This is a very wonderful pa.s.sage of Scripture; setting before us a subject which runs through the entire volume of Old-Testament scripture--a subject demanding our profound and reverent attention.
Whether we turn to the five books of Moses, to the historical books, to the Psalms, or to the prophets, we find the inspiring Spirit giving us the most minute details of G.o.d"s actings in government. We have the deluge in the days of Noah, when the whole earth, with all its inhabitants, with the exception of eight persons, was destroyed by an act of divine government. Men, women, children, cattle, fowl, and creeping things were all swept away and buried beneath the billows and waves of G.o.d"s righteous judgment.
Then we have, in the days of Lot, the cities of the plain, with all their inhabitants--men, women, and children--in a few short hours, consigned to utter destruction, overthrown by the hand of Almighty G.o.d, and buried beneath the deep, dark waters of the Dead Sea. Those guilty cities, "Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
Then, again, as we pa.s.s down along the page of inspired history, we see the seven nations of Canaan--men, women, and children--given over into the hands of Israel for unsparing judgment; nothing that breathed was to be left alive.
But, we may truly say, time would fail us even to refer to all the pa.s.sages of holy Scripture which set before our eyes the solemn actings of the divine government. Suffice it to say that the line of evidence runs from Genesis to Revelation--beginning with the deluge and ending with the burning up of the present system of things.
Now, the question is, Are we competent to understand these ways of G.o.d in government? Is it any part of our business to sit in judgment upon them? Are we capable of unraveling the profound and awful mysteries of divine providence? Can we--are we called upon to--account for the tremendous fact of helpless babes involved in the judgment of their guilty parents? Impious infidelity may sneer at these things; morbid sentimentality may stumble over them; but the true believer, the pious Christian, the reverent student of holy Scripture, will meet them all with this one simple but safe and solid question, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
This, we may rest a.s.sured, reader, is the only true way in which to meet such questions. If man is to sit in judgment upon the actings of G.o.d in government--if he can take upon himself to decide as to what is and what is not worthy of G.o.d to do, then, verily, we have lost the true sense of G.o.d altogether. And this is just what the devil is aiming at. He wants to lead the heart away from G.o.d; and to this end, he leads men to reason and question and speculate in a region which lies as far beyond their ken as heaven is above the earth. Can we comprehend G.o.d? If we could, we should ourselves be G.o.d.
"We comprehend Him not, Yet earth and heaven tell, G.o.d sits as Sovereign on the throne, And ruleth all things well."
It is at once absurd and impious, in the very highest degree, for puny mortals to dare to question the counsels, enactments, and ways of the almighty Creator and all-wise Governor of the universe. a.s.suredly, all who do so must sooner or later find out their terrible mistake. Well would it be for all questioners and cavilers to give heed to the pungent question of the inspired apostle in Romans ix.--"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against G.o.d? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?"
How simple! How forcible! How unanswerable! This is the divine method of meeting all the hows and whys of infidel reason. If the potter has power over the lump of clay which he holds in his hand--a fact which none would think of disputing--how much more has the Creator of all things power over the creatures which His hand has formed! Men may reason and argue interminably as to why G.o.d permitted sin to enter; why He did not at once annihilate Satan and his angels; why He allowed the serpent to tempt Eve; why He did not keep her back from eating the forbidden fruit. In short, the hows and whys are endless; but the answer is one--"Who art thou, O man, that repliest against G.o.d?" How monstrous for a poor worm of the earth to attempt to sit in judgment upon the unsearchable judgments and ways of the Eternal G.o.d! What blind and presumptuous folly for a creature, whose understanding is darkened by sin, and who is thus wholly incapable of forming a right judgment about any thing divine, heavenly, or eternal, to attempt to decide how G.o.d should act in any given case! Alas! alas! it is to be feared that thousands who now argue with great apparent cleverness against the truth of G.o.d, will find out their fatal mistake when it will be too late to correct it.
