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Deuteronomy Chapter
Fifteen
Deuteronomy 15
Chapter Contents
The year of release. (1-11) Concerning the release of
servants. (12-18) Respecting the firstlings of cattle. (19-23)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 15:1-11
(Read Deuteronomy 15:1-11)
This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in
which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the
release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins. The law is spiritual,
and lays restraints upon the thoughts of the heart. We mistake, if we think
thoughts are free from God's knowledge and check. That is a wicked heart
indeed, which raises evil thoughts from the good law of God, as theirs did,
who, because God had obliged them to the charity of forgiving, denied the
charity of giving. Those who would keep from the act of sin, must keep out of
their minds the very thought of sin. It is a dreadful thing to have the cry of
the poor justly against us. Grudge not a kindness to thy brother; distrust not
the providence of God. What thou doest, do freely, for God loves a cheerful
giver, 2 Corinthians 9:7.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 15:12-18
(Read Deuteronomy 15:12-18)
Here the law concerning Hebrew servants is repeated.
There is an addition, requiring the masters to put some small stock into their
servants' hands to set up with for themselves, when sent out of their
servitude, wherein they had received no wages. We may expect family blessings,
the springs of family prosperity, when we make conscience of our duty to our
family relations. We are to remember that we are debtors to Divine justice, and
have nothing to pay with. That we are slaves, poor, and perishing. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, by becoming poor, and by shedding his blood, has made a full and
free provision for the payment of our debts, the ransom of our souls, and the
supply of all our wants. When the gospel is clearly preached, the acceptable
year of the Lord is proclaimed; the year of release of our debts, of the
deliverance of our souls, and of obtaining rest in him. And as faith in Christ
and love to him prevail, they will triumph over the selfishness of the heart,
and over the unkindness of the world, doing away the excuses that rise from
unbelief, distrust, and covetousness.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 15:19-23
(Read Deuteronomy 15:19-23)
Here is a direction what to do with the firstlings. We
are not now limited as the Israelites were; we make no difference between a
first calf, or lamb, and the rest. Let us then look to the gospel meaning of
this law, devoting ourselves and the first of our time and strength to God; and
using all our comforts and enjoyments to his praise, and under the direction of
his law, as we have them all by his gift.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 15
Verse 1
[1] At
the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
At the end — That
is, in the last year of the seven, as is, most evident from Deuteronomy 15:9. And this year of release, as
it is, called below, Deuteronomy 15:9, is the same with the
sabbatical year, Exodus 23:11.
Verse 2
[2] And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought
unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or
of his brother; because it is called the LORD's release.
Every creditor —
Here is, a law for poor, insolvent debtors. Every seventh year was a year of
release, when among other acts of grace, this was one, that every Israelite,
who had borrowed money, and had not been able to pay it before, should this
year be released from it. And tho' if he was able, he was bound in conscience
to pay it afterwards, yet it could not be recovered by law.
His brother —
This is added to limit the word neighbour, which is more general, unto a
brother, in nation and religion, an Israelite.
The Lord's release —
Or, a release for the Lord, in obedience to his command, for his honour, and as
an acknowledgment of his right in your estates, and of his kindness in giving
and continuing them to you.
Verse 4
[4] Save
when there shall be no poor among you; for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in
the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:
Save when there shall be no poor — The words may be rendered thus, as in the margin of our Bibles, To the
end that there be no poor among you. And so they contain a reason of this law,
namely, that none be impoverished and ruined by a rigid exaction of debts.
Verse 8
[8] But
thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient
for his need, in that which he wanteth.
Open thine hand wide — That is, deal bountifully and liberally with him.
Verse 9
[9] Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The
seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against
thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against
thee, and it be sin unto thee.
Beware —
Suppress the first risings of such uncharitableness.
It be sin —
That is, it be charged upon thee as a sin.
Verse 10
[10] Thou
shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest
unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all
thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
Thine heart shall not be grieved — That is, thou shalt give, not only with an open hand, but with a willing
and chearful mind, without which thy very charity is uncharitable, and not accepted
by God.
Verse 11
[11] For
the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying,
Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy
needy, in thy land.
The poor shall never cease — God by his providence will so order it, partly for the punishment of
your disobedience, and partly for the trial and exercise of your obedience to
him and charity to your brother.
Verse 12
[12] And
if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve
thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
If thy brother be sold — Either by himself, or his parents, or as a criminal.
Six years — To
be computed from the beginning of his servitude, which is every where limited
to the space of six years.
Verse 15
[15] And
thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD
thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.
The Lord redeemed thee — And brought thee out with riches, which because they would not, God gave
thee as a just recompense for thy service; and therefore thou shalt follow his
example, and send out thy servant furnished with all convenient provisions.
Verse 17
[17] Then
thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he
shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do
likewise.
For ever —
All the time of his life, or, at least, 'till the year of jubilee.
Likewise —
That is, either dismiss her with plenty, or engage her to perpetual servitude,
in the same manner and by the same rites.
Verse 19
[19] All
the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify
unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock,
nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.
All the firstling males thou shalt sanctify — Giving them to God on the eighth day. And thou shalt do no work with the
female firstlings of the cow, nor shear those of the sheep. Even these must be
offered to God as peace-offerings, or used in a religious feast.
Verse 20
[20] Thou
shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD
shall choose, thou and thy household.
Year by year —
Namely, in the solemn feasts which returned upon them every year.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
15 Chapter 15
Verses 1-8
Keep the Passover.
The yearly festivals
The darker side of the Jewish religion was more than relieved by
its outlets for joy. It identified in a marvelous manner the holy day and the
holiday (see the, two words translated “feast” in Leviticus 23:1-44, meaning, the one “holy
convocation,” the other “festival”), showing that the people with deepest
religious feelings are, after all, the happiest people. The three great yearly
feasts were--
1. The Passover, in the middle of Abib (nearly our April);
2. Seven weeks after, Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks; and
3. The Feast of Tabernacles, or of Ingathering, in the end of autumn
(October). Notice of all three--
I. Their origin.
They have their root in the weekly Sabbath. The Sabbath itself is the first of
the feasts (Leviticus 23:2-3), in which respect it
also is a joyful day (Psalms 18:24; Isaiah 56:7; Isaiah 58:14). And the great feasts are
framed upon its model. They are ruled by the sabbatical number, seven. They
begin and generally end on the seventh day. Two of them last for seven days
each, and there are seven days of “holy convocation” in the year. Pentecost
takes place seven weeks--a sabbath of weeks--after the Passover. The seventh
month is specially distinguished (verses 23-36). Moreover, every seventh year
is of the nature of a Sabbath, and seven times seven years bring the Jubilee.
Smaller festivals formed connecting links between the Sabbath and the yearly
feasts. There was the Feast of Months, distinguishing the first Sabbath of each
month with special sacrifices (Numbers 28:11), and with blowing of
trumpets (Numbers 10:10), which trumpets were used
again on the first day of the seventh month--the “Feast of Trumpets” (Leviticus 23:24-25). Our Sabbaths, like
those of the Jews, form the backbone and safeguard of our own national
festivities.
