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Judges Chapter
Twelve
Judges 12
Chapter Contents
Ephraimites quarrel with Jephthah. (1-7) Ibzan, Elon, and
Abdon judge Israel. (8-15)
Commentary on Judges 12:1-7
(Read Judges 12:1-7)
The Ephraimites had the same quarrel with Jephthah as
with Gideon. Pride was at the bottom of the quarrel; only by that comes
contention. It is ill to fasten names of reproach upon persons or countries, as
is common, especially upon those under outward disadvantages. It often
occasions quarrels that prove of ill consequence, as it did here. No
contentions are so bitter as those between brethren or rivals for honour. What
need we have to watch and pray against evil tempers! May the Lord incline all
his people to follow after things which make for peace!
Commentary on Judges 12:8-15
(Read Judges 12:8-15)
We have here a short account of three more of the judges
of Israel. The happiest life of individuals, and the happiest state of society,
is that which affords the fewest remarkable events. To live in credit and
quiet, to be peacefully useful to those around us, to possess a clear
conscience; but, above all, and without which nothing can avail, to enjoy
communion with God our Saviour while we live, and to die at peace with God and
man, form the substance of all that a wise man can desire.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Judges》
Judges 12
Verse 1
[1] And
the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said
unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of
Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon
thee with fire.
Northward —
Over Jordan, where Jephthah was, in the northern part of the land beyond
Jordan.
And said —
Through pride and envy, contending with him as they did before with Gideon.
Over —
Not over Jordan, for there he was already; but over the borders of the
Israelites land beyond Jordan.
Verse 2
[2] And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the
children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their
hands.
When I called —
Hence it appears, that he had craved their assistance, which they had denied;
though that be not elsewhere expressed.
Verse 3
[3] And
when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over
against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand:
wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me?
Put my life —
That is, I exposed myself to the utmost danger; as a man that carries a brittle
and precious thing in his hand, which may easily either fall to the ground, or
be snatched from him.
Wherefore —
Why do you thus requite my kindness in running such hazards to preserve you and
yours?
Verse 4
[4] Then
Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and
the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives
of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites.
Ye Gileadites —
These words are a contemptuous expression of the Ephraimites concerning the
Gileadites, whom they call fugitives of Ephraim; the word Ephraim being here
taken largely, as it comprehends the other neighbouring tribes, of which
Ephraim was the chief; and especially their brethren of Manasseh, who lived
next to them, and were descended from the same father, Joseph. By Gileadites
here they seem principally to mean the Manassites beyond Jordan, who dwelt in
Gilead. And although other Gileadites were joined with them, yet they vent
their passion against these; principally, because they envied them most; as
having had a chief hand in the victory. These they opprobriously call
fugitives, that is, such as had deserted their brethren of Ephraim and
Manasseh, planted themselves beyond Jordan, at a distance from their brethren,
and were alienated in affection from them.
Verse 5
[5] And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and
it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over;
that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;
Said Nay — To
avoid the present danger.
Verse 6
[6] Then
said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not
frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages
of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two
thousand.
Shibboleth —
Which signifies a stream or river, which they desired to pass over: so it was a
word proper for the occasion, and gave them no cause to suspect the design,
because they were required only to express their desire to go over the
Shibboleth or river.
Sibboleth — It
is well known, that not only divers nations, but divers provinces, or parts of
the same nation who use the same language, differ in their manner of pronunciation.
Could not frame — Or
rather, he did not frame to speak right; so as he was required to do it. The
Hebrew text doth not say, that he could not do it, but that he did it not,
because suspecting not the design he uttered it speedily according to his manner
of expression.
There fell —
Not in that place, but in that expedition, being slain either in the battle, or
in the pursuit, or at Jordan. See the justice of God! They had gloried, that
they were Ephraimites: But how soon are they afraid to own their country? They
had called the Gileadites, fugitives: And now they are in good earnest become
fugitives themselves. It is the same word, verse 5, used of the Ephraimites that fled, which they
had used in scorn of the Gileadites. He that rolls the stone, or reproach
unjustly on another, it may justly return upon himself.
Verse 9
[9] And
he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and took in
thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
Took in —
That is, took them home for wives to his sons. What a difference between his
and his predecessor's family! Ibzan had sixty children, and all married:
Jephthah but one, and she dies unmarried. Some are increased, others
diminished: all is the Lord's doing.
