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Deuteronomy Chapter
Seven
Deuteronomy 7
Chapter Contents
Intercourse with the Canaanites forbidden. (1-11)
Promises if they were obedient. (12-26)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 7:1-11
(Read Deuteronomy 7:1-11)
Here is a strict caution against all friendship and
fellowship with idols and idolaters. Those who are in communion with God
must
have no communication with the unfruitful works of darkness. Limiting the
orders to destroy
to the nations here mentioned
plainly shows that after ages
were not to draw this into a precedent. A proper understanding of the evil of
sin
and of the mystery of a crucified Saviour
will enable us to perceive the
justice of God in all his punishments
temporal and eternal. We must deal
decidedly with our lusts that war against our souls; let us not show them any
mercy
but mortify
and crucify
and utterly destroy them. Thousands in the
world that now is
have been undone by ungodly marriages; for there is more
likelihood that the good will be perverted
than that the bad will be
converted. Those who
in choosing yoke-fellows
keep not within the bounds of a
profession of religion
cannot promise themselves helps meet for them.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 7:12-26
(Read Deuteronomy 7:12-26)
We are in danger of having fellowship with the works of
darkness if we take pleasure in fellowship with those who do such works.
Whatever brings us into a snare
brings us under a curse. Let us be constant to
our duty
and we cannot question the constancy of God's mercy. Diseases are
God's servants; they go where he sends them
and do what he bids them. It is
therefore good for the health of our bodies
thoroughly to mortify the sin of
our souls; which is our rule of duty. Yet sin is never totally destroyed in this
world; and it actually prevails in us much more than it would do
if we were
watchful and diligent. In all this the Lord acts according to the counsel of
his own will; but that counsel being hid from us
forms no excuse for our sloth
and negligence
of which it is in no degree the cause. We must not think
that
because the deliverance of the church
and the destruction of the enemies of
the soul
are not done immediately
therefore they will never be done. God will
do his own work in his own method and time; and we may be sure that they are
always the best. Thus corruption is driven out of the hearts of believers by
little and little. The work of sanctification is carried on gradually; but at
length there will be a complete victory. Pride
security
and other sins that
are common effects of prosperity
are enemies more dangerous than beasts of the
field
and more apt to increase upon us.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 7
Verse 1
[1] When
the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess
it
and hath cast out many nations before thee
the Hittites
and the
Girgashites
and the Amorites
and the Canaanites
and the Perizzites
and the
Hivites
and the Jebusites
seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Seven nations —
There were ten in Genesis 15:19-21. But this being some hundreds
of years after
it is not strange if three of them were either destroyed by
foreign or domestick wars
or by cohabitation and marriage united with
and
swallowed up in the rest.
Verse 4
[4] For they will turn away thy son from following me
that they may serve
other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you
and destroy
thee suddenly.
To serve other Gods —
That is
there is manifest danger of apostacy and idolatry from such matches.
Which reason doth both limit the law to such of these as are unconverted
(otherwise Salmon married Rahab
Matthew 1:5) and enlarge it to other idolatrous
nations
as appears from 1 Kings 11:2; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 13:23.
Verse 5
[5] But
thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars
and break down
their images
and cut down their groves
and burn their graven images with
fire.
Their graves —
Which idolaters planted about the temples and altars of their Gods. Hereby God
designed to take away whatsoever might bring their idolatry to remembrance
or
occasion the reviving of it.
Verse 7
[7] The
LORD did not set his love upon you
nor choose you
because ye were more in
number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
The fewest — To
wit
at that time when God first declared his choice of you for his peculiar
people
which was done to Abraham. For Abraham had but one son concerned in
this choice and covenant
namely
Isaac
and that was in his hundredth year;
and Isaac was sixty years old ere he had a child
and then had only two
children; and though Jacob had twelve sons
it was a long time before they made
any considerable increase. Nor do we read of any great multiplication of them
'till after Joseph's death.
Verse 8
[8] But because the LORD loved you
and because he would keep the oath which
he had sworn unto your fathers
hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty
hand
and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen
from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt.
The Lord loved you — It
was his free choice without any cause or motive on your part.
Verse 10
[10] And
repayeth them that hate him to their face
to destroy them: he will not be
slack to him that hateth him
he will repay him to his face.
Them that hate him —
Not only those who hate him directly and properly
(for so did few or none of
the Israelites to whom he here speaks
) but those who hate him by construction
and consequence; those who hate and oppose his people
and word
those who
wilfully persist in the breach of God's commandments.
To their face —
That is
openly
and so as they shall see it
and not be able to avoid it.
Slack — So
as to delay it beyond the fit time or season for vengeance
yet withal he is
long-suffering
and slow to anger.
Verse 12
[12]
Wherefore it shall come to pass
if ye hearken to these judgments
and keep
and do them
that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the
mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
The covenant and the mercy — That is
the covenant of mercy
which he out of his own mere grace made
with them.
Verse 13
[13] And
he will love thee
and bless thee
and multiply thee: he will also bless the
fruit of thy womb
and the fruit of thy land
thy corn
and thy wine
and thine
oil
the increase of thy kine
and the flocks of thy sheep
in the land which
he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
He will love thee — He
will continue to love thee
and to manifest his love to thee.
Verse 15
[15] And
the LORD will take away from thee all sickness
and will put none of the evil
diseases of Egypt
which thou knowest
upon thee; but will lay them upon all
them that hate thee.
The diseases of Egypt — Such as the Egyptians were infected with
either commonly
or
miraculously. It seems to refer not only to the plagues of Egypt
but to some
other epidemic disease
which they remembered to have prevailed among the
Egyptians
and by which God had chastised them for their national sins.
Diseases are God's servants
which go where he sends them
and do what he bids
them.
Verse 19
[19] The
great temptations which thine eyes saw
and the signs
and the wonders
and the
mighty hand
and the stretched out arm
whereby the LORD thy God brought thee
out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
The temptations —
The trials and exercises of thy faith and obedience to my commands.
Verse 24
[24] And
he shall deliver their kings into thine hand
and thou shalt destroy their name
from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee
until thou
have destroyed them.
No man shall stand —
This promise is made upon condition of their performance of their duty
which
they neglecting
justly lose the benefit of it.
Verse 25
[25] The
graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the
silver or gold that is on them
nor take it unto thee
lest thou be snared
therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
The silver or gold —
Wherewith the idols are covered or adorned
nor consequently any other of their
ornaments. This he commands to shew his utter detestation of idolatry
and to
cut off all occasions of it.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
07 Chapter 7
Verse 9
Them that love Him and keep His commandments.
Love God
and keep His commandments
The love of God
according to the Scripture notion of it
is a
duty easy to be comprehended. And the text before us
which attaches so great a
reward to this grace
does
at the same time
show us what it means in saying
that God keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His
commandments. For the latter words fix and ascertain the meaning of the former
and give us to understand that he who keepeth God’s commandments is he that
loveth Him. Nor are the laws and commandments of God
by the keeping of which
is evidenced our love of Him
so hard to be understood. For He hath marked out
the great lines of our duty by His works of creation and providence
and hath
clearly filled them up in His holy Scriptures. “By these He hath showed thee
O
man
what is good.” I proceed to the main design of this discourse
which is
to lay before you the reasons and motives of loving and obeying God
which the
text offers
from His nature and promises. The name of God implies all that is
excellent and adorable; and here
in the first place
by the title of Lord
added to it
directs our view to His dominion and sovereignty
by which He hath
a right to our submission and obedience. We were created by His power
and are
sustained by His providence We are born the subjects of His kingdom
which
ruleth over all; and are the children of the family of which He is the great
Father and Lord; who allots to everyone his rank and condition in it
and
expects from all an account of their works. Our passage through life is
compared to a voyage over a great ocean where we must wander and be lost
without somewhat to direct us through it. But our safe and certain direction is
the law of God
in which we have not less reason to rejoice than “they who go
down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters” have in beholding and
observing the signs and constellations by which they govern their course over
the face of the deep. For mariners
who sail in such tempestuous weather that
neither sun nor stars in many days appear
are not in a state of greater
perplexity and danger than man would be left in without the laws and
commandments which God has set forth
as so many lights and signs from heaven
to guide him securely through this voyage of life. We read that
in certain
climates of the world
the gales that spring from the land carry a refreshing
smell out to sea
and assure the watchful pilot that he is approaching to a
desirable and fruitful coast when as yet he cannot discern it with his eyes.
