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Deuteronomy Chapter
Eleven
Deuteronomy 11
Chapter Contents
The great work God wrought for Israel. (1-7) Promises and
threatenings. (8-17) Careful study of God's word requisite. (18-25) The
blessings and the curse set forth. (26-32)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:1-7
(Read Deuteronomy 11:1-7)
Observe the connexion of these two; Thou shalt love the
Lord
and keep his charge. Love will work in obedience
and that only is
acceptable obedience which flows from a principle of love
1 John 5:3. Moses recounts some of the great and
terrible works of God which their eyes had seen. What our eyes have seen
especially in our early days
should affect us
and make us better long
afterwards.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:8-17
(Read Deuteronomy 11:8-17)
Moses sets before them
for the future
life and death
the blessing and the curse
according as they did or did not keep God's
commandment. Sin tends to shorten the days of all men
and to shorten the days
of a people's prosperity. God will bless them with an abundance of all good
things
if they would love him and serve him. Godliness has the promise of the
life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart
more
than the increase of corn
and wine
and oil. Revolt from God to idols would
certainly be their ruin. Take heed that your hearts be not deceived. All who
forsake God to set their affection upon any creature
will find themselves
wretchedly deceived
to their own destruction; and this will make it worse
that it was for want of taking heed.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:18-25
(Read Deuteronomy 11:18-25)
Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 1. Let
our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in
the life
unless there be good thoughts
good affections
and good principles
in the heart. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God
having constant
regard to it as the guide of our way
as the rule of our work
Psalm 119:30. 3. Let our tongues be employed
about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity
and
keeping up religion in a nation
than the good education of children.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 11:26-32
(Read Deuteronomy 11:26-32)
Moses sums up all the arguments for obedience in two
words
the blessing and the curse. He charged the people to choose which they
would have. Moses then appointed a public and solemn proclamation of the
blessing and curse
to be made upon the two mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. We
have broken the law
and are under its curse
without remedy from ourselves. In
mercy
the gospel again sets before us a blessing and a curse. A blessing
if
we obey the call to repentance
to faith in Christ
and newness of heart and
life through him; an awful curse
if we neglect so great salvation. Let us
thankfully welcome these glad tidings of great joy; and let us not harden our
hearts
but hear this voice of God while it is called to-day
and while he
invites us to come to him upon a mercy-seat. Let us be diligent to make our
calling and election sure.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 11
Verse 2
[2] And
know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known
and
which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God
his greatness
his
mighty hand
and his stretched out arm
Know —
That is
acknowledge and consider it with diligence and thankfulness.
Verse 4
[4] And what he did unto the army of Egypt
unto their horses
and to their
chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued
after you
and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
Unto this day —
The effect of which destruction continueth to this day
in their weakness and
fear
and our safety from their farther attempts against us.
Verse 7
[7] But
your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
Your eyes have seen —
All of them had seen some
and some of them had seen all the great things done
in Egypt and at the Red-sea
and in the Wilderness. What our eyes have seen
especially in our early days
should be improved by us long after.
Verse 10
[10] For
the land
whither thou goest in to possess it
is not as the land of Egypt
from whence ye came out
where thou sowedst thy seed
and wateredst it with thy
foot
as a garden of herbs:
With thy foot —
That is
with great pains and labour of thy feet
partly by going up and down
to fetch water and disperse it
and partly by digging furrows with thy foot
and using engines for distributing the water
which engines they thrust with
their feet. For tho' the river Nile did once in a year overflow the grounds
and made them fruitful
yet often it failed them
at least in part
and then
they were put to great pains about their ground. And when it did overflow
sufficiently
and left its mud upon the earth
yet that mud was in a little
time hardened
and needed another watering
and much digging and labour both of
the hand and feet
especially in places more remote from that river; which
inconvenience Canaan was free from.
Verse 11
[11] But the land
whither ye go to possess it
is a land of hills and valleys
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
Of hills and valleys — And therefore much more healthful than Egypt was
which as it was
enriched
so it was annoyed with the Nile
which overflowed the land in summer
time
and thereby made the country both unpleasant and unhealthful. And health
being the greatest of all outward blessings
Canaan must therefore needs be a
more desirable habitation than Egypt.
The rain of heaven —
Which is more easy
being given thee without thy charge or pains; more sweet
and pleasant
not hindering thy going abroad upon thy occasions
as the
overflow of the Nile did
whereby the Egyptians were confined in a great measure
to their houses; more safe and healthful
being free from that mud which
attends upon the waters of the Nile; and more certain too
the former and the
latter rain being promised to be given to them in their several seasons
upon
condition of their obedience
which condition
tho' it may seem a clog and
inconvenience
yet indeed was a great benefit
that by their own necessities
and interest they might be obliged to that obedience
upon which their
happiness depended both for this life and the next.
Verse 12
[12] A
land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always
upon it
from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
Careth for — In
a special manner watering it immediately as it were by his own hand
without
man's help
and giving peculiar blessings to it
which Egypt enjoys not.
To the end of the year — To give it the rain
and other blessings proper to the several seasons.
But all these mercies
and the fruitfulness of the land consequent upon them
were suspended upon their disobedience. And therefore it is not at all strange
that some later writers
describe the land of Canaan as a barren soil
which
is
so far from affording ground to question the authority of the scriptures
that it doth much more confirm it
this
being an effect of that threatning
that God would turn a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of these
that dwell in it
Psalms 107:34.
Verse 14
[14] That
I will give you the rain of your land in his due season
the first rain and the
latter rain
that thou mayest gather in thy corn
and thy wine
and thine oil.
The ruin of your land — Which is
proper to your land
not common to Egypt
where
as all
authors agree
there is little rain. The first rain fell in seed time
to make
the corn spring
the other a little before harvest
to ripen it.
Verse 15
[15] And
I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle
that thou mayest eat and be
full.
I will send grass in thy fields — So godliness has here the promise of the life which now is. But the
favour of God puts gladness into the heart
more than the increase of corn
wine and oil.
Verse 17
[17] And
then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you
and he shut up the heaven
that
there be no rain
and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish
quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
Shut up the heaven —
Which is compared sometimes to a great store-house wherein God lays up his
treasures of rain
Job 38:22
the doors whereof God is said to open
when he gives rain
and to shut when he witholds it.
Verse 18
[18]
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul
and
bind them for a sign upon your hand
that they may be as frontlets between your
eyes.
Lay up —
Let us all observe these three rules
1. Let our hearts be filled with the word
of God. Lay up these words in your hearts
as in a store-house
to be used upon
all occasions. 2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God: Bind them for a
sign upon your hand
which is always in view
and as frontlets between your
eyes
which you cannot avoid the sight of. 3. Let our tongues be employed about
the word of God
especially with our children
who must be taught this
as far
more needful than the rules of decency
or the calling they are to live by.
Verse 21
[21] That
your days may be multiplied
and the days of your children
in the land which
the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them
as the days of heaven upon the
earth.
As the days of heaven — As long as the heaven keeps its place and continues its influences upon
earth.
Verse 24
[24]
Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the
wilderness and Lebanon
from the river
the river Euphrates
even unto the
uttermost sea shall your coast be.
Every place —
Not absolutely
as the Rabbins fondly conceit
but in the promised land
as it
is restrained in the following words; either by possession
or by dominion
namely
upon condition of your obedience.
The wilderness — Of
Sin
on the south-side.
To Lebanon —
Which was on the north border.
Euphrates — On
the east. So far the right of dominion extended
but that their sins cut them
short: and so far Solomon extended his dominion.
The uttermost sea —
The western or midland sea.
Verse 26
[26]
Behold
I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
I set before you — I
propose them to your choice.
Verse 28
[28] And
a curse
if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God
but turn
aside out of the way which I command you this day
to go after other gods
which ye have not known.
Which ye have not known — Which you have no acquaintance with
nor experience of their power
or
wisdom
or goodness
as you have had of mine.
Verse 29
[29] And
it shall come to pass
when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land
whither thou goest to possess it
that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount
Gerizim
and the curse upon mount Ebal.
Put —
Heb. Thou shalt give
that is
speak or pronounce
or cause to be pronounced.
So the word to give is used
Deuteronomy 13:1; 2; Proverbs 9:9. This is
more particularly
expressed
Deuteronomy 27:12
13.
Verse 30
[30] Are
they not on the other side Jordan
by the way where the sun goeth down
in the
land of the Canaanites
which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal
beside the plains of Moreh?
Over against —
Looking toward Gilgal
tho' at some considerable distance from it.
Beside the plains of Moreh — This was one of the first places that Abram came to in Canaan. So that
in sending them thither to hear the blessing and the curse
they were minded of
the promise made to Abram in that very place
Genesis 12:6
7.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
11 Chapter 11
Verse 1
Love the Lord thy God
and keep His charge.
On the imperfection of righteousness without religion
In the expression
“the love of God
” are comprehended admiration
of Him
and delight in meditating upon Him
reverence towards Him
desire of
His approbation
and a fear of offending Him
gratitude for His benefits
and
trust in Him as our Father; for perfect goodness
which is the object of this
love
at the same time calls for the exercise of all these affections of soul.
And this inward religion is the sole fountain of an uniform righteousness “of
keeping the commandments of God alway.”
I. The influence
of religion upon righteousness will appear
if we consider--
1. That God
who is the wise and righteous Creator and Governor of
the universe
and the object of all religion
is also the perfect pattern of
all excellence.
2. As loving God under the notion of the pattern of all goodness
naturally transforms a devout mind into the Divine image
by a secret but
strong sympathy betwixt God and the pious soul
by its essential admiration and
love of what is really beautiful
righteous
and excellent
and by its desire
of possessing what it so much admires; so the same view of God will appear to
work the same effect in another way. Perfect goodness
which is the true object
of love
is an awful thing
commanding reverence from every mind
and a care
not to contradict its ordinances. It is not a changing principle
but ever
holds one fixed invariable course. Every attentive person therefore will
perceive that the only way to be acceptable to this goodness is to resemble it
and consent
in all his actions
to its dictates. This must be a natural
reflection upon the first just apprehension of the Divine goodness
and of some
force even before love towards it has grown strong in the soul. Can
then
a
man who really loves the perfect goodness of God
be without great awe of Him?
Must he not be earnest for God’s approbation
and be afraid to do anything
disagreeable to Him?
3. The devout Christian looks upon himself as a son of God through
Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind; and shall he not be animated with a
spirit suited to the dignity of his high birth and origin?
4. Must not the soul of that man who loves God be animated by a
strong gratitude towards Him? Can he behold the Almighty continually pouring
forth His bounty on himself and on all other creatures
without feeling himself
moved with the warmest sentiments of gratitude leading him to keep the charge
and statutes of God cheerfully?
II. We come now to
make improvement of all that has been said.
1. Hence we may see how much we are indebted to our holy religion
which has given us so amiable a character of God as naturally invites our love.
The Gospel has opened our eyes to discern the beauties of His holiness; it has
banished all that darkness which overshadowed the nations
and all those
dreadful opinions of the Almighty
which were fitted only to excite terror in
the breasts of men.
2. Considering the necessity and great advantage of religion and true
devotion
whence can it proceed that a matter of such moment is so generally
neglected? It is very observable that many
who bestow little thought upon God
and His righteousness
never fail to applaud every instance of worth and
righteousness amongst men. An upright
a merciful
a generous man they extol
with the most liberal praises; while the fountain of all this excellence is not
acknowledged
is not heeded. What can occasion this egregious contradiction?
There are many causes for it; but amongst others this must be acknowledged not
a small one. That the hypocrisy and sinful lives of many who profess piety and
devotion
bring a strong prejudice against religion itself
and occasion it to
be evil thought of and evil spoken of.
3. From what has been said
let us all be persuaded to cultivate a
spirit of devotion
and strive to grow in the love of God. (John Drysdale
D. D.)
God requires our love
You buy a camellia
and determine
in spite of florists
to make
it blossom in your room. You watch and tend it
and at length the buds appear.
Day by day you see them swell
and fondly hope they will come to perfect
flower; but just as they should open
one after another they drop off
and you
look at it
despairingly exclaiming
“All is over for this year.” But someone
says
“What! the plant is healthy; are not the roots
and branches
and leaves
good? Yes
” you answer
“but I do not care for them
I bought it for the
blossom.” Now
when we bring God the roots
and branches
and leaves of
morality
He is not satisfied
He wants the blossoming of the heart
and that
is love.
God the only object of supreme love
There is a noble economy of the deepest life. There is a watchful
reserve which keeps guard over the powers of profound anxiety and devoted work
and refuses to give them away to any first applicant who comes
and asks.
Wealth rolls up to the door
and says
“Give me your great anxiety”; and you
look up and answer
“No
not for you; here is a little half-indifferent desire
which is all that you deserve.” Popularity comes and says
“Work with all your
might for me”; and you reply
“No; you are not of consequence enough for that.
Here is a small fragment of energy which you may have
if you want it; but that
is all.” Even knowledge comes
and says
“Give your whole soul to me”; and you
must answer once more
“No; great
good
beautiful as you are
you are not
worthy of a man’s whole soul. There is something in a man so sacred and so
precious that he must keep it in reserve till something even greater than the
desire of knowledge demands it.” But then
at last
comes One far more majestic
than them all--God comes with His supreme demand for goodness and for
character
and then you open the doors of your whole nature and bid your
holiest and profoundest devotion to come trooping forth. Now you rejoice that
you kept something which you would not give to any lesser lord. Now here is the
deep in life which can call to the deep in you and find its answer.
Verse 6
And what He did unto Dathan and Abiram.
The spirit of revolution
Moses recalls the revolt against his authority in the wilderness.