II. Their purpose.
They accomplished on a larger scale what was already aimed at by the weekly
Sabbath.
1. They called away from the round of yearly duty to the public
recognition of God. In spring and summer and autumn they presented anew to the
people’s consciousness, through the most impressive vehicle of national
festivals, their covenant relation to Jehovah.
2. They had a most important educational function. They were a
compendium in dramatic form of early Israelitish history, “What mean ye by this
service?” (Exodus 12:26.) Moreover, they gave
opportunity for special religious instruction. (Josiah’s Passover, 2 Chronicles 34:29 ff.; and Ezra’s
Feast of Tabernacles, Nehemiah 8:1-18.)
3. They subserved important ends not directly religious. They
promoted the national unity of the Israelites, stimulating their patriotism.
(See the action of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 12:26.)
III. Their
regulations.
1. The males from all parts of the country must assemble to the three
feasts (Deuteronomy 16:16); for which purpose all
ordinary labour ceases.
2. The worshippers are to bring contributions (Deuteronomy 16:16-17), both for the
necessary sacrifices of themselves and others, and for hospitality (Nehemiah 8:10).
3. The people are to rejoice in their feasts. So Leviticus 23:40 commands for the Feast of
Tabernacles, and Deuteronomy 16:11; Deuteronomy 16:15 for the Feasts of
Pentecost and Tabernacles. Ezra tells of the joy at the Feast of the Passover (Ezra 6:22); and Nehemiah of the “very
great gladness” at the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:17). But where is happiness to
be found if not in the recognition of God’s relation to us? Special protection
was promised during the celebration of the feasts. There are frequent promises
that the fruits of the earth will not suffer, as Deuteronomy 16:15. And it was specially
promised that the absence of its defenders would not expose the country to
invasion (Exodus 34:24). In short, Israel’s
compliance with God’s will here as everywhere was to be to the advantage even
of his worldly prosperity. A truth for all times and all peoples (Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:13-15). (W. Roberts, M. A.)
The yearly festivals
Looking to these festivals separately, we find that a three-fold
meaning attaches to each of them--
1. A present meaning in nature;
2. A retrospective meaning in history; and
3. A prospective meaning in grace.
Moreover, in each of these three respects the three feasts stand
in progressive order: the Passover, the first at once in nature, history, and
grace; the Pentecost, in all three respects the second or intermediate; and the
Tabernacles, in all three respects the consummation of what has gone before.
I. The feast of
the passover, occurring about the beginning of April.
1. Its natural meaning was necessarily an afterthought or addition of
the wilderness legislation. Looking forward to the settlement in Canaan, and placed
at early harvest, it marked the beginning of a people’s enrichment in the
fruits of the earth, and recognised in that the gift of a covenant God. Its
place was “when thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn” (Deuteronomy 16:9). And hence the special
provisions of Leviticus 23:10-14.
2. What was first in nature was also first in history. The Passover
night marked the beginning of Israel’s national life. The month in which it
occurred was henceforth to be the first of the year (Exodus 12:2), and to be permanently
observed (Exodus 12:14; Deuteronomy 16:1). Some modifications
necessarily arose in the permanent observance of the Passover; the blood was
now to be sprinkled on the altar; and the lamb was to be slain in the one place
of sacrifice (Deuteronomy 16:5-7; 2 Chronicles 30:15-16). The eating
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs remained, as pointing to--
3. The prospective and spiritual reference of the Passover. The
observance of the Passover touched closely the spiritual welfare of the Israelites.
It distinguished the reigns of Josiah and Hezekiah and the return of the Jews
from captivity. And here we have the third and greatest beginning, the
beginning of the kingdom of God, in the world’s deliverance from sin. And we
must deal with Christ as the Jews with the Paschal Lamb, taking Him--“eating”
Him, as He Himself puts it--in His entireness as a Saviour, with the bitter
herbs of contrition and the unleavened bread of a sincere obedience.
II. The feast of
pentecost--called also the Feast of Weeks, inasmuch as seven weeks were to be
reckoned between Passover and Pentecost. And this distance of a Sabbath of
weeks rules in all three meanings of this feast.
1. Its natural reference was to the completion of the harvest. It was
the “Feast of harvest.” Now, two loaves baked of the first-fruits are to be
waved before the Lord, with accompanying offerings (Leviticus 23:17-20). In addition to
which, a free-will offering, in recognition of God’s blessing, is to be
brought, and the people are called on specially to rejoice (Deuteronomy 16:10-11).
2. Its historical reference is a matter of inference. The seven weeks
between Passover and Pentecost are paralleled by the seven weeks actually
occurring between the deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the law from
Sinai; and as the Passover commemorates the first, it is reasonable to infer
that Pentecost commemorates the second. Moreover, the fulfilment which in
nature Pentecost gives to the promise of the Passover is paralleled by the
fulfilment which the Sinaitic law actually gave to the promise of the Exodus.
For God’s first object and promise was to meet His people and reveal Himself to
them in the wilderness. And this connection becomes greatly more remarkable
when we notice--
3. The prospective meaning of this feast in the realm of grace. Under
the Christian dispensation Pentecost has become even more illustrious than the
Passover. Again God numbered to Himself seven weeks, and signalised Pentecost
by the gift of the Spirit. And what the Pentecost was to the Passover, that the
gilt of the Spirit is to the atonement of Christ. Look at the natural meaning
of the two feasts. In the sheaf of corn the Passover furnished the material for
food; in the wave loaves Pentecost presented God’s gift in the shape in which
it could be used for food. So the Passover atonement furnishes a material for
salvation which becomes available only through the gift of the Spirit. Or look
at the historical meaning of the feasts: the Passover atonement came to effect
spiritually and for the world what the Paschal Lamb effected for the Jewish
nation. And the Holy Spirit came to do for the dead law what Christ in His
atonement did for the Paschal Lamb. He came to write universally on men’s
hearts what of old had been written for the Israelites on stone (Hebrews 8:8; Hebrews 8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:3). As the end of
harvest was the fruition of its beginning, and the law the fruition of the
exodus, so the pentecostal Spirit was the fruition of the atonement. Should not
we who live under the dispensation of the Spirit maintain our pentecostal joy?
III. The feast of
tabernacles, in the seventh month, or our October--called also the Feast of
Ingathering.