And as to all those who, though very far from taking common ground with the infidel, are nevertheless troubled with doubts and misgivings as to some of G.o.d"s ways in government, and as to the awful question of eternal punishment,[5] we would earnestly recommend them to study and drink in the spirit of that lovely little psalm, cx.x.xi.--"Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child."
[5] With regard to the solemn subject of eternal punishment, we here offer a few remarks, seeing that so very many, both in England and America, are troubled with difficulties respecting it.
There are three considerations, which, if duly weighed, will, we think, settle every Christian on the doctrine.
I. The first is this: There are seventy pa.s.sages in the New Testament where the word "everlasting," or "eternal," (a??????) occurs.
It is applied to the "life" which believers possess, to the "mansions"
into which they are to be received, to the "glory" which they are to enjoy; it is applied to G.o.d (Rom. xvi. 26.), to the "salvation" of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the Author, to the "redemption" which He has obtained for us, and to the "Spirit."
Then, out of the seventy pa.s.sages referred to above, which the reader can verify in a few moments by a glance at a Greek Concordance, there are seven in which the self-same word is applied to the "punishment"
of the wicked, to the "judgment" which is to overtake them, to the "fire" which is to consume them.
Now, the question is, Upon what principle, or by what authority, can any one mark off these seven pa.s.sages and say that in them the word a?????? does not mean "everlasting," while in the other sixty-three it does? We consider the statement utterly baseless, and unworthy the attention of any sober mind. We fully admit that, had the Holy Spirit thought proper, when speaking of the judgment of the wicked, to make use of a different word from that used in the other pa.s.sages, reason would that we should weigh the fact. But no; He uses the same word invariably, so that if we deny eternal punishment, we must deny eternal life, eternal glory, an eternal Spirit, an eternal G.o.d, an eternal any thing. In short, if punishment be not eternal, nothing is eternal, so far as this argument is concerned. To meddle with this stone in the archway of divine revelation, is to reduce the whole to a ma.s.s of ruin around us. And this is just what the devil is aiming at. We are fully persuaded that to deny the truth of eternal punishment is to take the first step on that inclined plane which leads down to the dark abyss of universal skepticism.
II. Our second consideration is drawn from the great truth of the immortality of the soul. We read in the second chapter of Genesis that "the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Upon this one pa.s.sage, as upon an immovable rock, even if we had not another, we build the great truth of the immortality of the human soul. The fall of man made no difference as to this. Fallen or unfallen, innocent or guilty, converted or unconverted, the soul must live forever.
The tremendous question is, Where is it to live? G.o.d cannot allow sin into His presence. "He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity." Hence, if a man dies in his sins--dies unrepentant, unwashed, unpardoned, then, most a.s.suredly, where G.o.d is he never can come; indeed, it is the very last place to which he would like to come. There is nothing for him but an endless eternity in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.
III. And lastly, we believe that the truth of eternal punishment stands intimately connected with the infinite nature of the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If nothing short of an infinite sacrifice could deliver us from the consequences of sin, those consequences must be eternal. This consideration may not, perhaps, in the judgment of some, carry much weight with it; but to us its force is absolutely irresistible. We must measure sin and its consequences as we measure divine love and its results--not by the standard of human sentiment or reason, but only by the standard of the cross of Christ.
Then, when the heart has in some measure taken in this exquisite breathing, it may turn with real profit to the words of the inspired apostle (2 Cor. x.)--"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through G.o.d to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of G.o.d, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Doubtless, the philosopher, the scholar, the profound thinker, would smile contemptuously at such a childish mode of dealing with such great questions; but this is a very small matter in the judgment of the devout disciple of Christ. The same inspired apostle makes very short work of all this world"s wisdom and learning. He says, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with G.o.d. For it is written, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." And again, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."" (1 Cor. iii.) And again, "It is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise?
where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not G.o.d made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of G.o.d the world by wisdom knew not G.o.d, it pleased G.o.d by the foolishness of the preaching _to save them that believe_." (1 Cor. i.
19-21.)
