And how important the admonition in verse 17! "Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man." How these words discover the poor human heart! How p.r.o.ne we are to respect persons--to be swayed by personal influence--to attach importance to position and wealth--to be afraid of the face of man!
What is the divine antidote against all these evils? Just this: the fear of G.o.d. If we set the Lord before us, at all times, it will effectually deliver us from the pernicious influence of partiality, prejudice, and the fear of men. It will lead us to wait humbly and patiently on the Lord for guidance and counsel in all that may come before us, and thus we shall be preserved from forming hasty and one-sided judgments of men and things--that fruitful source of mischief amongst the Lord"s people in all ages.
We shall now dwell for a few moments on the very affecting manner in which Moses brings before the congregation all the circ.u.mstances connected with the mission of the spies, which, like the appointment of the judges, is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. This is only what we might expect. There is not, there could not be, a single sentence of useless repet.i.tion in the divine volume; still less could there be a single flaw, a single discrepancy, a single contradictory statement. The Word of G.o.d is absolutely perfect--perfect as a whole, perfect in all its parts. We must firmly hold and faithfully confess this in the face of this infidel age.
We speak not of human translations of the Word of G.o.d, in which there must be more or less of imperfection; though even here, we cannot but be "filled with wonder, love, and praise" when we mark the way in which our G.o.d so manifestly presided over our excellent English translation, so that the poor man at the back of a mountain may be a.s.sured of possessing, in his common English Bible, the revelation of G.o.d to his soul. And most surely we are warranted in saying that this is just what we might look for at the hands of our G.o.d. It is but reasonable to infer that the One who inspired the writers of the Bible would also watch over the translation of it; for inasmuch as He gave it originally, in His grace, to those who could read Hebrew and Greek, so would He not, in the same grace, give it in every language under heaven? Blessed forever be His holy name, it is His gracious desire to speak to every man in the very tongue in which he was born,--to tell us the sweet tale of His grace--the glad tidings of salvation in the very accents in which our mothers whispered into our infant ears those words of love that went right home to our very hearts. (See Acts ii.
5-8.)
Oh that men were more impressed and affected with the truth and power of all this, and then we should not be troubled with so many foolish and unlearned questions about the Bible.
Let us now hearken to the account given by Moses of the mission of the spies--its origin and its result. We shall find it full of most weighty instruction, if only the ear be open to hear and the heart duly prepared to ponder.
"And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do."
The path of simple obedience was plainly set before them. They had but to tread it with an obedient heart and firm step. They had not to reason about consequences, or weigh the results; all these they had just to leave in the hands of G.o.d, and move on with steady purpose in the blessed path of obedience.
"And when we departed from h.o.r.eb, we went through all that _great and terrible wilderness_, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our G.o.d commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, "Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our G.o.d doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy G.o.d hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord G.o.d of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.""
Here was their warrant for entering upon immediate possession. The Lord their G.o.d had given them the land and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift--the gift of His sovereign grace, in pursuance of the covenant made with their fathers. It was His eternal purpose to possess the land of Canaan through the seed of Abraham His friend.
This ought to have been enough to set their hearts perfectly at rest, not only as to the character of the land, but also as to their entrance upon it. There was no need of spies. Faith never wants to spy what G.o.d has given. It argues that what He has given must be worth having, and that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His grace has bestowed. Israel might have concluded that the same hand that had conducted them "through all that great and terrible wilderness" could bring them in and plant them in their destined inheritance.
So Faith would have reasoned; for it always reasons from G.o.d down to circ.u.mstances, never from circ.u.mstances up to G.o.d. "If G.o.d be for us, who can be against us?" This is Faith"s argument, grand in its simplicity and simple in its moral grandeur. When G.o.d fills the whole range of the soul"s vision, difficulties are little accounted of. They are either not seen, or, if seen, they are viewed as occasions for the display of divine power. Faith exults in seeing G.o.d triumphing over difficulties.