1. Its natural meaning. It came after the harvest of the vineyards
and olive yards. It marked the close of the year’s labours and their cumulative
results, and was therefore the most joyous of the feasts (Leviticus 23:40; Deuteronomy 16:14); but--
2. The historical meaning of the feast gives us deeper insight into
its joy. There is a special provision made in view of the coming settlement in
Canaan, and made in order that the hardships of the wilderness may be kept
fresh in the people’s memory (Leviticus 23:40; Leviticus 23:42-43). That memorial was to
emphasise God’s goodness in the protection of the fathers and in the settlement
of their posterity. The Feast of Tabernacles therefore marked the consummation
of God’s covenant, and called for highest gratitude and joy. Specially
interesting is the celebration of this feast by the Jews on their return from
Babylon, where God’s goodness in bringing their forefathers through the
wilderness had been a second time, and no less wondrously, manifested to them (Nehemiah 8:13-17; Psalms 126:1-6.) But--
3. The fullest meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles is in the kingdom
of grace. The wonder of God’s goodness finds last and highest manifestation in
the final home-bringing of His universal Church. The anti-type is the
ingathering of God’s good grain into the heavenly garner. Canaan after the
wilderness, Jerusalem after Babylon, are paralleled and fulfilled in the
multitude that have come out of great tribulation. (Walter Roberts, M. A.)
Jewish commemorative feasts
The Scriptures record two chief outbursts of miraculous power: one
at the foundation of the Hebrew commonwealth at the exodus from Egypt, and one
at the time of Christ’s appearing and the foundation of Christianity. It is a
matter of infinite importance to every man to ascertain whether these great
miracles of the exodus and of Christ’s first advent were really wrought.
I. The facts of
the case are these:
II. In the same
manner, the feast of Pentecost, or the festival of the wheat harvest, fifty
days after the Passover, came to be regarded as a memorial of the giving of the
law on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Exodus. In like manner, the
autumnal festival of Succoth, or Booths, called “The Feast of Tabernacles,” is
now celebrated just as universally as the Passover in the spring, as a memorial
of the children of Israel dwelling in huts or booths. These festivals and
commemorations have been celebrated now for more than three thousand years.
III. The rule is
that national celebrations and public monuments maintain the remembrance of
real events in past ages. It may be objected that if Athens, with all its
wisdom, could celebrate the fictitious history of Minerva why may we not
believe that the Jews were capable of commemorating things that happened only
in the imagination of later writers and poets? To this we answer:
Conditions of worship
The time is specified, and the reason is given. Every month has a
memory, every day has a story, every night has a star all its own. Selected
instances help us to ascertain general principles. Acting upon these instances,
we become familiar with their spirit and moral genius, so much so that we begin
to ask, are there not other memorable events? Are there not other times of
deliverance? Have we been brought out of Egypt only? Are not all the days
storied with providential love? If God is so careful about time, has He any
regard for place? (Verses 5, 6.) This is morally consistent with God’s claim
for gracious recollection of definite times. May we not slay the Passover where
we please? Certainly not. May we not insulate ourselves, and upon little church
appointments of Our own creation carry out the ceremony of our worship?
Certainly not. We should strive to move in the direction at least of unity,
commonwealth, fellowship, solidarity. The sacrifice is the same, the man who
offers it is the same; but because it is not offered at the place which God has
chosen the sacrifice and the sacrificer go for nothing. That is in harmony with
all the social arrangements which experience has approved. There are fit places
for all things, as well as fit times. The time having been fixed and the place
determined, what remains? (Verse 10.) Here is the beginning of another kind of
liberty. A wonderful word occurs in this verse: “a free-will offering.” How
wonderfully God educates the human race: He will insist upon definite claims
and obligations being answered, and yet He will also give opportunity for
freewill action, as if He had said,--Now we shall see what you will do when
left to yourselves; the law no longer presses you: the great hand is lifted,
and for the time being you shall do in this matter as it may please your own
mind and heart. That is an element in the Divine education of the human race.
God gives us opportunities of showing ourselves to ourselves. He only would
count the gift: no one should know what had been done: the sweet transaction
should lie between the one soul and the living Lord. Another singular word
occurs in this tenth verse:--“a tribute.” The literal meaning is that the gift
is to be proportional. It would have been easy to throw a dole to the Lord that
had no reference whatever to what was left behind: that would be a broad,
easily-opened gate to heaven; but such is not the condition stated in the bond.
Even the freewill offering is to be tributary: it is to be based upon the
original substance, the actual property, whatever is in the hand as momentary
possession. Thus, sacrifice is to be calculated; worship is to be the result of
forethought; nothing is to be done of mere constraint or as consultative of
ease and indulgence. A word of taxation touches the very poetry and pathos of
oblation. “And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God,” etc. (Deuteronomy 23:11). This gives us the
joyous aspect of religion. An ancient Jewish annotator has made a beautiful
remark upon this verse, to the effect that “thy four, O Israel, and My four
shall rejoice together.” “Thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and
thy maidservant”--let them rejoice, let them be glad in response to music, and
let them call for more music to express their ever-increasing joy; but God’s
four must be there also--the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the
widow; they represent the Divine name as authority for admission to the feast.
The religious servant, the poor stranger, the orphan, and the widow--they sit
down, in seats divinely claimed for them, at the festive board. So the company
shall be representative:--son, daughter, manservant, maidservant; priest,
stranger, orphan, widow;--this is the typical company sitting down at the
symbolical feast. God will not have our small house parties, made up of people
of one class, equally well-dressed and accosting one another in the language of
equality; He will have a large feast. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Unleavened bread
What does this unleavened bread mean? Two things, I think.
1. First, Christ; for He is the believer’s food. The unleavened bread
sets forth Christ in one aspect, as much as the lamb sets Him forth in another.
In the Israelite feeding upon unleavened bread, we have presented to us the
believer drawing his strength from Jesus, the spotless and Holy One--the
unleavened bread. “I am the bread of life.”
2. But there is another meaning of the unleavened bread, and that is
holiness, uprightness, singleness of eye. Just as the bread was not the main
staple of the Passover feast, but the lamb, so holiness is the accompaniment
rather than the principal portion of the Christian feast. In the case of every
believer the unleavened bread must accompany feeding upon Christ as the lamb.
God has joined these two things together, let us not put them asunder. If we
are redeemed by the blood of the lamb, let us live upon the unleavened bread;
let us show forth the sincerity and truth which God requires in our life. “For
even Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the
feast, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7). (S. A.
Blackwood.)
Save when there shall be no poor among you.
Rural poverty
These two sentences (Deuteronomy 15:4; Deuteronomy 11:1-32) seem, at first
sight, to contradict one another. There are three ways of reading the fourth
verse. “Save when there shall be no poor among you,” says the
text. “To the end that there be no poor,” reads the margin. Howbeit, there
shall be no poor with thee, runs the Revised Version. The explanation may be
briefly put thus: There would always be poor people among them; “howbeit, they
must not let them be poor, i.e. not let them sink down in poverty.
I. The existence
of poverty. My own experience has been that those who are most hurt cry out
least. The most deserving, and generally the most pitiful, cases of distress
have to be looked for. But, say some, is it not their own fault that they are
so badly off? No doubt it often is so. Idleness, drink, waste, folly,
incapableness may all cause poverty; but what of that? We cannot stand by and
see people starve. It would be easier to die by hanging than hunger; but we do
not even hang people except for high treason or murder. Much more must we not
by any sin of omission condemn the innocent to suffer with the guilty--the
hardworking wife or the helpless children for the sake of the worthless husband
or father. The fact is that poverty is largely the consequence of an unequal
struggle between the strong and the weak.