Here lies the grand moral secret of the whole matter. Man has to find out that he is simply a fool, and that all the wisdom of the world is foolishness. Humbling but wholesome truth! Humbling, because it puts man in his right place; wholesome, yea, most precious, because it brings in the wisdom of G.o.d. We hear a great deal nowadays about science, philosophy, and learning. "Hath not G.o.d made foolish the wisdom of this world?"
Do we fully take in the meaning of these words? Alas! it is to be feared they are but little understood. There are not wanting men who would fain persuade us that science has gone far beyond the Bible.[6]
Alas! for the science, and for all those who give heed to it. If it has gone beyond the Bible, whither has it gone? In the direction of G.o.d, of Christ, of heaven, of holiness, of peace? Nay; but quite in the opposite direction. And where must it all end? We tremble to think, and feel reluctant to pen the reply. Still, we must be faithful, and declare solemnly that the sure and certain end of that path along which human science is conducting its votaries is the blackness of darkness forever.
[6] We must distinguish between all true science and "science falsely so called." And further, we must distinguish between the _facts_ of science, and the _conclusions_ of scientific men. The facts are what G.o.d has done and is doing; but when men set about drawing their conclusions from these facts, they make the most serious mistakes.
However, it is a real relief to the heart to think that there are many philosophers and men of science who give G.o.d His right place, and who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
"The world by wisdom knew not G.o.d." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its disciples? It made them the ignorant worshipers of "AN UNKNOWN G.o.d." The very inscription on their altar published to the universe their ignorance and their shame.
And may we not lawfully inquire if philosophy has done better for christendom than it did for Greece? Has it communicated the knowledge of the true G.o.d? Who could dare to say, Yes? There are millions of baptized professors throughout the length and breadth of christendom who know no more of the true G.o.d than those philosophers who encountered Paul in the city of Athens.
The fact is this: every one who really knows G.o.d, is the privileged possessor of eternal life. So our Lord Jesus Christ declares, in the most distinct manner, in the seventeenth chapter of John.--"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." This is most precious to every soul that, through grace, has gotten this knowledge. To know G.o.d, is to have life--life eternal.
But how can I know G.o.d? where can I find Him? Can science and philosophy tell me? Have they ever told any one? have they ever guided any poor wanderer into this way of life and peace? No; never.
"The world by wisdom knew not G.o.d." The conflicting schools of ancient philosophy could only plunge the human mind into profound darkness and hopeless bewilderment; and the conflicting schools of modern philosophy are not a whit better. They can give no certainty, no safe anchorage, no solid ground of confidence, to the poor benighted soul.
Barren speculation, torturing doubt, wild and baseless theory, is all that human philosophy, in any age or of any nation, has to offer to the earnest inquirer after truth.
How, then, are we to know G.o.d? If such a stupendous result hangs on this knowledge, if to know G.o.d is life eternal--and Jesus says it is--then how is He to be known? "No man hath seen G.o.d at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (John i. 18.)
Here we have an answer divinely simple, divinely sure. Jesus reveals G.o.d to the soul--reveals the Father to the heart. Precious fact! We are not sent to creation to learn who G.o.d is, though we see His power, wisdom, and goodness there; we are not sent to the law, though we see His justice there; we are not sent to providence, though we see the profound mysteries of His government there. No; if we want to know who and what G.o.d is, we are to look in the face of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of G.o.d, who dwelt in His bosom before all worlds, who was His eternal delight, the object of His affections, the centre of His counsels. He it is who reveals G.o.d to the soul. We cannot have the slightest idea of what G.o.d is apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the G.o.dhead [?e?t??]
bodily." "G.o.d who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of G.o.d, in the face of Jesus Christ."