But, alas! the people were not governed by faith on the occasion now before us, and therefore they had recourse to spies. Of this Moses reminds them, and that, too, in language at once most tender and faithful.--"And ye came near unto me, _every one of you_, and said, "We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again, by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.""
Surely, they might well have trusted G.o.d for all this. The One who had brought them up out of Egypt, made a way for them through the sea, guided them through the trackless desert, was fully able to bring them into the land. But no; they would send spies, simply because their hearts had not simple confidence in the true, the living, the almighty G.o.d.
Here lay the moral root of the matter; and it is well that the reader should thoroughly seize this point. True it is that, in the history given in Numbers, the Lord told Moses to send the spies; but why?
Because of the moral condition of the people. And here we see the characteristic difference and yet the lovely harmony of the two books.
Numbers gives us the public history, Deuteronomy the secret source of the mission of the spies; and as it is in perfect keeping with Numbers to give us the former, so it is in perfect keeping with Deuteronomy to give us the latter. The one is the complement of the other. We could not fully understand the subject had we only the history given in Numbers. It is the touching commentary given in Deuteronomy which completes the picture. How perfect is Scripture! All we need is the eye anointed to see and the heart prepared to appreciate its moral glories.
It may be, however, that the reader still feels some difficulty in reference to the question of the spies. He may feel disposed to ask how it could be wrong to send them when the Lord told them to do so.
The answer is, The wrong was not in the act of sending them when they were told, but in the wish to send them at all. The wish was the fruit of unbelief, and the command to send them was because of that unbelief.
We may see something of the same in the matter of divorce in Matthew xix.--"The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?"
And He answered and said unto them, "Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore G.o.d hath joined together, let not man put asunder." They say unto Him, "Why did Moses, then, command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, "Moses _because of the hardness of your hearts_ suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.""
It was not in keeping with G.o.d"s original inst.i.tution, or according to His heart, that a man should put away his wife; but, in consequence of the hardness of the human heart, divorce was permitted by the lawgiver. Is there any difficulty in this? Surely not; unless the heart is bent on making one. Neither is there any difficulty in the matter of the spies. Israel ought not to have needed them: simple faith would never have thought of them. But the Lord saw the real condition of things and issued a command accordingly; just as, in after ages, He saw the heart of the people bent on having a king, and He commanded Samuel to give them one.--"And the Lord said unto Samuel, "Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other G.o.ds, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: _howbeit yet protest solemnly_ unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them."" (1 Sam. viii. 7-9.)
Thus we see that the mere granting of a desire is no proof whatever that such desire is according to the mind of G.o.d. Israel ought not to have asked for a king. Was not Jehovah sufficient? was not He their King? could not He, as He had ever done, lead them forth to battle and fight for them? Why seek an arm of flesh? why turn away from the living, the true, the almighty G.o.d to lean on a poor fellow-worm? What power was there in a king but that which G.o.d might see fit to bestow upon him? None whatever. All the power, all the wisdom, all real good, was in the Lord their G.o.d; and it was there for them--there at all times, to meet their every need. They had but to lean upon His almighty arm--to draw upon His exhaustless resources, to find all their springs in Him.
When they did get a king, according to their hearts" desire, what did he do for them? "All the people followed him trembling." The more closely we study the melancholy history of Saul"s reign, the more we see that he was, almost from the very outset, a positive hindrance rather than a help. We have but to read his history, from first to last, in order to see the truth of this. His whole reign was a lamentable failure, aptly and forcibly set forth in two glowing sentences of the prophet Hosea,--"I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath." In a word, he was the answer to the unbelief and self-will of the people, and therefore all their brilliant hopes and expectations respecting him were most lamentably disappointed. He failed to answer the mind of G.o.d, and, as a necessary consequence, he failed to meet the people"s need. He proved himself wholly unworthy of the crown and sceptre, and his ignominious fall on Mount Gilboa was in melancholy keeping with his whole career.