And
to take up once more the comparison of life to a voyage
in like manner it
fares with those who have steadily and religiously pursued the course which
heaven pointed out to them. We shall sometimes find by their conversation
towards the end of their days
that they are filled with hope
and peace
and
joy
which
like those refreshing gales and reviving odours to the seaman
are
breathed forth from paradise upon their souls
and give them to understand with
certainty that God is bringing them unto their desired haven. But to return to
our proper argument. The wisdom of God is incapable of being misled itself
and
His goodness of misleading us; and therefore the precepts which He hath given
for the government of our lives must be excellently framed to the perfection
and happiness of our nature. His laws
which enjoin the worship and honour of
Himself
which command us to honour our parents
to do justice
and to love
mercy
which forbid us to injure the life
the peace
the property of our
neighbour
are evidently framed for the general good of mankind. And this we
are mostly willing to allow. But there are some cases which the laws of God
treat as sinful
wherein we are fondly apt to imagine that the injunction is
rigorous which forbids us to follow the bent of our inclinations
when
as
appears to us
no injury is done to others. Yet God is gracious
alike in His
restraints and in His allowances. Some things which He hath forbidden prove
injurious to others
if not directly
yet in their consequences. Some waste our
time
divert our thoughts from worthy objects
and prevent our usefulness
to
which God and society have a right; some consume our substance
to which our
families
or the poor
have a claim; some impair the health of the body
which
we have no right to destroy
and which
being lost
men become uncomfortable to
themselves
dissatisfied with others
and disposed
perhaps
even to repine
against that providence which hath left them to reap the fruits of their own
folly. In the meanwhile those better principles and purer sentiments of the
mind
without which religion and virtue cannot subsist
grow weak and faint
or
are blotted out. Evil courses
in the expressive language of Scripture
“take
away the heart”; that is
they deprive men of their judgment and darken their
understanding; it may be
in the affairs of the world
but most undoubtedly in
those things which are spiritually discerned. We are in this life as children
in a state of education
training up for another condition of being
of which
at present
we know but little; only
we are assured that “flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God”; that its enjoyments are of a spiritual
nature
corresponding more with the faculties of the soul than with the present
constitution of the body. The restraints
therefore
under which we are laid
and which seem grievous to us
as children
are parts
no doubt
of a wise and
gracious discipline
which is to qualify us for a heavenly inheritance
and is
so necessary a preparation for it that we cannot otherwise see God or enter
into the joy of our Lord. Reason
therefore
in some particulars
and in others
faith
which is the evidence of things not seen
will assure the mind of the
Christian that every branch of the law of God is most worthy to be honoured and
obeyed
as proceeding from infinite loving kindness and goodness to man. Is
anyone
then
who professes himself the servant of the Lord
called by Him to a
trial of his obedience
wherein some hardship or peril must be undergone? Let
him call to mind how much harder trials they who loved and feared God formerly
have undergone; let him consider how great things men of noble and ingenuous
natures will do
even for an earthly commander; and let him recollect that he
is serving a Master who never faileth to succour those who trust in Him
and in
whose service he cannot lose the promised reward. For He is the faithful God
who keepeth covenant and mercy. And here I am led to the last observation
proposed
namely
the encouragement to obedience arising from this
consideration
that the Almighty is our Deliverer
who hath visited and
redeemed His people by His blessed Son Jesus Christ. (T. Townson
D. D.)
Verse 16
Thou shalt consume all the people.
The destruction of the Canaanites
I. The destruction
of the Canaanites was in conformity with the ordinary procedure of God in the
moral government of the world. If He choose
in punishing sinners
to visit at
one time with a flood of waters
at another with fire from heaven
at another
with a deadly epidemic
at another with the scourge of war
who shall dare to
question the propriety of His choice in the weapons of destruction?
II. The destruction
of the Canaanites was in punishment of sin and as such was just towards
themselves. The vilest practices were rife among the people. Their very
religion was a system of sorcery
sensuality
and depravity. The traces of
ancient Syrian worship exhibit the vilest features of pagan idolatry. Their
very gods were demons (Psalms 106:37). Human sacrifices were
offered at their shrines. The grossest abominations were practised in their
orgies. If such
then
was the light
what would the darkness be? In other
words
if this was the religion of the country
what would the vices of the
people be?
III. The destruction
of the Canaanites was a spiritual safeguard to the Israelites. We are tempted
to ask whether it was well that the Israelites should be made the executioners
of God’s wrath upon their brother man. Would they not be tempted to lose sight
of their subordination to God’s purpose
and to take up the cause with feelings
of proper fanaticism? Again
would not the part to which they were called tend
to foster in them cruelty and recklessness of human life? On the contrary
we
find that the snare of the Israelites lay in the opposite direction
and that
they were ever more ready to spare than to slay. No token appears of any
tendency to rapacity or violence having been impressed upon the national mind
while the salutary lessons that were thus taught them are apparent. In no way
could the Israelites have been so forcibly convinced of the hatefulness of
idolatry and impurity as when they themselves were made God’s ministers of
vengeance against the crying evils. They were thus made witnesses against
themselves should they ever adopt like abominations.
IV. The destruction
of the Canaanites was necessary for the moral preservation of the world.
Clearly it was an act of mercy to the little children of the Canaanites
who
were cut off before they knew between good and evil. To the Israelites the
extirpation of these nations was an act of mercy. Even crippled and curtailed
as the Canaanites were
their influence for evil was too strong; but had they
remained in larger bodies
and especially had the women been spared
piety
would soon have become unknown among the people of God. But if the destruction
of the Canaanites was an act of mercy to Israel
and necessary for their
spiritual safely
it follows that it was not less a mercy to the whole world
and necessary for the preservation of the spiritual life of the entire family
of mankind. The Church of the present day is but the continuation of the Church
of the wilderness. Had that been destroyed
the materials of which the Saviour
at His coming built the Church of the New Testament would not have been in
existence. The impediments in the way of the Gospel would have been tenfold. To
the present day the early ruin of the faith of God’s people which would have
resulted from the general toleration of the Canaanites would have borne its
bitter fruits.
V. The destruction
of the Canaanites has a deep symbolical and practical lesson for us all. God
changes not; the same principles direct His dealings now as then. The flesh
must be mortified and subdued. See Jesus
our Joshua
stretches forth the
spear. He commands the conflict; onward
then
and conquer. (G. W. Butler
M.
A.)
The Christian failure and its reasons
Though the Israelites have passed out of Egypt and beyond the Red
Sea and through the wilderness
they have not passed beyond the domain of
struggle and duty; they must go on to possess the land. In its southeastern
border dwell the Moabites; north of them are the Amorites
strongly intrenched;
above them the Hittites; on the west side
beyond the Jordan
are the Anakim;
above these
a mighty nation
the Canaanites; near them the Perizzites
etc.
I. The thing to be
done. Too much is our Christianity over-anxious about its beginnings and too
careless about its subsequent growth and reach. We are all the time seeking
just to get people out of Egypt
we are all the time too unconcerned as to
whether these people go on to conquer Canaan for the Lord. Having “come to
Jesus
” the reign of Jesus is to be extended inwardly over the entire soul
outwardly over the entire life. Canaan reached was not Canaan conquered. The
converted man is not yet a sanctified man. Evil pride
vanity
jealousy
covetousness
passionateness
discontent
bad habits
etc.
Hittites
Perizzites
Canaanites enough are yet resident in even
the converted soul.