Nothing can exceed the power and blessedness of all this. There is no darkness here, no uncertainty. "The darkness is past and the true light now shineth." Yes; it shineth in the face of Jesus Christ. We can gaze, by faith, on that blessed One; we can trace His marvelous path on the earth; see Him going about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; mark His very looks, His words, His works, His ways; see Him healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the lame to walk, the maimed to be whole, raising the dead, drying the widow"s tears, feeding the hungry, binding up broken hearts, meeting every form of human need, soothing human sorrow, hushing human fears; and doing all these things in such a style, with such touching grace and sweetness, as to make each one feel, in his very inmost soul, that it was the deep delight of that loving heart thus to minister to his need.
Now, in all this He was revealing G.o.d to man; so that if we want to know what G.o.d is, we have simply to look at Jesus. When Philip said, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," the prompt reply was, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, "Shew us the Father?" Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works" sake."
Here is true rest for the heart. We know the true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent; and this is life eternal. We know Him as our own very G.o.d and Father, and Christ as our own personal, loving Lord and Saviour; we can delight in Him, walk with Him, lean on Him, trust in Him, cling to Him, draw from Him, find all our living springs in Him, rejoice in Him all the day long, find our meat and our drink in doing His blessed will, furthering His cause, and promoting His glory.
Reader, do you know all this for yourself? Say, is it a living, divinely real thing in your own soul this moment? This is true Christianity, and you should not be satisfied with any thing less. You will perhaps tell us we have wandered far from the third chapter of Deuteronomy. But whither have we wandered? To the Son of G.o.d and to the soul of the reader. If this be wandering, be it so; it most a.s.suredly is not wandering from the object for which we are penning these "Notes," which is, to bring Christ and the soul together, or to bind them together, as the case may be. We would never, for one moment, lose sight of the fact that, both in writing and speaking, we have not merely to expound Scripture, but to seek the salvation and blessing of souls. Hence it is that we feel constrained, from time to time, to appeal to the heart and conscience of the reader, as to his practical state, and as to how far he has made his very own of these imperishable realities which pa.s.s in review before us. And we earnestly beseech the reader, whoever he may be, to seek a deeper acquaintance with G.o.d in Christ; and, as a sure consequence of this, a closer walk with Him and more thorough consecration of heart to Him.
This, we are thoroughly persuaded, is what is needed in this day of unrest and unreality in the world, and of lukewarmness and indifference in the professing church. We want a very much higher standard of personal devotedness, more real purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord and follow Him. There is much--very much to discourage and hinder in the condition of things around us. The language of the men of Judah in the days of Nehemiah may, with some measure of appropriateness and force, be applied to our times,--"The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish." But, thank G.o.d, the remedy now, as then, is to be found in this soul-stirring sentence, "Remember the Lord."
We now return to our chapter, in the remainder of which the lawgiver rehea.r.s.es in the ears of the congregation the story of their dealings with the two kings of the Amorites, together with the facts connected with the inheritance of the two tribes and a half on the wilderness side of Jordan. And with regard to the latter subject, it is interesting to notice that he raises no question as to the right or the wrong of their choosing their possession short of the land of promise. Indeed, from the narrative given here, it could not be known that the two tribes and a half had expressed any wish in the matter.
So far is our book from being a mere repet.i.tion of its predecessors.
Here are the words: "And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, _gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites_.
And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, _gave I unto the half tribe of Mana.s.seh_; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.... And _I gave_ Gilead unto Machir. And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites _I gave_ from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon.... And I commanded you at that time, saying, _The Lord your G.o.d hath given you this land to possess it_:"--not a word about their having asked it--"ye shall pa.s.s over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war. But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle (for I know that ye have much cattle), shall abide in your cities _which I have given you_; until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the land which the Lord your G.o.d hath given them beyond Jordan; and then shall ye return every man unto his possession, which I have given you."
