthful exercise of our powers. We find God in innocent pleasures as in
solemn forms, as parents are as much pleased with their children’s gambols as
with their deferential requests. The little orthodox boy, repeating his prayers
so punctually in his country cot, said one morning, “Good-bye, God: I am going
to Boston to stay a fortnight”; he not having been taught how that sublime
Presence would smile on him amid all the sights of the city, as when the soul
was commended to Him in sleep. The small girl was pious in a more rational way
who, going home from her first dance, ere she put off her pretty dress, fell on
her knees to thank God for the pleasure He had given her at the children’s
ball. God is the problem whose last and clearest solution is in the corollary
of duty, which, as Kant says, is the practical reason piecing out the ladder to
climb to Him, where the speculative ends. In this transparency of conscience
all the vexing riddles conclude. With a dogged satisfaction, in dire extremity,
it helps us to stand at our post and do our office, as the old Cumberland still
fired her guns when sinking to her gunwale. There was something in those
sailors, as in all faithful unto death, not going down! (C. A. Bartol, D. D.)
Consider it in thine heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath.
The relation of man to God
We must have God before we can understand Him. We must receive Him
into our loving trust before we can make any advance in knowing what He is,
what are His qualities and His attributes, and what is all the meaning that is
written in His infinite heart. I am delighted to tell again and again of the
poor woman who, upon being interrogated by her minister concerning formal
divinity, before she could be admitted as a guest at the Lord’s table, was
utterly unable to answer a single question; whereupon the minister informed her
that she was not fit to be admitted to the table of the Lord. “Sir,” said she,
with womanly feeling and pathos, “I can’t answer these questions, but I could
die for Him.” That is religion! Not answering questions only, not being able to
enter into critical disquisitions, but sending the heart out to receive God
into its trust and love. Hence the exhortation of the text, “Consider it in
thine heart.” You may consider the question in the intellectual region, and get
little or nothing out of the considerations. When the heart knows its own
hunger and its own bitterness, then, in that sad but holy hour, the heart may
get some hold upon the idea of God. I can imagine the man of average education
and intelligence, whom I am imaginatively addressing, asking me some such
question as this, How is it that God does not show Himself more clearly to us
than He does, and so put an end to all uncertainty concerning Himself? I
answer, Are we capable of understanding what is and what is not the proper degree
and method of Divine manifestation? Is it becoming in men, who cannot certainly
tell what will happen in one single hour, that they should write a programme
for God, and appoint the way of the Almighty? These things cause me to say that
religious questions, if they are to be profitably considered at all, must be
considered in a deeply religious spirit. You can make no advancement in this
learning unless you bring a right heart with you. That is the beginning. There
was a peculiar controversy or conversation in my garden the other day; it quite
entertained me. There were, after those heavy rains, two worms that had
struggled out of the earth, and found their way upon the wet green grass; and
they began to talk in a very decided and mocking manner about myself. One, the
elder and better-to-do of the two, said, “Eh, eh, eh! We have been told that
this garden has an owner or somebody that takes care of it, that nourishes the
roots of things, and that altogether presides over the affair. Eh, eh, eh, I
never saw him. If there is such an owner, why doesn’t he show himself more
clearly?--why doesn’t he come to the front and let us see him, eh?” And the
leaner one of the two said, “That is an unanswerable argument. I never saw him.
There may be such a being, but I care nothing about him; only, if he is alive,
why don’t he show himself?” They quite wriggled in contemptuous triumph; yet
all the while I was standing there, looking at the poor creatures, and hearing
them! I could have set my foot upon them and crushed them; but I did not. There
is a way of wasting strength; there is also a way of showing patience. But the
worms could not understand my nature. I was standing there, and they knew me
not! What if it be so with ourselves in the greater questions? Proceeding with
our statement respecting the revelation of God, I have now to ask you to
believe with me, as a matter of fact--
1. That we stand to God in the relation of dependants. That is our
actual position in life. “What hast thou, that thou hast not received?” Let a
man begin his studies there, and he will become correspondingly reverent. Have
you genius? Who lighted the lamp? Have you health? Who gave you your
constitution? Do you find the earth productive? “Yes.” Who made it productive?