Verse 15
[15] And
Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the
land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites.
Mount of the Amalekites — So called from some remarkable exploit, done by, or upon the Amalekites
in that place. It is strange, that in the history of all these judges, there is
not so much as once mention of the high-priest, or of any other priest or
Levite, appearing either for council or action in any public affair, from
Phinehas to Eli, which may well be computed two hundred and fifty years! Surely
this intimates, that the institution was chiefly intended to be typical, and
that the benefits which were promised by it, were to be chiefly looked for in
its anti-type, the everlasting priesthood of Christ, in comparison of which
that priesthood had no glory.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Judges》
12 Chapter 12
Verses 1-3
Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of
Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee?
Shams and frauds
Though these Ephraimites
are long since dead and gone, there are many Ephraimites alive. They are men
who will not share the conflict themselves, but are angry when others succeed.
I. There are
people still who think nothing can be done without them. We find these people
everywhere--not a few of them at home. Ask that busy, bustling housewife to
take her children out into the country for a day; or ask her to attend church
on a Sunday morning; or ask her to give a few hours to visiting among the sick
and the poor and the sorrowful, what will she say? “How can I leave my house?
Who will attend to my affairs? If I were out of that house a few days it would
all go to ruin.” That woman has grown daughters who could and would gladly see
to things if she would only let them. But she goes on in her foolish whim that
nothing can be done without her. And I verily believe that not a few would
rather have nothing done at all if they could not do it. In business, too, the
same thing occurs. There are men who are slaves to their business. Neither
their sons nor their confidential men, who would suffer any loss rather than
neglect the governor’s interest, can be trusted. They must see to it, or it
won’t be done. Some day God puts such a man on his back. He is away six months
with a serious illness. His sons, who have not been thought capable hitherto,
have responsibility thrown upon them, and rise to the position. The man is
humbled, shamed, or it may be, delighted to find that the business has done
better with the infusion of the new blood than it did with the old. The Church
of Christ,
unfortunately, is afflicted with a large number of men who think nothing can be
done without them. There are men who would rather the battle should be lost
than others win it--who would almost wish that evil should remain rather than
others have the honour of removing it. But what does it matter who gains the
victory if it be gained? God can accomplish His purposes without any of us.
Look over the pages of history, and you will find that workers fall, but the
work goes on.
II. There are some
who, though they can’t stop the work, try to prejudice the workers. The men of
the text said in effect, “And who are you? You are fugitives, mongrels, not of
pure blood. What business have the likes of you to think you can fight the foes of
Israel? It is monstrous, and we won’t have it.” The same thing goes on to-day.
There are men who seem to think they have said something clever and settling
when they say that the popular useful man was not born in a palace. “Who’s he?”
is their cry. “Why, don’t you know that he was a collier, and worked in a coal
pit? His father died in a cottage. His mother was the daughter of a man who
drove a horse and cart, and never had five pounds in his life.” And what of
that? Is it not honest to get coal? Better be a collier and dig coal in the
service of man, and thus the service of God, than be a loafer, an idler, a
consumer, a drone. Some of the noblest of God’s servants have come from among
the poor, and the obscure, and the unknown. Our Lord Himself was a toiler, and
the Son of toilers, and has for ever consecrated and blessed all honest
necessary human labour. So I say to you all, toil on, pray on, fight on, win
victories for God. Beat back the enemies of Israel; and if the Ephraimites,
lacking courage and genius themselves, despise you, let them.
III. There are some
who can’t or won’t do much themselves, but hate, and scorn, and try to
persecute those who do. “We will burn thine house upon thee.” Alas! This has
often found expression in the bitterness of party strife and religious bigotry.
Unable to silence men whose lips God had touched as with live coals from His
own altar, and whose hearts had felt the power of the living God, they have
erected their stakes, piled their faggots, and lit their fires, in which the
saints of God, the excellent of the earth, have stood till their flesh was
shrivelled and their bones cindered. “We will burn thine house upon thee with
fire,” said these men; but they
found themselves unable to do it. Some men are hard to kill, and some houses bad to burn.
