'And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that
Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be
scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee.
36. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto
the many thousands of Israel.'--Num. x. 35, 36.
The picture suggested by this text is a very striking and vivid one. We
see the bustle of the morning's breaking up of the encampment of
Israel. The pillar of cloud, which had lain diffused and motionless
over the Tabernacle, gathers itself together into an upright shaft, and
moves, a dark blot against the glittering blue sky, the sunshine
masking its central fire, to the front of the encampment. Then the
priests take up the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, and fall
into place behind the guiding pillar. Then come the stir of the
ordering of the ranks, and a moment's pause, during which the leader
lifts his voice--'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, and
let them that hate Thee flee before Thee.' Then, with braced resolve
and confident hearts, the tribes set forward on the day's march.
Long after those desert days a psalmist laid hold of the old prayer and
offered it, as not antiquated yet by the thousand years that had
intervened. 'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered,' prayed
one of the later psalmists; 'let them that hate Him flee before Him.'
We, too, in circumstances so different, may take up the immortal though
ancient words, on which no dimming rust of antiquity has encrusted
itself, and may, at the beginnings and the endings of all our efforts
and of each of our days, and at the beginning and ending of life
itself, offer this old prayer--the prayer which asked for a divine
presence in the incipiency of our efforts, and the prayer which asked
for a divine presence in the completion of our work and in the rest
that remaineth.
I. So, then, if we put these two petitions together, I think we shall
see in them first, a pattern of that realisation of, and aspiration
after, the divine Presence, which ought to fill all our lives.
'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.'
But was not that moving pillar the token that God had risen? And was
not the psalmist who reiterated Moses' prayer asking for what had been
done before he asked it? Was not the ark the symbol of the divine
Presence, and was not its movement after the pillar a pledge to the
whole host of Israel that the petition which they were offering,
through their leader's lips, was granted ere it was offered? Yes. And
yet the present God would not manifest His Presence except in response
to the desire of His servants; and just because the ark was the symbol,
and that moving column was the guarantee of God's being with the host
as their defence, therefore there rose up with confidence this prayer,
'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered.'
That twofold attitude, the realisation of, and therefore the aspiration
after, the divine gifts, which are given before they are desired, but
are not appropriated and brought into operation in our lives unless
they are desired, is precisely the paradox of the Christian life.
Having, we long for, and longing, we have, and because we possess God
we pray, 'Oh! that we might possess Thee.' The more we long, the more
we receive. But unless He gave Himself in anticipation of our longing,
there would be neither longing nor reception. Only on condition of our
desiring to have Him does He flow into our lives, victorious and
strength-giving, and the more we experience that omnipotent might and
calming, guiding nearness, the more assuredly we shall long for it.
Let us then, dear brethren, blend these two things together, for indeed
they are inseparable one from the other, and there can be no real
experience in any depth of the one of them without the other. Blessed
be God! there need be no long interval of waiting between sowing the
seed of supplication and reaping the harvest of fruition. That process
of growth and reaping goes on with instantaneous rapidity. 'Before they
call I will answer,' for pillar and ark were there ere Moses opened his
lips; and 'while they are yet speaking I will hear,' for, in response
to the cry, the host moved triumphantly, guarded through the
wilderness. So it may be, and ought to be, with each of us.
In like manner, coupling these two petitions together, and taking them
as unitedly covering the whole field of life in their great antitheses
of work and rest, effort and accomplishment, beginning and ending,
morning and evening, we may say that here is an example, to be
appropriated in our own lives, of that continuous longing and
realisation which will encircle all life as with a golden ring, and
make every part of it uniform and blessed. To begin, continue, and end
with God is the secret of joyful beginning, of patient continuance, and
of triumphant ending. There is no reason in heaven, though there are
hosts of excuses on earth, why there should not be, in the case of each
of us, an absolutely continuous and uninterrupted sense of being with
God. O brethren! that is a stage of Christian experience high above the
one on which most of us stand. But that is our fault, and not the
necessity of our condition. Let us lay this to heart, that it is
possible to have the pillar always guiding our march, and possible to
have it stretching, calm and motionless, over all our hours of rest.
