And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee; He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.""
Joshua needed a special word for himself, as one called to occupy a prominent and very distinguished place in the congregation. But the word to him embodies the same precious truth as that addressed to the whole a.s.sembly. He is a.s.sured of the divine presence and power with him. This is enough for each, for all; for Joshua as for the most obscure member of the a.s.sembly. Yes, reader, and enough for thee, whoever thou art, or whatever be thy sphere of action. It matters not in the least what difficulties or dangers may lie before us, our G.o.d is amply sufficient for all. If only we have the sense of the Lord"s presence with us, and the authority of His Word for the work in which we are engaged, we may move on with joyful confidence, spite of ten thousand difficulties and hostile influences.
"And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, "At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when _all Israel_ is come to appear before the Lord thy G.o.d in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel, in their hearing. Gather the people together, _men_ and _women_ and _children_, and _thy stranger_ that is within thy gates, that they may _hear_, and that they may _learn_, and _fear_ the Lord your G.o.d, and _observe to do all the words_ of this law; and that _their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your G.o.d_, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it." (Ver. 9-35.)
Two things in the foregoing pa.s.sage claim our special attention; first, the fact that Jehovah attached the most solemn importance to the public a.s.sembly of His people for the purpose of hearing His Word.
"All Israel"--"men, women, and children"--with the stranger who had cast in his lot amongst them, were commanded to a.s.semble themselves together to hear the reading of the book of the law of G.o.d, that all might learn His holy will and their duty. Each member of the a.s.sembly, from the eldest to the youngest, was to be brought into direct personal contact with the revealed will of Jehovah, that each one might know his solemn responsibility.
And secondly, we have to weigh the fact that the children were to be gathered before the Lord to hearken to His Word. Both these facts are full of weighty instruction for all the members of the Church of G.o.d--instruction urgently called for on all sides. There is a most deplorable amount of failure as to these two points. We sadly neglect the a.s.sembling of ourselves together for the simple reading of the holy Scriptures. There does not seem to be sufficient attraction in the Word of G.o.d itself to bring us together. There is an unhealthy craving for other things; human oratory, music, religious excitement of some kind or other seems needful to bring people together,--any thing and every thing but the precious Word of G.o.d.
It will perhaps be said that people have the Word of G.o.d in their houses, that it is quite different now from what it was with Israel; every one can read the Scriptures at home, and there is not the same necessity for the public reading. Such a plea will not stand the test of truth for a moment. We may rest a.s.sured, if the Word of G.o.d were loved and prized and studied in private and in the family, it would be loved and prized and studied in public. We should delight to gather together around the fountain of holy Scripture, to drink, in happy fellowship, of the living water, for our common refreshment and blessing.
But it is not so. The Word of G.o.d is not loved and studied, either privately or publicly. Trashy literature is devoured in private, and music, ritualistic services, and imposing ceremonies are eagerly sought after in public. Thousands will flock to hear music, and pay for admission, but how few care for a meeting to read the holy Scriptures! These are facts, and facts are powerful arguments. We cannot get over them. There is a growing thirst for religious excitement, and a growing distaste for the calm study of holy Scripture and the spiritual exercises of the Christian a.s.sembly. It is perfectly useless to deny it. We cannot shut our eyes to it. The evidence of it meets us on every hand.
Thank G.o.d, there are a few, here and there, who really love the Word of G.o.d, and delight to meet, in holy fellowship, for the study of its precious truths. May the Lord increase the number of such, and bless them abundantly. May our lot be cast with them, "till traveling days are done." They are but an obscure and feeble remnant every where; but they love Christ and cleave to His Word, and their richest enjoyment is, to get together and think and speak and sing of Him. May G.o.d bless them and keep them. May He deepen His precious work in their souls, and bind them more closely to Himself and one another, and thus prepare them, in the state of their affections, for the appearing of "the Bright and Morning Star."
We must now turn for a few moments to the closing verses of our chapter, in which Jehovah speaks to His beloved and honored servant, in tones of deep and touching solemnity, as to his own death, and as to Israel"s dark and gloomy future.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, "Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge." And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud; and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord said unto Moses, "Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the G.o.ds of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, _Are not these evils come upon us because our_ _G.o.d is not among us?_ And I will surely hide My face in that day, for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other G.o.ds.""