It took place in conjunction with the revolt of Korah (Numbers 17:1-13). The point which Moses
emphasises is the revolt against Divinely constituted authority
and the result
thereof. At the head of the civil rebellion were the sons of Reuben
Dathan and
Abiram. As descendants of the first-born of Israel they grudged Moses his lofty
position. They allied themselves with the Levitical revolt
and under the cloak
of asserting the universal priesthood of the people (Numbers 16:3) led many to follow them
into the vortex of revolution. This insurrection against the Divinely ordered
religious and political order threatened the very existence of Israel. God
therefore visited the rebels with special Divine judgment
and the nation was
saved. This episode in Israel’s history gives us a glimpse of the motives which
underlie most revolutionary movements. In these--
I. Vice decks
herself in the appearance of virtue.
1. The revolutionaries profess ardent desires for the commonweal
for
freedom--to save the “enslaved community
” etc. Liberty
equality
etc.
is
their cry
war against tyranny and oppression. They seek to play the role of
unselfish friends of the people.
2. But in their depths such movements are mostly dominated by
selfishness. In the revolt here referred to Korah was simply an ambitious
Levite
hypocritical and selfish. The Reubenites were moved by tribal ambition.
Selfishness
ambition
special interests were the moving springs of this as of
other revolutions.
3. The revolution of Dathan and Abiram took its rise first on an
ecclesiastical ground; but the political movement was not far behind the
ecclesiastical. Men with widely differing opinions joined in opposing
constituted authority. The cry for “illumination” is speedily followed by that for
so-called “freedom.”
4. Revolution is not accompanied by penitence. It never seeks the
ground of its complaints in the faults of the people themselves.
5. Most revolutions are dominated by some “phrase” or party cry. Here
it was: “All the people are holy.” The power of the partial truth in it lay in
God’s Word: “Ye shall be to Me . . . an holy nation.” But God had appointed
leaders in Church and State
therefore it was against His authority Dathan and
Abiram rebelled.
II. The prophetic
significance of this typical event.
1. The deepest fulfilment lies in the future--in the days of
antichrist. Then the political and ecclesiastical order will be
overturned--when antichrist comes offering promise of deliverance from all
ecclesiastical and political ills.
2. But the punishment meted out to Dathan and Abiram with their
fellow rebels shall fall more fiercely on antichrist (Revelation 19:20).
3. A veil
however
overhangs this future. Still there are
experiences in history which prepare us to understand what shall be. The French
Revolution is a striking example. It was not merely a revolt of ruled against
rulers. It was first a spiritual revolution. Scepticism had loosened religious
authority
and the political crisis speedily followed
as in the rebellion of
Korah. So in France ambitious leaders shrieked of liberty
etc. The whole
foundations of order were overturned. Then from the Revolution rose one who had
no law but his own will. He trod men under his feet; for twenty-five years the
storm raged. Here was a faint experience of what will be in the times of
antichrist. A respite has been given; but he who has eyes may conceive somewhat
of the trend of that great future revolt.
III. What shall we
do in view of what is coming?
1. Let us ask
guided by God’s Word
what revolts in Church and State
will lead to. What is the meaning of much of so-called “progress” and
“freedom”? “If the Son shall make you free
” etc. (John 8:36). What is “culture” if not
found in Christ’s Gospel?--this is the only “culture” of eternal worth. Modern
“progress” does not always mean progress in righteousness.
2. Do not let the hollow “phrases” of the modern age influence us. In
God’s Word the madness of rebellion
its falseness and hypocrisy are seen
and
its terrible end. The way of righteousness is conformity to the Divine order.
The sin of participation in rebellion must be shunned. Those who stand on the
side of revolution
of the antichristian age
or (in the future) of antichrist
lay themselves open to the punishment of the rebellious Reubenites. (W.
Grashoff.)
Verses 10-12
Not as the land of Egypt.
Canaan on earth
Egypt is typical of the condition of the children of God while
they are in bondage to the law of sin. There they are made to work unceasingly
without wages or profit
but continually subject to pains. The coming up out of
Egypt is the type of the deliverance which every one of God’s people enjoys
when by faith he strikes the blood of Jesus on his doorpost
and spiritually
eats the paschal lamb; and the passage through the wilderness is typical of
that state of hoping
and fearing
and doubting
which we usually experience
between the period when we come out of Egypt
and attain unto the full
assurance of faith. Many of you are really come out of Egypt; but you are still
wandering about in the wilderness. “We that have believed do enter into rest”;
but you
though you have eaten of Jesus
have not so believed on Him as to have
entered into the Canaan of rest.
I. True religion
makes a difference not only in a man
but in a man’s condition; it affects not
only his heart
but his state; not only his nature
but his very standing in
society. The Lord thy God cares not only for Israel
but for Canaan
where
Israel dwells. God has not only a regard to the elect
but to their habitation
and not only so
but to all their affairs and circumstances. My habitation is
now guarded by Jehovah; my position in this world is no longer that of a needy
mendicant; my position
which was that of a bondslave in Egypt
is now become
that of an inheritor in Canaan. In this difference of the condition of the
Christian and the worldling we shall mark three things.
1. The Christian’s temporal condition is different to that of the
worldling
for the worldling looks to secondary causes; the Christian looks to
heaven; he gets his mercies thence.
2. But now comes the second distinction
and that is
a difference in
the toilsomeness of their lives. The worldly man
just like the Israelites in
Egypt
has to water his land with his foot. Read the passage: “For the land
whither thou goest in to possess it
is not as the land of Egypt
from whence
ye came out
where thou sowedst thy seed
and wateredst it with thy foot as a
garden of herbs.” This alludes
possibly
to the practice amongst all eastern
nations where the land is irrigated
of letting out a certain quantity of water
into a trench
and then having small gutters dug in the gardens
to compel the
water to run along different parts of the ground. Sometimes one of these
gutters might be broken
and then the gardener would press the mould against it
with his foot
to keep the water in its proper channel. But I am inclined to
think that the passage alludes to the method which those eastern countries have
of pumping up the water by a tread wheel
and so watering the land with their
foot. However that may be
it means that the land of Egypt was watered with
extraordinary labour
in order to preserve it from sterility. “But
” says
Moses
“the land
to which ye are going
is not a land which you will have to
water with your foot. The water will come spontaneously; the land will be
watered by the rain of heaven. You can sit in your own houses
or under your
own vine
or under your own fig tree
and God Himself shall be your irrigator.
You shall sit still
and ‘in quietness shall ye possess your souls.’” Now
here
is a difference between the godly and ungodly--the ungodly man toils. Suppose
his object is ambition; he will labour and spend his very life
until he
obtains the desired pinnacle. Suppose it is wealth; how will he emaciate his
frame
rob his body of its needed sleep
and take away the nourishment his
frame requires
in order that he may accumulate riches! And if it is learning
how will he burn his eyes out with the flame of his hot desire
that he may
understand all knowledge; how will he allow his frame to become weak and wan by
midnight watchings! Men will in this way labour
and toil
and strive. But not
so the Christian. No; his “strength is to sit still.” He knows what it is to
fulfil the command of Paul--“I would have you without carefulness” We can take
things as God gives them
without all this toil and labour. I have often
admired the advice of old Cineas to Pyrrhus. Old story saith
that when
Pyrrhus
king of Epirus
was making preparation for his intended expedition
into Italy
Cineas
the philosopher
took a favourable opportunity of
addressing him thus: “The Romans
sir
are reported to be a warlike and
victorious people; but if God permit us to overcome them
what use shall we
make of the victory?” “Thou askest
” said Pyrrhus
“a thing that is
self-evident. The Romans once conquered
no city will resist us; we shall then
be masters of all Italy.” Cineas added
“And having subdued Italy
what shall
we do next?” Pyrrhus not yet aware of his intentions
replied
“Sicily next
stretches cut her arms to receive us.” “That is very probable
” said Cineas
“but will the possession of Sicily put an end to the war?” “God grant us
success in that
” answered Pyrrhus “and we shall make these only the
forerunners of greater things
for then Libra and Carthage will soon be ours;
and these things being completed
none of our enemies can offer any further
resistance.” “Very true
” added Cineas
“for then we may easily regain Macedon
and make absolute conquest of Greece; and when all these are in our possession
what shall we do then. Pyrrhus
smiling
answered
“Why then
my dear friend
we will live at our case
take pleasure all day
and amuse ourselves with
cheerful conversation.” “Well
sir
” said Cineas
and why may we not do this
now
and without the labour and hazard of an enterprise so laborious and
uncertain?” So says the Christian.
3. This brings us to the last difference that we will note
and that
is
that the unbeliever
he who has not crossed the Jordan and come to full
confidence
does not understand the universality of God’s providence
while the
assured Christian does. In Egypt the ground is almost entirely flat; and where
it is not flat
it is impossible
of course
to grow anything
unless the
ground is watered at considerable difficulty by some method of artificial
irrigation
which shall force the water on to the high places. “But
” says
Moses
“the land
whither ye go to possess it
is a land of hills and valleys.”
The Egyptians could not get the water up on the hills
but you can; for the
mountains drink in the rain
as well as the valleys. Now look at a worldling.
Give him comforts
give him prosperity. Oh! he can be so happy. Give him
everything just as he likes it; make his course all a plain
all a dead valley
and a flat; he can fertilise that
and water it; but let him have a mountainous
trouble
let him lose a friend
or let his property be taken from him--put a
hill in his way
and he cannot water that
with all the pumping of his feet
and all the force he strives to use. But the Christian lives in “a land of
hills and valleys”; a land of sorrow as well as joys; but the hills drink the
water
as well as the valleys. We need not climb the mountains to water their
heads
for our God is as high as the hills.
II. We must
consider the special mercy. We must now turn away altogether from the
allegoric
and come to this special mercy
which is the lot only of God’s
people. “The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it
from the beginning of
the year even unto the end of the year.” That is
upon the lot of all
Christians individually. Do not pick out one day in the year
and say it was a
bad day
but take all the year round. “Ah! bless the Lord! He hath done all
things well; my soul
and all that is within me
bless His holy name!” And you
know why all things have been well. It is because the eyes of the Lord have
been upon you all the year. Then might I not say a word to you concerning the
eyes of the Lord having been upon us as a church? Ought we to let this year
pass without rehearsing the works of the Lord? Hath He not been with us
exceeding abundantly
and prospered us? Some old writer has said
“Every hour
that a Christian remains a Christian is an hour of miracle.” It is true; and
every year that the Church is kept an entire Church is a year of the beginning
of the miracle. “The eye of the Lord” has been upon us
“from year even unto
the end of the year.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Gospel for the day-a glad word for the New Year
I. Notice that the
people are reminded of the past. Confidence in God for the future is to grow
out of the memory of His former dealings with them. “Your eyes have seen all
the great acts of the Lord which He did.” “Think of your almighty Helper
”
cried Moses
“He goeth with you into this land: He careth for it.” And so let
us call to mind the greatness and the glory of our God. What tokens of His love
to us we have! What pledges of His care for us
far outpassing all that Israel
ever looked upon.
II. Look at the
land in which God would have us to live. Egypt is the type of the world
the
world that knows not God. “Who is the Lord that I should serve Him? I know Him
not.” This is the language of Pharaoh
the language
too
of the prince of this
world. Egypt is the land where they looked down for their supply--wateredst it
with thy foot. They got their harvests by their own toil and depending upon
themselves; they knew not God. Israel must come out of this into a land where
they look up for their supply
up into the hills whence cometh their help--a
land of hills and valleys that drinketh in the rain of heaven. The wilderness
between the two was the school where the people were to learn the first lesson
of their dependence upon God. We have long enough been fretting and murmuring
in the wilderness. In the Lord’s name arise and enter into the land where God’s
presence encircles all
the eyes of the Lord are always upon it. Rest in the
Lord. Believe in His power
not as a reserve fund from which you are to draw
when your strength is spent
but as actively engaged for you
interested in all
your affairs
ever eager to help and guide.
III. Notice the
lord’s promises concerning this land in which we are to dwell. “The land
whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys
and drinketh water
of the rain of heaven.” All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are
springs that shall never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never
be cut off. Here
anxious one
is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father.
If He be the Source of our mercies
they can never fail us. Do not go down to
Egypt for your pleasure
or your strength
or your wisdom
or your comfort. Man
of God
thy place is Canaan
the land that the Lord careth for. Fetch all thy
supplies from Him. If strength is needed
who can help thee like the Lord? Who
else can give thee patience or who so tenderly comfort as the God of all
consolation
the God of all patience? If the way grow tangled
who can give
thee wisdom as He can? There is the land to live in--the land that drinketh in
the rain of heaven.
IV. Here is a
lesson in physical geography. The land is a land of “hills and valleys.” That
is all we are told of it. And that is all we know of the land in which we are
just entering. This much I can tell of your fortune in the New Year. It will be
a year of ups and downs
of hills and valleys. The hills
so hard to climb
that make you sigh and wonder why they are sent--they make the glad and
fruitful valleys. If life were all one dead level every pleasure would grow
wearisome
the dull sameness of life would oppress us. We want the hills and
valleys. The steep climb shows us the landscape that we could never have seen
otherwise. The little vexations make the pleasant things fresh in their
pleasantness. Only he who has tasted the bitterness of sorrow for sin can taste
and see how gracious the Lord is. The beauty
the blessedness
the pleasure of
our life is more dependent than we can ever know on the hills of life. The land
whither thou goest is a land of hills and valleys. “A land of hills and
valleys.” Look again. The hills drink in the rain of heaven and thereby make
the valleys fruitful. The desert is a desert
because no hills rise up to
heaven to touch the clouds and bring down blessings on the thirsty land below.
