But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back on his pillows, and quietly say, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O G.o.d"? Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to bless the rest of his sons, and has but time to yield his own spirit to G.o.d? Are we here to interpolate one of those scenes we are all fated to witness when some eagerly watched breath seems altogether to fail before the last words have been uttered, when those who have been standing apart, through sorrow and reverence, quickly gather round the bed to catch the last look, and when the dying man again collects himself and finishes his work? Probably Jacob, having, as it were, projected himself forward into those stirring and warlike times he has been speaking of, so realises the danger of his people, and the futility even of such help as Dan"s when G.o.d does not help, that, as if from the midst of doubtful war, he cries, as with a battle cry, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O G.o.d." His longing for victory and blessing to his sons far overshot the deliverance from Philistines accomplished by Samson. That deliverance he thankfully accepts and joyfully predicts, but in the spirit of an Israelite indeed, and a genuine child of the promise, he remains unsatisfied, and sees in all such deliverance only the pledge of G.o.d"s coming nearer and nearer to His people, bringing with Him _His_ eternal salvation. In Dan, therefore, we have not the catholic spirit of Zebulun, nor the practical, though sluggish, temper of Issachar; but we are guided rather to the disposition which ought to be maintained through all Christian life, and which, with special care, needs to be cherished in Church-life--a disposition to accept with grat.i.tude all success and triumph, but still to aim through all at that highest victory which G.o.d alone can accomplish for His people. It is to be the battle-cry with which every Christian and every Church is to preserve itself, not merely against external foes, but against the far more disastrous influence of self-confidence, pride, and glorying in man--"For _Thy_ salvation, O G.o.d, do we wait."
Gad also is a tribe whose history is to be warlike, his very name signifying a marauding, guerilla troop; and his history was to ill.u.s.trate the victories which G.o.d"s people gain by tenacious, watchful, ever-renewed warfare. The Church has often prospered by her Dan-like insignificance; the world not troubling itself to make war upon her. But oftener Gad is a better representative of the mode in which her successes are gained. We find that the men of Gad were among the most valuable of David"s warriors, when his necessity evoked all the various skill and energy of Israel. "Of the Gadites," we read, "there separated themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains: one of the least of them was better than an hundred, and the greatest mightier than a thousand." And there is something particularly inspiriting to the individual Christian in finding this p.r.o.nounced as part of the blessing of G.o.d"s people--"a troop shall overcome him, _but he shall_ overcome at the last." It is this that enables us to persevere--that we have G.o.d"s a.s.surance that present discomfiture does not doom us to final defeat. If you be among the children of promise, among those that gather round G.o.d to catch His blessing, you shall overcome at the last. You may now feel as if a.s.saulted by treacherous, murderous foes, irregular troops, that betake themselves to every cruel deceit, and are ruthless in spoiling you; you may be a.s.sailed by so many and strange temptations that you are bewildered and cannot lift a hand to resist, scarce seeing where your danger comes from; you may be buffeted by messengers of Satan, distracted by a sudden and tumultuous incursion of a crowd of cares so that you are moved away from the old habits of your life amid which you seem to stand safely; your heart may seem to be the rendezvous of all unG.o.dly and wicked thoughts, you may feel trodden under foot and overrun by sin, but, with the blessing of G.o.d, you shall overcome at the last.
Only cultivate that dogged pertinacity of Gad, which has no thought of ultimate defeat, but rallies cheerfully and resolutely after every discomfiture.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Merivale"s _Romans under the Empire_, vi. 261.
[3] Plato, _Repub._ i. 5, etc.
[4] The subsequent history of the tribe shows that the character of its father was transmitted. "No judge, no prophet, not one of the tribe of Reuben, is mentioned." (_Vide_ Smith"s Dictionary, _Reuben_.)