II. The duty of
relieving poverty. Look at what Moses taught the Israelites.
1. That prevention is better than cure. There was never to be a
“bitter cry of outcast” Canaan.
2. That each nation, or community, or church, should care for its own
poor.
3. That charity should be systematic. The time was precise--every
third year; the quantity was precise--one tenth; the object was precise--“thy
poor brother.”
Contrast with these laws of Moses the teaching of Christ.
1. The law of Moses aimed at preventing poverty. Christ came and
found men poor. He did more than prevent; He cured. To heal sickness is a
harder task than to maintain health. To deliver the needy when he crieth is
often more difficult than to preserve him before he has had occasion to cry.
Moses provided for keeping people up who were not overthrown; Christ actually
went down to the low dark depths, and raised those who were sunk there.
2. Moses taught that each nation, or community, or church, should
care for its own. To go beyond that was permitted, but not enjoined. Christ
taught a much broader truth than that--charity without distinction. Our
neighbour is not the person who lives next door to us, or who has most affinity
with us; but the person who is nearest to our helping hand, even though he be a
Jew and we are Samaritans. Our first duty is to our own, but not our last.
Charity begins at home, but does not end there.
3. Moses was systematic, but Christ was above systems. There was no
fixed standard with Him, except this. “Sell all that thou hast and distribute
unto the poor.” There was no stint in His giving. It was not certain objects of
His kindness whom He blessed: “Whosoever will, let him come.” It was not every
few years merely that He was benevolent; but “yesterday, today, and forever.” (Charles
T. Price.)
The poor laws of the Bible; or, rules and reasons for the relief
of the distressed
I. The rules that
are here suggested for the relief of the poor.
1. Contiguity. It is the poor “in thy land.” Those living nearest us,
other things being equal, have the first claim on our charity. Let it bless as
it goes; work as the leaven in the meal, from particle to particle, until it
gives its spirit to the mass.
2. Heartiness. “Thou shalt not harden,” etc. The heart must go with
the deed.
3. Liberality. “Open thine hand wide unto him.” The liberality of men
is not to be judged by the sums they subscribe, but by the means they possess.
II. The reasons
that are here suggested for the relief of the poor.
1. Your relationship to the poor. “He is thy brother.” He has the
same origin, the same nature, the same great Father, the same moral
relationships, as thyself.
2. The imprecation of the poor. “And he cry,” etc.
3. The blessedness insured to the friend of the poor.
4. The Divine plan as to the permanent existence of the poor. (Homilist.)
General Gordon’s benevolence
A poor dragoman told me that General Gordon used to come often to
his house in Jerusalem when he and his wife lay ill, and that he would take any
cushion or mat and put it on the floor as a seat, there being no chairs or
furniture, and sit down with his Testament to read and speak to them about
Christ. But his zeal did not end with such easy philanthropy. Ascertaining that
a doctor’s account had been incurred to the amount of three pounds, he went off
secretly and paid it. Far away at Khartoum, he still thought of one whom he had
thus striven to lead into the fold of Christ, and sent a letter to him which
reached Jerusalem almost at the same time as the news of its writer’s death.
“That letter,” said the poor Copt, “I would not part with for all that is in
the world. General Gordon was a real Christian. He gave away all he had to the
poor in Jerusalem and the villages round, and the people mourn for him as for
their father.”
Kindness to the poor
A poor sewing girl, who went to the late Dr. John F. Gray for
advice, was given a, phial of medicine and told to go home and go to bed. “I
can’t do that, doctor, the girl replied, “for I am dependent on what I earn
every day for my living.” “If that’s so,” said Dr. Gray, I’ll change, the
medicine, a little. Give me back that phial.” He then wrapped around it
a ten-dollar bill, and returning it to her, reiterated his order, “Go home and
go to bed,” adding, “take the medicine, cover and all.” He who takes account of
the cups of cold water will not forget such deeds of kindness and charity. Oh
to hear Him say at the last, “Ye have done it unto Me!”
The misery of a niggardly spirit
In Rochester there lived a wealthy man who made a great profession
of religion; he knelt at communion seasons and attended church with great
regularity, but be would not give one shilling to the poor, nor to any other
person. In the year 1862, I asked a trifle of money from him to relieve some
families who were in great distress, but he refused, saying, “I am a poor man,
sir; I am a poor man.” Listen to what this thorny-ground hearer said, as he lay
with glazing, dying eyes, to a clergyman who, noticing his lips move, bent down
to catch the whisper, “Ninety thousand pounds, and I must leave it all behind
me!” If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren.
Brotherly love
As God had chosen all Israel, so He desired that they should love
as brethren. Each was to stand by the other, and all were to be zealous for the
Divine honour. Thus they would bear, in contradistinction to the heathen, the
character of a people consecrated to God. But even in Israel there were rich
and poor, happy and unhappy. Wherever men went the poor and afflicted would be
met with. Therefore the people were exhorted to hold heart and hand open--not
to harden the heart nor shut the hand. Each was to be ready to stand by his
fellow to see that his brother should not suffer.
I. God’s people
ever have sympathy with their brethren.
1. If we belong to the people of God--if this were so in Israel, much
more should it be among Christians--then there will be in our hearts a tender
feeling toward our fellow men--a feeling implanted by God Himself. The heart
will say: “This is thy brother; help him.” This results from God’s love in the
heart, which leads the brethren to “love one another.”
2. But this tender-heartedness can be destroyed and the heart be
hardened, even among Christians, and this against the light of conscience. They
often do as it is rumoured the New Zealanders did with their children. They
pressed down the necks of the children under a flinty stone in order to harden
them, so Christians make their hearts sometimes hard as flints through
avariciousness. The avaricious heart ever thinks: “This belongs to me and to no
one else, and none shall share it.”
3. This is not well-pleasing to God. He sees that by covetousness men
are led to destruction, and to reject His love toward them. For when men are so
hard-hearted, how can they have the love of God in them?
II. The hearts and
hands of God’s people are open toward their brethren.
1. When this is so, then the love of God has full scope in their
hearts; and thus He causes through those open hands and hearts much good to
flow out into this evil world. For to His children who are ever ready to give
to those who need He will give yet more, so that from their increased store
they may give yet more fully to others, and that thus these also may learn to
praise God.
2. Therefore he who has a kind heart and open hand will experience
and receive a blessing. As he gives, so he receives. It is with such as with
Cornelius: “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up before God.” Thus, too, the
way is made open for the reception of God’s gifts both temporal and spiritual.
Let us all, then, endeavour to preserve a tender heart, arid not let our heart
be hardened. (J. C. Blumhardt.)
