On Friday evening Mr. Eardley, in the cottage of Holdich, went on with
the history which he had chosen as his theme.
LECTURE III.—FAITH IN OBEDIENCE.
We are to-day to examine faith in a further state of development. If only
the green leaves of hope appear, if—as with the barren fig-tree in the
parable—there be no fruit, or promise of fruit, hope itself becomes but
self-deception. _Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which
I say?_ asked the Saviour; _If ye love Me, keep My commandments._ Faith
must blossom into obedience, as we see the fruit-trees in our orchards
now bursting into brightness and beauty. Yes; obedience is the blossom,
and the essence of its fragrance, _self-denial_. In heaven obedience
is ever a source of delight; but in a world of sin like this, it must,
sooner or later, involve a sacrifice of the human will to the divine.
Sweet to our Lord is the fragrance which rises like incense when the
lips of his servant—tempted and tried—can echo the words once breathed
from His own to His Father in heaven, _Not as I will, but as Thou wilt_.
Gideon had received a promise from the Lord: it was linked, as God’s
promises ever are, with a command. That night the Lord thus spake to the
son of Joash: “Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock
of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father
hath, and cut down the grove that is by it; and build an altar unto the
Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take
the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the
grove which thou shalt cut down.”
Many difficulties lay in the way of the execution of such a command,
and obedience to it must be fraught with great danger. We should not
have marvelled had we found that Gideon had pleaded to be spared a part
at least of the painful task assigned him. He was not of the tribe to
which pertained the service of the sanctuary; he had, under ordinary
circumstances, no right to offer such a sacrifice to God. His own
father was an idolater: was it for Gideon to destroy what a parent had
set up, to draw down upon himself, as might be expected, the severe
displeasure of that parent, and perhaps involve Joash in the peril to
which he himself would be certainly exposed? Then—as Gideon might have
anxiously reflected—as it would be impossible for him by the strength of
his single right hand to cut down a grove, destroy an altar, and build
another as God had commanded, where was he to find comrades trusty enough
and bold enough to help in the perilous work?
Gideon is not represented in the sacred narrative as a man likely to
rush heedlessly upon an enterprise of difficulty and danger, and such
thoughts as I have suggested are likely to have passed through his mind.
They would have led many in his place to frame excuses, or at least
to interpose delays. But we hear not of Gideon doing either. A direct
command had been given; simple, unquestioning obedience followed. Gideon
took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him.
Conscious of danger to be apprehended, not only from the Midianites and
the men of his own city, but even from the household of his father, the
son of Joash chose the night-time to accomplish his task. Under the
cover of darkness, when other eyes were closed in sleep, Gideon and his
companions felled the trees of the grove, cast down the altar of Baal,
and raised another to Israel’s God. They led thither the appointed
sacrifice, slew the bullock, and set fire to the wood, from whence the
smoke of the burnt-offering rose towards heaven. That was a busy, an
eventful, and must have been an anxious night to Gideon. By so decisive
an act, he had indeed drawn the sword and thrown the scabbard away.
[Illustration: THE ALTAR RAISED.]
The deed was done, the match was laid to the train, and Gideon must have
awaited in anxious expectation the explosion which was certain to follow.
The morning’s light revealed the work of the night; the idolatrous men
of the city beheld the altar of Baal laid low in the dust, and from
mouth to mouth passed the question, “Who hath done this thing?” If
Gideon had entertained any hope of concealment, that hope was a brief
one; either one of his comrades had turned informer, or some lurking spy
had witnessed his act, or, as seems more probable, he had already won
such a character for uncompromising fidelity to his God, that suspicion
instantly fixed upon him as the man who had dared to cut down the grove,
and destroy the idol-altar. “Gideon, the son of Joash, hath done this
thing.”
Then rose the furious cry for blood from the enraged worshippers of Baal.
They demanded the life of the man who had dared to insult their god.
The Almighty raised up a protector for Gideon. It was the altar of an
idolatrous father which he had cast down, and we might have expected the
fury of Joash to have been turned against him; but the hearts of all men
are in the hand of the Lord, and we find Joash suddenly in the character
of a defender of his son’s bold act. Many a prayer may have risen from
the depth of Gideon’s soul when he beheld his father, a descendant of
Abraham, debasing himself by worshipping Baal. His own noble deed seems
to have had the effect of opening the eyes of his parent to the folly of
bowing down to an idol that could not protect his shrine from insult.
With spirit and courage Joash faced those who would have sacrificed to
vengeance the life of his son. “Will ye plead for Baal?” he cried; “will
ye save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst
it is yet morning; if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one
hath cast down his altar!” and Joash called Gideon Jerubbaal, “let Baal
plead,” in mockery of the false god to whom he himself had once bowed
down.