II. The force by
which this conquest is to be accomplished. “And thou shalt consume all the people
which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee.” The soul and God--these are the
forces of conflict.
III. Some reasons
for the Christian failure.
1. Ceasing of battle. After a while some of the Israelites stopped
struggling against the aliens.
2. Fear. These Israelites would not struggle against certain of the
aliens
because they had chariots of iron. So some bad habit frightens a
Christian from struggle.
3. Success of a sort. “And it came to pass when Israel was strong
they put the Canaanites to tribute
and did not utterly drive them out.” Many a
man
professedly Christian
dares not attempt to be the Christian he knows he
ought to be because
successful in worldly affairs
his worldly interests will
not let him. So he salves his conscience by putting his questionable gain
“under tribute”; gives it
or a portion of it
in charity
etc.
IV. Result. “Will
be a snare unto thee.” Was their failure not a snare? Call to mind the history
of the Israelites
the destruction of the ten tribes. The only proof of a real
Christianity is a continually advancing self-conquest. (Homiletic Review.)
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the
Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh.
Encouragement for the Christian warrior
To a man about to journey into a strange country nothing gives
more comfort or confidence than if there be put into his hand
by way of guide
through it
a book written by someone who has travelled that country before
him. He will read that book not for entertainment
but instruction; that he may
learn beforehand how to make his way
what to take with him
what to beware of
and whither to betake himself for rest and refreshment on the way. In like
manner the Bible has been given us to make us acquainted with the way itself
with the difficulties and the dangers of it
with the enemies that we shall
meet with in it
and our only way of overcoming them.
I. The spiritual
state here represented. The Jewish Church in the wilderness may be here
regarded as a type or figure of the Church of Christ in the world
and the case
of each member of the one as prefiguring in some particulars the condition of
each believer in the other. But like as Israel
though free from Egypt and from
all fear of being carried thither again
notwithstanding
had not overcome all
enemies
but was to fight his way against them and never give them quarter
but
fight on till they were utterly destroyed; so now is the believer in Christ
called to fight the good “fight of faith
and lay hold upon eternal life.” We
may perceive
then
that the situation of Israel when Moses addressed them in
the words of the text
represents to us the present state of the follower of
Christ
and the warfare which he has to war under Christ as his captain against
the enemies of his salvation.
II. The fears which
commonly attend this state. The strength and number of the enemies whom Israel
had to fight was well known to that people; but the Lord Himself had repeatedly
put them in mind of it
saying continually
after He had numbered them over
that they were “seven nations greater and mightier than Israel.” But why did
God say so? Was it to make them afraid of these nations? No; but to enliven their
faith and exercise their dependence upon God. It was quite true
and a
notorious truth
that those nations were in point of strength and number quite
an overmatch for Israel; so that it was impossible for him in his own strength
to dispossess them. It was also true that
till they were dispossessed
the
land of promise could not be enjoyed; so that these two considerations
the
strength end number of the enemies of Israel and his own weakness
were the
more immediate causes of his fears. The fears often felt by the Christian are
much of the same kind. His enemies are of three kinds--the world
the flesh
and the devil: mighty all of them
and many; for the world and the flesh and
the devil have marshalled under them whole hosts of enemies
of whom anyone
encountered by the Christian in his own strength
would be too strong. And oh I
should he compare himself with them
what painful cause has he for the
acknowledgment
“These are more than I!” It is in such a ease too natural for
him to look within himself
and
pausing upon what he finds there
ask
almost
in despair
“How can I dispossess them?” But mark how graciously the Lord
anticipates
prevents such fears: “If thou shalt say in thine heart (He too
well knows His people will say so)
These nations am more than I: how can I
dispossess them?”--this is their--
III. Encouragement.
“Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember
” etc. What God had
done to Egypt and her king
Israel had seen and knew: it was because of this
that they were then where they were
and that they were not in Egypt now; and
God calls upon them to remember
for encouragement
what they had been in time
past
“Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt”; and what had been done for their
deliverance
and who had been the doer of it
Himself
the Lord their God: thus
every word appears to have an emphasis intended to encourage them against their
fears. Now
this encouragement
which God addressed to them
may serve as a
figure of that which forms the encouragement of every Christian; for it is now
the privilege of every Christian to look
for his encouragement
at the
redemption wrought for him by Christ. Under all his fears he should remember
what a wretched
lost condition Christ redeemed His people from
and how and
why He did it. That state is thus described in Ephesians 2:1. This was the state of
every one of us by nature. And how were they set free from it? By no less an
act of love than the death of God’s own Son in His dead people’s stead (Romans 5:6). We see
then
that the
encouragement of a true Christian
under all his fears and against all the
enemies of his soul
is in that sure covenant and rich provision of all things
his soul can need
through that redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Does he
find the world too strong for him; does he dread the rage and malice of its
children who are set against him
or the snares and perils which the God of
this world sets about his path? Or does he tremble at that overwhelming crowd
of cares which comes upon him daily with his first waking thought? Let him not
be afraid of these things
but let him well remember what Christ did for him
when he was dead in trespasses and sins; and thus strong in the Lord
and in
the power of His might
let him cast all his care on God. Does he dread the
power of his own corruptions
and ask
“How can I dispossess them? Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” Let him faithfully remember the
encouragement suggested by the text
and he shall soon say also with the
apostle
“I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Or lastly
is he troubled
by the fear of death
“the last enemy that shall be destroyed”? Christ
his
Redeemer
through His own death
hath abolished death by destroying him that
had the power of death--that is
the devil. In short
the Christian’s “life is
hid
” and so kept safe from every enemy
“with Christ in God.” (F. F. Clark
B. A.)
Verse 20
The Lord thy God will send the hornet.
Secret sins driven out by stinging hornets
I. Sins which are
left and hidden. John Bunyan very wisely describes the town of Mansoul after it
had been taken by Prince Immanuel. The Prince rode to the Castle called the
Heart and took possession of it
and the whole city became his; but there were
certain Diabolonians
followers of Diabolus
who never quitted the town. They
could not be seen in the streets
could not be heard in the markets
never
dared to occupy a house
but lurked about in certain old dens and eaves. Some
of them got impudent enough even to hire themselves out for servants to the men
of Mansoul under other names. There was Mr. Covetousness
who was called Mr.
Prudent Thrifty
and there was Mr. Lasciviousness
who was called Mr. Harmless
Mirth. They took other names
and still lived here
much to the annoyance of
the town of Mansoul
skulking about in holes and corners
and only coming out
on dark days
when they could do mischief and serve the Black Prince. Now
in
all of us
however watchful we may be
though we may set Mr. Pry Well to listen
at the door
and he may watch
and my Lord Mayor
Mr. Understanding
be very careful
to search all these out
yet there will remain much hidden sin. I think we
ought always to pray to God to forgive us sins that we do not know anything
about. “Thine unknown agonies
” says the old Greek liturgy; and there are
unknown sins for which those agonies make atonement. Perhaps the sins which you
and I confess are not the tithe of what we really do commit. There are
no
doubt
in all of us Canaanites still dwelling in the land
that will be thorns
in our side.