II. Now, if, turning from the lessons to be drawn from these two
petitions, taken in conjunction, we look at them separately, we may say
that we have here an example of the spirit in which we should set
ourselves, day by day, and at each new epoch and beginning, be it
greater or smaller, to every task.
There are truths that underlie that first prayer, 'Rise up, Lord, and
let Thine enemies be scattered,' which are of perennial validity, and
apply to us as truly as to these warriors of God in the wilderness long
centuries ago. The first of them is that the divine Presence is the
source of all energy, and of successful endeavour after, and
accomplishment of, any duty. The second of them is that that presence
is, as I have been saying, granted, in its operative power, only on
condition of its being sought. And the third of them is that I have a
right to identify my enemies with God's only on condition that I have
made His cause mine. When Moses prayed, 'Let Thine enemies be
scattered,' he meant by these the hostile nomad tribes that might ring
Israel round, and come down like a sandstorm upon them at any moment.
What right had he to suppose that the people whose lances and swords
threatened the motley host that he was leading through the wilderness
were God's enemies? Only this right, that his host had consented to be
God's soldiers, and that they having thus made His enemies theirs, He,
on His part, was sure to make their enemies His. We are often tempted
to identify our foes with God's, without having taken the preliminary
step of having so yielded ourselves to be His servants and instruments
for carrying forward His will, as that our own wills have become a
vanishing quantity, or rather have been ennobled and greatened in
proportion as they have been moulded in submission to His. We must take
God's cause for ours, in all the various aspects of that phrase. And
that means, first of all, that we make our own perfecting into the
likeness of Jesus Christ the main aim of our own lives and efforts. It
means, further, the putting ourselves bravely and manfully on the side
of right and truth and justice, in all their forms. Above all, it means
that we give ourselves to be God's instruments in carrying on His great
purposes for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ. If we do
these things, whatever obstacles may arise in our paths, we may be sure
that these are God's antagonists, because they are antagonists to God's
work in and by us.
Only in so far as they are such, can you pray, 'Let them flee before
Thee!' Many of the things that we call our enemies come to us
disguised, and are mistaken by our superficial sight, and we do not
know that they are friends. 'All things work together for good to them
that love God.' And, when we desire His Presence, the hindrances to
doing His will--which are the only real enemies that we have to
fight--will melt away before His power, 'as wax melteth' before the
ardours of the fire; and, for the rest, the distresses, the
difficulties, the sorrows, and all the other things that we so often
think are our foes, we shall find out to have been our friends. Make
God's cause yours, and He will make your cause His.
That applies to the great things of life, and to the little things. I
begin my day's work some morning, perhaps wearied, perhaps annoyed with
a multiplicity of trifles which seem too small to bring great
principles to bear upon them. But do you not think there would be a
strange change wrought in the petty annoyances of every day, and in the
small trifles of which all our lives, of whatever texture they are,
must largely be composed, if we began each day and each task with that
old prayer, 'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered'? Do you
not think there would come a quiet into our hearts, and a victorious
peace to which we are too much strangers? If we carried the assurance
that there is One that fights for us, into the trifles as well as into
the sore struggles of our lives, we should have peace and victory. Most
of us will not have many large occasions of trial and conflict in our
career; and, if God's fighting for us is not available in regard to the
small annoyances of home and daily life, I know not for what it is
available. 'Many littles make a mickle,' and there are more deaths in
skirmishes than in the field of a pitched battle. More Christian people
lose their hold of God, their sense of His presence, and are beaten
accordingly, by reason of the little enemies that come down on them,
like a cloud of gnats in a summer evening, than are defeated by the
shock of a great assault or a great temptation, which calls out their
strength, and sends them to their knees to ask for help from God.
So we may learn from this prayer the spirit of expectance of victory
which is not presumption, and of consecration, which alone will enable
us to pass through life victorious. 'Be of good cheer,' said the
Master, as if in answer to this prayer in its Christian form--'I have
overcome the world.' We turn to the helmed and sworded Figure that
stands mysteriously beside us whilst we are all unaware of His coming,
and the swift question that Joshua put rises to our lips, 'Art Thou for
us or for our adversaries?' The reply comes, 'Nay! but as Captain of
the Lord's host am I come up.' That is Christ's answer to the prayer,
'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.'