"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another G.o.d." So says the Spirit of Christ in Psalm xvi. Israel has proved, is proving, and shall yet more fully prove the solemn truth of these words. Their history in the past, their present dispersion and desolation, and, beyond all, that "great tribulation" through which they have yet to pa.s.s, at "the time of the end,"--all go to confirm and ill.u.s.trate the truth that the sure and certain way to multiply our sorrows is, to turn away from the Lord and look to any creature-resource. This is one of the many and varied practical lessons which we have to gather from the marvelous history of the seed of Abraham. May we learn it effectually. May we learn to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart, and turn away, with holy decision, from every other object. This, we feel persuaded, is the only path of true happiness and peace. May we ever be found in it.
"Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, _that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel_. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other G.o.ds, and serve them, and provoke Me, and break My covenant. And it shall come to pa.s.s, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imaginations which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware."
How deeply affecting, how peculiarly solemn, is all this! Instead of Israel being a witness for Jehovah before all nations, the song of Moses was to be a witness for Jehovah against the children of Israel.
They were called to be His witnesses; they were responsible to declare His name and to show forth His praise in that land into which, in His faithfulness and sovereign mercy, He conducted them; but alas! they utterly and shamefully failed, and hence, in view of this sad and most humiliating failure, a song was to be written which, in the first place, as we shall see, sets forth, in most magnificent strains, the glory of G.o.d; and secondly, records, in accents of inflexible faithfulness, Israel"s deplorable failure, in every stage of their history.
"Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, "_Be strong, and of a good courage_; for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them; and _I will be with thee_."" Joshua was not to be discouraged or faint-hearted because of the predicted unfaithfulness of the people. He was, like his great progenitor, to be strong in faith giving glory to G.o.d. He was to move forward with joyful confidence, leaning on the arm and confiding in the word of Jehovah, the covenant-G.o.d of Israel, in nothing terrified by his adversaries, but resting in the precious, soul-sustaining a.s.surance that, however the seed of Abraham might fail to obey, and, as a consequence, bring down judgment on themselves, yet the G.o.d of Abraham would infallibly maintain and make good His promise, and glorify His name in the final restoration and everlasting blessing of His chosen people.
All this comes out with uncommon vividness and power in the song of Moses, and Joshua was called to serve in the faith of it. He was to fix his eye, not upon Israel"s ways, but upon the eternal stability of the divine covenant with Abraham. He was to conduct Israel across the Jordan and plant them in that fair inheritance designed for them in the purpose of G.o.d. Had Joshua occupied his mind with Israel, he must have flung down his sword and given up in despair; but no, he had to encourage himself in the Lord his G.o.d, and serve in the energy of a faith that endures as seeing Him who is invisible.
Precious, soul-sustaining, G.o.d-honoring faith! May the reader, whatever be his line of life or sphere of action, know, in the profoundest depths of his soul, the moral power of this divine principle. May every beloved child of G.o.d and every servant of Christ know it. It is the only thing which will enable us to grapple with the difficulties, hindrances, and hostile influences which surround us in the scene through which we are pa.s.sing, and to finish our course with joy.
"And it came to pa.s.s when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, "Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your G.o.d, _that it may be there for a witness against thee_. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck; behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.""
How forcibly we are here reminded of Paul"s farewell address to the elders of Ephesus!--"For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore _watch_, _and remember_, that by the s.p.a.ce of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to G.o.d, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." (Acts xx. 29-32.)
Man is the same always and every where. His history is a blotted one from beginning to end. But oh, it is such a relief and solace to the heart to know and remember that G.o.d is ever the same, and His Word abides and is "settled forever in heaven." It was hid in the side of the ark of the covenant and there preserved intact, spite of all the grievous sin and folly of the people. This gives sweet rest to the heart at all times, in the face of human failure, and the wreck and ruin of every thing committed to man"s hand. "The Word of our G.o.d shall stand forever;" and while it bears a true and solemn testimony against man and his ways, it also conveys home to the heart the most precious and tranquilizing a.s.surance that G.o.d is above all man"s sin and folly, that His resources are absolutely inexhaustible, and that ere long His glory shall shine out and fill the whole scene. The Lord be praised for the deep consolation of all this!
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
"And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended." It is not too much to say that one of the very grandest and most comprehensive sections in the divine volume now lies open before us and claims our prayerful attention. It takes in the whole range of G.o.d"s dealings with Israel from first to last, and presents a most solemn record of their grievous sin and of divine wrath and judgment. But, blessed be G.o.d, it begins and ends with Him; and this is full of deepest and richest blessing for the soul. If it were not so, if we had only the melancholy story of man"s ways, we should be completely overwhelmed; but in this magnificent song, as indeed in the entire volume, we begin with G.o.d and we end with G.o.d. This tranquilizes the spirit most blessedly, and enables us, in calm and holy confidence, to pursue the history of man, to see every thing going to pieces in his hands, and to mark the actings of the enemy in opposition to the counsels and purposes of G.o.d. We can afford to see the complete failure and ruin of the creature, in every shape and form, because we know and are a.s.sured that G.o.d will be G.o.d in spite of every thing. He will have the upper hand in the end, and then all will be--must be right. G.o.d shall be all in all, and there shall be neither enemy nor evil occurrent throughout that vast universe of bliss of which our adorable Lord Christ shall be the central sun forever.