II. A singular
means for their destruction--“thy God will send the hornet among them.” These
fellows resorted to caves and dens. God employed the very best means for their
destruction. I suppose these hornets were large wasps; two or three times
perhaps
as large as a wasp
with very terrible stings. It is not an unusual
historical fact to find districts depopulated by means of stinging insects. In
connection with the journey of Dr. Livingstone we can never forget that strange
kind of guest which is such a pest to the cattle in any district
that the
moment it appeared they had either to fly before it or to die. The hornet must
have been a very terrible creature; but it is not at all extraordinary that
there should have been hornets capable of driving out a nation. The hornet was
a very simple means; it was no sound of trumpet
nor even the glitter of
miracles
it was a simple
natural means of fetching these people out of their
holes. It is well known that insects in some countries will sting one race of
people and not another. Sometimes the inhabitants of a country are not at all
careful about mosquitoes or such creatures
when strangers are greatly pestered
with them. God could therefore bring hornets which would sting the Hivites and
the Jebusites but not molest the Israelites
and in this way the Canaanites
were driven out of their holes; some died by the stings of hornets
and others
were put in the way of the sharp swords of the men of Israel
and thus they
died. The spiritual analogy to this is
the daily trouble which God sends to every
one of us. I suppose you have all got your hornets. Some have hornets in the
family; your child may be a hornet to you--your wife
your husband
your
brother
the dearest friend you haves may be a daffy cross to you; and
though
a dead cross is very heavy
a living cross is heavier far. To bury a child is a
great grief
but to have that child live and sin against you is ten times
worse. You may have hornets that shall follow you to your bed chamber--some of
you may know what that means--so that even where you ought to find your rest
and your sweetest solace
it is there that you receive your bitterest sting of
trouble. The hornet will sometimes come in the shape of business. You are
perplexed--you cannot prosper--one thing comes after another. You seem to be
born to trouble more than other people. You have ventured on the right hand
but it was a failure; you pushed out on the left
but that was a breakdown.
Almost everybody you trust fails immediately
and those you do not trust are
the people you might have safely relied upon. Others have hornets in their
bodies. Some have constant headaches; aches and pains pass and shoot along the
nerves of others. If you could but be quit of it
you think
how happy you
would be; but you have got your hornet
and that hornet is always with you. But
if I tried to get through the whole list of hornets I should want all the
morning
for there is a particular grief to every man. Each man has his own
form of obnoxious sting which he has to feel. There is one point I want you to
notice in the text
and that is
we are expressly told the hornets came from
God. He sent them. “The Lord thy God will send the hornet.” This will help you
perhaps
to bear their stings another time. God weighs your troubles in scales
and measures out your afflictions
every drachm and scruple of them; and since
they come
therefore
directly from a loving Father’s hand
accept them with
grateful cheerfulness
and pray that the result which Divine Wisdom has
ordained to flow from them may be abundantly realised in your sanctification
in being made like unto Christ.
III. A very
suggestive lesson to ourselves. It is this. What is my particular besetting
sin? Have I been careful in self-examination? If not
I must expect to have the
hornet. God never punishes His children for sin penally
but He chastens them
for it paternally. You may often discover what your sin is by the punishment
for you can see the face of the sin in the punishment--the one is so like the
other. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Small troubles
It seems as if the insectile world were determined to extirpate
the human race. It is bombarding the grain fields
and the orchards
and the
vineyards. The Colorado beetle
the Nebraska grasshopper
the New Jersey
locust
the universal potato bug seem to carry on the work which was begun ages
ago
when the insects buzzed and droned out of Noah’s Ark as the door was
opened. In my text the hornet flies out on its mission. It is a species of
wasp
swift in its motion and violent in its sting. Its touch is torture to man
or beast. The hornet goes in swarms. It has captains over hundreds
and twenty
of them alighting on one man will produce certain death. The Persians attempted
to conquer a Christian city
but the elephants and the beasts on which the
Persians rode were assaulted by the hornet
so that the whole army was broken
up
and the besieged city was rescued. This burning and noxious insect stung
out the Hittites and the Canaanites from their country. What gleaming sword and
chariot of war could not accomplish was done by the puncture of an insect. The
Lord sent the hornet. When we are assaulted by great Behemoths of trouble
we
become chivalric
and we assault them; we get on the high-mettled steed of our
courage
and we make a cavalry charge at them; and
if God be with us
we come
out stronger and better than when we went in. But
alas! for these insectile
annoyances of life--these foes
too small to shoot--these things without any
avoirdupois weight--the gnats and the midges
and the flies
and the wasps
and
the hornets. In other words
it is the small stinging annoyances of our life
which drive us out and use us up. In the best conditioned life
for some grand
and glorious purpose
God has sent the hornet.
1. I remark
in the first place
that these small stinging annoyances
may come in the shape of a sensitive nervous organisation. People who are
prostrated under typhoid fevers or with broken bones get plenty of sympathy;
but who pities anybody that is nervous?
2. Again
these small insect annoyances may come to us in the shape
of friends and acquaintances who are always saying disagreeable things. There
are some people you cannot be with for half an hour but you feel cheered and
comforted. Then there are other people you cannot be with for five minutes before
you feel miserable. They do not mean to disturb you
but they sting you to the
bone. They gather up all the yarn which the gossips spin
and peddle it. They
gather up all the adverse criticisms about your person
about your business
about your home
about your church
and they make your ear the funnel into
which they pour it. These people of whom I speak
reap and bind in the great
harvest field of discouragement. Some days you greet them with a hilarious
“good morning
” and they come buzzing at you with some depressing information.
“The Lord sent the hornet.”
3. Perhaps these small insect annoyances will come in the shape of a
domestic irritation. The parlour and the kitchen do not always harmonise. To
get good service and to keep it is one of the great questions of the country.
4. These small insect disturbances may also come in the shape of
business irritations. It is not the panics that kill the merchants. Panics come
only once in ten or twenty years. It is the constant din of these every day
annoyances which is sending so many of our best merchants into nervous
dyspepsia and paralysis and the grave.
5. I have noticed in the history of some of my congregation that
their annoyances are multiplying
and that they have a hundred where they used
to have ten. The naturalist tells us that a wasp sometimes has a family of
twenty thousand wasps
and it does seem as if every annoyance of your life
brooded a million. By the help of God today I want to set in a counter current.
The hornet is of no use? Oh yes! The naturalists tell us they are very
important in the world’s economy; they kill spiders and they clear the
atmosphere; and I really believe God sends the annoyances of our lives upon us
to kill the spiders of the soul and to clear the atmosphere into the skies.
These annoyances are sent on us
I think
to wake us up from our lethargy. If
we had a bed of everything that was attractive and easy
what would we want of
heaven? We think that the hollow tree sends the hornet. You think the devil
sends the hornet. I want to correct your theology. “The Lord sent the hornet.”
Then I think these annoyances come on us to culture our patience. When you
stand chin-deep in annoyances is the time for you to swim out towards the great
headlands of Christian attainment
and when your life is loaded to the muzzle
with repulsive annoyances--that is the time to draw the bead. Nothing but the
furnace will ever burn out of us the clinker and the slag. Now
would you not
rather have these small drafts of annoyance on your bank of faith than some
all-staggering demand upon your endurance? I want to make my people strong in
the faith that they will not surrender to small annoyances. In the village of
Hamelin
tradition says
there was an invasion of rats
and these small
creatures almost devoured the town and threatened the lives of the population
and the story is that a piper came out one day and played a very sweet tune
and all the vermin followed him--followed him to the banks of the Weser
and
then he blew a blast and they dropped in and disappeared forever. Of course
this is a fable
but I wish I could
on the sweet flute of the Gospel
draw
forth all the nibbling and burrowing annoyances of your life
and play them
down into the depths forever. How many touches did Mr. Church give to his
picture of “Cotopaxi” or his “Heart of the Andes”? I suppose about fifty
thousand touches. I hear the canvas saying
“Why do you keep me trembling with
that pencil so long? Why don’t you put it on in one dash?” “No
” said Mr.
Church
“I know how to make a painting. It will take fifty thousand of these
touches.” And I want you to understand that it is these ten thousand annoyances
which
under God
are making up the picture of your life
to be hung at last in
the galleries of heaven
fit for angels to look at. God knows how to make a
picture. God meant this world to be only the vestibule of heaven
and that is
the great gallery of the universe towards which we are aspiring. We must not
have it too good in this world
or we would want no heaven. You are surprised
that aged people are so willing to go out of this world. I will tell you the
reason. It is not only because of the bright prospects in heaven
but it is
because they feel that seventy years of nettlesomeness is enough. They would
lie down in the soft meadows of this world forever
but “God sent the hornet.”
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Verse 21
Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the Lord thy God is
among you
a mighty God and terrible.
