It was thus that Jacob was transformed from Jacob to Israel in the conflict at Peniel. It was thus that Israel was awakened to claim the great redemption from the bondage of Egypt, by the doubling of the tale of brick and by the heated furnace of iron. It was thus that David learned to know his G.o.d, and was able to testify, "Thou hast known my soul in adversity." Let us not be discouraged by difficulties, nor regard them as always misfortunes; but rather let us receive them as challenges to our faith and opportunities given to us by our G.o.d to show that there is nothing too hard for Him.
2. HER RESOURCES. Was there, then, nothing left for her? Was she entirely without resources? "Tell me, what hast thou in the house?" And she answered, "Thy servant hath nothing, save a pot of oil." To her that seemed nothing, and yet it contained the supply of all her need. G.o.d loves to utilize and economize all the resources which He has already given to us. Just as a master workman can do a great deal of excellent work with very common tools, so G.o.d can work with very simple instruments; but He wants us to utilize what He has already given. It was very little that Moses had, but that little rod was sufficient to divide the Red Sea and to break the power of Pharaoh. It was very little that the lad on the Galilean sh.o.r.e had that day; but his five loaves and two small fish were sufficient to feed the five thousand, when they were given to Jesus and placed at His service. Our least is enough for G.o.d, if we allow Him complete control.
But that little pot of oil was not a little thing. It represented the power of the Holy Ghost, the infinite attribute of G.o.d Himself.
We need not stop to prove that oil is the Scriptural symbol of the Holy Spirit. This little vessel of oil represented the presence and the power of the Spirit, which every believer may have, and in some measure does have, and which, if we only know how to use Him, is equal to every possible situation and need of our Christian life. But in how many cases is this an unrealized power and an unemployed force?
There is a grim story told of a poor Scotchwoman who went to her pastor in her extremity, and told him of her poverty. He kindly asked her if she had no friend nor member of her family who could support or help her. She said she had a son, a bonny lad, but he was in India, in the service of the government.
"But does he not write to you?" "Oh, yes; he often writes me, and sends the kindest letters, and such pretty pictures in them. But I am too proud to tell him how poor I am, and, of course, I have not expected him to send me money."
"Would you mind showing me some of the pictures?" said the minister. And so Janet went to her Bible, and brought out from between the leaves a great number of Bank of England notes, laid away with the greatest care. "These," she said, "are the pictures." The minister smiled, and said, "Janet, you are richer than I am. These are bank notes; and every one of them might have been turned into money, and you might have had all your needs supplied. You have had a fortune in your Bible without knowing it."
Alas, beloved, many of us have fortunes in our Bibles without knowing it, or without using our infinite resources. The Holy Spirit is given to us to be used for every sort of need; and yet, with all the power of heaven at our call, many of us are going about in starvation, simply because we do not know our treasure, and do not use our redemption rights. "Know ye not," the apostle asks us, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" If we but use the power that is given within our breast, behind the name of Jesus and the promises of G.o.d, we would fail no more, we would fear no more, we would no more be a reflection upon our Savior and a dishonor to His name, as well as a discouragement to the world, but we would rise up into victory, and cry, "Thanks be to G.o.d, who always causeth us to triumph, in Christ."
What is the difference between j.a.pan and China today? It is this: while j.a.pan has learned the secrets of modern progress, and is using them in still victorious warfare, China does not know what other races have learned. What is the difference between our age and the age of our grandfather? It is simply that we have learned from nature. We are using the great secrets of steam, electricity, and the various appliances of practical science in all our industrial life, so that one man can do today what it took twenty to do in the days of our fathers. The business man can sit in his office and annihilate both s.p.a.ce and time as he talks through his telephone to the most distant parts of the land, and through his phonograph into the ears of the coming generation.
What was the matter with Hagar in her bitter sorrow? Nothing but this; she could not see the fountain that lay so near, she and her child were perishing with thirst. There was no need that the angel should create a fountain; he needed only to open Hagar"s eyes and let her see it and drink of it.
There was no need that G.o.d should make a spring of sweetness at Marah"s waters; all that was needed was to show to Moses the branch of healing that was already there. As he plunged it into the waters the people were healed.