The hills collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah
so it is with
us. It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and fetches
down a shower of blessing. It is the trial that sends us to the Lord for help.
The hills
the bleak hills of life that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at
bring down the showers. They drink in the rain from heaven. And yet again--the
hills give to the valleys their fruitfulness and beauty by protecting them.
They rise up and shut back bleak winds and furious storms: then in the sunny
shelter the valleys shall be covered over with corn
the pastures are clothed
with flocks. So is the land whither we go to possess it--a land of hills and
valleys. Ah
how the soul had been withered
dead
if no steep hill had risen
for its shelter. How many have perished in the wilderness
buried under its
golden sands
who would have lived and thriven in the hill country. We cannot
tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Do not judge
much less grumble.
Trust only. (M. G. Pearse.)
The land
whither ye go to
possess it
is a land of hills and valleys.
The land of hills and valleys
1. Note how often God tells Israel that the land they were making for
was their possession. In Egypt they had possessed nothing; they were possessed.
Their time
their children
their lives were not their own there. Now they were
to be slaves of a tyranny no more. And every man who is living his life well is
marching forward in the track of Israel. There is a sense in which we all begin
by being possessed; but we shall end
God helping us
possessing. Sometimes it
is a foolish ambition that possesses us; sometimes it is a hereditary curse: or
a habit
or sloth
or cowardice
or passion; and we are not our own. But when
God breaks that bondage of the soul
far off
it may be
but gleaming in the
morning
we see the peaks of a land that shall be ours. Gradually
not without
many a failure
through daily effort
and prayer
and watching
we come to a
country where we are not slaves but kings.
2. These marching Israelites had been told what the land was to be
like in outline. It was to be “a land of hills and valleys.” How high the hills
would be
they did not know. Much was shrouded in impenetrable dark. And do you
say that the future is all hidden? There is a deep sense in which that is true.
The separate secrets of the coming days are lodged and locked in the eternal
mind. But there is an outline of the coming year that God makes plain to every
child of man. For
what your past has been
and what your God has been
and
what your heart is eager for tonight--all that will map out the New Year for
you.
3. There was to be no monotony in their new home. It would be ever
fresh with endless charm. Every valley would have its rushing stream
and every
ridge its separate vista. And is there ever monotony where God conducts? It is
a lie to say that being good takes all the charm and colour out of life. It is
our sins that grow monotonous; our graces are dew-bespangled till the end.
4. I wonder how long it took the Israelites to learn that the hills
were necessary to the valleys. How sweet and fertile the valleys were
they
knew. Life was a joy down by these happy meadows; it was a sweet music
that of
the rustling corn. But yonder
towering skyward
were the hills
and the brigands
were there
and over them
who could tell what tribes there were? And there was
an element of tempest too
among the hills. The children said life would be
perfect here
if God had but spared us those barren and baneful hills. But
halt! these rushing brooks
where did they come from? Out of the hills. And
where were the sharp sea winds that would have blighted the vine and withered
the springing corn? It was the barrier of mountains that kept them off. The
children said
we hate these ragged hills
and we wish that God would level
them to the ground;--and it was when they grew to men and women that they knew
that never a vine would have clustered in the hollows
and never a harvest
turned golden in the valleys
but for the mountains that they wished away. Is
there nothing in your life you wish away? Is there no cross
no trial
no
limitation? Do not be angry with the hills
because they shut you in. Fret not.
Accept them. Is there no lily of the valley at your feet? It would never have
been there but for the hills.
5. But the valley does not always speak of harvest. It is not always
ringing with the vine dresser’s lilt. There are valleys in which we catch the
sound of weeping
and see the rolling mist and never the sunlight. And it is
then that we need this text graven upon our heart. For in the valleys we
sometimes forget the hills. In the hour of mist we forget that the sun was ever
shining. You would think there had never been any blue sky at all
we are so
utterly disheartened in the cloudy day. Are the stars not there
though the
clouds are abroad tonight? Are the hills not rising heavenward and Godward
though I am in the valley of the shadow? Recall the hours of vision on the
mount.
6. Remember the valley when on the hill. To stand on the hill-top is
an exquisite joy. There is vision in it: there is the birth of song. And to be
strong and vigorous
with a firm grasp of oneself and one’s work
that is like
heaven began. Only remember
the day of the valley is coming; the shadow
the
mist
and parting are coming; and the wise man
though not with noise and fuss
will be quietly preparing upon the hills for that. (G. H. Morrison
M. A.)
Drinketh water of the rain
of heaven.--
The God of the rain
Beautiful
simple
noble
true words. Who would change them for
all the scientific phrases in the world? The eyes of the Lord were upon the
land. It needed His care; and therefore His care it had. Therefore the Jew was
to understand from his first entry into the land
that his prosperity depended
utterly on God. The laws of weather
by which the rain comes up off the sea
were unknown to him. They are all but unknown to us now. But they were known to
God. Not a drop could fall without His providence and will; and therefore they
were utterly in His power. God is the living Judge
the living overlooker
rewarder
punisher of every man
not only in the life to come
but in this
life. His providence is a special providence. But not such a poor special
providence as men are too apt to dream of nowadays
which interferes only now
and then on some great occasion or on behalf of some very favoured persons
but
a special providence looking after every special act of man
and of the whole
universe
from the fall of a sparrow to the fall of an empire. And it is this
intense faith in the living God
which can only come by the inspiration of the
Spirit of God
which proves the Old Testament to be truly inspired. This it is
which makes it different from all books in the world. This it is
I hold
which
marks the canon of Scripture. As it was then
so may it be again. There may
come a time in this land when people shall profess to worship the Word of God;
and yet
like those old scribes; make it of none effect by their own
commandments and traditions. When they shall command men
like the scribes
to
honour every word and letter of the Bible
and yet forbid them to take the
Bible simply and literally as it stands
but only their interpretation of the
Bible; when they shall say
with the scribes
“Nothing new can be true. God
taught the apostles
and therefore He is not teaching us. God worked miracles
of old; but whosoever thinks that God is working miracles now is a Pantheist
and a blasphemer. God taught men of old the thing which they knew not; but
whosoever dares to say that He does so now is bringing heresy and false
doctrine
and undermining the Christian faith by science falsely so called.”
From ever falling into that state of stupid lip-belief
and outward religion
and loss of faith in the living God: Good Lord
deliver us. (C. Kingsley
M.
A.)
The eyes of the Lord thy
God are always upon it.--
Good cheer for the New Year
Observe here a type of the condition of the natural and the
spiritual man. In this world in temporals and in all other respects the merely
carnal man has to be his own providence
and to look to himself for all his
needs. Hence his cares are always many
and frequently they become so heavy
that they drive him to desperation. He lives in Egypt
and he knows no joy. But
the spiritual man dwells in another country; his faith makes him a citizen of
another land. It is true he endures the same toils
and experiences the same
afflictions as the ungodly
but they deal with him after another fashion
for
they come as a gracious Father’s appointments
and they go at the bidding of
loving wisdom.
I. First
we will
consider the text as we find it. “The eyes of the Lord.” What is meant here?
Surely not mere omniscience
No
there is love in the text to sweeten
observation. “The Lord knoweth the righteous” with a knowledge which is over
and above that of omniscience. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous
not
merely to see them
hut to view them with complacency and delight.
1. The meaning of the text then is
first
that God’s love is always
upon His people. The big heart of Deity is set upon us poor insignificant
undeserving
worthless beings.
2. The expression of the text teaches us that the Lord takes a
personal interest in us. It is not here said that God loves us
and therefore
sends an angel to watch over us; but the Lord does it Himself.
3. Further
the text reminds us of the unwearied power of God towards
His people. What
can His eyes be always upon us? This were not possible if He
were not God. The next word that seems to sparkle in the text is that word
“always.” “The eyes of the Lord are always upon it.” And it is added
as if
that word were not enough for such dull ears as ours
from the beginning of the
year even to the end of the year. I tried to discover the other day what time
there was in one’s life when one could best afford to be without God. Perhaps
imagination suggests the time of prosperity
when business prospers
wealth is
growing
and the mind is happy. Ah
to be without God then
why it would be
like the marriage feast without the bridegroom
it would be the day of delight
and no delight
a sea and no water in it
day and no light. What! all these
mercies and no God? If you can do without God at all
it certainly is not when
you are standing on the pinnacle. What then? Could we do without Him in adversity?
Ask the heart that is breaking! Ask the tortured spirit that has been deserted
by its friend I Ask the child of poverty
or the daughter of sickness tossing
by night and day on that uneasy bed
Couldst thou do without thy God? And the
very thought causes wailing and gnashing of teeth. With God pain becomes
pleasure
and dying beds are elevated into thrones
but without God--ah! what
could we do? Well then
is there no period? Cannot the young Christian
full of
freshness and vigour
elated with the novelty of piety
do without his God? Ah
poor puny thing
how can the lamb do without the shepherd to carry it in his
arms? Cannot the man in middle life then
whose virtues have been confirmed
do
without his God? He tells you that it is the day of battle with him
and that
the darts fly so thick in business nowadays
that the burdens of life are so
heavy in this age that without God a man in middle life is like a naked man in
the midst of a thicket of briars and thorns--he cannot hope to make his way. Ask
yon grey beard with all the experience of seventy years
whether at least he
has not attained to an independence of grace
and he will say to you that as
the infirmity of the body presses upon him it is his joy that his inner man is
renewed day by day
but take away God
who is the spring of that renewal
and
old age would be utter wretchedness. Ah! there is not a moment in any one day
that you or I have ever lived
that we could have afforded to dispense with the
help of God
for when we have thought ourselves strong
as
alas! we have been
fools enough to do
in one five minutes we have done that which has cost us
rivers of tears to undo; in an unguarded moment we have spoken a word which we
could not recall
but which we could have recalled if we should have had to
bite our tongues in halves to have had it unsaid. The next word that springs
from the text is that great word “Jehovah.” He who surveys us with love and
care is none other than the one and indivisible God
so that we may conclude if
we have His eyes to view us we have His heart to love us
and if we have His
heart we have His wings to cover us
we have His hands to bear us up; we have
all the attributes of Deity at our command. Oh
when God says that He always
looks at you
He means this
that He is always yours
there is nothing which is
necessary for you which He will refuse to do; there is no wisdom stored up in
Him which He will not use for you
there is no one attribute of all that great
mass of splendour which makes up the Deity which shall be withheld from you in
any measure
but all that God is shall be yours. He shall be your God forever
and ever. He will give you grace and glory
and be your guide even unto death.
Perhaps the sweetest word of the text is that next one--the eyes of Jehovah
“thy God.” Ah
there is a blessed secret! Why? Ours in covenant
our God
for
He chose us to be His portion
and by His grace He has made us choose Him to be
our portion. We are His and He is ours.
II. We are now to
turn the text over; that is to say
we will misread
it
yet read it rightly.
Suppose the text were to run thus--“The eyes of the Lord’s people are always
upon Him from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” We like the
text as it stands
but I do not believe we shall ever comprehend the fulness of
it unless we receive it as I have now altered it
for we only understand God’s
sight of us when we get a sight of Him.
III. In the third
place
we will imagine that we blot the text out altogether. We are to suppose
that it is blotted out
to imagine that you and I have to live all the year
without the eyes of God upon us
not finding a moment from the beginning of the
year in which we perceive the Lord to be caring for us or to be waiting to be
gracious to us. Imagine that there is none to whom we may appeal beyond our own
fellow creatures for help. Oh
miserable supposition! We have come to the
opening of the year
and we have to get through it somehow
we must stumble
through January
go muddling through the winter
groaning through the spring
sweating through the summer
fainting through the autumn
and grovelling on to
another Christmas
and no God to help us; no prayer when God is gone
no
promise when God is no more. There could be no promise
no spiritual succour
no comfort
no help for us if there were no God.
IV. Let us close
with using the text. The way to use it is this. If the eyes of the Lord will be
upon us His people
from the beginning of the year to the end of the year
what
shall we do? Why
let us be as happy as we can during this year. You have your
trials--do not expect that you will be free from them. The devil is not dead
and sparks still fly upward. Herein is your joy
the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you. Up with your standard now
and march on boldly! I would have you use the text by the way of seeking
greater blessings and richer mercies than you have ever enjoyed. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
God’s care for His Church and people in all ages
The land which the Lord thy God careth for. This is true not only
of the land of Canaan which was considered in the proper sense of it
but also
of any other land together with it
which is the place and residence of the
Church
and ordinances
and people of God. This is reductively
and interpretatively
and proportionably the land which the Lord thy God careth for.
I. When it is said
here that He careth for it
this word care may admit of a three-fold
explication. First
as a word of respect. He cares for it--that is
He regards
it. Secondly
as a word of providence. He cares for it--that is
He looks after
it and takes care of it. Thirdly
as a word of solicitude. He cares for it
is
anxious about it.
1. As a word of respect. The Church of God
and such a land where the
Church resides. God cares for it--that is
He regards it
and has an esteem for
it. It is precious and of great account with Him.
2. It is a word of forecast or providence. He cares for it--that is
He looks after it
and inquires into the state of it. He casts about what may be
best and most convenient for it
and answerably does bring it about.
3. It is a word of solicitude and perplexity. He cares for it--that
is
He is anxious about it (Hosea 11:8). There is no man can express
more affection in any thing whereof he is solicitous as to the welfare of it
than God does express towards His Church
as there is occasion for it. It is
the land which the Lord cares for in the full extent and latitude of care.
Now as there is a three-fold expression of God’s care for His
Church; so there is a three-fold account also
which may be given to us of this
care
as from whence it does proceed in Him.