In our studies on the book of Numbers, we have dwelt upon certain facts connected with the settlement of the two tribes and a half, proving that they were below the mark of the Israel of G.o.d in choosing their inheritance any where short of the other side of Jordan; but in the pa.s.sage we have just quoted, there is no allusion at all to this side of the question, because the object of Moses is to set before the whole congregation the exceeding goodness, loving-kindness, and faithfulness of G.o.d, not only in bringing them through all the difficulties and dangers of the wilderness, but also in giving them, even already, such signal victories over the Amorites, and putting them in possession of regions so attractive and so suited to them. In all this, he is laying down the solid basis of Jehovah"s claim upon their hearty obedience to His commandments; and we can at once see and appreciate the moral beauty of overlooking entirely, in such a rehearsal, the question as to whether Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Mana.s.seh were wrong in stopping short of the land of promise. It is, to every devout Christian, a striking proof, not only of the touching and exquisite grace of G.o.d, but also of the divine perfectness of Scripture.
No doubt, every true believer enters upon the study of Scripture with the full and deeply wrought conviction of its absolute perfectness in every part. He reverently believes that there is not, from the opening of Genesis to the close of Revelation, a single flaw, a single hitch, a single discrepancy--not one; all is as perfect as its divine Author.
But then the cordial belief of the divine perfectness of Scripture as a whole can never lessen our appreciation of the evidences which come out in detail; nay, it enhances it exceedingly. Thus, for example, in the pa.s.sage now before us, is it not perfectly beautiful to mark the absence of all reference to the failure of the two tribes and a half in the matter of choosing their inheritance, seeing that any such reference would be entirely foreign to the object of the lawgiver and to the scope of the book? Is it not the joy of our hearts to trace such infinite perfections, such exquisite and inimitable touches?
a.s.suredly it is; and not only so, but we are persuaded that the more the moral glories of the volume dawn upon our souls, and its living and exhaustless depths are unfolded to our hearts, the more we shall be convinced of the utter folly of infidel a.s.saults upon it, and of the feebleness and gratuitousness of many well-meant efforts to prove that it does not contradict itself. Thank G.o.d, His Word stands in no need of human apologists. It speaks for itself, and carries with it its own powerful evidences; so that we can say of it what the apostle says of his gospel, that "if it be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the G.o.d of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of G.o.d, should shine unto them." We are more and more convinced each day, that the most effective method of answering all infidel attacks upon the Bible is, to cherish a more profound faith in its divine power and authority, and to use it as those who are most thoroughly persuaded of its truth and preciousness. The Spirit of G.o.d alone can enable any one to believe in the plenary inspiration of the holy Scriptures. Human arguments may go for what they are worth; they may doubtless silence gainsayers, but they cannot reach the heart--they cannot bring the genial rays of divine revelation to bear down in living, saving power upon the soul. This is a work divine; and until it is done, all the evidences and arguments in the world must leave the soul in the moral darkness of unbelief; but when it is done, there is no need of human testimony in defense of the Bible. External evidences, however interesting and valuable (and they are both), cannot add a single jot or t.i.ttle to the glory of that peerless revelation, which bears on every page, every paragraph, every sentence, the clear impress of its divine Author. As with the sun in the heavens, its every ray tells of the Hand that made it, so of the Bible, its every sentence tells of the Heart that inspired it. But inasmuch as a blind man cannot see the sunlight, so neither can the unconverted soul see the force and beauty of holy Scripture. The eye must be anointed with heavenly eye-salve ere the infinite perfections of the divine volume can be discerned or appreciated.
Now, we must own to the reader that it is the deep and ever-deepening sense of all this that has led us to the determination not to occupy his time or our own by reference to the attacks which have been made by rationalistic writers on that portion of the Word of G.o.d with which we are now engaged. We leave this to other and abler hands. What we desire for ourselves and our readers is, that we may feed in peace upon the green pastures which the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls has graciously thrown open to us; that we may help each other, as we pa.s.s along, to see more and more of the moral glory of that which lies before us, and thus to build each other up on our most holy faith.
This will be far more grateful work to us, and we trust also to our readers, than replying to men who, in all their puny efforts to find out flaws in the holy volume, only prove, to those capable of judging, that they understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. If men _will_ abide in the dark vaults and tunnels of a dreary infidelity, and there find fault with the sun, or deny that it shines at all, let it be ours to bask in the light, and help others to do the same.