And he cry unto the Lord
against thee.--
The cry of the poor
The poor cry to heaven--from the scenes of oppressive labour, from
wretched hovels, from beds of straw, shivering in the cold, from the depths of
starvation, they cry! Many a poor mother in these blood-freezing nights hugs to
her shivering bosom her starving infant, and tries to hush its cries of cold
and hunger with the wails of her own broken heart. God alone knows the cries
that rise and pierce the heavens every night from this “great country”--as the
cant is. Alas! Alas! that from this land, overflowing with luxuries and
burdened with wealth, such wails of wretchedness should rise! Against whom do
they cry? Against their Maker? No! The most unobservant of them can scarcely
fail to discover that He sends food enough for all. Besides, deep and
ineradicably rooted in the heart of all is the sentiment that God is good--a
sentiment this, which seems to me the core of conscience. Against the overreaching
monopolist, the iron-hearted miser, the ruthless oppressor, the man who has the
power to help but not the heart. Against all selfish men and unrighteous laws
that grind the people down, they cry--and cry with unremitting vehemence too.
Will He hear? Is the ear of Him who heard of old the cries of the enslaved
millions in Egypt, and interposed with avenging thunders for their rescue,
grown heavy? Nay, modern oppressor! Those cries shall be answered; not a
solitary wail shall die away unheeded. Woe to the nation that oppresses the
poor! Woe! and again, woe! when retribution comes, as come it must. (Homilist.)
The poor shall never cease
out of the land.--
God’s ordinance of rich and poor
I. The perpetual
existence of the poor amongst us. You must become reconciled to your poverty.
And if you would become really reconciled to it do not regard it as something
inflicted by the misgovernment or the management of your fellow men. Put it
before you in the light this text puts it, as God’s ordinance and God’s will concerning
you; as something that rulers and governors can no more drive out of the world
than they can drive midnight out of it, or sickness, or pain, or sorrow.
Poverty is to be alleviated, and it is to be removed if honest industry will
remove it; but if not so, it is to be welcomed and borne. I could tell you
where it often comes from. From the poor man’s own idleness, improvidence,
intemperance, and waste; from the foolish indulgence of children; from the
still more criminal indulgence of self. But even then it is from God; it is
God’s way of showing displeasure against these things. And when it comes not
from these things, where does it come from? Often from a love that neither you
nor I, nor any angel above us, can measure. The same love that provided a
Saviour and built a heaven for sinners now sends poverty often to sinners, to
turn them to that Saviour and heaven.
II. Our duty
towards the poor. Now if we looked only at the declaration in the first part of
the text, and were disposed to reason on it, we might say, Be our duty to the
poor what it may, we must not interfere with their poverty; it is God’s will
they should be poor, and we must not interfere with His will. This would be
like saying, God has sent sickness amongst us, and we must not make use of any
means to cure or relieve it; or, He has made the winter, and we will do nothing
to mitigate the rigour of it; or, He has created the darkness, and it is wrong
to have lights in our dwelling to enlighten it. Many of what we call the evils
of our condition are designed of God to bring into lawful and healthy action
the powers of man’s mind and the feelings of man’s heart, and this evil of
poverty among the number. “The poor shall never cease out of the land”; that is
My will, says God. “Therefore I command thee”--what? to let the needy alone in
their poverty? No; I have placed them in the land to call forth and exercise
thy bounty. The painful work is Mine--I have ordained poverty; the pleasant
work shall be thine--thou shalt relieve it. “Thou shalt open thine hand wide
unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land.” It is a touching
circumstance that not only is the general duty of what we call charity to the
poor enjoined in Scripture, but so great is the interest God takes in it that the
measure and manner of it are strongly enjoined. Here we are told, in the first
place, that it must be liberal. “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy
brother.” And it must be extensive charity; that is, as extensive as we can
make it. “I will not give my money,” we sometimes say, “to this man or that; he
has no claim on me; I must keep the little I have to spare for those who have
claims on me.” But look again, “Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy
brother”--to “thy brother” first, to those who from relationship or from some
other cause seem to have claims on thee; but not to “thy brother” only, “to thy
poor and to thy needy in thy land.” The words are multiplied; to those who have
no claims whatever on thee but their poverty and their need. And it must be
also a cheerful charity.
III. We may go on
now to the motives by which we are urged to the exercise of this grace. For
these, some of you may be ready to say, I must turn to the Gospel. But no, the
God of the Gospel is the God of the law also, the God of the Christian Church
was the God of the ancient Church, and there is no motive urged now on us in
these Gospel days which was not urged in substance on the Jews in the days of
old.
1. For instance, to begin, our own mercies are made use of under the
Gospel to impel us to show mercy to others. “Freely ye have received,” our Lord
says, “freely give.” Now look at this chapter. “Thou shalt open thine hand wide
unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy”--why? “For the Lord thy God,”
the sixth verse says, is opening His hand wide unto thee; He “is blessing
thee,” and blessing thee as abundantly as He said He would; “the Lord thy God
blesseth thee as He promised thee.”
2. But again, the special love of God to the poor is another reason
why our hands should be opened to them. Of all the books that were ever
written, no book manifests such care for the poor as the Bible. This has often
been noticed by those who have closely studied this book, and many others with
it, as one of the many internal evidences of its Divine original. But turn to
the tenth chapter of the part of it now before us, the nineteenth verse. “Love
ye therefore the stranger,” says God. And why? Ye yourselves, He adds, “were
strangers in the land of Egypt.” But this is not the only reason; read what
goes before. The Lord Himself “loveth the stranger.” “The Lord loveth the
stranger,” “love ye therefore the stranger,” says God. And this applies with
much greater force to the widow and fatherless. If natural feeling, as we call
it--if our own parental feelings--do not incline us to open our hand to them,
let the feelings of God towards them incline us to do so. I love the
fatherless, He says; let us, for His sake, because He loves them, love them
also.
3. But here is a third motive pressed on you; this “opening of our
hand” to the poor will lead the Lord to open His hand to us. “For this thing,”
we read in the verse before the text--“for this thing the Lord thy God shall
bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.”
This is the legal promise, you may say. And true, it is; but the Lord is not
less bountiful or less generous under the Gospel than under the law. (U.
Bradley, M. A.)
Duty of the Church towards the poor
Consider--
I. That poverty is
a real evil which, without any impeachment of the goodness or wisdom of
providence, the constitution of the world actually admits.
II. That
providential appointment of this evil in subservience to the general good,
brings a particular obligation upon men in civilised society to concur for the
immediate extinction of the evil wherever it appears. (Bp. Horsley.)
Poverty no accident
“The poor shall never cease out of the land.” That is a remark
which is not understood. Poverty is not an accident; there is a moral mystery
connected with poverty which has never yet been found out. The sick chamber
makes the house, the infirm member of the family rules its tenderest thinking.