1. From His relation. The Church is His own land by special purchase
and redemption
and so He takes care of it more particularly in that respect.
2. From His covenant. It is the land that He cares for upon this
consideration also. Because He has engaged Himself hereto.
3. From His interest and more peculiar concernment. The Lord takes
care of His Church as that which He receives the greatest advantage from any
other besides; not in a strict sense
but in a qualified
and as He is pleased
to account it. The use of this point to ourselves comes to this purpose. First
as it serves to inform us
and to satisfy us in the truth of this point
which
we have now before us
that we be persuaded of it. It is that which we are
ready sometimes to doubt of whether God cares for His Church or no. Especially
according to the circumstances wherein it may be as Gideon sometimes reasoned
with the angel (Judges 6:13). This proposition which we
are now upon
it hath both an inclusive emphasis and an exclusive. It has an
inclusive emphasis in it
as it does signify; that God does indeed take care of
His Church and land. An exclusive emphasis
as it does signify that He does
care of it both in the denial of others’ care for it
and in His own denial of
care for others. And so now I have done with the first general part of the
text
which is the interest this land here had in God’s affection expressed to
us in these words
“The land which the Lord thy God careth for.”
II. The second is
the interest which it hath in God’s inspection in these words. The eyes of the
Lord thy God are always upon it
from the beginning of
etc. Wherein
again
we
have two branches more. First
the privilege itself
and that is of being under
the eyes of God; the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it. Secondly
the
continuation of this privilege
and that is expressed in two words more. First
in the word of perpetuity
and that is
always. Secondly
in the words of
extent. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
1. First
we will take notice of the former
namely
the privilege
itself here mentioned. And that is
of being under God’s eye. First
an eye of
observation
that is one which God hath upon His Church
He does mark
and
mind
and take notice of the state and condition in which it is. Secondly
an
eye of compassion; He has an eye upon it
to pity it
and to comfort it in the
state in which it is. Thirdly
an eye of direction
a teaching eye; God has
such an eye as this which He does sometimes vouchsafe His Church. There is a
great matter in the eye to such a purpose as this is
and it is here
considerable of us
as we have it in Psalms 32:8. Fourthly
an eye of
protection and preservation and authority.
2. Now for the second
which is the continuation of this privilege
that is exhibited to us in two expressions more. First
in the word of
constancy or perpetuity; and that is always. Secondly
in the words of extent
or production. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year. First
we
may take notice of the continuance of the privilege he mentioned in the word of
constancy or perpetuity. And that is always. It hath three properties in it
which are here particularly considerable of us. First
it is a quick eye
there
are many persons which see a thing at last
but it is a great while first
before they come to do so; yea
but God beholds His Church
and the state and
condition of it
as soon as ever there is need for Him to see it. Secondly
it
is a fixed eye. He looks upon His land
as if He would in a manner look through
it and pierce it with His eyes. Thirdly
it is a frequent eye. His eyes are
never off it. The second is the words of extent or production. From the
beginning of the year to the end of the year. Where there are three periods
as
I may so call them
of the care and providence of God towards His land and
people. There is the initial
and the intermediate
and the final. First
here
is the initial point of God’s providence
taking its rise from the beginning of
the year. Thus it signifies to us God’s earliness
and readiness
and
forwardness in His goodness towards His people
that He takes the very first
season and opportunity that is afforded unto Him
for the hastening of His
favours upon them. Secondly
here is the intermediate point
in the rising or
progress of the year
that is also included as joining both terms together: God
is not only kind a little at first
when the year begins
and so making a good
entrance
but He holds on and proceeds in His goodness as the year itself rises
and gets up. This is God’s manner of dealing
not only like some misers
perhaps
to make a feast for a time
and once a year
but like a liberal and
free-hearted person--that keeps open house all the year long
from the
beginning of the year to the end. The third is the final point or conclusive.
He ends the year as well as begins it
with the expressions of His goodness in
it; “He crowns the year with His goodness” (Psalms 65:11). Thus is God gracious to
His land and people
in all points and periods of time
from the beginning of
the year to the end of the year; from one year to another: yea
from one age to
another. Lord
Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Lessons:
1. First
in a way of thankfulness and acknowledgment
where we have
at any time the experience of this made good to us in our own particulars
as
we very much have.
2. In a way of faith and dependence
let us make use of it also
that
so we who have had experience of His goodness in the past may still wait upon
Him and rest comfortably in His providence.
3. In a way of fruitfulness and obedience
we are to improve this
point so likewise. That as the eyes of the Lord our God are upon us
in this
extent and production
so our eyes may be upon Him likewise in the same extent.
As His in a way of providence
and protection
and preservation; so ours in a
way of obedience
and fruitfulness
and circumspection. To begin the year with
Him
as He does with us
and thereby to lay a good foundation of holy
conversation to ourselves; to set ourselves in a good way at first
in this
entrance of time. If we have hitherto been any way failing in our duty
and
neglected it
let us now at least and at last keep it. Let us proceed also
as
God does with us. He begins
and He goes on in His goodness
His eyes which He
cast upon His Church and people
they never fail
but continue
and hold good
still. So should our eyes be also upon Him
we should perfectly continue in
goodness; and proceed in it
from one degree of it to another. As the year
rises in the light of it
so should we rise also in the improvement of it. Let
us also end well; be especially careful of that. (T. Horton
D. D.)
The Lord’s eyes on the land
Consider Canaan
with its privilege of being ever under the open
eyes of the Lord
as setting forth to us
in a very real manner
the spiritual
condition of the Church of Christ
and the blessedness of that state.
I. The spiritual
ground of the Christian Church.
1. The freedom of the new land
though Divinely given
was to be
acquired and retained by courageous conflict and endeavour.
2. The productiveness of the new land was to be a blessing to the
producer. God has expended His Divine treasures
that His children may bring
forth the rich fruits of His own glorious life.
3. Purity of life was to be realised in the new land. The Church
exists to promote the worship of the Revealed Father in spirit and in truth.
The Church’s worship is the drawing forth of its strength from God--the
reception of the Divine life into the human.
4. The beauty of the new land was to be the counterpart of spiritual
beauty. The fruits and flowers of earth were the response to the light and
rains of heaven. The Church exists
that the beauty of the Lord our God may be
upon us. Nothing in creation is more beautiful than the sight of consecrated
spirits cooperating in the work of God and of His Christ.
II. The divine
observation of the Christian Church. A high privilege and blessing.
1. For the condemnation of wrong.
2. For the approbation of right. No encouragement to the pursuit of
goodness can be so great as that which is derived from the truth that God is
beholding the fight with evil. (W. R. Percival.)
The ideal country
Palestine included everything required to make a perfect
commonwealth
an earthly paradise. It had--
1. God’s special husbandry. God cared for it.
2. The perennial watchfulness of God.
The land that the Lord eateth for
I. “A land which
the Lord thy God careth for
” says the Jewish lawgiver. The word is very
suggestive to us. It speaks to our hearts of a kind and loving oversight. Our
age
distinguished as it has been by scientific advances of all kinds
has
perhaps in nothing made more rapid strides than in improved methods for the
cultivation of the soil. The farmer no longer rejoices in his ignorance; and
agricultural chemistry has taken rank among the established studies of the day.
But what proof are all such appliances against the continued drought
or the
falling blight
or the wasting rains? No; we must be taught
as Israel was
taught
that fruitfulness was not so much the happy product of the soil
still
less the natural requital of man’s industry and skill
but an immediate effect
of the Divine blessing--a consequence of the eyes of the Lord never being off
the land
but ever seeking and ever caring for it to do it good.
II. But the
evidence that we are a cared for people
and
therefore a fresh ground for our
devotedness and love
is to be found in the time when this blessing of an
abundant harvest has been sent to us.
III. But here the
scoffer may interject
“Why
if this be ‘a land which the Lord careth for
’ is
it suffered to be darkened here and there by the overhanging pestilence
or
drained of its best blood to keep down a despot’s pride?” Should we call that a
cared for land over which the ploughshare had never passed
neither iron had
entered to break up the fallow ground? Many can see this with regard to the
wasting sickness
who find it hard to apply to the case of a tyrant’s misdoing.
But we cannot allow a Divine purpose to the pestilence
and refuse a heavenly
mission to the sword. It would be a deep enigma in Providence
and contrary to
all that has been hitherto known among men
if the desolating scenes which are
now taking place in the East should be without some great moral--should pass
away
like the dark shapes upon a storm cloud
and leave no trace behind. All
God’s judgments
whatever the instrumentality employed
are to teach men
righteousness. It is so with individuals; it is so with nations. (D. Moore
M. A.)
The beginning of the
year.--
A sermon for the New Year
What are the reflections which are specially appropriate to “the
beginning of the year”? It occupies
as it were
a middle position between the
year which has just closed
and which you cannot recall
and that portion of
time of equal duration on which you have entered; and it thus invites you to
look back to the one
to look forward to the other
and in connection with both
to look up to that God who has brought you safely through the former
and who
alone can determine the events that will befall you during the course of the
latter.
I. Look back on
the year which has expired. The man of business is accustomed at this season to
review the transactions of the preceding year
that he may ascertain the amount
of his gains and losses. And it becomes you as rational
as immortal
and as
accountable beings
to reflect seriously on all that you have received and
endured and done during the past year
that thus you may be able to correct
what has been wrong
and to supply what has been wanting
in your character and
conduct
so as to be better prepared for the trial which you must undergo when
you leave the present scene of activity.
1. The outward blessings you have received
and the manner in which
you have employed them.
2. The spiritual privileges with which you have been favoured
and
the improvement which you have made of them.
3. The trials you have endured
and the effect which they have had
upon you.
4. The sins you have committed
and the sentiments and feelings which
they have awakened in you. Have you been led gradually to think less of the
evil involved in them
and to indulge in them with diminishing repugnance? Or
have you been prompted to increased vigilance
in avoiding everything that has
a tendency to betray you into them
and increased care to keep at a distance
from them
and shun even the appearance of them? In the one case
there is
evidence that you have been making a mock at sin
or have looked on it as a
trivial thing
which ought not to awaken in you any deep distress; in the
other
there is ground for the conclusion that you possess the broken and
contrite spirit which God does not despise.
II. Look forward to
the year which has commenced. I do not mean that you should look forward to it
with the design of discovering the events which will occur in your history
or
the vicissitudes which you will experience during its course. That would be a
vain attempt; and if it were practicable
it would be unwise in you to make it.
But your ignorance of futurity should urge you to seek preparedness for the
events that will befall you
whatever they may be. You ought not
indeed
to
conjecture new and unusual circumstances in which it is possible that you may
be placed
and to distract your thoughts from present duties
by considering
what in all probability you would do
were these conjectures to be realised;
for the grace
or Divine assistance
which the Christian is encouraged to ask
is grace for present need
and not present grace for future supposed
necessities. Still
however
there is a state of habitual preparedness for
everything that may occur in his future life
which it is of the highest importance
for you to possess. Now
there is a two-fold preparedness for death which you
should desire to possess. The first is a preparedness as to state
which
imparts a title to eternal blessedness. And the second is a preparedness as to
character
which fits or capacitates for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness.
III. Look upward to
God
in connection both with the retrospect of the past
and with the
anticipation of the future.
1. With self-dedication. Cherish a sincere desire and resolution to
have Jehovah for your God. Enter now into covenant with Him
if you have not
hitherto done so; and if in past times you have chosen Him to be your God
renew your solemn engagement to Him.
2. With confession of sin
and engagement to holiness. Let your
contemplation of the past prompt to an humble acknowledgment of the greatness
and inexcusableness of the offences by which you have provoked the Divine
displeasure
and let the anticipation of the future be accompanied with sincere
resolutions of new obedience.
3. With prayer for forgiveness and needed grace. Ask God in His great
mercy to pardon the sins of the past year
and to grant to you that assistance
which will enable you to avoid these sins during the year that has commenced.
4. With gratitude and confidence. While you cherish thankfulness to
God for the goodness which He has manifested to you during the past year
cherish also reliance on His kindness and care for the year that is to come. (D.
Duncan.)
Verse 16-17
Take heed . . . that your heart be not deceived.
Religion no humbug
I. Let us not be
deceived in our ideas about God.
1. Let us not be deceived in thinking that our heavenly Father is
partly good and partly bad.
2. Let not your heart be deceived in thinking that God cannot pardon
the one who supposes himself or herself to be the worst. We all do wrong
in
some sense or another; and when the thought of our sin weighs down our hearts
let us feel persuaded that God can forgive us. But do not mistake His pardon by
thinking that when He forgives us
there is an end of it. Here is a careless
weaver at work
throwing the shuttle containing the weft. When she has got half
through the warp
she finds she has made an error in the pattern
and when the
overlooker unwinds the piece he discovers the flaw running through the whole.
Well
what is to be done? She says
“O
do forgive me!” He replies
“Certainly
I will; but you know it must be undone.” It is weary work undoing a web of long
threads; but nobody would buy that piece as it is. So the weaver begins with
the last thread and pulls it out from side to side and begins again. Likewise
though the Lord forgives us
we must undo the bad life. As the kindly
overlooker stands beside the weaver
saying
Let me help you
so the Lord
stands by us to help us to amend the tangled web of our life. While God
forgives us and inspires our heart
the rectification of what is wrong must
however
be our own act. We must undo our bad life by beginning afresh.