Many a tyrant has found this out. “We will burn thine house upon thee.” It does
not seem to have occurred to these cowardly Ephraimites that men who burn other
people’s houses sometimes burn themselves. It is dangerous to play with edged
tools. It is not safe to toy with fire. It may become the instrument of your
own torture, the weapon of your own destruction. “They that take the sword
shall perish with the sword,” said Jesus Christ; and there is for us no higher
authority. Some men who are fond of using fire do no harm except to themselves.
Whilst it is in some sense only right and just that this should be so, there
are cases in which we are sorry for the opposers. Well had it been for these
Ephraimites had they shared in the universal rejoicing. Well had it been for
them if they had learned wisdom, and ceased from opposition. Their wicked and
senseless opposition brought ruin upon themselves. In sheer self-defence the victor
turned the sword upon them. Alas for them! Forty and two thousand of them that
day left their dead bodies upon the plains as victims of their folly, and in
illustration of our saying that the wicked often injure themselves. And this is
true with the Lord Jesus and His gospel. Some men oppose it, reject it,
mutilate it, burn it. All such injure themselves. They can never hurt the truth. It will live. They
cannot stop the power of Jesus Christ to save men. The waves of the ocean dash against the
granite rock, but the rock does not move. But what of the waves? Broken, they
roll back in spray to the ocean out of which they came. “Whosoever shall fall
on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind
him to powder.” (C. Leach, D. D.)
Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth:
Trifles indicate character
It is often just such a slight peculiarity which identifies men as
belonging to a certain district or family.
You know whose son a man is by some motion of his hands or by his walk, by the
fall of a lock of hair or the way he lifts his eye: so also some very slight
peculiarity in our conduct or conversation is a sufficient index to our whole
state. In our Lord’s account of the last judgment He describes all men as
expressing astonishment that they should be so summarily dealt with, should be
allotted to their irrevocable destinies on grounds apparently so trivial. Is it
really reasonable that for some trifle of this kind a man should be
everlastingly damned, irretrievably and once for all cast in judgment? You will
think that it is quite reasonable if, in the light of this incident, you
consider that the little things a man does or neglects to do are infallible
symptoms of his character. These Ephraimites were not slain because the
Gileadites thought it a heinous crime to drop the “h”; but their blood dyed the
Jordan because it was Ephraimite blood, and this was manifested by their little
peculiarity. And so in a thousand ways that God observes, and that even men of
any spiritual insight or keenness of observation notice, we are in little
things revealing our character, and in the final judgment one of these little
things will be sufficient to condemn us. Try to put away these little faults;
if you succeed, then you are safe. But the faults of your character, the little
actions that truly express what is in you, you cannot so easily put off. There
often arise circumstances even in this life in which a more holy and decided
character than we possess were most desirable: we could pass through what has
come upon us in a vastly more satisfactory way if only we were other kind of
men than we are; but this is impossible. These Ephraimites could not for the
nonce become Gileadites; nor for their life could they make that little change
in their mode of speech. And so we cannot, on the sudden, change ourselves. If
certain little things about you make you suspect you belong to the wrong tribe;
if there are little flaws in your conduct which you find it extremely hard to
remove, and which hint to you that perhaps or probably the very roots of your
character are wrong; then go quickly to God, for you have but this one resource
and way of escape, and offer to forsake your old tribe, to be born again, and
beseech His grace to effect in you a thorough and real change of heart, such as
He has effected in many. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
Shibboleth
That the language of Palestine was diversely spoken in its
different provinces in the days of Christ, is evident from the ready
recognition of Peter by the high priest’s servant as a Galilean, his “speech
betraying him.” In the present day the Arabic of one part of Syria is so
different from that of another, that a person well able to understand the
people of Smyrna finds great difficulty in understanding those of Aleppo; and
even in the small island of Malta, where a corrupt Arabic is spoken, the
peasants of the several villages are said to be nearly unintelligible to each
other. Our own country affords ample illustration. A vanquished army of
Northumbrians, retreating across the Tees, might with equal facility be
detected by being required to say the word “river,” as were the Ephraimites on