Courage and humanity
I. The complaint
has been made often that the qualities which Christians are especially
encouraged to cultivate are not manliness and courage; that
so far as the
Christian ideal is set continually before the mind of a nation or a man
that
mind is likely to become submissive
not energetic. I believe that the courage
which is only another way of expressing the heart
of a nation is liable to a
continual weakening and decay; that left to itself it will certainly wither;
that some religions may hasten its death; but that by doing so such religion
will prove that it does not come from God
that it is not His religion
not His
instrument for reforming and regenerating the world.
II. A return to the
old faith that courage and humanity are not enemies
but inseparable
companions
has certainly commenced among us. The misfortune is that
Christianity is supposed to be not identical with humanity
but a substitution
for it. And this opinion is closely connected with another: that courage is a
heathen
or perhaps the heathen
virtue
and that we have cherished it by
giving our children a semi-heathen education. Consider this opinion under
different aspects.
III. By a heathen we
mean one who is not a Jew. That is the simplest
most accurate use of the name.
Taking it in this sense
our text is decisive that a high estimate of courage
was not confined to heathens; that if to form such an estimate is ungodly
the
chosen people were as ungodly as any. The Bible tells us that idolatry is the
great destroyer of courage
reverence for the true God and an abiding sense of
His presence and protection the upholder of it. Now is this doctrine compatible
with the fact that the most illustrious of the heathen nations were singularly
brave nations
and that our forefathers sought to kindle English courage at
their fires? It is incompatible if we regard a heathen merely as an idolater.
It is perfectly compatible if we trace through the history of the great nations
that worshipped idols a continual witness against it. Their belief in courage
as a quality which raised them above the animals
was the greatest of all the
protests which the conscience of heathens was bearing against idolatry
against
the worship of visible things
which is directly connected with our animal
instincts
which is always lowering the human being to the level of that which
he should rule.
IV. The courage of
the Hebrew was derived from his trust in the Being who had chosen him to do his
work in the world
who would accomplish that work
let what powers would unite
to defeat it. Christianity is not a denial of Judaism or a denial of
heathenism
a tertium quid which excludes all that is strongest and most
vital in both
but the harmony and concentration of both
the discovery of Him
in whom the meaning of both is realised and raised to its highest power; but
out of the union and reconciliation of apparent opposites in the faith of a
Father and a Son
of a Spirit proceeding from both
to quicken men and make
them the voluntary
cheerful servants
because the sons
of God
there must
come forth a courage diviner than the Hebrew
more human than the Greek
more
pledged to a continual battle with disorder than the Roman. (F. D. Maurice
M. A.)
Moses’ address to the people
The manner in which the possession of Canaan is invariably spoken
of is worthy of notice. Moses never supposes it impossible that they should
reach Canaan; the style of his expression is uniformly that of certainty; he
does not say
“If the Lord
” but “when.” This confidence did not rest on human
grounds
for their enemies were in themselves formidable
but on the Divine
promise. Those who have the Lord’s promise are safe
and they who trust in it
are happy. But another fact is
that the Lord condescends to the state of His
people; He knoweth their frame
and remembereth they are dust that they are
prone to fear. True
there is no cause for fear
but their infirmity may lead
them to do so. Hence He anticipates those fears
provides a remedy
and suggests
every consideration calculated to encourage them.
I. The fears which
they were in danger of indulging.
1. The superior strength of their enemies.
2. The consequent difficulty of dispossessing them. A few
comparatively
against many; the weak against the strong. How can I dispossess
them? Is not the case very similar now? The Christian cannot be blind to the
fact that his enemies are greater and mightier than he; the hosts of hell are
marshalled against him. Legion is their name
implying unity
order
zeal
and
perseverance. The enemies are mighty
and have overcome their thousands. There
are few who have not been tempted to consider the contest hopeless
and to say
“Surely I shall one day perish.” Now if there be one here saying this in his
heart
let him attend--
II. To the
encouragements provided against those fears.
1. A recollection of God’s past dealings. Thou shalt remember well
what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh
and unto all Egypt. The difficulties
there were as great as they could be;--Pharaoh had chariots and horsemen; the
Israelites were despised slaves; he had power
and was determined to use it in
retaining them; yet the Lord brought them out
and therefore they need not fear
now.
2. They were instructed as to the Lord’s future methods. So shall the
Lord do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid: He had ten thousand ways
of weakening the power of the enemy; the whole kingdom of nature was at His
command; He could send the hornet among them; even the insect tribe shall be
made subservient to the accomplishment of God’s design towards them. Joshua
records the fulfilment of this promise (Deuteronomy 24:12). But this conquest was
to be gradual. The Lord thy God will put out those nations by little and
little. Immediate and entire victory would have been attended with undesirable
consequences; God therefore gave them as much as in their circumstances was
good for them.
3. Assurance was given of final victory. And are there not equal
encouragements now
to everyone anxious to attain the heavenly Canaan? There
is
however
this happy difference in the two cases: that when once the
Christian has passed over the Jordan of death
every difficulty will be over
every enemy conquered
he will have the land in possession.
In conclusion
I would say--
1. Let no one expect the victor
who fights in his own strength.
2. Let no one despair of victory who fights in the Lord’s strength. (George
Breay
B. A.)
Christian warfare
I. The enemies of
God’s people. We know that the inhabitants of Canaan were emphatically
idolaters. This was their special characteristic. Now it is idolatry
in some
shape or other
that draws men away from the service of God. Some make pleasure
their idol; some make wealth their idol. But their enemies are many in number.
There is a special danger in the present day arising from those false doctrines
which have arisen in the household of faith and caused hostile parties in the
Church. In connection with this I may mention a contrary
error--latitudinarianism. Again
the world is very dangerous; the example of
those who live in it is most seductive. Again
we meet with those who are men
of learning and great talent
and we are exposed to danger even from them. We
hear them maintaining opinions which are not scriptural
but we think it is
scarcely possible for those who are so learned to be wrong; we are thus left to
ask in perplexity
“Who is in the right?” We forget that men must “become fools
that they may be wise” as respects spiritual knowledge. But there are enemies
within. And here I must not omit to place in the forefront self
in all its
varied forms (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Then
again
we
have to contend against the whole army of lusts--“the lust of the flesh
the
lust of the eyes
and the pride of life.” All these are of the world
and all
these lust against the Spirit
so that we cannot do the things that we would.
II. Now let us
inquire what are the weapons with which we must fight? Scripture teaches us (2 Corinthians 10:4) that “the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” Amongst our defensive weapons I may
mention
as the first and chiefest
prayer. With this we must join faith in the
promises. And
also
we must remember that throughout our whole life we shall
have need of active watchfulness. There are also offensive weapons which we are
bound to use. The first of these which I will mention is consistency. Outward
consistency of character deters many from attempting their proposed assaults.
Nor must we forget the Word of God. Here
indeed
is our great weapon; and so
powerful is it
that it is the great desire of Satan to keep it out of our
reach.
III. But I own there
are great difficulties in the way. The first to which I will allude is that
which arises from our peculiar position in the world. We must be in the world
and the difficulty at the same time is to take care that we are not of the
world. To have a wise discerning judgment; to distinguish between the
fulfilment of our duty in that station of life in which God has placed us
and
the yielding to the secret subtle snares of Satan
is often a work of great
difficulty for the Christian. Again
the Christian’s difficulties and
afflictions are not all at once removed. Like the enemies of the Jews they are
put down
as it were
“little by little.” It is a gradual and a progressive
work. But assuredly it does progress towards final victory. But numerous as are
our enemies
great as are our difficulties
blessed be God
we have--
IV. Our
encouragements also. And first among these we know we shall have the victory.
The promise of victory has been given
and it is as sure as if it were
accomplished. We know that we are on the conquering side. The numbers of our
enemies
then
need not terrify us. “Greater is He that is for us than all they
that are against us.” The past mercies we have received are all pledges of
future mercies. If we had but received that one pledge of God’s love which He
afforded us in the gift of His Son for us
this would of itself be sufficient
to encourage the assurance of hope. For (Romans 8:32) we have nothing to fear from
present weakness. The Lord has laid help upon One that is mighty to save.