II. Do not be
deceived in your views concerning religion. Religion is not a theory; it is the
living spirit of usefulness. Religion that does not inspire us to be pure
ourselves and useful to others is not the true Christian religion; it is a
humbug. Religion will comfort your own heart and make you a blessing wherever
you go. While it teaches you to fight against your evil propensities
it trains
you to be kind-hearted at home and peaceable-minded abroad. In leading you down
the steps of true humility
it exalts you to the noblest manhood; and while
constraining you to surrender your will to the Christ-spirit
it gives you the
glorious power of God-likeness. A minister was on one occasion preaching on
peaceableness
having special reference to Messrs. Pincher and Stiggins
two of
his deacons who had long been at daggers’ point. Such was his faithful
earnestness that the whole congregation was moved
and when the benediction was
pronounced
Mr. Pincher went across the chapel to the other
and with tears in
his eyes
remarked
“Brother Stiggins
after such a sermon there must be peace
between us. Now
I can’t give in
so you must!” The other replied
“Well
Brother Pincher
if you won’t give in
I’m blessed if I will!” You see
they were
religious in theory but not in practical life.
III. We should not
be deceived in our thoughts about the invisible world called heaven and hell.
If you have good things in this world
and do not care for the destitute
you
cannot have good things in the other world. (W. Birch.)
A caution against deception
I. An evil
anticipated. That of having the heart deceived.
1. The scantiness and imperfection of human knowledge.
2. The deceitfulness of the heart.
3. The deceitfulness of sin.
4. The deceitfulness of the world.
5. The deceitfulness of the devil.
Such are the reasons we have for believing that our hearts may be
deceived. But the text assumes that this deception is an evil pregnant with
very pernicious consequences. And this appears from the consideration
that
those whose hearts are deceived are involved in a state of the most palpable
error. What tradesman would wish to make errors in his accounts? What scholar
would not guard against error in his sums? But these errors are trivial
when
compared to the grievous error in which those are involved whose hearts are
deceived concerning their salvation and their God. Nor is this all; those whose
hearts are deceived
are exposed to extreme danger.
II. The caution
urged against this deception. “Take heed to yourselves
” etc.
1. Be alive to a sense of your extreme danger. Let us consider what
we are--how deeply fallen! Let us weigh well our circumstances
dangers
and
enemies; this will lay the foundation for caution and circumspection.
2. Seek for the illuminating and sanctifying influences of the Holy
Spirit; O
seek His influence by fervent
importunate prayer. “Take heed to
yourselves.”
3. By the constant practice of self-examination.
4. By watching over yourselves. “Watch and pray.” “Be ye therefore
sober
and watch unto prayer.” “Watch thou in all things.” Watchfulness will
lead you to keep a strict guard over your thoughts
words
actions. (Sketches
of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Verse 18
Lay up these my words.
The four places in which a good male keeps God’s truth
The four places are here: heart
soul
hand
head; or put it
another way: there are two departments of the religious life--first
the truth
of God
the reality of religion revealed in us
that is in the heart and soul;
and second
the truth of God revealed by us
that is
by the hand and by the
head. Even as it is said there were four rivers flowing from paradise
so also
there are four rivers which flow through the paradise of a good man’s life.
They
are love
truth
use
beauty.
I. The first place
is the heart.
1. Lay up God’s words like treasure in a chest; they are the family
plate of believers
the heirlooms of the household of faith.
2. Like books in a library
ready for reference. We cannot read all
books at once; we cannot read the whole Bible at one time
it is neither
necessary nor desirable. In a very large library well selected
it may be
thought there are no books useless
every book has its place and worth
and may
be referred to again and again; but it is laid up on the shelf against the
time.
3. Like clothes in a wardrobe
ready for all weathers: for summer’s
sunshine
and for winter’s storms. The truth of God should be the garment of
the soul.
4. Like conserves of precious fruit
gathered in the time of plenty
to be eaten in the snow time of winter scarcity; as of Mary
the mother of our
Lord
we read
“She kept all these sayings and pondered them
” she laid them up
for love to brood over.
5. Like knowledge hidden but not lost. It does not follow always that
what does not appear does not exist. A capable captain on shore is not always
telling you how he would manage a ship in difficulties; an accomplished
musician may be sitting quite still
and saying nothing of the art he loves and
of which he knows so much; but in both of these
and many such men
the
knowledge only needs the occasion; it is there.
6. Lay them up in the heart as guides. We are not always studying the
map
but if we desire to know a country
it is useful to have it; and these
words are for use
meditation
and memory.
7. In the heart: not like misers’ hoards
but like bankers’ gold
which turns into capital
and is not only wealth itself
but a means of
creating more.
II. The second place
is the soul.
1. The soul is the seat of thought or understanding.
2. The soul is the seat and place of mind-life.
3. The soul is the scat of conviction
and conviction is mental
activity and independence.
III. And now the
relations of the text change; and this third head brings us to the second
department. I said at the first
those two places to which I have referred
speak of the truth of God revealed in your heart and soul--refer to the moral
and mental power of man. Now in this third particular religion is brought into
notice; it is the truth of God revealed by us
“therefore shall ye bind
these words for a sign upon your hand.” I suppose
that is as much as to say
realise them in your life. Religion is for use
fuel is for fire
wood cut down
is to be used
bricks are to build
cloth is for clothes
religion is for life.
If you have any religion
use it. Some years ago there was a sect of people
called the Rosicrucians; they were a very remarkable people. It was said of
them that they had discovered the principle of an ever-burning flame; but then
nobody was able to see it; the singularity of the lamp was
that it only shed
its lustre in vaults
in closely sealed and concealed tombs. I do not so much
doubt the discovery
as I deny the use of such a flame; open the door
it was
said
and instantly the light was extinguished. Why
whatever is the use of
such a light as that--a light that nobody ever sees? And so it is with the
religion of some people; if they have got any
they keep it all to themselves as
in a vault or a tomb. “Therefore bind these words as a sign upon the hand.”
1. Like a glove
on the hand for defence. The hedger and ditcher
tears up many a weed
and encounters fearlessly many a prickly thorn with his
rough glove
which he would be fearful to grapple with his ungloved hand.
2. Like a gauntlet
as a sign of challenge.
3. Like a tool
an implement of labour
something to work with
to
build with.
4. Like a sword.
IV. The head. “Lay
up these words in the heart
that they may be a frontlet to the eye
” that is
before you; what you possess you will profess; in a word
avow the Word; do not
be ashamed of it. On the other hand
do not make profession of it before you
possess it. Thus--
1. These words are to be a source of pride; for what is worn on the
head
or between the eyes
is usually a source of pride
or a manifestation of
it. Be proud then
not of yourself
of your attainments
but of that which has
been conferred upon you in the possession of these words.
2. As frontlets between the eyes
for this implies dignity
giving
ornament
rank
elevation; so it ought to be if these words are laid up in
heart and soul and are manifested in the life; they will be like an ornament of
grace to the head
and chains about the neck; they will be wreathed into a
coronet
diadem
a tiara
a crown--all these are worn on the head; and I cannot
imagine religion really possessed without its giving beauty
some royalty and
elevation to character
something that alike dignifies person and speech.
3. That they may be as frontiers between your eyes
that they may be
a source of protection. Wear them as helmets are worn
like that of which we
read
“for a helmet the hope of salvation.” And is not this also in the words
of God? for they constitute not only the ornament or character
but its defence
too
as it is written
“Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than
my enemies
for they are ever with me.” These are the principles of a
religious
life--these
are the principles which the great Hebrew lawgiver
beheld as lying at the foundation of all prosperous states
and all truly noble
personal character. (The Preacher’s Lantern.)
Intellectual religion
You cannot read this Book without perceiving that Moses delivers
himself with the energy and affection of one who knew that though his strength
was unabated and his eye not dimmed
he had but few days to remain upon earth
and who therefore desired to gather into a parting address whatever was most
calculated to arrest the attention and confirm Israel in loyalty to Jehovah.
And if we attach a more than ordinary interest to the last words of
distinguished individuals
ought we not to listen with a reverent attention to
the lawgiver with whom God had spoken face to face
whilst in the thought of a
speedy dissolution he pours forth lessons
warns
and exhorts? Now
we believe
that in our own day
perhaps more than in any other
there is a risk of men
being satisfied with a merely intellectual religion. Undoubtedly the character
of the age will tell upon the character of the religion of the age
and a mere
head knowledge of Christianity will satisfy many of the admirers and
cultivators of intellect. And besides this possible case of surrendering to
religion an intellectual homage
in which
from the beginning to the end
the
heart has no share
we believe that with those who are really converted the
head very often outruns the heart
and that many truths are acknowledged which
are not at all felt.
I. Now
let it be
distinctly observed
that there is a great province for the understanding as
well as for the affections in the matter of true religion. It is the business
of reason to scrutinise the claims of the Bible to the being received as
inspired; and there can be no proper place for the exercise of faith until there
be in some shape this exercise of reason. I can never ask a man to believe that
the Bible is God’s Word
except as the result of a painstaking inquiry; but
when once this inquiry has been made
when once the conclusion has been arrived
at
that the Bible is inspired
then
indeed
we expect of a man that he
prostrate his reason before the disclosures of the Book
and that
whenever
these disclosures surpass his comprehension
he give them that unhesitating
admission which is due to the confessed fact that they are communications from
God. And over and above this employment of the understanding in determining the
evidence of the Volume
and therefore the veracity of the doctrines
a man is
to read Scripture with just the same endeavour to gain a clear and intelligent
acquaintance with its statements which he would make in perusing an ordinary
book. There is no fault in the effort to comprehend whatever comes within the
range of a finite comprehension; the only fault is in the refusing
when a
point is reached by which the understanding is baffled
to receive on God’s
Word what we cannot clear up by human reason. And thus the intellect is to be
no idle agent in religion
for a man must know what he is to believe before he
can believe it. We contend that faith cannot be in advance of the
understanding; but we are equally clear that the understanding may often be in
advance of faith. We are not speaking of mere historical faith
but of that
powerful principle which the Scriptures alone recognise as faith; and we say
that faith cannot be in advance of the understanding
for according to the
foregoing statements
a man must know the object of faith before he can
believe: he must know that there are Three Persons and but One God
ere he can
believe a Trinity in Unity. But then
on the other hand
the understanding may
be very far in advance of the faith
for a man may have knowledge of a vast
variety of truths
on not one of which is there any influential fastening of
his belief. So that whilst there is a kind of necessity that the intellect
possesses itself of doctrines before they can become objects of faith
it by no
means follows that the intellect will send them on to the heart; on the
contrary
it is a thing of most common occurrence
that the intellect will retain
them as merely speculative truths
and that the historical uninfluential assent
is the highest homage which they shall ever obtain. And our business is to
endeavour to show you the danger of this laying up of religious truth within
the confines of the intellect
and the consequent importance of attempting all
obedience to the precept of our text. There is a danger to those who are
unconverted; there is a danger also to those who are converted. We begin with
the former
and we declare that the parties on whom it seems hardest to make a
moral impression are those who are thoroughly well acquainted with the letter
of the Gospel. If there be one of you who knows thoroughly well the whole plan
of salvation
but who has nothing more than an intellectual religion
we should
like to look over what may be called the elements of his knowledge
and see
whether he can stand acquitted of the charge of hindering his own conversion.
It is a part of your knowledge that it is your duty
to detach yourselves from
those habits and associations which are opposed to God’s Word. Do you labour to
effect this detachment? You have the intellectual persuasion that you must be
lost
unless Christ heal your moral disease. Do you act as you would do
if you
had the intellectual persuasion that you must speedily die unless you betake
yourself to this or that physician? We are sure that if there were anything of
candour in your replies
they would furnish an ample demonstration that man is
himself chargeable with detaining truth in the intellect
when it ought to go
forward to the heart
and that it is simply through his not making that use of
religious knowledge which he would and does make use of any other sort of
knowledge
that he fails to become spiritually as well as intellectually a Christian.
Now
up to this point we have confined our remarks to the case of unconverted
men; and it may be thought at first sight that intellectual religion can never
be attributed to the converted; yet
if you examine with a little attention you
will perceive
that in respect of every man there is a likelihood of the
understanding outstripping the affections
so that many truths may be held by
the intellect which are not known in the experience. Now
look
for example
at
the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not possible that a renewed man
should fail to give his unqualified assent to the truth that the death of
Christ was an expiation for sin
so that he will unreservedly hold the doctrine
of the atonement. But all this
you observe
is purely intellectual. The truth
may be thus held
but yet held only in the understanding; and the question is
whether the believer lives in the daily experience of this truth--whether as
fast as sin is committed it is carried to the blood of the atonement
and whether
therefore
the opening of a fountain for human defilement is a fact which has
only gained the assent of the intellect
or one in which the heart feels a deep
and abiding concern. And thus
again
there must be with every real Christian
an intellectual holding of the truth
that we are to live each moment in a
realised dependence upon God; that we are to cast our burdens upon the Lord
that we are to refer to Him our every care
our every want
our every anxiety.
But we want to know whether
in respect of the providence of God
as well as of
the priesthood of Christ
the intellect is not often in advance of the
experience. There may be an unqualified admission by the understanding of the
noble truth
that not a sparrow falls without our Heavenly Father. But unless a
man continually act on the admission--unless
indeed
he carry his every
concern to the Almighty
so as to ask His counsel in each difficulty
His
support in each trial
His guardianship in each danger
why
we contend that
the understanding has outstripped the heart--in other words
that the intellect
is in advance of the experience. And there are
we suppose
but few Christians
who will deny that they are chargeable with this inequality of pace in the
understanding and the heart.