There was no need that an army of angels should come to the help of Elisha on the mountainside. The angels were already there; all that was needed was that the eyes of Elisha"s servant might be opened to the heavenly army that surrounded and defended them. In like manner the fountain of life is waiting for us to drink; the waters and the branch of healing are at hand, the angelic army are all around us. All we need is to see them, to know that they are there, to realize our redemption rights, and then to claim them and triumph in His name. G.o.d is saying to us, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come." Christ has appeared, the Holy Ghost has come, and all that we need to do is to know and receive and use the great divine commission.
3. THE CONDITIONS OF RECEIVING AND REALIZING DIVINE HELP. First, she, the woman, was directed to make room. She must get vessels, empty vessels, to hold the supply which was about to be revealed. Our greatest need is to make room for G.o.d. Indeed, G.o.d has to make room for Himself by creating new vessels of need. Every trial that comes to us is but a need for Him to fill and an opportunity for Him to show what He can be to us and do for us. But it is not enough to have need; we must also have empties. We must realize our needs, and we must realize that He alone can supply them. We must be emptied of self-consciousness and dependence upon man; and as we lie fully at His feet, He will prove "How wise, how strong His hand."
Again, there must be faith to count upon G.o.d and go forward expecting Him to meet our needs. This woman did not wait till the oil was running over from her little pot; but providing the vessels in advance, she acted as though she had an unbounded supply. So it was that the disciples had to go forward to feed the mult.i.tude with their five loaves and two fish, and had to count upon the supply which had not yet appeared. We must antic.i.p.ate G.o.d"s fulfillment and trust Him sufficiently to pay in advance; then He will make good our expectations in His glorious and ever-flowing grace.
Again, we must have not only faith, but unselfish love. These were borrowed vessels. The needs were not all her own; and, no doubt, as the vessels went home they did not go home empty. G.o.d loves to give to us when we are, like G.o.d, receiving that we may give to others.
The most blessed thing about the blessed G.o.d must be this, that He has no needs of His own; but that He is always giving, always blessing, and always seeking some new channel through which to bless and to pour out the fullness of His life. If we would receive that fullness, we, G.o.d-like, must be great givers. The secret of joy is to want nothing for ourselves, to be rich in dispensing His grace and blessing, to live for others, and to be ever filling the vessels of need from the world around us with the overflowing of His heart and of ours. The beauty of the parable of the friend at midnight lies chiefly in this, that he wanted the loaves from his friend that he might give them to another that was in need. Likewise, when we come for grace and help to the helpless, we shall find that G.o.d will open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing until there shall not be room to receive it.
Again, the woman"s faith was necessary. She must show it by beginning to pour out the contents of the little pot into the larger vessel. As she poured, the oil continued to flow and overflow until every vessel was filled, and it might have been flowing still if there had been room enough to hold its multiplying stream.
So faith must go forward and act out its confidence and risk itself by doing something and putting itself into the place where G.o.d must meet it with actual help. It was when the water at Cana was poured out that it became wine. It was when the man stretched out his hand that it was healed. It was as the lepers went on their way that they were made whole. It was as the father went back to his home that the messenger was sent to tell him that his son was alive.
There is a beautiful expression in Hebrews, to the effect that the ancient fathers were persuaded of the promises and "embraced them," or rather as the new version translates it "ran to meet them." Let us run to meet the promises of G.o.d. Let us measure up to them. Let us act our confidence, and G.o.d will meet us more than halfway with His faithfulness and grace.
There is yet another lesson, the most important of all: "Go, sell the oil, . . . and live thou and thy children of the rest." The oil was but the representative value, and was convertible into everything that she could need. It, was equivalent to currency, food, houses, clothes, lands, anything and everything that possessed value and could meet her need. Thus is the Holy Ghost convertible into everything that we can require.
There are parallel pa.s.sages in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke which teach a great lesson. In the one pa.s.sage it reads, "if ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" In the parallel pa.s.sage in the other Gospel, instead of the Holy Spirit, it reads, "Give good things to them that ask him." That is to say, the Holy Ghost gives all good things, and He is equivalent to anything and everything that we need. Do we need salvation? He will lead us to Christ, and bring us to witness of our acceptance. Do we need peace?