But we must turn to the song.
"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth." Heaven and earth are summoned to hearken to this magnificent outpouring. Its range is commensurate with its vast moral importance. "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the gra.s.s; because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our G.o.d."
Here lies the solid, the imperishable foundation of every thing. Come what may, the name of our G.o.d shall stand forever. No power of earth or h.e.l.l can possibly countervail the divine purpose, or hinder the outshining of the divine glory. What sweet rest this gives the heart in the midst of this dark, sorrowful, sin-stricken world, and in the face of the apparently successful schemes of the enemy! Our refuge, our resource, our sweet relief and solace, are found in the name of the Lord our G.o.d, the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly the publication of that blessed name must ever be as the refreshing dew and tender rain falling upon the heart. This is, of a truth, the divine and heavenly doctrine on which the soul can feed, and by which it is sustained, at all times, and under all circ.u.mstances.
"He is _the_ Rock"--not merely _a_ rock. There is, there can be, no other Rock but Himself. Eternal and universal homage to His glorious name!--"His work is perfect;"--not a single flaw in aught that comes from His blessed hand; all bears the stamp of absolute perfection.
This will be made manifest to all created intelligences by and by. It is manifest to faith now, and is a spring of divine consolation to all true believers. The very thought of it distills as the dew upon the thirsty soul. "For _all_ His ways are judgment; a G.o.d of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is He." Infidels may cavil and sneer; they may, in their fancied wisdom, try to pick holes in the divine actings; but their folly shall be manifest to all. "Let G.o.d be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, "That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged."" G.o.d must have the upper hand in the end. Let men beware how they presume to call in question the sayings and doings of the only true, the only wise, and the almighty G.o.d.
There is something uncommonly fine in the opening notes of this song.
It gives the sweetest rest to the heart to know that however man, and even the people of G.o.d, may fail and come to ruin, yet we have to do with One who abideth faithful and cannot deny Himself, whose ways are absolutely perfect, and who, when the enemy has done his very utmost, and brought all his malignant designs to a head, shall glorify Himself, and bring in universal and everlasting blessedness.
True, He has to execute judgment upon man"s ways. He is constrained to take down the rod of discipline and use it, at times, with terrible severity upon His own people. He is perfectly intolerant of evil in those who bear His holy name. All this comes out, with special solemnity in the song before us. Israel"s ways are exposed and dealt with unsparingly; nothing is allowed to pa.s.s; all is set forth with holy precision and faithfulness. Thus we read, "They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of His children; they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy Father that hath bought thee?
hath He not made thee, and established thee?"
Here we have the first note of reproof in this song, but no sooner has it fallen on the ear than it is followed by a most precious outpouring of testimony to the goodness, loving-kindness, faithfulness, and tender mercy of Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel, and the Most High, or Elion of all the earth. "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee; when the Most High [G.o.d"s millennial t.i.tle] divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."
What a glorious fact is here unfolded to our view! a fact but little understood or taken account of by the nations of the earth. How little do men consider that, in the original settlement of the great national boundaries, the Most High had direct reference to "the children of Israel"! Yet thus it was, and the reader should seek to grasp this grand and intensely interesting fact. When we look at geography and history from a divine stand-point, we find that Canaan and the seed of Jacob are G.o.d"s centre. Yes; Canaan, a little strip of land lying along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, with an area of eleven thousand square miles, (about a third of the extent of Ireland,) is the centre of G.o.d"s geography, and the twelve tribes of Israel are the central object of G.o.d"s history. How little have geographers and historians thought of this! They have described countries, and written the history of nations, which, in geographical extent and political importance, far outstrip Palestine and its people, according to human thinking, but which, in G.o.d"s account, are as nothing compared with that little strip of land which He deigns to call His own, and which it is His fixed purpose to inherit through the seed of Abraham His friend.[26]
[26] How true it is that G.o.d"s thoughts are not man"s thoughts, or His ways as man"s ways! Man attaches importance to extensive territories, material strength, pecuniary resources, well-disciplined armies, powerful fleets; G.o.d, on the contrary, takes no account of such things; they are to Him as the small dust of the balance. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as gra.s.shoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; that bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." Hence we may see the moral reason why, in selecting a country to be the centre of His earthly plans and counsels, Jehovah did not select one of vast extent, but a very small and insignificant strip of land, of little account in the thoughts of men. But oh, what importance attaches to that little spot! what principles have been unfolded there! what events have taken place there! what deeds have been done there! what plans and purposes are yet to be wrought out there! There is not a spot on the face of the earth so interesting to the heart of G.o.d as the land of Canaan and the city of Jerusalem.