“I did. I till it: I supply all the elements of nourishment needful; I did.”
Did you? Can you make it rain? Can you make the sun shine? If a man once be
started on that course of reflection, the probability is, that he who begins as
a reverent inquirer will end as a devout worshipper.
2. Then I ask you to believe, in the next place, that the very fact
of being dependent should lead us to be very careful how we measure the
sovereignty and the government of God. He has made us servants, not masters. We
are little children, not old beings, in His household and universe. We are
mysteries to ourselves. We need not go from home to seek mysteries.
3. I have to ask you, in the third place, to believe that the very
fact of the mystery of our own life should be the beginning and the defence of
our faith in God. Reason from yourself upwards. There is a way out of the human
to the Divine. It is a commendable course of procedure to reason from the known
to the unknown. If you are such a mystery to your own child, if the philosopher
is such a mystery to the uninstructed man, if you are such a mystery to
yourself--why may there not be a power around more mysterious still, higher and
nobler yet? Reason from yourselves--from your own capacities and your own
resources. Is not the maker greater than the thing made? Take away the idea of
God from human thinking, and mark the immediate and necessary consequences.
This is a method of reasoning which I commend to the attention of young
inquirers who are earnest about this business. The method, namely, of withdrawment.
If a man doubts concerning God, I shall withdraw the idea of God from human
thinking, and see the necessary consequences. If a man has any argument to
adduce against Christianity, take Christianity out of the country, and see what
will be left. Take out the doctrine, take out the practice, take out not only
Christian theology, but Christian morality, and see how many hospitals would be
left, and how many penitentiaries, infirmaries, schools, and asylums for the
deaf and the dumb and the blind and the idiotic. So take away the idea of God
from human thinking, and see the immediate and inevitable consequences. There
is no God; then there is no supreme supervision of human life as a whole; for
none could have the eye that could see the whole orbit of things. We see
points, not circumferences. There is no God; then there is no final judgment by
which the wrongs of centuries can be avenged; there is no heart brooding over
us to which we can confide the story of our sorrow, or tell the anguish of our pain.
Set God again on the throne, and all that makes life worth having, even
imaginatively, comes back again. Set God upon the throne, and all things take
upon them a new, true, beautiful meaning; there is hope of judgment, and a
certainty that right will eventually be done. Shall I ask you to
remember--observe, I still speak to my scholar whom I assume to be diligent and
earnest--that our little day has been too short to know the full mystery of
God? When an infant of yours has gone to school, do you expect the little one
to come back at twelve o’clock on the first day and be able to read you a
chapter even out of the simplest book? You are an old man; yes, but a young
being, an infantile being. Very old indeed, if you think of insuring yourself,
or buying another estate, or laying out a great sum of money--very, very old
indeed; but if you are talking of the universe, you are the insect of a
moment--hardly born! But you wish to read the book called the Universe through
at one sitting, like a cheap novel. Thou art of yesterday, and knowest nothing;
and I, thy teacher, what am I but a man who, having seen one ray of light amid
thick and terrible gloom, come to thee and stand here that you may see the same
beautiful revelation! All this shows us what our spirit ought to be. He who
comes to school with this spirit will learn most and learn it most quickly. And
this let me tell you young man, the greatest men I have ever known have been
the most humble, docile, self-distrustful. (Dr. Parker, D. D.)
Thou shalt keep therefore His statutes, and His commandments, . .
. that it may go well with thee.
A command and a promise
I. Moses enjoins
an obligation, which is really the highest privilege.
1. Israel’s relation to God.
(a) By His presence among them.
(b) By keeping commandments.
(c) Of this, love of God must be the root.
2. The grounds of this relation.
II. Moses holds out
a promise. Each Israelite had--
1. A full life--long share of temporal blessings.
2. Then partly realised by--
3. But partly in store.
4. Thus, in spite of their dastardly unworthiness, promise ripened to
performance. (H. Hayman, D. D.)
Penalty of disregarding commands
On the bridge of a good steamer was the captain giving the right
course, N-by-W. 67°. He bad taken account of eddies and currents. The second
officer, leaving, perhaps, the currents out of consideration, came and directed
the helmsman to make it N-by-W. 57°, but to bring the ship round so gently that
the captain would not notice it. The result was a disastrous wreck. If we
refuse to hearken to God’s voice, and we disobey His commands, our lives will
be wrecked, and all our hopes of happiness shattered.