the banks of the Jordan by being required to say the word “shibboleth,” or
“stream.” As our Northumbrians cannot pronounce the “r,” but utter instead of
it a guttural sound resembling a “w,” the Ephraimites, unable to pronounce the
“sh,” discovered themselves at once by their saying sibboleth for shibboleth;
and so fierce was the revenge of those whom they had taunted, that the blood of
forty-two thousand men mingled with the stream of the Jordan. In this tragical
scene the vindictive fury of the men of Gilead cannot escape heavy censure. They
had been exasperated by bitter words; but in this, as in many other instances
in history, we see the terrific madness of popular revenge. No contentions are
so bitter as those which arise among brethren: “A brother offended is harder to
be won than a strong city.” Civil wars are usually carried on under greater
exasperation of feeling than wars between nations of a different race; nor is
the breach, when once made, so readily healed. As the sweetest wine, when
acetous fermentation has set in, turns to the sourest vinegar, so it is in
families and in Churches. How dismally protracted are some family feuds! And
how embittered against each other are the adherents of the two opposed parties
in a riven Church! Let us not be too prodigal of our anathemas upon these cruel
Gileadites at the fords of the Jordan, at least until we have taken leisure to
compare the mutual aspect of civilised nations, and the mutual aspect of
Christian Churches, in the later centuries, when a conduct so much less violent
might have been expected. Are there not Church parties in our own day which set
up shibboleths of their own, and refuse the interchanges of brotherhood to all
who do not pronounce the test-word in precisely the same manner as themselves?
(L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
Shibboleth
The word on which this tragical occurrence hangs has passed into a
proverbial word. Were any casual reader of Scripture asked what the word
signifies, he would hardly reply, a stream or flood. The incident mentioned in
the text has given a new meaning to it. Shibboleth is now an English word, with
an English meaning distinct from its root. It means any word, doctrine, form,
or fashion which, whether we will or no, whether rightly or wrongly, justly or
unjustly, we are required to pronounce or agree to as a test, in short, which
is intended to try on whose side we wage war, whose leadership we acknowledge,
whose dominions we belong to. There are God’s shibboleths and man’s. “Except a
man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Without holiness
no man shall see the Lord.” “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
“No man can say that Jesus is the Christ, except by the Holy Ghost.” There are
also man’s shibboleths. “You must believe that the world stands still while the
sun revolves.” “No,” said the wise old man, “I cannot believe that, for I have
discovered a new system.” “Then you must die, and your soul be lost.” So the
poor discoverer was tortured into pronouncing the shibboleth of human
ignorance. Notice, as a leading truth, that all are not Israel that are of
Israel. However much we may speak, dress, and look alike, there is a hidden
difference which time or a severe test will show. Also that difference may
sound trifling, and yet be of such importance as to embrace the life or death
of the soul. Also we may live in the same land, the same street, the same
village, the same house; may fight in the same camp, and wear the same uniform;
and yet be part Ephraimites and part Gileadites; part God’s people and part
Satan’s; part hastening to destruction and part in a state of safety. The sight
of any great swaying and swelling multitude, any waving ocean of humanity,
causes many a quiet thought, and sorrow, and prayer to ascend from Christian
souls, respecting the divided future of the ofttimes unanimous-looking crowd.
For a Christian may lament and pray for his brother, without lapsing into the
Pharisee’s censoriousness.
I. Look we now for
the vain shibboleths of man, those heavy burdens which are laid on men’s
shoulders, and laid too often by those who will not themselves touch them with
the tips of their fingers.
1. “I believe that I am forgiven?’ This is one of the unfair
shibboleths required by man. Seldom a saint departs without sight of the broad
seal of God’s forgiveness. But he may be afraid to take it. Still he is
forgiven. To be forgiven is of the first importance. To know we are forgiven is
of importance too; but not indispensable.
2. “I am a member of this Church.” Here is another human shibboleth.
The Lord will not ask what earthly Church--so it be but a branch of Christ’s
vine--a soul belongs to. “Come with us and we will do thee good,” is the utmost
length to which our invitation may go.
3. “I understand Scripture in the literal sense. I agree to no new
interpretation. I admit no light from science.” These requirements form another
human shibboleth; this shutting up of the Bible from that free, and full, and
fair inquiry, which, if it were afraid of it, it would be well nigh worthless.