Now, when we come to consider the mission of the spies, we find it too, like the appointment of a king, ending in complete failure and disappointment. It could not be otherwise, inasmuch as it was the fruit of unbelief. True, G.o.d gave them spies, and Moses, with touching grace, says, "The saying pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe,"--it was Grace coming down to the condition of the people and consenting to a plan which was suited to that condition; but this by no means proves that either the plan or the condition was according to the mind of G.o.d. Blessed be His name, He can meet us in our unbelief though He is grieved and dishonored by it.
He delights in a bold, artless faith; it is the only thing in all this world that gives Him His proper place. Hence, when Moses said to the people, "Behold, the Lord thy G.o.d hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord G.o.d of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged," what would have been the proper response from them? Here we are: lead on, almighty Lord--lead on to victory. Thou art enough. With Thee as our leader, we move on with joyful confidence. Difficulties are nothing to Thee, and therefore they are nothing to us. Thy word and Thy presence are all we want. In these we find at once our authority and power. It matters not in the least to us who or what may be before us: mighty giants, towering walls, frowning bulwarks--what are they all in the presence of the Lord G.o.d of Israel, but as withered leaves before the whirlwind? Lead on, O Lord.
This would have been the language of Faith; but, alas! it was not the language of Israel on the occasion before us. G.o.d was not sufficient for them. They were not prepared to go up, leaning on His arm alone: they were not satisfied with His report of the land; they would send spies. Any thing for the poor human heart but simple dependence upon the one living and true G.o.d. The natural man cannot trust G.o.d, simply because he does not know Him. "They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee."
G.o.d must be known, in order to be trusted; and the more fully He is trusted, the better He becomes known. There is nothing in all this world so truly blessed as a life of simple faith; but it must be a reality and not a mere profession. It is utterly vain to talk of living by faith, while the heart is secretly resting on some creature-prop. The true believer has to do exclusively with G.o.d. He finds in Him all his resources. It is not that he undervalues the instruments or the channels which G.o.d is pleased to use; quite the reverse. He values them exceedingly; and cannot but value them, as the means which G.o.d uses for his help and blessing; but he does not allow them to displace G.o.d. The language of his heart is, "My soul, wait thou only upon G.o.d; for my expectation is from Him. He _only_ is my rock."
There is peculiar force in the word "only." It searches the heart thoroughly. To look to the creature, directly or indirectly, for the supply of any need, is, in principle, to depart from the life of faith; and, oh! it is miserable work, this looking, in any way, to creature-streams. It is just as morally degrading as the life of faith is morally elevating. And not only is it degrading, but disappointing.
Creature-props give way, and creature-streams run dry; but they that trust in the Lord shall never be confounded, and never want any good thing. Had Israel trusted the Lord instead of sending spies, they would have had a very different tale to tell; but spies they would send, and the whole affair proved a most humiliating failure.
"And they turned, and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eschol, and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, "It is a good land which the Lord our G.o.d doth give us."" How could it possibly be otherwise when G.o.d was giving it?
Did they want spies to tell them that the gift of G.o.d was good?
a.s.suredly, they ought not. An artless faith would have argued thus: Whatever G.o.d gives must be worthy of Himself; we want no spies to a.s.sure us of this. But, ah! this artless faith is an uncommonly rare gem in this world; and even those who possess it know but little of its value or how to use it. It is one thing to talk of the life of faith, and another thing altogether to live it,--the theory is one thing, the living reality quite another. But let us never forget that it is the privilege of every child of G.o.d to live by faith, and, further, that the life of faith takes in every thing that the believer can possibly need, from the starting-post to the goal of his earthly career. We have already touched upon this important point; it cannot be too earnestly or constantly insisted upon.
With regard to the mission of the spies, the reader will note with interest the way in which Moses refers to it. He confines himself to that portion of their testimony which was according to truth; he says nothing about the ten infidel spies. This is in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the book. Every thing is brought to bear, in a moral way, on the conscience of the congregation. He reminds them that they themselves had proposed to send the spies; and yet, although the spies had placed before them the fruit of the land, and borne testimony to its goodness, they would not go up.--"Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your G.o.d." There was no excuse whatever. It was evident that their hearts were in a state of positive unbelief and rebellion, and the mission of the spies, from first to last, only made this fully manifest.