Obedience indispensable
Suppose I have a son, say ten years old, and I want him to go to
school until he is fifteen or twenty years, but he has just set his will
against mine. He says, “I refuse to go to school for another day.” I tell you
that that child will be unable to do one thing to please me until he goes to
school. He may make all the sacrifices he may have a mind to, he may go out and
earn two or three shillings a day, and bring every penny to me; but I do not
want his money, I want his obedience. What God wants is obedience. (D. L. Moody.)
Obedience to God is conducive to our welfare
Another peculiar excellency of our religion is, that it prescribes
an accurate rule of life,--most agreeable to reason and to our nature; most
conducive to our welfare and content, tending to procure each man’s private
good, and to promote the public benefit of all, by the strict observance
whereof we bring our human nature to a resemblance of the Divine; and we shall
also thereby obtain God’s favour, oblige and benefit men, and procure to
ourselves the conveniences of a sober life and the pleasure of a good
conscience. For if we examine the precepts which respect our duty to God, what
can be more just, pleasant, or beneficial to us than are those duties of piety
which our religion enjoins? What is more fit and reasonable than that we should
most highly esteem and honour Him who is most excellent; that we should bear
the sincerest affection for Him who is perfect goodness Himself, and most
beneficial to us; that we should have the most awful dread of Him that is
infinitely powerful, holy, and just; that we should be very grateful to Him
from whom we received our being, with all the comforts and conveniences of it;
that we should entirely trust and hope in Him who can and will do whatever we
may in reason expect from His goodness--nor can He ever fail to perform His
promises; that we should render all due obedience to Him whose children,
servants, and subjects we are? The practice of such a piety, of a service so
reasonable, cannot but be of vast advantage to us, as it procures peace of
conscience, a comfortable hope, a freedom from all terrors and scruples of
mind, from all tormenting cares and anxieties. (I. Barrow.)
Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan, that the
slayer might flee thither.
The cities of refuge
The cities here mentioned were called the cities of refuge.
They were appointed by the command of God Himself; and, after the Israelites
had crossed the river Jordan and entered the land of Canaan, three more were
set apart on the other side of the river for the same purpose.
I. What there was
remarkable in their institution, in the circumstances that distinguished them.
They were then so well chosen, with such attention to the design proposed, that
no part of the country was more than half a day’s journey from some one of
them.
II. Behold in these
cities of refuge an emblem of the redemption provided in the Gospel. See in the
fugitive a fitting likeness of those who flee for refuge to the hope set before
them in Christ Jesus. The ancient city of refuge stood on high, easy to be seen
of all, holding out safety to those who needed it. Even so hath Jesus Christ
been lifted up on the Cross, that the eye of faith may be turned to Him, and
the hope of salvation arise in the heart of the penitent believer. The road
that led to the cities of refuge was broad, plain, and straight; there was
nothing to hinder the feet of him who fled along it. And is the highway of
God’s salvation less plain, less open, less direct? On the roads that led to
the cities of refuge way marks were set up to guide the feet of the fugitive.
Even so are the ministers of Jesus now commissioned to guide the ignorant, and
warn the wandering, and to cry aloud to all, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”
The gates of the city of refuge stood open day and night. And so do the gates
of the city of our God, the New Jerusalem. Christ ever stands ready to embrace
in the arms of His mercy the soul that seeketh Him. The city of refuge was
bound to support those who fled to it for protection. And in the house of the
living God there is bread enough and to spare. The city of refuge was for all,
as well for the stranger as for one born in the land. And in Christ Jesus there
is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female.
III. The conditions
on which he who fled to one of the cities of refuge was entitled to the
privileges thereof. First, leaving all behind, be must flee for his life, nor
ever stop till sheltered within the appointed walls. Again, when once received
within the city, he must not leave it, no, not for a moment, lest the avenger
of blood fall upon him, and he die. Have you fled to Christ? Abide, then, in
Him: forsake not the safe shelter of His fold: go not from under the shadow of
His wing. (C. Blencowe, M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》