Having first prayed reverently, “Lead me not, O Father, into temptation,” a man
may wear away his Bible by the daily attrition of diligent study; for it
contains what no study can wear down--the very truth of God. Such a reader
Christ smiles upon as his fingers turn over the sacred page. For such a man,
after God’s own heart, the Holy Spirit will strike forth new discoveries; will
lead such an one by still waters, and feed him in pleasant pastures, far away
from the rivers of Babylon; will guide such an one into all truth, and save his
soul in peace.
II. There are also
some true shibboleths of God, which we must pronounce with a full, round
utterance, or we are lost.
1. Repentance. “If I were to die in the pulpit,” said Philip Henry,
“I would desire to die preaching repentance; and if I were to die out of the
pulpit, I would desire to die practising repentance.” “Except ye repent,” says
the Holy Spirit, “ye shall all likewise perish.” Can we say, “shibboleth”? Have
we repented? Or is it only the “sibboleth” of a worldly sorrow?
2. Another shibboleth of God is faith in Christ. Not the form of
words, “I believe”; but the diligent, faithful life; the earnest, converted
soul.
3. We must believe the Bible to be inspired. Reverently and freely
interpreting it, we must take it from God’s gracious hand, and follow out its
leading as the clue to salvation. Else it will hang like a millstone about our
necks, and sink us to perdition, 4, We must learn the true language of heaven,
the true ways of holiness. We must leave the lispings, formalities, and
affectations of the world, and say, “Shibboleth,” as the angels and spirits of
the just, and the just who yet live upon earth say it, and have said it before.
(S. B. James, M. A.)
Sectarianism--its origin, evils, cures
The Church of God is divided into a great number of denominations,
some of them founded by very good men, some of them founded by very egotistic
men, and some of them founded by very bad men. But as I demand liberty of
conscience for myself, I must give that same liberty to every other man,
remembering that I advocate the largest liberty in all religious belief and
form of worship. The air and the water keep pure by constant circulation, and I
think there is a tendency in religious discussion to purification and moral
health. In a world of such tremendous vicissitude and temptation, and with a
soul that must after a while stand before a throne of insufferable brightness,
to give account for every thought, word, action, preference, and dislike--that
man is mad who has no religious preference. But our early education, our
physical temperament, our mental constitution, will very much decide our form
of worship.
1. In tracing out the religion of sectarianism, or bigotry, I find
that a great deal of it comes from wrong education in the home circle. There
are parents who do not think it wrong to caricature and jeer the peculiar forms
of religion in the world, and denounce other denominations.
2. I think sectarianism and bigotry also rise from too great
prominence of any one denomination in a community. All the other denominations
are wrong, and his denomination is right, because his denomination is the most
wealthy, or the most popular, and it is “our” Church, and “our “ religious
organisation, and “our” choir, and “our” minister, and the man tosses his head,
and wants other denominations to know their places.
3. Bigotry is often the child of ignorance. You seldom find a man
with large intellect who is a bigot. It is the man who thinks he knows a great
deal, but does not. That man is almost always a bigot. There is nothing that
will so soon kill bigotry as sunshine--God’s sunshine. So I have set before you
what I consider to be the causes of bigotry. What are some of the baleful
effects?
1. It cripples investigation. You are wrong, and I am right, and that
ends it. No taste for exploration, no spirit of investigation.
2. Another great damage done by the sectarianism and bigotry of the
Church is, that it disgusts people with the Christian religion. Now, the Church
of God was never intended for a war barrack.
3. Again, bigotry and sectarianism do great damage in the fact that
they hinder the triumph of the gospel. Oh! how much wasted ammunition! how many
men of splendid intellect have given their whole life to controversial
disputes, when, if they had given their life to something practical, they might
have been vastly useful! A quarrel in a beehive is a strange sight. I go out
sometimes in the summer and I find two beehives, and these two beehives are in
a quarrel. I come near enough, not to be stung, but I come just near enough to
hear the controversy, and one beehive says, “That field of clover is the
sweetest,” and another beehive says, “That field of clover is the sweetest.” I
come in between them, and I say, “Stop this quarrel; if you like that field of
clover best, go there; if you like that field of clover best, go there; but let
me tell you that that hive which gets the most honey is the best hive!” So I
come out between the Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. One denomination of
Christians says, “That field of Christian doctrine is best,” and another says,
“This field of Christian doctrine is best.” Well, I say, “Go where you get the
most honey.” That is the best Church which gets the most honey of Christian
grace for the heart, and the most honey of Christian usefulness for the life.