Scripture teems with evidence as to this: we could fill a small volume with proofs. The time is rapidly approaching when living facts will do what the fullest and clearest testimony of Scripture fails to do, namely, convince men that the land of Israel was, is, and ever shall be G.o.d"s earthly centre. All other nations owe their importance, their interest, their place in the pages of inspiration, simply to the fact of their being, in some way or other, connected with the land and people of Israel. How little do historians know or think of this! But surely every one who loves G.o.d ought to know it and ponder it.
We cannot attempt to dwell upon this most important and suggestive fact, but we would ask the reader to give it his serious consideration. He will find it fully developed and strikingly ill.u.s.trated in the prophetic scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
"The Lord"s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him _as the apple of His eye_"--the most sensitive, delicate part of the human body.--"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them upon her wings;"--to teach them to fly and to keep them from falling--"so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange G.o.d with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; b.u.t.ter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape."
Need we say that the primary application of all this is to Israel? No doubt the Church may learn from it and profit by it, but to apply it to the Church would involve a double mistake, a mistake of the most serious nature; it would involve nothing less than the reducing of the Church from a heavenly to an earthly level, and the most unwarrantable interference with Israel"s divinely appointed place and portion. What, we may lawfully inquire, has the Church of G.o.d, the body of Christ, to do with the settlement of the nations of the earth?
Nothing whatever. The Church, _according to the mind of G.o.d_, is a stranger on the earth. Her portion, her hope, her home, her inheritance, her all, is heavenly. It would make no difference in the current of this world"s history if the Church had never been heard of.
Her calling, her walk, her destiny, her whole character and course, her principles and morals, are or ought to be heavenly. The Church has nothing to do with the politics of this world. Her citizenship is in heaven, from whence she looks for the Saviour. She proves false to her Lord, false to her calling, false to her principles, in so far as she meddles with the affairs of nations. It is her high and holy privilege to be linked and morally identified with a rejected, crucified, risen, and glorified Christ. She has no more to do with the present system of things, or with the current of this world"s history, than her glorified Head in the heavens. "They," says our Lord Christ, speaking of His people, "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
This is conclusive. It fixes our position and our path in the most precise and definite way possible. "As He is, so are we in this world." This involves a double truth, namely, our perfect acceptance with G.o.d and our complete separation from the world. We are in the world, but not _of_ it. We have to pa.s.s through it as pilgrims and strangers, looking out for the coming of our Lord, the appearing of the Bright and Morning Star. It is no part of our business to interfere with munic.i.p.al or political matters. We are called and exhorted to obey the powers that be, to pray for all in authority, to pay tribute, and owe no man any thing; "to be blameless and harmless, the sons of G.o.d without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation," among whom we are to "shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life."
From all this we may gather something of the immense practical importance of "rightly dividing the word of truth." We have but little idea of the injury done, both to the truth of G.o.d and to the souls of His people, by confounding Israel with the Church--the earthly and the heavenly. It hinders all progress in the knowledge of Scripture, and mars the integrity of Christian walk and testimony. This may seem a strong statement, but we have seen the truth of it painfully ill.u.s.trated times without number; and we feel that we cannot too urgently call the attention of the reader to the subject. We have more than once referred to it in the progress of our studies on the Pentateuch, and therefore we shall not further pursue it here, but proceed with our chapter.
At verse 15, we reach a very different note in the song of Moses. Up to this point, we have had before us G.o.d and His actings, His purposes, His counsels, His thoughts, His loving interest in His people Israel, His tender, gracious dealings with them. All this is full of deepest, richest blessing. There is, there can be, no drawback here. When we have G.o.d and His ways before us, there is no hindrance to the heart"s enjoyment. All is perfection--absolute, divine perfection, and as we dwell upon it, we are filled with wonder, love, and praise.
But there is the human side, and here, alas! all is failure and disappointment. Thus at the fifteenth verse of our chapter we read, "But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked"--what a very full and suggestive statement! How vividly it presents, in its brief compa.s.s, the moral history of Israel!--"thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook G.o.d which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange G.o.ds, with abominations provoked they Him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to G.o.d; to G.o.ds whom they knew not, to new G.o.ds that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten G.o.d that formed thee."