"And ye murmured in your tents, and said, "Because the Lord hated us"--a terrible lie on the very face of it!--"He hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us."" What a strange proof of hatred! How utterly absurd are the arguments of unbelief! Surely, had He hated them, nothing was easier than to leave them to die amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, beneath the cruel lash of Pharaoh"s taskmasters. Why take so much trouble about them? Why those ten plagues sent upon the land of their oppressors? Why, if He hated them, did He not allow the waters of the Red Sea to overwhelm them as they had overwhelmed their enemies? Why had He delivered them from the sword of Amalek? In a word, why all these marvelous triumphs of grace on their behalf if He hated them?
Ah! if they had not been governed by a spirit of dark and senseless unbelief, such a brilliant array of evidence would have led them to a conclusion the direct opposite of that to which they gave utterance.
There is nothing beneath the canopy of heaven so stupidly irrational as unbelief; and, on the other hand, there is nothing so sound, clear, and logical as the simple argument of a childlike faith. May the reader ever be enabled to prove the truth of this.
"And ye murmured in your tents." Unbelief is not only a blind and senseless reasoner, but a dark and gloomy murmurer. It neither gets to the right side of things nor the bright side of things. It is always in the dark--always in the wrong, simply because it shuts out G.o.d, and looks only at circ.u.mstances. They said, "Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, "The people is greater and taller than we"--but they were not greater than Jehovah--"and the cities are great and _walled up to heaven_"--the gross exaggeration of unbelief--"and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.""
Now, Faith would say, Well, what though the cities be walled up to heaven, our G.o.d is above them, for He is _in_ heaven. What are great cities or lofty walls to Him who formed the universe, and sustains it by the Word of His power? What are Anakims in the presence of the almighty G.o.d? If the land were covered with walled cities from Dan to Beersheba, and if the giants were as numerous as the leaves of the forest, they would be as the chaff of the threshing-floor before the One who has promised to give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, His friend, for an everlasting possession.
But Israel had not faith, as the inspired apostle tells us in the third chapter of Hebrews, "They could not enter in because of unbelief." Here lay the great difficulty. The walled cities and the terrible Anakims would soon have been disposed of had Israel only trusted G.o.d. He would have made very short work of all these; but, ah!
that deplorable unbelief! it ever stands in the way of our blessing.
It hinders the outshining of the glory of G.o.d; it casts a dark shadow over our souls, and robs us of the privilege of proving the all-sufficiency of our G.o.d to meet our every need and remove our every difficulty.
Blessed be His name, He never fails a trusting heart. It is His delight to honor the very largest drafts that Faith hands in at His exhaustless treasury. His a.s.suring word to us ever is, "Be not afraid; only believe." And again, "According to your faith be it unto you."
Precious soul-stirring words! may we all realize more fully their living power and sweetness. We may rest a.s.sured of this, we can never go too far in counting on G.o.d; it would be a simple impossibility. Our grand mistake is that we do not draw more largely upon His infinite resources. "Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of G.o.d?"
Thus we can see why it was that Israel failed to see the glory of G.o.d on the occasion before us,--they did not believe. The mission of the spies proved a complete failure. As it began, so it ended--in the most deplorable unbelief. G.o.d was shut out: difficulties filled their vision.
"They could not enter in." They could not see the glory of G.o.d.
Hearken to the deeply affecting words of Moses. It does the heart good to read them. They touch the very deepest springs of our renewed being.--"Then I said unto you, "Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
The Lord your G.o.d which goeth before you, He shall fight for you"--only think of G.o.d fighting for people! think of Jehovah as a Man of war!--"He shall fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that _the Lord thy G.o.d bare thee, as a man doth bear his son_, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place." Yet in this thing _ye did not believe the Lord your G.o.d_, who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day."