He will bring into our hearts the peace of G.o.d. Do we need purity? He will sanctify us and "cause us to walk in His statutes, and keep His judgments to do them." Do we need strength? He is the Spirit of power. Do we need light?
He is the Teacher and Counselor and Guide. Do we need faith? He is the Spirit of faith. Or love? By Him "the love of G.o.d is shed abroad in our hearts." Would we pray and have our prayer answered? "The Spirit itself maketh intercession within us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Do we need health? He will quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us. Do we need courage? He will give us faith, faith that shall claim the supply of all our needs by believing prayer. Do we need circ.u.mstances changed by the mighty workings of G.o.d"s providence? He is the Spirit of power. The hearts of men are in His hands and He can turn them as the rivers of water, and make all things work together for good to them that love G.o.d.
He is the Almighty Spirit, the Great Executive of the G.o.dhead, and with Him in our hearts, G.o.d can do exceeding abundantly for us "according to the power that worketh in us."
Oh, let us use the Holy Ghost, not merely for spells of emotional feeling or what we call spiritual experience, but in the whole circle of our life as the Executor of G.o.d, the all-sufficient Leader of our victorious faith!
There is yet another lesson taught us here; namely, that we may increase and multiply the effectiveness of the Spirit of G.o.d in our lives, by wisely using the power and grace He gives us.
The idea of trading with our spiritual gifts is brought out more fully in the New Testament in the great parable of the pounds, where the one pound that represented, no doubt, the gift of the Holy Ghost, is increased to ten by wise and profitable use. So we can take the Holy Ghost, and as we obey Him and learn to use Him, and become subject to the great laws which regulate His operations, we shall find that there is scarcely a limit to the extent of His working and the sufficiency of His power. All that is needed is room, opportunity, vessels of need, and faith to go forward in dependence upon Him.
The oil did not stop until the woman stopped; G.o.d was still working when her faith reached its limit. The same G.o.d is working still, and our faith will stop long before His willingness and His resources are exhausted. Shall we trust more boldly? Shall we recognize every difficulty, every situation which conveys an opportunity of proving Him yet more gloriously; and shall we go on from strength to strength until every adversary has been subjected and compelled to help us, till every mountain of difficulty has become a mountain of praise, and every hard place in life a vessel into which G.o.d may pour the overflowing fullness of His all-sufficiency?
Beloved, as we step out into the future, shall we forget the experiences we have had and press on to higher and greater? Shall we leave the vessels that have been satisfied, and bring new vessels for him to fill? Shall we forget the blessings we have had from the Holy Ghost, and think rather of those we have not yet had? And shall we go on to prove His mighty promise, "I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until there shall not be room enough to receive it"?
Chapter 15.
THE VALLEY OF DITCHES.
"Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand." 2 Kings 3: 16-18.
This is another of Elisha"s parabolic miracles; for it was both a parable of divine teaching and a miracle of divine working. It is full of practical lessons about the Holy Spirit in our lives.
1. A GREAT EMERGENCY. First, we see a great emergency. The king of Israel and the king of Judah had united in a campaign against the Moabites, and in marching through the wilderness they had come into great straits. Their water supply was cut off, and they were in danger of perishing of thirst. This may represent any hard places in our lives. Such an emergency is G.o.d"s opportunity of blessing, and is the only way by which many of us can ever be brought to realize the fullness of divine grace.
There was a peculiarity, however, in this trying situation to one of the party at least. To Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, it was a trouble that he had brought upon himself, and he had no one else to blame for his ill fortune. Because he had hastily and generously formed an unholy alliance with a wicked king, he was suffering on account of his forbidden act. As G.o.d has warned us to have no fellowship with wicked men, we never can disobey this commandment, either by mixed marriages or by business partnerships, without suffering in consequence.
We see at once the difference between a wicked man and a child of G.o.d. In his extremity the wicked king of Israel gave up in despair, and never once thought of turning to G.o.d for help. He uttered a hopeless cry, and said practically, "G.o.d has brought us here to destroy us." That is the way unG.o.dly men look at their troubles.