Though our gracious Saviour is not Himself personally present He has told us
the reason (John 16:7). Still He is spiritually
present with us. His Spirit still abides with His Church--and therefore with
us
if we be indeed members of that Church--comforting us
assisting us
strengthening us
and ensuring us victory at the last. Furthermore
the Lord is
on our side. “The Lord thy God will do this” (H. M. Villiers
M. A.)
The Almighty Helper
This description of God is a terror to sinners
but an
encouragement to Christians. His mighty presence is--
1. Unmerited. The aid we get from earthly friends is often a
reciprocity of kindness--a discharge of obligation. But our goodness extends
not to God. We have done nothing to deserve help.
2. Unexpected. In most extreme danger and when most unlikely
comes
deliverance. “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” The Mace of fear and
sorrow becomes one of joy and triumph.
3. Singular. “God’s methods are peculiar to Himself. Events Which
appear to combine to work our ruin bring our salvation. In the deliverance from
Egypt and the conquest of Canaan God was terrible to His enemies.
4. Timely. We think He has forgotten or forsaken us if He appears not
when we wish; but He knows better than we do when it is time for Him to work.
“Too late” can never he said of His mercy. “A very present help in trouble.”
5. All-sufficient. Earthly friends fail. God is always among us
“a
mighty God and terrible.” He conquers most formidable foes
rescues from the
greatest dangers. (J. Wolfendale.)
The Lord thy God will put out those nations.
God’s expulsion of evil
As you read this Scripture you will instantly remember the
position occupied by the Jews at the time these words of promise were spoken to
them. The forty years of wilderness wandering had run their round. The narrow
stream of Jordan was all that lay between them and the land of promise
and in
a few days they would cross the swollen flood
and take possession of the
goodly country in the name and for the glory of that God who had given it to
them for a heritage forever. In prospect of the work
the warfare they would
have to carry on in their conquest of Canaan
these words of exhortation were
addressed to them
teaching them a two-fold truth. First
God would be with
them; God would work for them. Therefore they might cherish the utmost
confidence of ultimate success. Secondly
God would be with them
but not to
complete the work for them at a single stroke. He would do it surely; but He
would do it slowly also. Therefore they might have quiet contentment as well as
unfaltering hope. They must “rest in the Lord
arid wait patiently for Him.”
This was no new arrangement on the part of God; it was no new revelation to the
Jewish people. The Lord had spoken to them forty years before in the self-same
strain
As in the words of the text
so in those of the twenty-third chapter of
Exodus
He impressed this truth upon them
that they must both labour and wait
The words then set before us: Work done at God’s command
work done with God’s
help
work done successfully
and yet work progressing slowly towards its
promised perfection; the slow progress not because of human indolence and
faithlessness
but because of Divine ordinance. Why did He not do it all at once?
How easily with the breath of His mouth He could have swept the land clear of
the last polluting remnant of the Canaanites and their idolatries! The reason
for the delay God gives. It was no use for the people to gain the country
faster than they could fully occupy and properly cultivate it. This was one
reason
though doubtless there were others which God has not made known to us.
Let us now turn from Jewish history to our own Christian circumstances
and to
our own work. This ancient story throws light on the principles and processes
of Divine providence in all ages. It is one practical proof of the truth that
even in the destruction of wrong and the re-establishment of right
our God
often works with what seems to us a strange slowness. In His warfare against
the power of evil which is so alien to His heart
so hurtful to His creatures
so contrary to His will
the All-holy One does not annihilate it with a word
but He gradually crumbles it to fragments
and He casts it away little by
little. There is the work of individual sanctification. A Christian man does
not find his nature a blank sheet
on which he can at once write all manner of
holy sentences. Nay
but it has already been written upon. There are unholy
words
which to deface is his work
and which to entirely remove requires more
than human skill. He finds that his nature is anything but an empty country
in
which he has just to plant his standard of heaven
and of which he has just to
take possession in the name of God. It is full of inhabitants--evil passions
thoughts
desires
habits--and they have all to be cast out
that their place
may be taken by thoughts and desires and habits
pure and holy
God-pleasing
and God-like. And this expulsion of the Philistines
this filling of the land with
the children of God
is in every ease a lifelong work. It is only done by
little and little. This is one of the mysteries of our present position. The
false is often so much
and the true is often so little; the wrong is often so
easy
and the right is often so difficult. The evil
the worldly
and the
devilish
is often just yielding to nature
just floating with the tide. The
good
the heavenly
the God-like--to follow it is often to go against tide and
tempest
against flesh and blood
against all manner of opposing forces. Why
are we taught to see the beauty and to appreciate the blessings of wellness
and yet are left to wrestle so continually with sins and doubts and fears?
Could not our God come
and at once sweep every defiling thing out of our heart
forever? We know that our God could do this if He saw it to be wise and best;
and this must be our comfort under the fact that He does not do it. He does not
abstain because of His weakness. He does not abstain because of His
unwillingness. He sees that the discipline of weakness and tears
and not
unfrequent failures
and success only partially secured--He sees that His
discipline is good for us. He knows how it will prepare us for higher service
and for holier joys in heaven; and so
while we are sighing for instant
redemption
He grants us only gradual deliverance. (C. Vince.)
By little and little.
Victory sure but gradual
The victory over our enemies
that is
over our sins
will
in
general
not be sudden
but gradual. Final success is promised: the first
attempt to resist is a pledge of that final success; continued resistance is a
continued pledge of that result; it needs only to persevere in the struggle
and the victory is ours--ours already in prospect. We must be prepared
therefore
for a continuous warfare. Sometimes we shall prevail over the
temptation of the day--then we shall be encouraged; the next day
perhaps
we
shall be defeated by it
and then we shall be humbled. Sometimes we shall look
back
and feel that we have advanced. At other times we shall be conscious of a
loss of ground
and we shall betake ourselves afresh to humiliation and prayer.
But
on the whole
there will be no doubt so long as we continue to struggle
by faith not in ourselves but in Christ
that we are making progress. Things
which once seemed impossible will have become easy; things which once seemed
irresistible will have been found conquerable in the name of Christ. “By little
and little” our foes are giving way before us. Yet a little while
and He that
shall come will come
and find us with His armour on
maintaining the post
which He has assigned. Nor is this an arbitrary arrangement
but one calculated
for our good. “Thou mayest not destroy them at once
lest the beasts of the
field increase upon thee.” The sudden and final discomfiture of our foes at the
moment of our first onset would not
in all probability
promote but defeat our
ultimate good. There is a lesson to be learned
without which virtue itself
might be a curse and not a blessing. That lesson is humility. He who would see
God must be a humble man; and humility is a grace of gradual attainment. It
comes by difficulty
sorrow
conflict
often by defeat. Worse than any fall is
that pride which precedes it--that pride which
without a fall
would never be
humbled. Was there danger lest the beasts of the field should increase upon
Israel
if their enemies should fall before them at once? So the heart abruptly
cleared from the assaults of other sins--of ambition
and vanity
and
selfishness
and lust--might fall an easy prey to the ravenings of spiritual
pride; and the last end of that man would be worse than the first. (Dean
Vaughan.)
By little and little
The rule of heaven
earth
and hell is--“By little and little!”