Poverty has a great function to work out in the social scheme, but whilst we
admit this we must not take the permanence of poverty as an argument for
neglect; it is an argument for solicitude, it is an appeal to benevolence, it
is an opportunity to soften the heart and cultivate the highest graces of the
soul. It is perfectly true that the bulk of poor people may have brought their
poverty upon themselves, but who are we that we should make rough speeches
about them? What have we brought upon ourselves? If we are more respectable
than others, it is still the respectability of thieves and liars and selfish
plotters. We, who are apparently more industrious and virtuous and regardful,
are not made of different clay, and are not animated by a different blood. It
is perfectly true that a thousand people may have brought today’s poverty upon
themselves, and they will have to suffer for it; but beyond all these accidents
or incidents there is the solemn fact that poverty is a permanent quantity, for
moral reasons which appeal to the higher instincts of the social commonwealth.
We have that we may give, we are strong that we may support the weak, we are
wise that we may teach the ignorant. “Let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus.” No man has the slightest occasion or reason for reproaching
any other man, except in relation to the immediate circumstance. If the assize
were on a larger scale, and we were all involved in the scrutiny, the issue
would be this, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
Open thine hand wide unto
thy brother.--
The duty of Christian charity
I. It is due to
the constitution of society. “The poor always ye have with you.” We shall
perhaps think correctly on the subject if we admit as the will of God that in
every state of society there shall be poor, and that a provision for the
production of this fact is laid in the gifts of His providence, in the
constitution of men, and in the scheme of His moral government.
II. Charity is due
to ourselves. It is due to ourselves, as we would wish with uprightness to
discharge the duties of that station in which we are placed. To administer
relief to the poor is graciously connected with our present comfort and our
future well-being. The very act of charity is accompanied with the most refined
complacency; it is answering that sympathy which is born in the heart of every
man, and which, unless stifled by unnatural discipline, calls loudly for
gratification. They are happy who are the objects of your bounty, but ye who
have experienced it can tell that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Connected with this is that blessing over our worldly concerns “which maketh
rich, and to which is added no sorrow.” And let it be remembered, that
prosperity is but for a season; now, therefore, it is time to lay up a store of
good deeds, the remembrance of which shall be the best support when misfortune
overtakes the prosperous. Let it be remembered yet again that what possessions
men have are not their own, but are the property of their Master, who hath
committed it to their stewardship. All their opportunities, and all their means
of doing good, must he accounted for.
III. It is due to
religion--to a religion which is in its origin, its effects, its principle, and
its precepts a system of charity; a religion which, originating in the love of
God, proposes to restore to happiness and dignity those who are “poor, and
miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked.” They to whom mercy is shown
should be merciful. This is what Christianity requires, nay, what it affirms to
be the amount and the criterion of a genuine profession.
IV. It is due to
the poor. As a something voluntary is implied in the idea of charity, it may
sound paradoxical to speak of the rights of the poor on the charity of the
rich. But the incongruity is only in sound, for it is an acknowledged maxim of
civil economy that the poor (the industrious poor, of whom only I now speak)
have an absolute right to be supported by the State, whose agriculture,
commerce, and manufactures have benefited by their exertions. Further, the poor
have a right as brethren, and this is a right which the heart of a Christian
cannot deny.
V. It is due to
the age in which we live--an age characterised for beneficence, an age
distinguished above all others for the magnitude of its political events, for
the advancement of science, for the general diffusion of literature, and more
especially for a spirit that has amalgamated all classes of society, the most
opposite ranks and professions, into one mass, and stamped the whole with
benevolence. (A. Waugh, M. A.)
The best mode of charity
It is of importance not only that we should do good, but that we
should do it in the best manner. A little judgment and a little reflection
added to the gift does not merely enhance the value, but often gives to it the
only value which it possesses, and even prevents that mischief of which
thoughtless benevolence is sometimes the cause.
1. Mankind can never be too strongly or too frequently cautioned
against self-deception. If a state of vice be a state of misery, a state of
vice of which we are ignorant is doubly so, from the increased probability of
its duration. It is surprising how many men are cheated by flighty sentiments
of humanity into a belief that they are humane, how frequently charitable words
are mistaken for charitable deeds, and a beautiful picture of misery for an effectual
relief of it.
2. Another important point in the administration of charity is a
proper choice of the objects we relieve. To give promiscuously is better,
perhaps, than not to give at all, but instead of risking the chance of
encouraging imposture, discover some worthy family struggling up against the
world, a widow with her helpless children, old people incapable of labour, or
orphans destitute of protection and advice; suppose you were gradually to
attach yourselves to such real objects of compassion, to learn their wants, to
stimulate their industry, and to correct their vices; surely these two species
of charity are not to be compared together in the utility or in the extent of
their effects, in the benevolence they evince or in the merits they confer.
3. The true reason why this species of charity is so rarely practised
is that we are afraid of imposing such a severe task upon our indolence,
though, in truth, all these kinds of difficulties are extremely overrated. When
once we have made ourselves acquainted with a poor family, and got into a
regular train of seeing them at intervals, the trouble is hardly felt and the
time scarcely missed; and if it is missed, ought it to be missed?
4. These charitable visits to the poor, which I have endeavoured to inculcate,
are of importance, not only because they prevent imposture by making you
certain of the misery which you relieve, but because they produce an appeal to
the senses which is highly favourable to the cultivation of charity. He who
only knows the misfortunes of mankind at second hand and by description has but
a faint idea of what is really suffered in the world. We feel, it may be said,
the eloquence of description, but what is all the eloquence of art to that
mighty and original eloquence with which nature pleads her cause; to the
eloquence of paleness and of hunger; to the eloquence of sickness and of
wounds; to the eloquence of extreme old age, of helpless infancy, of friendless
want! What pleadings so powerful as the wretched hovels of the pool, and the
whole system of their comfortless economy!
5. You are not, I hope, of opinion that these kinds of cares devolve
upon the clergy alone, as the necessary labours of their profession, but upon
everyone whose faith teaches And whose fortune enables him to be humane.
6. Nor let it be imagined that the duties which I have pointed out
are much less imperative because the law has taken to itself the protection of
the poor; the law must hold out a scanty relief, or it would encourage more
misery than it relieved: the law cannot distinguish between the poverty of
idleness and the poverty of misfortune; the law degrades those whom it
relieves, and many prefer wretchedness to public aid; do not, therefore, spare
yourselves from a belief that the poor are well taken care of by the civil
power, and that individual interference is superfluous. Many die in
secret,--they perish and are forgotten.
7. Remember that every charity is short-lived and inefficacious which
flows from any other motive than the right. There is a charity which originates
from the romantic fiction of humble virtue and innocence in distress, but this
will be soon disgusted by low artifice and scared by brutal vice. The charity
which proceeds from ostentation can exist no longer than when its motives
remain undetected. There is a charity which is meant to excite the feelings of
gratitude, but this will meet with its termination in disappointment. That
charity alone endures which flows from a sense of duty and a hope in God. This
is the charity that treads in secret those paths of misery from which all but
the lowest of human wretches have fled; this is that charity which no labour
can weary, no ingratitude detach, no horror disgust; that toils, that pardons,
that suffers, that is seen by no man, and honoured by no man, but, like the
great laws of nature, does the work of God in silence, and looks to future and
better worlds for its reward. (Sydney Smith, M. A.)