We are not directly told what was the effect of Joash’s speech on the
men of his city, Abiezer, but we can easily gather what it was from the
recorded fact that on Gideon’s blowing a trumpet they were the first to
rally around him; they who had demanded his blood now acknowledged him as
their leader. A spirit of patriotism appears to have been suddenly roused
in Israel, and the people, in throwing off the bonds of superstition
and idolatry, rose also to shake off the fetters of their earthly
oppressors. Messengers were sent by Gideon throughout Manasseh, and to
Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali. From the slopes of Hermon and Tabor, from
the shores of the Lake of Gennesareth, from the banks of the Jordan,
from that northern portion of Canaan in which, in after times, the
Saviour spent the years of His boyhood, hastened the liberators of Israel
at the call of their Heaven-appointed chief. Nor was the enemy idle.
The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the East gathered
together, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. That valley and the
country adjacent are full of historical associations of deep interest.
Jezreel appears to have been in the centre of the great plain of
Esdraelon, or Megiddo, which is bounded on the north by the mountains of
Galilee, on the south by those of Samaria, and in which flow the water of
Kishon, “that ancient river” which swept away Sisera’s hosts. Well might
the triumphant song of Deborah here recur to Gideon, to brace up his soul
for the coming conflict. He saw around him the warriors of Zebulon and
Naphtali, the tribes who, under Barak, _jeoparded their lives unto the
death in the high places of the field_. Joash himself may have been one
of the heroes who had _willingly offered themselves_ to oppose the might
of Sisera, and may have heard from the lips of the prophetess the strain
of triumph which closed with the words, _So let all Thine enemies perish,
O Lord: but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in
his might_.
And now we behold the young Manassite, who was so lately threshing corn
alone by the wine-press to hide it, a general at the head of an army of
thirty-two thousand men. Such success, such a blessing had followed on
faith shown in obedience! And here let us leave Gideon, and apply to
ourselves the lesson conveyed in his marvellous story.
Every command of our heavenly Master, my brethren, is as a
treasure-casket, to be opened by the key of obedience grasped in the
hand of faith. The casket may to our eyes look hard and repulsive, the
tempter may seek to persuade us that we shall either find it empty, or
filled with bitterest gall. But _wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and
He shall exalt thee. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He
addeth no sorrow with it._ Look at Noah, employed during _a hundred and
twenty years_, amidst the mocking and scorn of a most wicked generation,
in building an enormous ark in obedience to God’s command. What did he
find at last in it to reward his labour of patience, his obedience of
faith. Present deliverance from death for himself and his family, and
the sceptre of a renovated world! Remember Abraham and his anguish when
he received the mysterious command to sacrifice his son—the son whom
he tenderly loved. Did not the tempter urge him in that awful hour to
cast away his obedience, to turn from a command which to human nature
appeared so hard? The hand of faith might tremble, but it refused not the
awful task; and what lay enclosed within the dreaded command? A treasure
compared to which earth’s crowns are but baubles, and all its riches
dust. The promise of a Saviour to spring from Abraham’s line, in whom all
the families of the earth should be blessed!
We also have before us commands enclosing blessings reserved for those
to whom grace is given to obey God’s will through the power of faith. In
the difficult task appointed for Gideon we may trace an emblem of that
set before every individual who bears the name of Christian. There is
first the altar of Baal to be thrown down; _self_ must be dethroned from
its shrine, the heart’s idolatry must be renounced; and who can say that
to yield up self-will is not as difficult a duty as that which Gideon
performed on that eventful night at Ophrah? There is also the grove to be
cut down, a type of those things lawful and even beautiful in themselves,
but which become to us snares if they stand in the way of duty, if they
hide from us heaven’s light. God hath given to us all things richly to
enjoy; but if the gifts make us forget the Giver, if they cause us to
neglect appointed duties, they are as the goodly trees by the altar of
Baal, whose wood was to be used as fuel, and not reserved for shade.
Thirdly, there is the altar to be raised, the appointed sacrifice to be
offered. I need scarcely remind you, my friends, that in this sacrifice
there is _nothing of atonement_—the blood of Christ, and that _alone_,
has power to cleanse from sin, or to reconcile the sinner to God; yet
is the Christian permitted, yea, _commanded_, to offer himself a living
sacrifice, _holy, acceptable unto God_. As Gideon was not of the priestly
tribe, and yet was given special grace to perform the priestly office,
so the Lord deigns to make of His ransomed servants _a royal priesthood_
as well as _a peculiar people_. Christ’s sacrifice was the Sacrifice of
Atonement; the sacrifice of His saints is that of thanksgiving. _The
offering of a free heart will I give Thee, O Lord, and praise Thy name._
To each one amongst us to whom a present Saviour has been revealed by
faith, the word of the Lord hath come as to the son of Joash. We may
have rejoiced in the _promise_, but have we obeyed the command? Let
us be honest with ourselves, my brethren; if the altar of Baal be yet
standing, can we hope to drive the Midianites out of the land? Faith, if
_real_, must appear in obedience; _show me thy faith without thy works,
and I will show thee my faith by my works_, saith the inspired apostle.
I commend the subject to your earnest attention. Let each search and
try his own heart, and compare his life with the law of his God. Let
each remember that even _every thought_ must be brought captive to the
obedience of Christ, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, without whom we
can do nothing pleasing to the Lord. I cannot better close our meditation
on this subject than by repeating the words of our Redeemer in His Sermon
on the Mount:—_Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And
every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall
be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it._
[Illustration]