In contrast with him, Jehoshaphat at once thought of G.o.d and called for His servant and His message. No matter how trying our situation, no matter how much to blame we ourselves are for it, let us always go at once with it to G.o.d, and seek his direction and deliverance ; and we shall never seek in vain.
Jehoshaphat called at once for the prophet of the Lord. It was a prophet he wanted. He was willing to hear G.o.d"s message and to take G.o.d"s way of deliverance. It is so beautiful to find that the prophet was there. Elisha was the beautiful type of the Holy Ghost and the ever present Christ. Unlike Elijah, who was the prophet of judgment and represented the law, Elisha was always among the people, helping the poor widow in her poverty, the students on the banks of the Jordan when the axe went off the handle, and even the army of his country when on this laborious and dangerous expedition. He represented that G.o.d who is always within our call and a G.o.d at hand. The very meaning of the word Paraclete or Advocate is, One near by, One we can call to our side and call upon in every time of need. Let us bring Him all our burdens; let us cast upon Him all our care; let us use Him for every emergency, and prove His all-sufficiency in every time of need.
2. PREPARATION. We next see the preparation for G.o.d"s deliverance. First, Elisha called for a minstrel. You know that this minstrel represented the spirit of praise. Our prayers, too, should always begin with praise. If our difficulty and dangers be met with a song of believing triumph, we shall find G.o.d ready to echo it back with the song of deliverance. When we cannot pray, it is a good time to praise.
Next came the divine message, "Thus saith the Lord." G.o.d must be heard in this matter, His voice must be listened to, His message received, and His way adopted. When trouble comes we usually run in every other direction first, get everybody else"s advice and help, and then at last think of appealing to heaven.
The first thing in trouble is to hearken and ask, "What saith the Lord?" What lesson is He teaching? What rebuke is He sending? What direction is He giving? What way of escape would He have us take? G.o.d has always one way out of every difficulty, and only one.
Next, they must make room for the coming blessing. "Make this valley full of ditches." One would have supposed that the valley was deep enough without the ditches. But the valley was there anyhow; the ditches must be made on purpose. It is possible to have need of G.o.d and not have room for G.o.d. These ditches represent special preparation and the opening of the channels of faith to receive the blessing.
What is a ditch? It is a great, ugly opening in the ground. There is nothing ornamental nor beautiful about it; it is just a void and empty s.p.a.ce, a place to hold water. How shall we open the ditches for G.o.d to fill? By bringing to Him our needs, our failures, the great rents and voids and broken up places in our lives. It is a good time at the commencement of another year to think of the places where we have come short, and the needs in our hearts that have not yet been supplied. Let us bring them to Him, and like the widow"s vessels, He is able to fill them all.
The answer must be claimed by simple faith. "Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain," said the prophet, "yet that valley shall be filled with water." There was to be no outward demonstration, but it was to come quietly and without observation. This is the way G.o.d loves to bless us, and this is the way that faith must always receive the blessing. This is not, however, the way that unbelieving man likes to have it come. He would like to see wind and rain, and have great display of outward circ.u.mstances; then he would be able to believe in the coming of the water. "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe," was the Master"s reproof in His own day; and it is as pertinent today as ever.
Faith, however, is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," and it loves to claim the promise and rest in the Promiser, allowing Him to bring the answer in His own way and time, and counting upon it as though it were already a present fact. Shall we thus trust our G.o.d and learn to walk by faith and not by sight?
3. THE DIVINE ANSWER. The divine answer was not long in coming. With the morning light, lo! the ditches had disappeared and the valley was filled with water, reflecting the crimson hills of Edom from its gla.s.sy bosom, and looking to the Moabites as pools of blood.
It was water that came, and only water. That was all they wanted. Water was the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is all we want in our extremity and need. He will be to us answered prayer, temporal provision, spiritual supply, and all things pertaining to life and G.o.dliness.
Notice again that when the water came, the ditches disappeared from view. Likewise, when the Holy Ghost comes, our needs will be supplied, and the very remembrance of our sorrow and distress will leave us. So long as you are looking at the ditches and thinking of your desperate need, you are not filled with water. G.o.d wants so to fill you that He will even obliterate the remembrance of your sin and sorrow, and, as Job beautifully expressed it, you will remember your misery as waters that pa.s.s away.