Whether you look to the outward and visible
or to the inward and invisible; to
the world of matter
or to the world of spirit; to the kingdom of nature
or
the kingdom of grace
--you will surely find this rule to hold good. “First the
blade
” etc. Look at the history of yon giant oak. There is a little bird
and
in his beak he bears a tiny acorn along. Away he wings his flight
over hedge
and ditch
brier and brake
until
frightened by a hawk
he lets his little
acorn fall in yon pasture field. Oxen are grazing there. The ox comes by
and beneath
his hoof the tiny acorn is trodden deep down into the soil. The ox passes on
his way. The acorn remains
uncared for and forgotten; but “by little and
little” it bursts its shell; “by little and little” it takes root downwards and
bears fruit upwards; “by little and little” the tender twigs peep out amid the
surrounding blades of grass
and thus slowly but surely it rises higher and
higher
and grows broader and broader
until at length a sturdy oak marks now
the spot where years before the little acorn fell. My object
however
is to
point you rather to the world of spirit than to that of nature. Just as the
ancient Israelites were sure of the Promised Land as their inheritance
ultimately
but still could not secure it without a struggle
or rather a series
of struggles
even “by little and little”; just so with the child of God
although from the moment that he believes in Jesus
as the only Saviour of his
soul
he by that very act secures to himself the right to enter heaven;
nevertheless his meetness for heaven is a work which will require years of
stern struggling with his spiritual enemies. Now we may rest assured that the
Master’s reasons for not destroying our spiritual enemies at once
but enabling
us to overcome “by little and little
” are both wise and all-sufficient. That
we cannot overcome these enemies at once
will
I take it
be acknowledged to
the full if I appeal to the experience of any Christian man or woman. Have ye
never been harassed by those enemies of the Christian’s peace
even by the
nation of worldly cares? This nation is compared by the Master to briers and
thorns
which spring up
and unless the greatest and most constant care be
taken will choke the good seed. I know of none other nation
perhaps
more to
be dreaded than these worldly cares
and this is especially the case in these
days
when many causes
such as the great competition in trade
the high price
of provisions
and an ever-increasing population
give to Satan a terrible
vantage ground wherefrom to attack. Ye have tried to shake them off once and
forever
as unworthy of the child of God
but they will not be shaken off at
once. Still strive on
and the Lord thy God will put them out before you “by
little and little.” Again
the true Israelite is worried by a nation of idle
and wandering thoughts. Now ye must not be discouraged at this state of things;
ye must not incline to despair because unable to be rid of these vain thoughts
at once. Continue to strive against them
and God will put them out before thee
“by little and little.” Thus might I enumerate enemy after enemy that will
harass and impede us by the way. I might remind you of the sickening doubts and
fears
of the lurking treachery of that poor heart
of the seducing friends and
the too frail flesh. These cause you frequent and fearful pain
and ever and
again break in upon your peace. Still in any moment of despair I would point
you to the truths of the text
and entreat that you will not forget how that
God has all-wisely willed that we should not conquer at once
not become
perfect at once
but conquer one foe after another
and become perfect only “by
little and little.” And as this is the rule of heaven
so alas! is it also the
rule of hell. In Genesis 3:1-24
we read that “the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field
” and surely in nothing has he
manifested his cunning more than in the cruel way wherewith he has imitated God
in dealing with men’s souls. I see that in saving souls
he would seem to say
“Jehovah takes not the sinner out of his sin so as at once to transform him
into a perfect saint. I see that in winning souls to glory He woos them
gradually away from earth
and by little and little makes them meet to be forever
with the Lord. I will go and do likewise. In seeking the eternal ruin of souls
my principle of action shall be the same. I will not try to make a man a tenant
meet for hell at once
but step by step I will lead him down. I will first coax
him till he gives up some one good habit; I will then tempt him till he
indulges in some one sin
and again I will blunt his conscience by tempting him
to repeat that sin
until by little and little I shall be able to sap the very
foundations of his character
and gradually make him fit for the abode of the
lost.” I adjure you
then
as you value your happiness in time and in eternity
beware of the very first little tendency to sin. It is here the danger lies.
This is the rule of hews attack. (D. P. Morgan
M. A.)
Every day a little
1. Every day a little knowledge. One fact in a day. How small is one
fact! Only one. Ten years pass by. Three thousand six hundred and fifty facts
are not a small thing.
2. Every day a little self-denial. The thing that is difficult to do today
will be an easy thing to do three hundred and sixty days hence
if each day it
shall have been repeated. What power of self-mastery shall he enjoy who
looking to God for grace
seeks every day to practise the grace he prays for!
3. Every day a little helpfulness. We live for the good of others
if
our living be in any sense a true living. It is not in great deeds of kindness
only that the blessing is found. In “little deeds of kindness
” repeated every
day
we find true happiness. (Anon.)
Theory of graduality
My text is representing the gradual process by which God will
exterminate the Canaanites and give the land into the possession of the
Israelites. It will not be by one fell blow
or instantaneously
but “by little
and little.” Indeed
that is God’s usual way. Gradually the world was peopled.
Gradually the rocks wear away. Gradually great changes occur. The world ages in
being built. The world ages in being redeemed. Eternity is the lifetime of God.
We hasten and worry and die
but God waits
and His stupendous projects go on
gradually
slowly
inch by inch
“by little and little.” This theory of
graduality has its illustration in the achievement of spiritual knowledge and
character and the driving out of Canaanitish ignorance and Canaanitish sin from
the heart. The most accomplished rhetorician or poet who has filled a whole
shelf with admirable books of his own began by learning the alphabet. The
mightiest mental toil in which we ever engaged was the learning of our a-b-c’s.
The swiftest reportorial pen failed once in attempting to make a perpendicular
stroke on the boy’s copy book. The printer
whose fingers move with electric
speed
once pulled out from the “case” slowly
cautiously
studiously
type by
type. The boy
who bounds over the playground with so much celerity that he
does not seem to touch it
once poised himself cautiously against the wall
and
could not be tempted to cross the floor until he saw his mother’s arms out
ready to catch him if he fell. So in all spiritual knowledge
it is by little
and little that we advance. We went on from one attainment to another. Each of
the attainments
perhaps
seemed to be very small indeed
but they came on--now
a resolution added to a resolution
hope added to hope
experience added to
experience
joy to joy
struggle to struggle
victory to victory. They did not
come up on this great mount of Christian excellency by one great athletic
stride
but inch by inch
step by step
“by little and little.” Paul came to
his great attainments in piety gradually. He had to take a course of mobs
of
shipwrecks
of scourgings
of imprisonments
of execrations before he came to
the rounding out of his character
and every Christian now must come through
ups and downs
and losses
and slights
and blunders
and abuse
and struggles
to that rounding out of his character. A merchant tailor takes down the goods
he unrolls them
he makes the line of chalk mark
with his scissors he follows
the chalk mark until the garment is cut out
and though there may be many pieces
the whole garment is made out of one cloth. But it is not so in the putting
together of a Christian character. It is a little of this to make the robe of
character
and a little of that
a little of the bright coloured prosperity
and a little of the dark-shadowed calamity. It is a sort of patchwork. Little
by little. Conversion is an instantaneous work. Believing is becoming a
Christian. But there is a great difference between conversion and
sanctification. Conversion is turning around from the wrong direction and
starting in the right direction; but sanctification is keeping on in the right
direction after you have started. After conversion
oh! how much work. And your
greatest battles with the world
the flesh
and the devil will be after you
have declared against them. Men think after they are converted the work is
done. They suppose that in some way there will be heaved up in their souls a
grand Christian character as an earthquake heaves up a beautiful island in the
midst of the sea. No. No. “By little and little.” Troubles will help you. There
is no such thing as “wrought iron” without passing through the fire. The
seniors in Christ’s college
of course
know more than the freshmen. But be
accumulative every day. A handful of acorns will make a forest of oaks. “By
little and little.” Again
this theory of graduality has its illustration in
the formation of bad habits. Look at that habit of falsifying. The man began
with what is called a “white lie
” or a “fib.” He can stand in his store
behind his counter
and unblushingly
deliberately
calmly say that which he
knows to be false
and which you know to be false. There are hundreds of men in
this house today who would confess that the habit is injurious to them
but
somehow they cannot stop. How
my brother
did you get this bondage on you? In
one day? In one hour? No. “By little and little.” Again
this theory of
gradually is illustrated in the right kind of domestic discipline
and the
driving out of Canaanitish evil from the child’s heart. Family government is by
fits and starts
but it is worth less than nothing unless it be calm
deliberate
continuous all through boyhood and girlhood. Your children by this
process are making character noble or degraded. “By little and little.” To the
nursery story and the picture book of the first four years must be added the
influence of a Christian fireside
proper improvement of anniversaries
line
upon line
precept upon precept
here a little
there a little there a smile
there a look
here a frown
here a walk
here a ride
here a flower plucking
here this
here that. “By little and little.” Once more
this theory of
graduality has its illustration in the conquest of the world for God and the
extermination of the Canaanites forever. Would it not be pleasant if in one day
all the race could be evangelised
and the Atlantic cable could thrill with the
news that Europe
Asia
and Africa are converted? Because it is not done
rapidly
Christian people get discouraged. They say: “Nineteen centuries since
Christ came
and yet the world not saved.” O
you cavillers; you do not realise
the way God does things. God is not in a hurry. Many generations are to have
joy in this work; you shall not monopolise it. Your children and your
children’s children and their successors innumerable
shall help to draw on
this Gospel chariot. Let God control the great affairs of the universe. Let us
each one do his own little work. The hands that made the curtains in the
ancient tabernacle did their work. And you will favour the work in one way
and
I will favour the work in another way. Each one doing his own work
in his own
way
according to his own capacity. “By little and little.” Then God will at
the last gather up all these fragments of work
and in the great day of
eternity we shall see it
and under arches of light and in bowers of beauty
and amid the battle flags of God’s great host of the redeemed
and amid the
blast of all heaven’s trumpets
we shall see the consummation. Amid that “great
multitude that no man can number
” God will not be ashamed to announce that all
this grandeur and glory and triumph were achieved “by little and little.” (T.