What moral force, what touching sweetness in this appeal! How clearly we can see here, as indeed on every page of the book, that Deuteronomy is not a barren repet.i.tion of facts, but a most powerful commentary on those facts. It is well that the reader should be thoroughly clear as to this. If in the book of Exodus or Numbers the inspired lawgiver records the actual facts of Israel"s wilderness-life, in the book of Deuteronomy he comments on those facts with a pathos that quite melts the heart. And here it is that the exquisite style of Jehovah"s acts is pointed out and dwelt upon with such inimitable skill and delicacy.
Who could consent to give up the lovely figure set forth in the words, "As a man doth bear his son"? Here we have the style of the action.
Could we do without this? a.s.suredly not. It is the style of an action that touches the heart, because it is the style that so peculiarly expresses the heart. If the power of the _hand_ or the wisdom of the _mind_ is seen in the _substance_ of an action, the love of the _heart_ comes out in the _style_. Even a little child can understand this, though he might not be able to explain it.
But, alas! Israel could not trust G.o.d to bring them into the land.
Notwithstanding the marvelous display of His power, His faithfulness, His goodness, and loving-kindness, from the brick-kilns of Egypt to the very borders of the land of Canaan, yet they did not believe. With an array of evidence which ought to have satisfied any heart, they still doubted. "And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, "Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord.""
"Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of G.o.d?" Such is the divine order. Men will tell you that seeing is believing, but in the kingdom of G.o.d, believing is seeing. Why was it that not a man of that evil generation was allowed to see the good land? Simply because they did not believe in the Lord their G.o.d. On the other hand, why was Caleb allowed to see and take possession? Simply because he believed. Unbelief is ever the great hindrance in the way of our seeing the glory of G.o.d.--"He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." If Israel had only believed, only trusted the Lord their G.o.d, only confided in the love of His heart and in the power of His arm, He would have brought them in and planted them in the mountain of His inheritance.
And just so is it with the Lord"s people now. There is no limit to the blessings which we might enjoy, could we only count more fully upon G.o.d. "All things are possible to him that believeth." Our G.o.d will never say, You have drawn too largely; you expect too much.
Impossible. It is the joy of His loving heart to answer the very largest expectations of Faith.
Let us, then, draw largely. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."
The exhaustless treasury of heaven is thrown open to Faith. "_All things_ whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of G.o.d, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, _nothing wavering_." Faith is the divine secret of the whole matter--the main-spring of Christian life from first to last. Faith wavers not, staggers not: Unbelief is ever a waverer and a staggerer, and hence it never sees the glory of G.o.d, never sees His power. It is deaf to His voice and blind to His actings; it depresses the heart and weakens the hands; it darkens the path and hinders all progress. It kept Israel out of the land of Canaan for forty years; and we have no conception of the amount of blessing, privilege, power and usefulness which we are constantly missing through its terrible influence. If faith were in more lively exercise in our hearts, what a different condition of things we should witness in our midst. What is the secret of the deplorable deadness and barrenness throughout the wide field of Christian profession? How are we to account for our impoverished condition, our low tone, our stunted growth? Why is it that we see such poor results in every department of Christian work? Why are there so few genuine conversions? Why are our evangelists so frequently cast down by reason of the paucity of their sheaves? How are we to answer all these questions? what is the cause? Will any one attempt to say it is not our unbelief?
No doubt, our divisions have much to do with it; our worldliness, our carnality, our self-indulgence, our love of ease. But what is the remedy for all these evils? How are our hearts to be drawn out in genuine love to all our brethren? By faith, that precious principle "that worketh by love." Thus the blessed apostle says to the dear young converts at Thessalonica, "Your faith groweth exceedingly." And what then? "The love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." Thus it must ever be. Faith puts us into direct contact with the eternal spring of love in G.o.d Himself, and the necessary consequence is that our hearts are drawn out in love to all who belong to Him--all in whom we can, in the very feeblest way, trace His blessed image. We cannot possibly be near the Lord and not love all who in every place call upon His name out of a pure heart. The nearer we are to Christ, the more intensely we must be knit, in true brotherly love, to every member of His body.