Besides that, if you want to build up any denomination, you will never build it
up by trying to pull some other down. In England a law was made against the
Jew. England thrust back the Jew, and thrust down the Jew, and declared that no
Jew should hold official position. What came of it? Were the Jews destroyed?
Was their religion overthrown? No. Intolerance never yet put down anything.
Now, what is the remedy for sectarianism? I think we may overthrow the severe
sectarianism and bigotry in our hearts, and in the Church also, by realising
that all the denominations of Christians have yielded noble institutions and
noble men. There is nothing that so stirs my soul as this thought. Moreover, we
may also overthrow the feelings of severe sectarianism by joining other
denominations in Christian work. Perhaps I might more forcibly illustrate this
truth by Calling your attention to an incident which took place some years ago.
One Monday morning, at about two o’clock, while her nine hundred passengers
were sound asleep dreaming of home, the steamer Atlantic crashed into
Mars Head. Five hundred souls in ten minutes landed in eternity! Oh, what a
scene! Agonised men and women running up and down the gangways, and clutching
for the rigging, and the plunge of the helpless steamer, threw two continents
into terror. But see this brave quartermaster pushing out with the life-line
until he gets to the rock; and see these fishermen gathering up the
shipwrecked, and taking them into the cabins and wrapping them in the flannels
snug and warm; and see that minister of the gospel, with three other men,
getting into a lifeboat, and pushing out for the wreck, pulling away across the
surf, and pulling away until they saved one more man, and then getting back
with him to the shore. Can these men ever forget that night? And can they ever
forget their companionship in peril, companionship in struggle, companionship
in awful catastrophe and rescue? Never! Never! Well, our world has gone into a
worse shipwreck. Sin drove it on the rocks. The old ship has lurched and tossed
in the tempests of six thousand years. Out with the life-line! I do not care
what denomination carries it. Out with the life-boat! I do not care what
denomination rows it. Side by side, in the memory of common hardships, and
common trials, and common prayers, and common tears, let us be brothers for
ever. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Social and religious tests
I. Social life has
its shibboleths. Goodness of heart and purity of life and language are not
always the tests of admission to what is termed choice society. Anything before
that. With some it is education. How much do you know? With others it is
elegance of manners and accomplishments. We do not admit awkward people to our
company. And some estimate the worth of their neighbours by the length of their
purses. How much are you worth? With multitudes dress is the countersign. The
idol of fashion is set up, and we are expected to bow down daily and offer
devout homage. In many assemblies the garment decides the position. One of our
great generals, it is said, went modestly to one of our fashionable churches on
a great funeral occasion. Upon his applying for a place, it transpired that the
plain cloak which wrapped his person was barely sufficient to gain him a seat
inside the door. It was almost literally, “Stand thou there.” During the
service the cloak fell back far enough to reveal the mark upon the shoulders.
Then came most profuse apologies, with the pressing invitation, “Come up
higher, and sit thou in a good place.”
II. Religious life
has its shibboleths, and there is no place where the overbearing requirements
are more unseemly or mere to be deprecated. The spirit of Christianity, as
taught by its Divine Author, is a spirit of kindness, tenderness, forbearance.
It commends and enjoins the charity that beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things. In the gospel we are to make allowance for each
other’s differences, and bear with each other’s infirmities, and bid Godspeed
to each other’s efforts. There are shibboleths which are legitimate, and
essential to the maintenance of vital truth and goodness among men. There are
principles which constitute the very foundation stones of God’s temple. These
are to be defended and guarded without compromise. It is not our measuring line
which is thus applied; it is not our standard set up; it is not our speech to
which conformity is required. It is the pronunciation which God demands. And
yet it becomes us to be extremely cautious in the pressing of the pass-words,
lest we should substitute our own pronunciation for God’s and shut out any of
the children of the kingdom. “Take heed lest ye offend one of these little
ones.” There are different phases of the same doctrine; there are various
explanations and interpretations which do not invalidate the truth. (Goyn
Talmage.)