II. We will just
show you what we think the consequences of the intellect being in advance of
the experience. If you know a doctrine whose power and preciousness you do not
feel--and this is
in other words
the outstripping of the heart by the
understanding--then you receive that doctrine only as an unconverted man
receives it
and you must be chargeable even in a greater degree with its
detention in the intellect
when it ought to be sent on to the affections; and
there must be produced something of the like effect in two cases. You strip the
doctrine of energy by allowing it to remain inert in the understanding; you
reduce it into a dead letter
and thus you grieve the Holy Spirit
who intended
it as an engine by which you might carry on the conflict with the world
the
flesh
and the devil; and we need not tell you that what grieves the Spirit
must sensibly affect your well-being as Christians. Besides
in all your
religious intercourse with others
the probability is that your conversation
will take its measure from your knowledge and not from your experience. Take
the case of a preacher. The preacher
and we suppose it to be his duty
will
press upon his congregation the amount of truth which is known to himself
whether or not it be felt by himself. When I speak up to the extent of my
knowledge
if that knowledge outruns my experience
I represent myself as
attaching value to certain truths of which
after all
I have not tasted the
preciousness. And what is this but representing myself as a more thorough
believer than I am? And what again is this but the playing the hypocrite
though I may have no distinct purpose of palming a false estimate upon others?
And if the excess of knowledge over experience thus makes it almost certain
that in attempting to instruct others we shall virtually be hypocrites
you
have only to remember how hateful is hypocrisy in every degree
and under every
disguise
to the Almighty
and you will have no difficulty in discerning the
signal danger of allowing the intellect to outstrip the heart. It is true
you
may say
we will avoid the danger by abstaining from all endeavour to instruct
but you will thus again be neglecting a positive duty--and is not this
perilous? You may say
“We will never
speak beyond our experience
” and this
will secure us against the alleged risk; but since your experience comes not up
to your knowledge
you would thus be guilty of keeping back truths which God
has given to be advanced
and you would hardly then think that the danger which
you incur would be less than the danger you avoid. If
therefore
any one of
you as a true Christian values peace
then his constant aim will be
that
whatever of religious truth finds its way into the understanding may be sent
onward at once to the affections
and that thus the precept of Moses may be
sedulously obeyed--“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and
in your soul.” (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Attention to the Scriptures
Attention to the Word of God is strongly urged upon the Israelites
in my text. At that time
however
only a small part of that Word--the five
books of Moses--had been given by God to marl. How much more strongly
then
is
our attention called to the Holy Scriptures
now that every part of the Bible
containing the will of God
is made known to us!
I. We have the
reason given why we are to attend to the words of the Bible
namely
because
they are the words of God; therefore shall ye lay up these My words. If an
earthly king were to write a book for his subjects
how eagerly would it be
read! In proportion to his authority would be the attention paid to what he
wrote
especially if he were a king from whom his subjects had received great
blessings
and who had no other object in view than their real good. What
attention
then
ought to be paid to the Bible! It is the word of the King of
kings. It also contains treasures worth more than thousands of worlds
even the
Gospel of salvation to perishing sinners. Yet
alas! nothing
in general
is
more neglected than the Bible. Or
if it is read
it is only in a formal
manner
as a matter of duty
undertaken in order to work out a supposed
righteousness. The Bible must be searched into as for hidden treasures
by all
that are really anxious for the salvation of their souls; and the glorious
truths it contains must be laid up in the storehouse of the heart.
II. We are
commanded not only to lay up the Word of God in our own hearts
but also to
teach it to the rising generation. “And ye shall teach them your children.” We
have here another melancholy proof of the blindness of the natural man. We see
children taught
indeed
but not taught the Word of God. We see boys taught to
seek after the good things of this life. We see girls taught to adorn their
perishing bodies. But we look around
almost in vain
for those who teach their
children the words of the Lord. All
however
to whom the Word of God is
precious
should teach it to the rising generation.
III. The next
command given is to speak of the words of God
when thou sittest in thine
house
and when thou walkest by the way
when thou liest down
and when thou
risest up. Alas! there is
in general
no subject so completely banished from
conversation as religion. To hear men in their common discourse
we might
suppose that God had commanded His creatures never to talk of His words. And
surely
if the command were given to the Israelites
it is urged with far
greater force upon us
in proportion as the reason is stronger. The Israelites
could only talk of the wonders of creation
of the history of their forefathers
and of the law of Moses--that law which
from its very holiness
is a law of
sin and death to fallen man. But
beside all this
we can talk of the wonders
of redemption
and of the gracious dealings of the Lord with His people in all
ages.
IV. But still
further
the words of God should always be had in remembrance. The text
commands the Israelites to write His words upon the doorposts of their houses.
There might be some reason for this
when printing was unknown
and therefore
copies of the whole Word of God scarce--but that reason exists not now. Through
the mercy of God the whole of His Word may now be in the hands of everyone who
wishes it. We therefore must enter into the spirit of the text. We should have
the precepts and promises of the Bible fastened to the gates of our hearts
to
direct our actions
words
and thoughts.
V. In the close of
our text we are reminded of the encouragement given to obey the command--that
your days may be multiplied
and the days of your children
in the land which
the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them
as the days of heaven upon
earth. Those who govern their lives by the Word of God are the only really
happy people in this world. Faith in Christ delivers believers from the hard
service and bondage of this world
and leads them into the glorious liberty of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (H. Gipps
LL. B.)
Verses 19-21
Teach them your children.
Religious education
I. This is the
simplest notion of education
for undoubtedly he is perfectly educated who is
taught all the will of God concerning him
and enabled through life to execute
it. And he is not well educated who does not know the will of God
or
knowing
it
has received no help in his education towards being inclined and enabled to
do it:
II. The special
thing meant to be taught to the Israelites was a knowledge of God’s statutes
and ordinances
not the Ten Commandments only
nor all the early history of
their forefathers contained in the Book of Genesis
but God’s law given to them
His people
His will respecting them morally and politically
His will with
regard to all the relations of private and public life; all this was laid down
in their law; all this was carefully to be taught them in their youth
that so
in whatsoever line of life they might be thrown
or whatever questions might be
agitated
they might know what was God’s will
and therefore might know and do
their own duty.
III. For the
Israelites the Bible contained both the rule and its application; for us it
contains only the rule. In order
therefore
to instruct our children fully in
God’s will and enable them to execute it
we must bring in some other knowledge
and other studies
not to be found in the Bible
in order to make up for that
part of the Bible which gave this instruction to the Israelites
but which
gives it us no longer. And hence it is clear that neither is the Bible alone
sufficient to give a complete religious education
nor is it possible to teach
history and moral and political philosophy with no reference to the Bible
without giving an education that should be anti-religious. For in the one case
the rule is given without the application; in the other the application is
derived from a wrong rule. (T. Arnold
D. D.)
Parents the divinely appointed teachers of their families
I. The light in
which we ought to regard the family relation. Parents should never forget that
the family is the school in which they are training the men and women of the
future age
from whom the world will gain its votaries
the church its members
heaven its redeemed spirits
and hell its victims
and that their examples are
making impressions which will extend their blissful or baneful influence on
their eternal destiny.
II. The teachers
and their qualifications. Parents are constituted the teachers of their
children by the express appointment of God
and any arrangement that sets aside
this appointment can neither be wise nor safe. As God has thus clearly defined
who are to be the teachers
so He has
in the text
no less clearly pointed out
what are to be their qualifications.
III. The matter and
the manner of the teaching which God has enjoined. Surely nothing is so worthy
of engaging the first recollections of the mind as “the words of God
” nor
anything so important as to have the heart--before it is immersed in the cares
of life--fully brought under the guidance of God
the grace and love of Christ
and the attractions of heaven. And to attain this should elicit the daily
efforts and the daily prayers of the Christian parent
as he sits in his house
or walks by the way
or lies down
or rises up.
IV. The happiness
which may be expected to result from this. There are those who would make us
believe that these
and all similar promises of a temporal nature
which we
meet with under the Old Testament dispensation
have no place under the new.
But so long as it is true that “in the keeping of God’s commands there is a
great reward
” and that “godliness is profitable unto all things
having
promise of the life that now is
as well as of that which is to come
” and that
there is a natural adaptedness in a life of piety to promote the universal
well-being of man
I cannot see how such interpretations of Scripture can be according
to truth. It is quite true
however
that the chief and most glorious part of
“the recompense of reward” is spiritual
and such as can be fully enjoyed only
in the heavenly state. (M. T. Adams.)
The training of children
The most powerful institution that abides today is not the regal
nor the noble; it is not political economy; it is not industry
nor is it the
Church: it is the family
the household.
1. In rearing children
the first step should be in securing health;
and for this sake the requirement is healthy parents. Children that bear the
sins of their fathers are not few
and miserable are they; but taking it for
granted that children are born with fair chances of life
sound in every part
and well-tempered together
the very first parental duty is to secure for them
from year to year
air
exercise
and wholesome food
that they may grow up
healthily. Under this general head of health parents need instruction against
the early forcing of their children. See that your children are kept down to
animal conditions
so that the brain shall not destroy them.
2. Next to health in importance in the family
as well as in order
is obedience. The child is born into a world of infinite subordinations
where
the business of life itself is to suppress one’s self
and to give way here and
there to strength
to social arrangements
to law. There can
therefore
be
nothing less wise in the parent
and nothing less beneficial to the child
than
that questioning
hesitating obedience which finally dragged into an unwilling
submission
the child at last yields; but that is family government
as it is
seen in many households; and wherever you see this--especially if you see it in
your own house--understand that you are bringing up your children to disobey
God
and the magistrate
and their fellow men
by teaching them to disobey you
or to give only a grudging instead of a cheerful and prompt obedience. It may
be said that this is to break the will of the child
and that he needs all the
will he is possessed of with which to fight his way through life. Now it is no
more breaking the will of the child to teach him to obey his father and mother
than it is the breaking of the bones of my arms to teach me exactly how to use
them
or exactly how to hold my hand to the keyboard of a piano. It is merely
teaching the child how to use his will; and without teaching of that kind we
are all brutes and barbarians.
3. We are next to consider that our children are not given to us for
our accommodation and our pleasure. They are not
in one sense
our own
children; they are lent to us; and no trust was ever reposed by king
by noble
by any human being upon another
so august
and of which the responsibilities
are so tremendous
as the trust of a child placed in the hands of fallible
feeble
erring men
to be brought up for his destiny in this life
and in the
life which is to come. These considerations reach backward. The laws of taking
care of our children ought to go back further than the birth of the child
to
antecedent conditions. I do not think that civilisation will ever take its last
flight
or that religion will ever universally prevail
until physiological
laws are observed to the letter.
4. Let me say that I regard a happy Christian family
consisting of
wise parents and dutiful children
dwelling together in love as Eden restored.
I regard the development of love in the family
its impartiality
its
pitifulness to the weak
its watch and care
its patience
its suffering
its
power to suffer
its stern requisition
its discrimination between right and
wrong
its endurance of pain for the objects of its discipline
as the
grandest
and as the only perfect revelation of Divine moral government. (H.
W. Beecher.)
Have the Word of God ready far use
It is a Word directive
explanative
consolatory
inspirational
redemptive. It is God’s spoken wisdom for man’s active guidance. And the wise
man will ponder well these Divine revelations before he sets out
will get a
good grip of heaven’s instructions and promises before passing on to the stress
and strain of conflict. The heart has need to store such things as these in
readiness. They are not easily or readily found if left at one side till
immediately wanted. It is an easier and wiser course for your railway official
to light up his carriages amid broad daylight and before the train starts than
it would be to send a man with flaming torch along the roof of a speeding train
after it had dashed into the darkness of a tunnel. The ship that sails forth
well equipped does not put her lifeboats in the hold because the day is
fine--she carries them taut
furnished
ready fitted for immediate use
prepared beforehand even down to details for any moment’s service. So must we
equip ourselves with Divine wisdom for life’s voyage. “Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly.” Let it be a perpetual remembrance. Its interpretation of
life’s meaning and issue
its solution of the ways of Providence
its new and
chivalrous setting of old moral obligations
its bright-hued promises
above
all its message of grace to the needy soul--let us take a lively realisation of
these truths with us. (C. A. Berry
D. D.)
Aids to memory required
The Hebrew prophet anticipated the difficulty of attaining this
Divine consciousness. Our natural tendency in respect of spiritual verities is
not towards remembrance but forgetfulness. Great emotions
bright visions
hours of keen insight
pass
leaving behind only a vague
occasional
reminiscence. We are alive at so many sensuous points
and there is so much to
be alive to in the intensity of our worldly life
that we easily become
absorbed in what is passing
our thought of the Divine becomes meagre
spasmodic
feebly influential--an occasional jerk
not a constant
steady
regnant force. Moses foresaw this: foresaw
too
that the only way to check
this and to reverse it was to turn the outward into a ministering reminder of
spiritual things. In the first place he asked them to associate everything in
life with the gracious words of God
to turn their surroundings into memory
helps
recalling to the mind the great lessons of heaven. In the next place
observing that men best learn what they oftenest teach
he directed them
in
relation to God’s Word
to follow a course of pupil-teachership
to fix in
themselves by imparting to others the truths and promises of grace. Our first
step towards the perpetual remembrance of Christ is to surround ourselves with
memorials of Him
to put up tokens
symbols
writings
which shall recall past
lessons and experiences. We must use our common sense in this matter. We must
give to the soul at least as many helps as we give to the mind in our efforts
to produce and to fix great impressions. When I go into a schoolhouse I find
the wise teacher calling into the service of his pupils’ memory every sense
with which they are gifted. He is not content to repeat a thing
nor even to
make it clear: he seeks thereafter to set up a sensuous memorial of the thing
taught. Now by a rhyme which captivates the ear
now by a picture or
demonstration which masters the eye
he endeavours to render permanent the
instruction of the hour. Every surrounding of life is thus turned into the
service of the memory. Things are made vocal of ideas. The eye and the ear are
made daily ministers to the intellect and the heart. Memory is built up of
memorials. Every Christian home should be well furnished with memorial writings
and suggestive memory helps. Some vivid experience has lit up for you the full
meaning and graciousness of an old Scripture promise. Put up that promise where
it shall often meet the eye
and through the eye you shall be able to re-awaken
the soul to that old and blessed experience. A blessed answer to family prayer
has saved your home from disaster
has brought back to you a wanderer
has
delivered you from the loss of members or fortune. Set up in the midst of your
household a monument of that great answer. So ought it to be with all the
cardinal truths and promises of the Gospel. But there is suggested another help
to the realisation of Christ’s Word. It is that which springs from teaching to
others what we ourselves have learned. “Teach them your children.” (C. A.