There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader. We are each of us in danger of treading the moral path indicated by the words just quoted. Surrounded on all hands by the rich and varied mercies of G.o.d, we are apt to make use of them to nourish a spirit of self-complacency. We make use of the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we, too, like Israel, wax fat and kick--we forget G.o.d. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence and of His perfect sufficiency, and turn to other objects, as Israel did to false G.o.ds.
How often do we forget the Rock that begat us, the G.o.d that formed us, the Lord that redeemed us! And all this is so much the more inexcusable in us, inasmuch as our privileges are so much higher than theirs. We are brought into a relationship and a position of which Israel knew absolutely nothing; our privileges and blessings are of the very highest order; it is our privilege to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ; we are the objects of that perfect love which stopped not short of introducing us into a position in which it can be said of us, "As He [Christ] is, so are we in this world." Nothing could exceed the blessedness of this; even divine love itself could go no further than this. It is not merely that the love of G.o.d has been manifested to us in the gift and the death of His only begotten and well-beloved Son, and in giving us His Spirit, but it has been made perfect with us by placing us in the very same position as that blessed One on the throne of G.o.d.
All this is perfectly marvelous. It pa.s.seth knowledge. And yet how p.r.o.ne we are to forget the blessed One who has so loved us and wrought for us and blessed us! How often we slip away from Him in the spirit of our minds and the affections of our hearts! It is not merely a question of what the professing church, as a whole, has done, but the very much deeper, closer, more pointed question of what our own wretched hearts are constantly p.r.o.ne to do. We are apt to forget G.o.d, and to turn to other objects, to our serious loss and His dishonor.
Would we know how the heart of G.o.d feels as to all this? would we form any thing like a correct idea of how He resents it? Let us hearken to the burning words addressed to His erring people Israel, the overwhelming strains of the song of Moses. May we have grace to hear them aright, and deeply profit by them.
"And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them, _because of the provoking of His sons and of His daughters_. And He said, "I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be;""--alas! alas! a truly deplorable end--""for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not G.o.d; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest h.e.l.l, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs."" (Ver. 19-26.)
Here we have a most solemn record of G.o.d"s governmental dealings with His people--a record eminently calculated to set forth the awful truth of Hebrews x. 31--"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living G.o.d." The history of Israel in the past, their condition at present, and what they are yet to pa.s.s through in the future--all goes to prove, in the most impressive manner, that "our G.o.d is a consuming fire." No nation on the face of the earth has ever been called to pa.s.s through such severe discipline as the nation of Israel. As the Lord reminds them in those deeply solemn words, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities." No other nation was ever called to occupy the highly privileged place of actual relationship with Jehovah. This dignity was reserved for one nation; but the very dignity was the basis of a most solemn responsibility. If they were called to be His people, they were responsible to conduct themselves in a way worthy of such a wondrous position, or else have to undergo the heaviest chastenings ever endured by any nation under the sun. Men may reason about all this; they may raise all manner of questions as to the moral consistency of a benevolent Being acting according to the terms set forth in verses 22-25 of our chapter. But all such questions and reasonings must sooner or later be discovered to be utter folly. It is perfectly useless for men to argue against the solemn actings of divine government, or the terrible severity of the discipline exercised toward the chosen people of G.o.d. How much wiser and better and safer to be warned by the facts of Israel"s history to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold upon eternal life and full salvation revealed in the precious gospel of G.o.d!
And then, with regard to the use which Christians should make of the record of His dealings with His earthly people, we are bound to turn it to most profitable account by learning from it the urgent need of walking humbly, watchfully, and faithfully in our high and holy position. True, we are the possessors of eternal life, the privileged subjects of that magnificent grace which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord; we are members of the body of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, and heirs of eternal glory; but does all this afford any warrant for neglecting the warning voice which Israel"s history utters in our ears? are we, because of our incomparably higher privileges, to walk carelessly and despise the wholesome admonitions which Israel"s history supplies? G.o.d forbid!
Nay, we are bound to give earnest heed to the things which the Holy Ghost has written for our learning. The higher our privileges, the richer our blessings, the nearer our relationship, the more does it become us, the more solemnly are we bound, to be faithful, and to seek in all things to carry ourselves in such a way as to be well-pleasing to Him who has called us into the very highest and most blessed place that even His perfect love could bestow. The Lord, in His great goodness, grant that we may, in true purpose of heart, ponder these things in His holy presence, and earnestly seek to serve Him with reverence and G.o.dly fear.