The shibboleths of the Churches
We may learn here the worth of the essence of a thing as it stands
in contrast with the mere accent--something like that which Paul set forth in
the noble words--I read and the need there is now, as there was then, that we
shall stand free if we can from the letter and cling to the spirit. The letter
may be, as it often is, the mere difference between the two sides, while the
spirit is the Divine reality that lies and abides within them both, the only
thing God ever did care for, as I believe, or ever will care for while the
world stands. Shibboleth and sibboleth, you know, still make mischief when they
can get a chance, as surely as they did on the banks of the Jordan, and they
fall out, and divide, and weaken all the chances of right against wrong. Let others
fall out as they will about the way to say the word, but be sure that the gates
of life never did open and never can to this mere turn of the tongue, this sesame,
but only to the grand old password: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and soul and mind and strength, and thy neighbour as thyself,” I notice,
again, when I bring shibboleth and sibboleth home to my heart and life, that
there is no other way open to me if I would be a man, let alone a Christian,
but just to say what he says, the good apostle (1 Corinthians 12:13). Our belief is
far less a matter of free-will than we imagine. If we are sincere in regard to
truth we must believe as we do, and there is no ground for reviling. And as
oaks grow best alone, and as vines need a standard, and as some flowers like a
day with three quarters shadow, and others want all the sunshine that heaven
can pour upon them; as all the fruits in Covent Garden Market to-morrow will be
better than any one of them; as all herbs are good in their place, sweet and
bitter, mellow and sharp; and as some love Rembrandt’s pictures with their deep
shadows, and some Raphael’s, with their floods of glory and hosts of angels,
and no great gallery could be complete if you leave out any of these great
masters: so I think we must make up our minds that any Church which can include
all these diversities of thinking and believing is better than those which
leave any out, and breed “in and in,” like the chickens in Hawthorne’s story
that were so careful of the separateness of their breed that there were only
two of them left in the end, and they could do nothing but croak. We cannot
always think alike or believe alike in the most sacred relations that men and
women can sustain to each other in their homes; and we ought not to look for
any finer harmony than the holy spirit of well-mated Christian people, least of
all in the Churches where this bond of fellowship is maintained, against all
comers, that every man may make something good enough for heaven out of the
nature that God has given him and the life he has to live, and that the best
form in the Churches and in the nation is that in which men can manage wisely
and well to govern themselves. (R. Collyer, D. D.)
Abdon . . . had forty sons and thirty nephews.
The time of peace
For our instruction this we may learn, that in the time of peace,
when there is freedom from war and persecution in a land, there is great
prosperity in every kind, as multitudes
of people, building, purchasing, and growing in wealth and promotion. For
though the plague and famine sometimes sweep away and diminish the number of
people, yet they through God’s goodness not continuing long, nor sore, are the
sooner outgrown; but the other, I mean war and persecution, make strip and
waste, as we say, even as the violent fire burneth all where it cometh, and the
raging waters drown. But when they cease, there is plenty for the most part
going with peace, and there is with both great outward prosperity. Which is to
be acknowledged a singular great favour of God, and to such as are able to use
it aright it giveth much liberty and encouragement to live well and happily.
And otherwise what is all jollity and abundance, if we have not learned and be
not fitted for the right use of it? The which how few regard or look after, but
only seek to pass their precious time in ease, vanity, play, idleness, drinking
and such like; and the civiller sort to mind little else than to increase and
gather wealth, the most of them not knowing why, but to content and please
themselves thereby; to see how fondly, nay madly, so many do use this peace and
liberty of quiet living, it is much more to be bewailed than the benefit itself
is to be rejoiced for. And to think how in this time of peace good preaching should
be in use throughout all parts of the land to hold down atheism, profaneness,
and other sin, and that which should be all in all with us to bring many people
to God, and yet how little is done this way, it cannot without much bewailing
be thought on. Now if in this earthly mansion of ours He can allow His people
so liberal and comfortable a supply of earthly refreshings meet for them, until
they shall no longer stand in need of them; then what is like to be their
entertainment at home in heaven, and what provision will the Lord make for them
there, where all sound rejoicing is without end or measure? A great means to
provoke them to serve out their time with cheerfulness and faithfulness when
they consider that all things are theirs, both here and hereafter. All good
things serve to make up the happiness of them who are Christ’s, who is Lord of
all. (R. Rogers.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》