Remember that thou wast a bondman.
Remember
In an autobiography of William Jay we read that on one occasion he
called to see the famous Mr. John Newton at Olney, and he observed that over
the desk at which he was accustomed to compose his sermons he had written up in
very large letters the following words: “Remember that thou wast a bondman in
the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” To my mind this story
invests the text with considerable interest; it was most fitting that such a
remarkable convert as he should dwell upon such a theme, and place such a text
conspicuously before his own eyes. Might it not with great propriety be placed
in a similar position by each one of us? Mr. Newton lived and acted under the
influence of the memory which the text commands, as was seen that very morning
in his conversation with Mr. Jay. “Sir,” said Mr. Newton, “I am glad to see
you, for I have a letter just come from Bath, and you can perhaps assist me in
the answer to it. Do you know anything of So-and-so (mentioning the name)?” Mr.
Jay replied that the man was an awful character, had once been a hearer of the
Gospel, but had become a leader in every vice. “But, sir,” said Mr. Newton, “he
writes very penitently; and who can tell. Perhaps a change may have come over
him. Well, said Mr. Jay, “I can only say that if ever he should be converted I
should despair of no one.” “And I,” said Mr. Newton, “never have despaired of
anybody since I was converted myself.” So, you see, as he thought of this poor
sinner at Bath he was remembering that he also was a bondman in the land of
Egypt, and the Lord his God had redeemed him; and why should not the same
redemption reach even to this notorious transgressor and save him? The memory
of his own gracious change of heart and life gave him tenderness in dealing
with the erring, and hopefulness with regard to their restoration.
I. First let us
consider our bondage. It was exceedingly like the bondage of the children of
Israel in Egypt.
1. First, when we were unregenerate, and sold under sin, we were
enslaved to a mighty power against which we could not contend. If man had been
capable of his own redemption there would never have descended from heaven the
Divine Redeemer; but because the bondage was all too dire for man to set
himself free, therefore the eternal Son of God came hither that He might save
His people from their sins. The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience, held us beneath his iron sway, and
sin exercised a tyrannical dominion over us, from which we could not break.
2. Our slavery had so degraded us that we had no heart to desire an
escape. One of the worst points of slavery is, that it frequently degrades men
into contentment with their condition. That would be thought by some to be a
benefit, but it is a giant evil, for a man has no right to be satisfied in
slavery. Such contentment is an ensign of debased manhood.
3. Remember, again, that you were in a bondage similar to that of
Egypt, for while in that condition you toiled hard and found that all the
service wherein Satan made you to serve was with rigour. The Israelites built
treasure cities for Pharaoh, and they are supposed to have erected some of the
pyramids; but their wage was very small, and their taskmasters were brutal.
Could not many a sinner tell of horrible nights and woeful mornings, when under
the power of his passions? Who hath woe? who hath redness of the eyes? who is
filled with dread of death? who flees when no man pursueth? Of all tyrants, sin
and Satan are the most cruel. If men were but in their senses, drunkenness,
gambling, gluttony, wantonness, and many other vices would be rather
punishments than pleasures, and yet they abide in them.
4. There was a time when, in addition to our hard toil, our bondage
brought us misery. Do you not remember when you dared not think a day’s conduct
over for the life of you? I recollect also when a sense of sin came over me;
and then, indeed, my life was made bitter with hard bondage.
5. All this while our enemy was aiming at our destruction. This was
what Pharaoh was driving at with Israel; he intended to cut off the nation by
severe tasks, or at least to reduce its strength. As his first policy did not
succeed, he set about to destroy the male children; and even so Satan, when he
has men under his power, labours by all means utterly to destroy them; for
nothing short of this will satisfy him. Every hopeful thought he would drown in
the river of despair, lest by any means the man should shake off his yoke. The
total overthrow of the soul of man is the aim of the great enemy. What a mercy
to have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy!
6. And like Israel in Egypt, we were in the hands of a power that
would not let us go, Your sins captivated you. Then came the reading of the
Scriptures, or a mother’s exhortation, or another earnest sermon, and again the
voice was heard, “Thus saith the Lord, let My people go” You began to feel
uneasy in your condition, and to venture somewhat into the border country, but
you could not escape, the iron had entered into your soul, your heart was
captive. Blessed was the day when the strong man armed that kept you as a man
keeps his house was overcome by a stronger than he and cast out forever. Then
Jesus took possession of your nature, never to leave it, but to hold His
tenancy world without end. We were bondmen in Egypt, but the Lord our God
redeemed us, and let His name be praised.
II. The blessed
fact of our redemption: “The Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Here again there is a
parallel.
1. He redeemed us first by price. Israel in Egypt was an unransomed
nation. God claimed of that nation the firstborn to be His. That portion had
been His claim from the first, and the law was afterwards carried out by the
setting apart of the Levitical tribe to take the place of the firstborn; but
Israel in Egypt had never set apart its firstborn at all, and was therefore an
unredeemed people. How was all that indebtedness to be made up? The nation must
be redeemed by a price, and that price was set forth by the symbol of a lamb
which was killed, and roasted, and eaten, while the blood was smeared upon the
lintel and the two side posts. You and I have been redeemed with blood (Revelation 5:9; 1 Peter 1:18).
2. But there would not have been a coming out of Egypt unless there
had been a display of power as well as a payment of price, for with a high hand
and an outstretched arm the Lord brought forth His people. Greater than Moses’
rod was Christ’s pierced hand. Our tyrant hath no more power to hold us in
chains, for Christ hath vanquished him forever.
3. Another form of redemption was also seen by Israel, namely, in the
power exerted over themselves. I think sufficient stress has never been laid
upon this. That they should have been willing to come out of Egypt was no small
thing,--universally willing, so that not a single person remained behind.
Marvellous display of power this; and so we will tell it to the praise of God
this day, that He made us willing to come out of the Egypt of our sin to which
we were rooted; and making us willing, He made us able too; the power of the
Spirit came upon us and the might of His grace overshadowed us, and we did
arise and come to our Father. Let grace have all the glory. Shall I need to
press upon you, then, to let your minds fly back to the time when you realised
your redemption, and came up out of the land of Egypt?
III. The influence
which this double memory ought to have upon you.
1. We should naturally conclude, without any reference to Scripture,
that if a Christian man kept always in mind his former and his present state it
would render him humble. Thou wouldst have been in hell now if it had not been
for sovereign grace; or if not there, perhaps thou wouldst have been among
drunkards and swearers, and lewd men and women, or at least among the proud,
self-righteous Pharisees. When thou art honoured of the Lord and happy in the
full assurance of faith, still remember that thou wast a bondman, and walk
humbly with thy God.
2. In the next place, be grateful. If you have not all the temporal
mercies that you would desire, yet you have received the choicest of all
mercies, liberty through Jesus Christ, therefore be cheerful, happy, and
thankful.