Again, when the water came there was enough, not only for them to drink but also for their cattle and their beasts; so when G.o.d fills your life with the Holy Spirit, the blessing overflows not only to every person around you, but the very beasts that serve you will be the better for your blessing. That truck-man was not far astray when he said that his horse and his dog knew that he had been converted. Oh, the groans of the irrational creation around us that are ever going up to G.o.d, because of man"s sin. Oh, the blessing that will come to the whole universe when man receives his Savior and becomes prepared to be the lord of this lower creation!
There is a very remarkable expression used respecting this glorious miracle of divine grace and bounty. "This is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord." This wonderful blessing was not, in G.o.d"s estimation, anything extraordinary nor at all hard for him to do. Nor is it a great or difficult thing for Him to baptize you and me with the Holy Ghost till all our wants are supplied and all our being is filled with His blessing. We are constantly thinking of it as though it cost Him some great effort. Thousands of Christians are looking forward to it at a great distance as the culminating point of life. On the contrary, it is but a light thing for G.o.d to do, and is intended to mark rather the beginning than the close of a career of usefulness.
The great purpose of Christ"s coming was "that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in righteousness and holiness before him," --not the last days, but "all the days of our life." It is not our preparation for heaven but our preparation for life.
4. THE GREATER BLESSING. Next comes G.o.d"s deliverance and the greater blessing which He has for them. "This is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand." This was the great purpose of their campaign and the design of G.o.d in delivering them in their peril, that they might go forward and conquer their enemy and His. This also is G.o.d"s purpose in our sanctification.
He does not give us the Holy Ghost that we should receive a clean heart merely, and then spend our lives complacently looking at it and telling people about it, but that we should go forth in the power of His Spirit and His indwelling life, to conquer this world for Him. We, too, have a great foe to face and a great trust to fulfill. We are sent to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to give the Gospel to the whole inhabited earth. It is a shame that thousands of Christians should spend their lives without even claiming this baptism; and it is a far greater shame that thousands more should be occupied all their days in getting a satisfactory interest in Christ and an experience of sanctification.
What would you think of the gardener who, after spending five years in planting an orange grove in Florida, in watering, pruning, and cultivating it, should then find that he has to spend a quarter of a century more keeping the plants in a healthy condition, without any return of fruit? You would certainly think it a poor investment. It is all right to spend a while in getting your orchard ready; but you expect this to end some day, and the trees will begin to do something better than grow, even to reward your labors with the abundant harvest.
What would you think of the manufacturer who took all the trouble to set up a water wheel, and a lot of machinery, and then simply amused himself with having the wheel turn round, without driving any machinery, or doing any practical work? G.o.d must get very tired of everlastingly keeping us in repair. Surely he has a right to expect that the time of fruit will come. G.o.d help us, beloved, to get at things and to stay at them. Keep your engine out of the repair shop. Get it in working order as quickly as you can, and then ask G.o.d to put an express train behind it, and let it run and carry its precious freight on the great highway of His holy will.
It is very miserable work to be always getting sanctified, and it is very unworthy of G.o.d"s infinite grace and power. Let us get into conflict and victory and aggressive work for G.o.d and this lost world, and He will surely deliver our enemies into our hand, and make us more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And then we shall find that the using of our blessing is the best way to keep it, and the running of the wheel is the surest means of keeping it from falling.
5. THOROUGH AND FINISHED WORK. They were commanded, as soon as they had conquered the Moabites, to do thorough work, to smite every fenced city, to spread stones upon every fertile piece of land, and to fill up every well of water, leaving the land desolate and worthless. It was simply an ill.u.s.tration of thorough and completed work.
When G.o.d begins to work for us, it is time for us to work for Him, and our work should be as thorough as His. It is all folly for us to sit down and fold our arms, and say, "G.o.d will do it." We must work out our own salvation, all the more because it is G.o.d that worketh in us.
When David heard "a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees," it was the very time for him to bestir himself and do His best, for G.o.d had gone out before him to deliver his enemies into his hand. When we see the almighty working of our G.o.d, it is the very time for us to stir ourselves up to faithful cooperation and thorough work.