Berry
D. D.)
The young should be valued
Value the young. How precious these germs are! These spring buds
are lovely to look upon
but their worth is greater than their beauty. An
immortal life is opening there; heed it well. Proprietors rear strong fences
round young trees
while they leave the aged forests to take their chance.
Permit not the immortal to be twisted at the very starting of its growth for
the want of such protection as it is in your power to afford. (W. Arnot.)
The mind of a child
The mind of a child is not like that of a grown person
too full
and too noisy to observe everything: it is a vessel always ready to receive
and always receiving. (Mrs. Child.)
Scriptural instruction of children
Charles Dickens once addressed a letter to his son Henry while he
was at college
advising him to keep out of debt and confide all his
perplexities to his father. The letter concluded as follows: “I most strongly
and affectionately impress upon you the priceless value of the New Testament
and the study of that book as the one unfailing guide in life. Deeply
respecting it
and bowing down before the character of our Saviour
you cannot
go very wrong
and will always preserve at heart a true spirit of veneration
and humility. Similarly
I impress upon you the habit of saying a Christian
prayer every night and morning. These things have stood by me all through my
life
and remember that I tried to render the New Testament intelligible to you
and lovable by you when a mere baby. And so God bless you.”
That your days may be
multiplied.
A long life and a happy one
I. That
experimental godliness has a tendency to add length of days to man’s life.
1. Genuine religion engenders and fosters states of mind highly
conducive to physical health.
2. Genuine religion stimulates a practical regard to the laws of
human health.
II. That
experimental godliness has a tendency to add heaven to a man’s life.
1. It gives him the spirit of heaven.
2. It engages in the service of heaven.
3. It introduces into the fellowship of heaven. (Homilist.)
As the days of heaven upon
the earth.--
The days of heaven upon the earth
The text implies a very elevated principle
that we should spend
our days on earth as the days are spent by angels and the spirits of the just
in heaven. And
without doubt
men might be incomparably happier than they are
if they would. There is no hindrance in God; there is no obstacle in the Divine
arrangements; but man destroys his own well-being
and is ofttimes miserable
amid all the opportunities of the sweetest peace and the deepest joy
and when
he might have days of heaven upon the earth.
I. What are the
days of heaven? “No night there.”
1. In heaven they see the face of God. Manifestations of the
excellence and glory of the Divine perfections: satisfying
felicitous
transforming.
2. In heaven they glorify Christ and celebrate His praise.
3. In heaven they are full of knowledge.
4. Full of love.
5. Prompt and perfect in obedience.
Their delight is in doing God’s will; they dwell together in
perfect unity. And from this state of mind and nature unmingled satisfaction
flows
like waters from a fountain. Deep and ineffable happiness is realised.
The pulsations of their joy produce no exhaustion
but forever increase in
pleasantness and power.
II. The possibility
of this
and the duty of attempting to make our days like the days of heaven
whilst we are upon earth.
1. And
first
I would refer to the elements of happiness which have
been already specified. Respecting the spiritual sight of the Deity
our Lord
affirms
“Blessed are the pure in heart
” etc. “The world seeth Me no more
but
ye see Me.” “I will manifest Myself to you
as I do not unto the world.” If you
delight in the complacency of God
be sure that His favour will be opened upon
you as the sun shining in his strength. Then
as to glorifying and praising
Christ; do we not now say
“Unto Him that loved us
” etc.? And have we not love
in exercise? Are we not ready to do the will of God? Do we not dwell in peace?
When the light and fire of the Holy Ghost is given; when our best passions are
kindled
when we are filled with the celestial communications and communion
there is a near resemblance of heaven upon the earth.
2. Let me appeal to some passages of Scripture which convey the same
truth. The Gospel dispensation is the reign of heaven. It is the ascendency of
holiness in the heart and mind. The kingdom of God is within you
and it
consists of righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost.
3. Let us advert to some of the recorded experiences of good men on
the subject. It has been said
“Grace is glory in the bud
and religion in the
soul is the glory of the soul.” “A timorous faith will bring a man safely to
heaven
but a strong and vigorous faith will bring heaven to us now.” And I was
startled by this sentiment: “It is better to be here than in heaven.” Yes
so
long as it shall please God it is so
and to think the contrary shows insubmissiveness
to His will and discontent with His providential arrangements.
III. How may they be
secured to us?
1. Receive the Gospel. Christ is our life; if He and the Father come
and abide in our souls
heaven is begun.
2. Settle the possibility of it in your own mind.
3. Observe the ordinances of Christ.
4. Avoid all known causes of disquietude.
5. Maintain your self-possession. Cultivate tranquility of spirit.
6. Take care of your thoughts.
7. Take care of your tongue.
8. Take care of your conscience.
9. Do not harass yourself concerning the future.
10. Study to be quiet
and to attend to your own business.
11. Do good every day to someone
either by example
instruction
or
generosity. (James Stratten.)
Heaven upon the earth
In this clause extremes meet. Things that are distant are brought
together--“heaven” and “earth.”
1. We know something of the “days . . . upon the earth.” If we told
our story
each would be different from the other; yet there would be a
wonderful sameness. It would be a story of light and shade
beauty and
barrenness
laughter and tears
success and failure.
2. We have dreamed
most of us
of “the days of heaven”; when the
sun
no longer battling with the mists
should shine in the glory of his
brightness; when fleecy clouds
like angel chariots
should fleck the blue
expanse; when all the bustle and riot should be exchanged for unbroken peace
and perpetual quiet; when vision should be no longer blurred by the uprising
vapours of evil.
3. The text speaks to us of realisation
enjoyment
benediction
contentment. It contains the ideas of continuity and felicity
duration and
fulness
or a blending of these ideas.
I. The text finds
a pleasing illustration in happy childhood under kindly parental control.
1. Given all the healthful influences of a home where judicious
training is linked with affectionate yearning; where example is set like a
jewel in a circlet of gold
and the parents are recognised as priest and
priestess of the home sphere: I know no words more fittingly appropriate to describe
that period of life than these
“As the days of heaven upon the earth.”
2. The child’s best interests are secured by obedience and
subjection
and his heaven is found in harmony with the parental will. Then
shall his course be crowded with sunny memories
for his way shall be illumined
by the father’s smile; voices shall cheer him in the darkness; while from day
to day shall be added mercies new and many
the true value of which shall only
be discovered upon review.
II. The text is
suggestive of the new epoch inaugurated at conversion. One summer morning a
lady I knew well went into her garden. She looked up at the blue sky
she gazed
at the trees
she bent over the flowers
she examined everything as though she
had not seen anything of the kind before. Her sister inquired
“Why are you
looking at everything thus?” She replied with a smile
“Well
it is all so very
lovely
and seems so new.” She had been converted the previous evening
and
that was the explanation of her awakened interest and evident admiration.
III. View the text
as the epitome of the grateful soul’s estimate of a life that often seems
anything but heavenly. The point of view makes all the difference in the
estimate of the life of faith on the earth. I read somewhere of one who had moved
into a new flat
which could hardly be described as cheerful in its
surroundings. The outlook was not very pleasant
and the building had not what
the Frenchman called “a sunny exposition.” The ordinary woman would have
regarded it but as a dismal shelter from the frosts of winter or the rains of
summer. A friend called one day
and was asked by the cheerful housewife to
notice the pleasant view from the window. “Yes
” said the friend
“I see a
remarkably fine lot of chimney pots.” “Chimney pots
” said her hostess in
astonishment
--“why
I never saw any chimney pots before. I looked over the
chimneys
and saw only those trees which form the line on the horizon. I
thought only of the trees and the sunsets.” Happy are they who look beyond all
which tends to depress and distress!
IV. The text
singles out the red-letter days in the spiritual experience of those whose
faces are heavenward set. Cannot we recall seasons of elevation
times of
transport
periods of exceptional delight? When thoughtfully reading
when
quietly meditating
when kneeling in prayer
when gathered for worship
when
observing the ordinances with our fellow believers
have we not often been
lifted out of and above ourselves? Such experiences are not to be forgotten.
The record of them must be deeply engraven. (Isaac O. Stalberg.)
Days of heaven upon earth
The text shows us a Divine method in providence; a law for
individual and national life
and for the larger life of the race; a law borne
witness to by the history of the people whose history is a light for all time
and by which we have gleams through experience of bitter times
earnests of the
inheritance of light
periods filled with special mercy and truth
times of
quickening and spiritual growth
days of heaven upon earth.
I. The first days
of the Christian revelation were
in the highest and most absolute sense
days
of heaven upon earth. A light began to shine amid the dark shadows of that
time
and a Divine life to give forth sparks and gleams of a better world. God
was manifest. He dwelt with men. He trod the common paths of life. Brief though
the days were
all the great days of human history which preceded them had led
up to them; and they were themselves
while they lasted
a vision of heaven for
all time
an actual dawn of the possibilities to which Christ is conducting His
Church
a demonstration of the power of that life of Christ in His people
which
today as then
may be an opener of blind eyes
and a raiser of the dead
and may still go forth
as in the first apostles
to conquer the world. Those
days were sent to us to create new days in our daily lives
and enable us
even
amid the shadows and imperfections of our earthly life
to live lives of heaven
upon earth. And these days still return to us. Times of revival are simply
repetitions on a smaller scale of the first days of the Church. The light that
shines upon human life at such times is light from heaven. Christ once more
walks among men
and His presence seems to encompass them wherever they go.
II. The times when
the soul is open to the revelations and offers of Divine life are days of
heaven upon earth. The dawns and sunsets of these days are in the soul itself.
These are the blessed times when the heart is still impressible
when the eyes
of the soul are undimmed
when the conscience is still tender. The soul is face
to face with the claims of God. It has new views of its responsibilities
of
its aims
and of its destiny. Christ’s word and the Spirit of God and our own
conscience work together to range us on the side of God. New visions of the
Divine mercy and goodness are opened up to us
and we are placed under the
argument of the love that died for us
to admit that love into our hearts.
III. The coming of
Christ into a life is the beginning of days of heaven for that life. We are not
our true selves until the blood of the Divine life has been mingled with ours.
In the midst of natural occasions for joy we are not glad. Christ enters and
joy begins. The long absent Friend has come--the life is heightened. The thoughts
flow forth
the nature expands
the eyes kindle
and the whole wide world of
circumstance and relationship takes on our joy.
IV. Times of
service under Christ are days of heaven upon earth. The soul has now entered
into loving relations with the Lord. It is no longer its own
but His. Its joy
is to live in Him. Its life is a daily consecration to His service. Sacrifice
gifts
labours
worship: Christ is the object of them all.
V. The beautiful
days of earth are types and sometimes actual realisations of such days. On such
days every river becomes an emblem of the river of life; every tree
of the
tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; and the glory of the sky
when the dawn burns into the perfect day
of the glory which is to lighten the
streets of the New Jerusalem
and clothe the nations of the saved who shall
walk in its light. I recall at this moment such a day of heaven upon earth.
Here and there
all up the sides of a Highland mountain
patches of corn were
yellowing for the sickle. These literally peeped out
so small they were
from
amid great breadths of purple heather. Little hollows of meadow grass shot up
over their edges the richest green; and
at irregular intervals
the bare rock
displayed itself like protruding bones. The sun was setting. His rays came
level and struck all that breast of colour at once
and seemed to touch it into
active life. It expanded
it swelled
it rose upwards until clouds of colour
floated about all the mountainside. The whole scene glowed with coloured light--yellow
and green and purple. It flamed upwards
outwards
downwards
casting back upon
the naked granite an ethereal brightness
and down upon the spectator a glory
as if the gates of heaven had been opened to his view. It was one among ten
thousand glimpses of the glory of God in the face of harvest. To them who were
present it was a day of heaven upon earth.
VI. Christ is the
light which makes days of heaven possible. And such days fail of their purpose
if they fail to increase our joy in Him. Man in his ordinary state can neither
see nor enjoy such days. He is blinded and oppressed by his burdens--the well
known
the universally felt burdens
which only Christ can remove--of guilt and
care and sorrow. (A. Macleod
D. D.)
Days of heaven
I. When may our
days be said to be “as the days of heaven upon the earth”? When--
1. We enjoy much of a sense of the Divine presence
and live in the
contemplation of the glorious perfections of God.
2. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
3. We enjoy a spirit of gratitude and praise.
4. We possess brotherly love and enjoy the happiness of fellowship
with the saints.
5. We obtain great victories over sin and have intense rove of
purity.
6. We cheerfully obey God’s commands.
7. We frequently meditate on the heavenly state.
II. What course
should we take in order that our days may be as such? We must--
1. Be partakers of vital faith in Christ
and be renewed in the
spirit of our minds.
2. Make the glory of God our highest aim.
3. Wean our hearts from earthly things.
4. Watch against grieving the Holy Spirit.
5. Be perpetually employed for God
and resign our wills to His. (J.
Ryland.)