3. Being grateful, be patient too. If you are suffering, or if
sometimes your spirits are cast down, or if you are poor and despised, yet say
to yourself, “Why should I complain? My lot may seem hard, yet it is nothing in
comparison with what it would have been if I had been left a prisoner in the
land of Egypt. Thank God, I am no longer in bondage to my sins.”
4. Next, be hopeful. What may you not yet become? “It doth not yet
appear what we shall be.” You were a bondman, but grace has set you free. Who
knows what the Lord may yet make of you?
5. Then be zealous. Here earnestness should find both fire and fuel;
we were bondmen, but the Lord has redeemed us. What, then, can be too hard for
us to undertake for His sake? John Newton persisted in preaching even when he
was really incapable of it, for he said, “What, shall the old African
blasphemer leave off preaching Jesus Christ while there is breath in his body?
No, never.” He felt that he must continue to bear testimony, for our text was
always before him, “Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and
the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”
6. But now follow me while I show you the Lord’s own use of this
remembrance; and the first text I shall quote will be found in chap. 5:14. You
were a bondman. What would you have given for rest then? Now that the Lord has
given you this hallowed day of rest, guard it sacredly. Rest in the Lord Jesus
yourself, but endeavour to bring all your family into the same peace, “that thy
manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” In chap.
7. we have another use of this remembrance. Here the chosen people
are commanded to keep separate from the nations. They were not to intermarry
with the Canaanites, nor make alliances with them. Israel was to be separated,
even as Moses said, “thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God.” And the
reason he gives in the eighth verse is this: “the Lord redeemed thee out of the
house of bondmen.” Ah, if we are redeemed from among men, then as the specially
blood-bought ones we are under solemn obligations to come out from the world
and to be separate from it. In the eighth chapter redemption is used as an
argument for obedience, and they are exhorted not to forget the laws and
statutes of the Lord, and above all warned lest in the midst of prosperity
their heart should be lifted up so as to forget the Lord their God, who brought
them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. The same
argument runs through the eleventh chapter, and is a very clear one. We ought
to render glad obedience to Him who has wrought us so great a deliverance. We
find in the thirteenth chapter that the redemption from bondage is used as an
argument for loyal attachment to the one and only God. Our own text is set in
the following connection. If a man entered into forced servitude, or came under
any bonds to his fellow man among the Jews, he could only be so held for six
years, and on the seventh he was to go free. The Lord’s people should be
considerate of those who are in their employment. The recollection of their own
bondage should make them tender and kind to those who are in subservience to
themselves, and never should a Christian man be ungenerous, illiberal, severe,
churlish with his servant, or with any who are dependent upon him. There should
be in a man redeemed with the blood of Christ something like nobility of soul
and benevolence to his fellow men, and so even this stern book of law teaches
us. I remind you that they were bound to keep the Passover because of their
deliverance from Egypt as we find in the sixteenth chapter at the first verse.
So let us also take heed unto ourselves that we keep all the statutes and
ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. Let us keep the ordinances as they were
delivered unto us, and neither alter nor misplace them. Again, in the sixteenth
chapter, verses 10 to 12, you have the great redemption used as an argument for
liberality towards the cause of God: they were to give unto the Lord
rejoicingly of that which the Lord had given to them. “Every man shall give as
he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given
thee”; and that because of the twelfth verse, “Thou shalt remember that thou wast
a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.” In the
twenty-sixth chapter the same teaching is reduced to a set form, for they were
there commanded to bring each one a basket of first fruits and offer it unto
the Lord, saying, “The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt,” etc. Last of all,
in the twenty-fourth chapter there remains one more lesson. We are there
exhorted to be careful concerning the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 24:17). A generous spirit was
to be exhibited towards the poor. Be ye thoughtful of all your fellow men. You
that have been redeemed with price, be ye tender-hearted, full of compassion,
putting on bowels of mercy. In spiritual things take care that you never rake
the corners of your fields. Do not rob the Gospel of its sweetness. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The release of bond-servants
In this ordinance we may see--
I. An encouraging
emblem. It represents--
1. The redemption which God vouchsafes to His people.
2. The mercy which He exercises towards His redeemed.
II. An instructive
lesson. We are to regard God’s mercies as--
1. A pattern for our imitation.
2. A notice for our exertion. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
Eat it before the Lord thy God year by year.
Memorial days
“Year by year.” It might seem at first sight, antecedent to
experience, a surprising thing that the mere mechanical movement of the earth through
the heavens should have any special relationship to man’s mind and spirit. Yet
we know that it has. Our memory associates special experiences with certain
seasons and days. As the season or day returns the event is recalled, and
sometimes the impressions awakened by it have, apparently, all their original
sharpness. So, in this regard, the course of the heavens comes to be, as it
were, a colossal memorandum book.
1. There is a sure evidence of the event seen in the fact of its
commemoration.
2. We are taught how comparatively rare are these conspicuous and
startling events which punctuate our public and private life. It is well for
the sanity of the human mind that life is not filled with startling events. It
would be like substituting pyrotechnics for the moonlight, or the stars for the
silent skies. It is in the ordinary quiet on going of life that we find
healthfulness of heart.
3. Life is always, serious. For we are ever treading on the edge of
something unexpected, it may be something terrible. Let us walk circumspectly,
and realise that we may always dwell under the shield of God’s providence and
under the light of His promises.
4. We see the innate superiority of mind to all temporary events. You
recall perhaps your wedding day, the hour, the place, the guests, the joy,
through a score of years, a half century ago. Intervals of time fade from view
in presence of this supreme experience, just as you look from one lofty peak to
another and think not of field, valley, and river between. You see those
shining points of life when you were at twenty, forty, or sixty years of age,
and lesser experiences are hidden. The mind itself is superior to mere
measurements of time, and so is constituted for immortality; is akin to Him to
whom a thousand years are but as yesterday.
5. How deep in us is the element of affection which has its
expression in the anniversary or festival. As we review the past our memory
clings to those experiences in which the heart has a part, those which have
touched its springs of joy and grief. We properly cultivate intellectual
strength, power of will and endurance, but, after all, it is love that is
supreme. Love brings us nearer Him who is perfect love.
6. A sweet illustration of the grace of God in the Gospel is
furnished in the fact, with which every believer is familiar, that in these
remembered events sorrow loses its sting and joy comes to be even more full in
reminiscence than it was at first. Our sorrow only makes more glorious the
preciousness and amplitude of Divine grace and sympathy, just as the glory of
the sun, shot through a dark cloud, illumines and transfigures it by its
splendour and its peace.
7. What a rest it is to the aged to recall the past when they are
released from life’s active and strenuous struggles! They are like ships home
from long voyages, moated in a quiet harbour, where the memory of storms that
are past only enhances the serenity and peace enjoyed.
8. Whatever measurements may hereafter be had as to time and eternity
in our immortal life, one thing is certain: we will keep one point in vivid
remembrance--that of our entrance into life, when we first knew the joys
eternal. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》