It was the failure of Israel to do thorough work that lost them the blessing which Joshua"s conquest secured. They left some of their enemies in the land, and in due time this remnant became their masters. It is very foolish for us to leave a vestige or a trace of evil behind us. Let us do thorough work in our repentance, in our obedience, in our sanctification, in our divine healing, in our service for G.o.d.
How foolish it is for the builder to rear the costly walls and leave them unroofed; the elements will soon crumble the unprotected masonry to a heap of worthless ruins. Let us finish our work day by day. Let everything we say and do be as thorough and complete as the finished measure of the musical melody and harmony, without which the rest of the note would be thrown away. So let us live from day to day, that, when the close shall come, we shall have nothing to do but to go to our reward and say with our departing Master, "Father, I have glorified thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which thou gayest me to do."
Beloved, it is a time of G.o.d"s mighty working in the world and among the nations. Let it stimulate us to arouse ourselves to holy action, and to cooperate with Him in His mighty purpose of preparing the world for the speedy return of His dear Son, our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There is "a sound of going in the mulberry trees," and the Lord has gone up before us. Let us bestir ourselves, and haste the day of our Master"s coming and the cry of victory around the world and from the ranks above, "Alleluia; for the Lord G.o.d omnipotent reigneth."
As Dr. Chalmers has so wisely said, "Let us trust as if all depended upon G.o.d, but let us work as if all depended upon ourselves."
Chapter 16.
THE SPIRIT OF INSPIRATION.
"No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of G.o.d spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1: 20, 21.
This pa.s.sage directs our attention to the inspiration of the ancient prophets, and to the work of the Holy Ghost as revealing the will of G.o.d to His chosen messengers. G.o.d at sundry times and divers manners spake to our fathers by the prophets.
Divine revelation began in Eden, and G.o.d has never ceased to maintain communication with His devoted subjects. In the antediluvian and patriarchal dispensations He spake at intervals to particular men, revealing His will to them; but from the time that He called Moses to lead the chosen people out of Egypt, He has had a special cla.s.s of messengers through whom He has revealed His will to His people. These have been called the prophets of the Lord. Moses was, perhaps, the first of them.
In the fourth chapter of Exodus, G.o.d distinctly calls him to this special ministry. "Now, therefore, go," He says, "and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." When afterwards He appointed Aaron to be His spokesman, He added, "Thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of G.o.d."
Moses recognized himself as a prophet, and said of his Ant.i.type, "A prophet shall the Lord your G.o.d raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear."
The next great prophet was Samuel. Like Moses he also appeared at a special crisis in the history of his people. They had been for centuries in the deepest declension and distress. Like Luther, G.o.d"s instrument in the Reformation of our own time, G.o.d sent him to call Israel back to Himself. The call of Samuel was most marked and his ministry most important. In 1 Samuel 3: 19-21, we read concerning him, "The Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel . . . knew that Samuel was established to a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord."
Indeed, Samuel was really the founder of the prophetic inst.i.tutions and the schools of the prophets which from his time we find in Israel. No n.o.bler race of men ever lived than the prophets of Israel. They were the only cla.s.s that was true to G.o.d. The kings, with a few exceptions, were disastrous failures; and even the priesthood became subservient to a corrupt throne and a G.o.dless populace. But the prophets were G.o.d"s true representatives and witnesses, and stood for righteousness and G.o.dliness in the darkest ages of G.o.d"s ancient people.
When Saul failed to meet the purpose of his high calling, Samuel was still true to Jehovah. When David sank in his double crime, Nathan was there to reprove him and to bring him the message of Jehovah. When Solomon allowed his heart to be turned away from G.o.d, the prophet Abijah was there to bear G.o.d"s message of warning, and to tell Jeroboam what G.o.d was about to do in rending the kingdom asunder. When Rehoboam succeeded his father and was about to ruin his kingdom in presumptuous recklessness, the prophet Shemaiah was ready to carry G.o.d"s message to him and arrest him in his reckless purpose. When Jeroboam had ascended the throne of Israel and reared his idolatrous altars at Dan, there was a prophet of the Lord ready to stand before him and to warn him of G.o.d"s judgment because of his idolatry. When the wicked Baasha, king of Israel, had filled his cup of sin, G.o.d had His servant, Jehu the prophet, ready to utter His message of warning and judgment against the wicked king. When Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Rehoboam, then Shemaiah the prophet was there to call the nation to repentance, and to promise them deliverance from the hand of the enemy.