De Witt Talmage
D. D.)
Tick by tick
In listening to the sound by which a clock or watch marks the
passing of the diminutive portions of time
one might almost fancy that
deductions so extremely small would never wear away the whole duration of a
long life. But it has been by such minute lapses in never ceasing succession
that the vast series of ages since the creation has passed away; it has been by
this succession of instants that all our ancestors have completed their sojourn
on earth
and by this it will be that we shall one day have arrived at the end
of our mortal existence. Each passing moment
then
may be regarded as having a
relation to the end
and everything which hints to us that moments are passing
may be a monition to us to be habitually at the great work which ought to be
accomplished against the period when the last of them shall come. (J.
Foster.)
The progress of our truest life
We have watched
on a summer’s day
the tide coming in upon the
shore. How slow and scarcely perceptible its advance! Now a strong onrush; then
a temporary ebb; presently a further advance; so
inch by inch
the ground is
gained. Such should be the progress of our truest “life.” Steadily the tide of
purer
stronger feeling
of nobler and more strenuous endeavour should ripple
in
until life flows to its height
musical as the sound of many waters!
The concentration of the little
The weakest living creature
by concentrating his powers on a
single object
can accomplish something; the strongest
by dispersing his over
many
may fail to accomplish anything. The drop
by continued falling
bores
its passage through the hardest rock the hasty torrent rushes over it with a
hideous uproar
and leaves no trace behind.
The conquest of character
The boundary line between legitimate aspiration and a reasonable
content is sometimes hard to find. Contentment may be construed by some as lack
of enterprise
and so more or less ignoble
while aspiration may
and often
does
become mere restlessness and discontent. But all depends on what we
aspire to and what we are content with. The man who wants to be a little
better
a little wiser
a little richer than he is
whose aspiration takes the
form of gradual growth by littles
will probably realise his desires. And if he
refuses to fight the inevitable and the immutable limitations that are set
about him
even while constantly bettering his condition
be may yet be content
and happy. Great estates are built up by slow and gradual accretion running
through the years. Great scholarship is the result of constant aspiration
unflagging industry
and tireless diligence. So fine character is the result of
innumerable conquests over self and selfishness and ease
and evil and vicious
tendency. It is built up as the coral animal builds the reefs
one act at a
time
and a great many of them going to the erection of the lofty structure.
Little things done well
Young men in beginning life are apt to be impatient of the first
little steps that apparently make no advance
forgetting that seeming “trifles
make up the sum of life
” just as in building
the little bricks
laid
carefully one at a time
side by side
and securely cemented together
make at
last the great
strong structure. A young man
having exhausted his patrimony
in obtaining a professional education
settled himself in a town already filled
with successful lawyers
to practise law. One day one of these older lawyers
asked him how
under such circumstances
he expected to make a living. “I hope
I may get a little practice
” was the modest reply. “It will be very little
”
said the lawyer. “Then I will do that little well
answered the young mall
decidedly. He carried out his determination. The little things well done
brought larger ones
and ill time he became one of the most distinguished
jurists of his State. Again
a certain old bishop
who was fond of finding odd
characters in out-of-the-way places
was visiting in a quiet neighbourhood. One
day
in a walk with a friend
he came across a crossroads settlement of a few
houses. Among them was a snug little shoe shop
kept by an old negro man
which
showed signs of prosperity. Interested in the old cobbler
the bishop stopped for
a chat. “My friend
” he said
“I would not think so small a business as mending
shoes would pay so well.” “Ah
” said the gentleman with him
“old Cato has the
monopoly of shoe mending in this region. No one else gets a job.” “How is that
Cato?” asked the bishop. “Just so
master
” replied Cato. “It is only little
patches put on with little stitches or tiny pegs. But when I takes a stitch it
is a stitch
and when I drive a peg it holds.” Little
things well done! The good bishop used that reply as a text for many a sermon
afterwards. (Christian Age.)
Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold.
Things not to be desired
Showing
as he always shows
a most penetrating mind
Moses points
to a very subtle temptation which would arise in connection with the progress
of Israel. The graven images of the heathen nations were to be burned with
fire. Moses says in the twenty-fifth verse: “Thou shalt not desire . . . lest thou
be ensnared therein.” How subtle is the temptation in that direction! Shall we
cast in the hideous gods and the valuable gold
and consume them both in the
unsparing fire? How much better first to strip the god of his golden coat and
then burn the wood or clay or grind the stone to powder! Moses
foreseeing this
temptation
and by the very inspiration of God
knowing the mysteries of human
nature
said: “Touch not; taste not; handle not.” In such abstention is the
only possible safety of the Church. The temptation operates today. Men will
sustain a questionable mode of earning a livelihood on the pretence that they
can gather from the forbidden trade gold and silver which they can melt down
and mint with the image and superscription of God; they can allow the
devastating traffic to proceed
reeking like the pit of hell
destroying
countless thousands of lives
and yet justify the continuance of the iniquity
by taking off the gold and the silver and throwing part of it into the coffers
of the Church. Missions so sustained are dishonoured. The gold torn from any
evil way of getting a livelihood and given to the Church is an abomination to
the Lord thy God. He does not want even good gold stolen for His purposes
or
gold won by unholy means thrown into His exchequer. Let us give honest money.
Let us eat bread unleavened by wrong-doing; there may be little of it
but
Christ will break it with His own hands
and it shall be more than our hunger
needs. Marvellous
too
is the prevision of Moses when he lays down the only
law or principle by which all these abstentions and all these actions can be
sustained. Do not let us ascribe these regulations to the prevision of Moses
unless we understand by that term the inspiration of God. What is the principle
which guarantees safety and protects the soul from the unclean things of
heathen nations? That principle is laid down in the twenty-sixth verse.
Speaking of heathen abomination Moses says: “Thou shalt utterly detest it
and
thou shalt utterly abhor it.” There is no middle feeling; there is no
intermediate way of dealing with bad things. “If thy right
hand offend thee
cut it off”; “if thy right eye offend thee
pluck it out. Abhor that which is
evil; cleave to that which is good.” Thus the Testaments are one: the moral
tone is the same; the stern law never yields to time--its phrase changes
its
words may come and go
its forms may take upon them the colour of the transient
times
but the inner spirit of righteousness is the Spirit of God
without
beginning
without measure
without end. (J. Parker
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》