The spirit of heaven to be infused into the present life
He whose mind is here absorbed in the desire for the distant
heaven is like a man walking through scenes of exquisite loveliness
and fields
of delicious fruit
with his eye so fixed on a mirage scene in the distance
that he sees no beauty on his way
starves amid the exuberant provisions which
lie about his path
and reaches what he sees
an exhausted pilgrim
to find the
object of his search vanish into air. Infuse
then
the spirit of heaven into
thy present life. Moral goodness of soul
springing from faith in Christ
is
your way into the present and all the future heavens of your being. (D.
Thomas
D. D.)
Heaven on earth
It was said of an old Puritan
that heaven was in him before he
was in heaven. That is necessary for all of us--we must have heaven in us
before we get into heaven. If we do not get to heaven before we die
we shall
never get there afterwards. An old Scotchman was asked whether he ever expected
to get to heaven. “Why
man
I live there
” was his quaint reply. Let us all
live in those spiritual things which are the essential features of heaven.
Often go there before yon go to stay there. If you come down tomorrow morning
knowing and realising that heaven is yours
and that you will soon be there
those children will not worry you half so much. When you go out to your
business or to your work
you will not be half so discontented when you know
that this is not your rest
but that you have a rest on the hills eternal
whither your heart has already gone
and that there your portion is in the
everlasting dwellings. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Get a hold of it now. It is
a thing of the future
and it is a thing of the present; and even your part of
it that is future can be
by faith
so realised and grasped as to be actually
enjoyed while you are yet here. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Days of heaven on earth
A minister one day preached on heaven. Next morning he was
going down town
and he met one of his old wealthy members. The brother stopped
the preacher and said: “Pastor
you preached a good sermon about heaven. You
told me all about heaven
but you never told me where heaven is.” “Ah! “said
the pastor
“I am glad of an opportunity this morning. I have just come from
the hill top yonder. In that cottage there is a member of your church. She is
sick in bed with fever; her two little children are sick in the other bed
and
she has not got a bit of coal nor a stick of wood
nor flour
nor sugar
nor
any bread. If you will go down town and buy five shillings’ worth of
things--race provisions--and send them up to her
and then go up there and say
‘My sister
I have brought you these nice provisions in the name of our Lord
and Saviour
’ then ask for a Bible and read the twenty-third Psalm
and get
down on your knees and pray--if you don’t see heaven before you get all
through
I’ll pay the bill. The next morning he said: “Pastor
I saw heaven
and I spent fifteen minutes in heaven as certainly as you are listening.”
A blessing and a curse.
Two mountains
Mount Ebal
we are told
“is a barren
stony
and arid crag”; so
would God “smite the apostates with barrenness
hunger
and misery.” Gerizim
was “covered with luxuriant verdure
streams of running water and cool and
shady groves;” so would God “bless the faithful Israelites with abundance
beauty and peace.” It is a grand prophecy in landscape of the judgments of
God’s eternal providence. Henceforth their future
in the country they conquer
and colonise
is in their own hands. The two ways of national and individual
life
to ruin or to glory
part plainly before their eyes. The things shown in
that early age of symbols were only outward patterns of what goes on in facts
and decisions within us. Gerizim and Ebal raise their significant and speaking
summits before every life.
I. For
in other
words
life is overspread
permeated
and bound in
by God’s law. That law
occupies every inch of its extent and every fibre of its organisation. Obey and
be blessed
disobey and be accursed; here is the sharp alternative imprinted on
every department of our being. Your body
your business
your appetites
your
affections
your intellect
your memory
your judgment
your imagination
your
household manners
your talk at the table and in the street
your practice of
your profession or performance at your trade
your levity or sobriety
your
temper and your tongue
your bargains and your salutations
your correspondence
and your meditation
your action and your reveries
your hands
heart
and
brain
all are penetrated and encircled by this law.
II. This law is
permanent and unchangeable
as its Author is
being the uniform will of an
unchangeable mind; not one thing for preachers and communicants
but for
persons who never chose to confess themselves Christians another and easier
thing; not strict for one seventh of your time and lax for six sevenths; not
varying with situations and fluctuating with opportunities for concealment or
degrees of temptation; not satisfied to be respected in the dwellings at one
end of a city while it is despised in the warehouses and offices at the other
end.
III. Again
the
consequences of this law which we are born and live under
in its two-fold
working
whether as visiting penalties upon its violators or peace and strength
upon its servants--are not to be prevented though they should be apparently
obscured or postponed. This truth requires something more than a theoretic
admission. How many of us realise it--that every offence against the Divine
Will is certain to bring on
at last
its penal pain ant: sorrow--even its
delay aggravating its torment; that every faithful or religious act or feeling
must yield its infallible return of joy--the very hindrance enhancing its
richness and depth; that Gerizim is sure of the fulfilment of its promise
and Ebal
sure of the execution of its warning?
1. Helps enough are given to enable us to realise it. Can we pretend
the law is not made plain?
2. We let our short-sightedness be deceived by the slowness of its
operation; and
because sentence against our evil works is not executed
speedily
suffer our hearts to get set in us to do evil. But the majestic order
of nature is not really so stable as the moral results of moral choice
from
greatest to least.
IV. With every
right-minded Christian it must be a very earnest and very constant prayer
that
he may gain larger and larger apprehensions of the extent and the sanctity of
this law--the law that puts him on a perpetual choosing between holiness and
worldliness
at between blessing and cursing.
V. Another step in
the doctrine is to trace up this commandment to its conscious and personal
infinite source. The law has its seat in the heart of God. No rigid
unfeeling
abstraction is it
but the living Will of a living Father. Choose the right and
scorn the wrong; and there will be growing within you a sense of His Almighty
Presence
without whom no right could be
and all would be wrong. But remember
that moral obedience can never be religious till it has God for its object
God’s Will for its guide
and communion with God for its daily inspiration.
VI. And thus we are
led up by this order of our subject to discover
finally
the positive grandeur
of allegiance to the Divine law. That grandeur is witnessed both by its nature
and its effects.
1. In its nature. For obedience to the commandment is of itself a
noble and valiant element in character. It is no paradox to affirm that the
obedient mind is a commanding mind. The law that carries blessings in its right
hand and curses in its left appeals to a deeper principle than selfishness. The
blessings are not earthly advantages
but those spiritual gifts and honours
like confidence and holiness
love and faith
power and peace
which exclude
all thought of self
and are kindred with the glory and purity of heaven. The
curses are those elements of spiritual ruin--fear
hatred
passion
jealousy
despair
which impoverish the whole moral creation. The law does not reveal its
encouragements and threatenings from Gerizim and Ebal
to make a rich or famous
people
but a holy people.
2. So the effect is holiness of life. The commandment is holy
just
and good; and so must its fruit be. (Bp. F. D. Huntington.)
Practical alternatives
Moses does not divide the people into two classes: he sets before
them alternative courses:--proceed upon the line of obedience
and you come to
blessing; proceed along the line of disobedience
and a curse is the inevitable
necessity--not a threatening
not an exhibition of fretful vengeance
but a
spiritual necessity; a curse follows evil-doing
not as an arbitrary
punishment
but as the effect
which can never be changed
of a certain
positive
operating cause. What if everything round about us be confirming the
testimony of Moses? What if the Decalogue be written every day of the week?
What if in the operation of moral influence it can be distinctly proved that
the Bible is true
that the Word of the Lord abideth forever
and that
whatever changes may have occurred
obedience still leads to blessing
disobedience still leads to cursing
and it is not within the wit or the
strength of man to change that outgoing of law and consequence? A very precious
thing it is that we have only to obey. At first it looks as if we were humbled
by this course of service
but further inquest into the spiritual meaning of
the matter shows us that in the definition of right and wrong
law and
righteousness
God has been most tenderly pitiful towards us
and law is but
the practical and more visible and measurable aspect of love. One who knows the
universe
because He made it
and all eternity
because He inhabits it
has
condescended to tell us what is good
what is true
what is pure
what is
right. If we were inspired by the right spirit we would instantly stand up in
thankfulness and bless the Giver’s name
and ask but one other favour--that we
might have eyes to see the innermost meaning of the law
and hearts trained
disciplined
and sanctified to accept and obey it
and express it in noble
behaviour. Is it true
within limits that we know
that obedience leads to blessing
and disobedience to cursing? Sometimes we have to interrupt the Divine
reasoning that we may assist ourselves in its comprehension by the study of
analogy upon lower ground. Is it true that there is a seed time
which
if
neglected
will be followed by desolation and death?. . .If all these little
outside Bibles are true and can challenge facts to prove their truth
it is not
difficult to rise to the higher level
and to say
There may be a Bible meant
for the soul; there may be a revelation addressed to the reason
and to the
higher reason called faith
and to the higher self called the spirit. This
higher revelation has not the immediate advantage of the lower Bibles
because
they deal with earth
body
space
time
measurable quantities; but the higher
Bible deals with soul
spirit
thought
will
eternity. He who operates within
a radius of a few inches can be
apparently
quicker in his movements
more
precise and determined in his decisions
than the man who claims the globe as
the theatre of his actions. So the Bible
having the disadvantage of dealing
with spiritual quantities
must be judged
so far as we can approach it
by the
spirit of the lower laws
or the laws applying to the lower economy The
argument is this: seeing that in the field
in the body
in the social economy
there is a law of blessing and a law of cursing
who shall say that this same
reasoning does not culminate in a great revelation of heaven
hell; “the right
hand
” “the left hand”; eternal life
everlasting penalty? If the analogies had
been dead against that construction
we might by so much have stood in doubt
and excused ourselves from completeness of service; but every analogy becomes a
preacher: all nature take up her parable and speaks the revelations of her God:
all life beats with a pulse below a pulse
the physical throb being but an
indication of a growing immortality. We stand in a solemn sanctuary. We cannot
get rid of law. The spiritual is a present blessing or a present curse. We
cannot be happy with a bad conscience: it hardens the pillow when we need sleep
most
it upsets all our arrangements
or makes our hand so tremble that we
cannot clutch our own property; and we cannot be unhappy with a good
conscience: without bread we are still in fulness
without employment we are
still inspired by hope
without much earthly charity or largeness of
construction of our motive and force we still retire within the sanctuary of an
approved judgment and conscience. Blessing is not a question of posthumous
realisation
nor is cursing. Heaven is here
and hell in germ
in outline
in
hint
in quick
burning suggestion. Even now sometimes men know not whether
they are in the body or out of the body by reason of religious entrancement and
ecstasy; and there are men who
if they dare put their feeling into words
would say
“The pains of hell gat hold upon me.” “There is no peace
saith my
God
to the wicked”; “Though hand join in band
the wicked shall not be
unpunished”; “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Who can fight God and win
the battle? (J. Parker
D. D.)
The blessing and the curse
1. What is the blessing set before us? The blessing of him whose sins
are forgiven
who lives in God’s favour and dies in peace.
2. What is the curse? Just this
“The soul that sins shall die.”
“Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written
” etc.
3. What is the way to escape the curse? By the death of Christ we are
delivered from sin
redeemed from the curse
and by His obedience entitled to a
blessing.
4. Which will you choose? Some people think they can make a
compromise; that they need not be intensely Christian
as they are not
and
will not be intensely worldly. If they do so
it is not really an alteration of
their state
but a deception of themselves. You must take the sunshine or the
shadow--the evil or the good--the “Come
ye blessed
inherit the kingdom”; or
the withering sentence
“Depart
ye cursed
into everlasting fire.” (J. C.
Cumming
D. D.)
Ye shall pass over Jordan.
Jordan and Canaan typical of death and heaven
I. The anticipated
inheritance.
1. A land of promise.
2. A land of abundance.
3. A holy land.
4. A land of rest.
5. Permanence of residence.
6. A land freely given.
II. The manner of
possession.
1. The streams of Jordan rolled between the desert and the land of
Canaan. So does the river of death flow between earth and heaven.
2. Jordan separated the Israelites from the inhabitants of Canaan.
Death separates the church militant and the church triumphant. On this side is
a parent
on the other side a child.
3. Jordan was subject to the command of God. When He gave the word
the waters rose and stood up (Joshua 3:16). Death
too
is under His
control. Christ “destroyed him who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
4. Through Jordan was a necessary way to the laud of promise. So is
death
however painful and affecting. It is necessary that the river of death
should be dark and formidable to render us content with the present state of
existence.
5. Jordan was the last river they had to pass. Death will be the last
conflict--the last enemy with which the saint will have to struggle. Observe
that when the children of Israel passed over Jordan the following things were
observable.
Application:
1. The possession of the heavenly inheritance is certain: “Ye shall
possess it.” “Faithful is He who hath promised it
who also will do it.”
2. Meditate much on heaven and Christ as an important means of
inducing to preparation for the last conflict.
3. All sinners will be overwhelmed in the swellings of Jordan. (Helps
for the Pulpit.)
Observe to do.
Obedience to the Divine commands
I. It is a breach
of the injunction in the text for any man to substitute any contrivance or
invention of his own
in the room of that which God hath prescribed in His
worship
when such prescription is plain and express.
II. By virtue of
the injunction in the text
we are bound to take heed
that we do not interpret
any portion of Scripture
to such a sense as to pervert it from its true
meaning and intention.
III. By these words
we are strictly prohibited from pretending that anything is a Divine command
which is really not so.
IV. But though we
must not add anything to the Word of God
or detract anything from it
pretending that any such alteration is of Divine appointment
yet where the
Lord hath not spoken
I mean in such things as may be left to human prudence
and discretion
the lawful magistrates
and the governors of the Church
lawfully appointed
have an undoubted right to order and appoint such
observances as are necessary and convenient for edification and external
decorum in the public worship; and to take care that everything be done
decently and in order; and so far as their commands are not in opposition or
contrary to the Word of God
it becomes the duty of their people to comply with
them. (Alex. Grant
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》