W hen King Asa summoned his people to meet the common enemy, and to trust in the arm of Jehovah, then G.o.d sent Azariah the prophet to bear to him the message of encouragement and covenant promise; and when, later in his reign, Asa became willful and self-reliant, and turned from G.o.d to the arm of flesh, G.o.d sent Hanani the prophet to tell him of the divine displeasure and of the judgment which he was about to bring upon himself. When Jehoshaphat stood face to face, with the Ammonites and Moabites in the valley of Berachah in great peril and humiliation, then G.o.d sent the prophet Jeheziel to announce the victory of faith that was to come with the morrow.
When Joash, king of Judah, turned away from G.o.d, then Zechariah, the prophet of the Lord, stood up to reprove him for his sin, and suffered martyrdom at the hands of the king and people, the first of that band of witnesses who sealed their testimony with their blood. W hen Ahab and Jezebel reigned in Samaria, and all Israel was given up to the worship of Baal, then Elijah appeared as G.o.d"s messenger of fire to warn the people and to lead them back to their allegiance to heaven. When Elijah"s ministry was completed, Elisha, coming as the messenger of peace, for half a century guided and counseled the king and the people in the name of Jehovah, the glorious type of the coming Christ.
The brightest light of the good Hezekiah"s reign was Isaiah, the prophet of the Lord. Even when Jerusalem fell, and Judah pa.s.sed into captivity, Jeremiah, like a guardian angel, hovered over its dark midnight, and sought by his warning and pleading to avert its cruel fate; and then, when he could do no more, like the Master Himself, he wept over the city that he had loved. The last days of Israel were linked with the prophetic ministry of Hosea, the prophet of love. The exile of Judah was lighted up by the prophetic ministry of Ezekiel by the river Chebar, and of Daniel in far off Babylon. The days of Restoration were less dependent upon the leadership of Zerubabel than upon the prophetic ministrations of Haggai and Zechariah; and, finally, the Old Testament Dispensation was closed by Malachi, the messenger of Jehovah and the prophet of the coming age.
The very names of these prophetic messengers are beautifully significant.
"Isaiah" and "Hosea" mean that G.o.d is the Savior; "Jeremiah,"G.o.d is high; "Ezekiel," G.o.d is strong; "Daniel," G.o.d is judge; "Joel," Jehovah is G.o.d; "Elijah," G.o.d is Jehovah; "Elisha,"G.o.d is our Savior. "Jonah," who stands first among the prophets whose writings are recorded, means "the Dove," and suggests the Holy Ghost in His gentle grace. "Nahum," who wrote amid the sorrows of Israel"s ruin, signifies "the Comforter," and "Malachi," who was the messenger of the new dispensation, means "My messenger." Thus were their very names and lives consistent with their high character and their divine commission.
The prophets of Israel may be divided into two cla.s.ses; first, those whose lives alone are recorded; and, secondly, those whose writings have come down to us. The latter company may again be divided into six cla.s.ses.
First, we have Jonah, standing alone as the pioneer and the earliest of the prophets whose writings are recorded. Next, we have the prophets who were connected with Israel"s last days; namely, Hosea, Amos, and Nahum. Thirdly, we have the prophets connected with Judah from the reign of Hezekiah for about two generations and about a century before the fall of Judah. These were Joel, Micah, and Isaiah. They lived in the palmy days of Judah"s kingdom, and were sent to hold the nation back from the captivity to which they were hastening. Through their ministry the catastrophe that came to Israel was averted from Judah for more than a century. It came at last, however, and we have a fourth group of prophets, who cl.u.s.ter around the sinking fortunes of the kingdom of Judah and fall of Jerusalem. They are Jeremiah, Obadiah, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk.
We have a fifth cla.s.s a little later, who may be called the prophets of the exile. They prophesied in captivity. They are Ezekiel and Daniel, the one in the country, the other in the capital of Babylon.
Finally, we have the prophets of the Restoration, the men who counseled and comforted the returning bands who went back to rebuild the temple and city of Jerusalem. They were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These sixteen names const.i.tute the glorious company of the prophets whose writings have come to us. They are commonly divided into the major and minor prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel belonging to the former, and all the others to the latter cla.s.s. They all claimed to be the special messengers of Jehovah, and they were all accredited by His signal presence and power. They belong to that cla.s.s of whom our text says they "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The same language might yet more emphatically be applied to the prophets and writers of the New Testament.
And so we come to the great subject of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and the messengers of G.o.d"s will in the various dispensations. Let us briefly consider; first, the nature of inspiration; secondly, its evidences; and, thirdly, the responsibility that it lays upon us.
1. As to the nature of inspiration what do we mean by the inspired prophets and the inspired Scriptures?
The Scripture writers themselves settle this question. There is no doubt that they claim for themselves, and the Lord Jesus Himself recognizes the claim, that they are the special messengers of G.o.d and bring to man the expression of His will. It may not be easy for us to explain the precise nature of their inspiration. All we need to know is its practical extent and value, and that it was a divine influence which so possessed them that it preserved them from all error and enabled them to give to men a correct and infallible record of the facts they intended to represent, and the message which G.o.d intended they should bear. It was such a superintendence by the Holy Ghost as made their message absolutely inerrant and infallible. It was not always necessary that they should receive a revelation of all the facts in the case, because they may already have been familiar with many of them or even all of them. What they needed was such a divine guidance and control as would enable them to state these facts accurately and as fully as G.o.d required.
This divine control did not make them necessarily pa.s.sive and mechanical. They were not writing as a phonograph would speak, or as a typewriter would obey the touch of the performer. While in many instances they may have been unconscious, in others they undoubtedly wrote and spoke in the free possession of all their faculties and in the exercise of their own intelligence. We know that they acted with perfect individuality, and that each man"s message was colored by the complexion of his own mind, so that we know the writings of Isaiah from those of Jeremiah; we know the voice of Elijah from that of Elisha; we know the style of John from that of Paul. The Book of G.o.d is like a beautiful garden, where all the flowers grow upon the same soil and are watered from the same heaven, but each has its own unique colors, forms, fragrance and individuality. This is a harp of nearly a hundred strings; but all are in perfect harmony, and every measure is resolved into one glorious refrain, JESUS, REDEMPTION, "Glory to G.o.d in the highest; on earth peace, goodwill to men." It is not necessary for us to believe that the Holy Ghost inspired the wicked words which the Bible records, the unG.o.dly speeches and the foolish utterances contained in the Book of Job, and many such things. All that was necessary was that it should give a correct record of what Job"s wife and Job"s friends really said, and even of the devil"s wicked speeches. The speeches were inspired by the devil, but the record of them was inspired by the Holy Ghost.
The Apostle Paul records the nature and fullness of inspiration very explicitly when he says, in 1 Cor. 2: 12, 13, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of G.o.d, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of G.o.d. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man"s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. "We, therefore, know that these records are divine, that these messages are from the throne, and that this blessed book is the very Word of the living and everlasting G.o.d.
2. The Lord Jesus Christ bears witness to the inspiration of the Scriptures. Again and again He quotes from the Old Testament books, and He tells us that it was the Word of the Lord and the Word of the Spirit through the prophet.
The New Testament bears witness to the Old, and the Holy Spirit, through His later messengers, confirms His messages through former oracles.
The message brings its own evidence, and bears to every true heart the conviction of its divinity and its truth.
The best evidence of the Holy Scriptures is the response which they find in the consciences of men. Listening to the great Teacher, we are compelled to say, "He told me all that ever I did." "Is not this the Christ?"
To the child of G.o.d the divinest testimony to the Holy Scriptures is the blessing which they have brought to his own soul, the witness of the Holy Ghost within him, and the effect that this book has produced upon his heart and life.
Its miracles of grace are its divinest credentials. It has changed the sinpossessed soul into a saint of G.o.d, and has made the wilderness of evil and misery to blossom as the rose.