ix. 17. _Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their
young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and
widows._
From one point of view, this is a terrible text! it shows us that a
people may arrive at such a condition of desperate and incorrigible
wickedness, that God may feel constrained, as the upholder of truth
and righteousness in the world, to destroy them. But, on the other
hand, how worthy of thought and thanksgiving is this revelation of
God's _constant_ feelings towards two very opposite classes of
persons--those who are most joyful, and those who are most sorrowful.
+I. God's feelings toward young men.+ He has "joy" in them, a fact of
which young men seldom think. Doubtless He has joy in them,
1. because of what they are; and 2. because of what they may become.
He has this joy in them as their Creator. The great Artist has a
delight in all His works (Gen. i. 31; Prov. viii. 31). Young men are
a realisation, more or less perfect, of a thought, an ideal in the
Divine mind. Strength and comeliness of body, courage and vivacity of
mind, modesty and generosity of heart, are the ideal characteristics
of a young man, and precisely as they are actually found in any young
man, God has "joy" in him, just as He has joy in the strength of the
horse, the beauty of the swan, or the melody that is poured forth by
the lark or the nightingale. We frequently see a young man who is
obviously a glorious work of God; and had not sin so terribly cursed
and marred our race, all young men would have been such as the
British youths whose beauty called forth the old pleasant jest, "Not
Angles but angels."
All this is, of course, equally true of young women. For the Bible is
in this respect to be interpreted like our English laws, concerning
which it is decreed that the word "man" shall mean "woman" also in
all cases in which nature herself does not forbid such an
interpretation. A young woman is more than a pleasing mass of flesh
and blood; she is a realisation of a thought of God, a work of the
unseen Artist, to whom all that is beautiful in the universe owes its
existence.[1] Many a young woman is so beautiful that the human
artist counts himself happy indeed if he can make on the canvas any
fair transcript of her loveliness; and, what is better still, the
beautiful body is but a casket in which a more beautiful body is
enshrined.
Young men and women, think of this--God delights in you! What effects
will a realisation of this thought have upon you? 1. _It will check
that vanity by which the strength of the young man and the beauty of
the young woman are often so pitifully marred_ (1 Cor. iv. 7). 2. _It
will cause you to reverence yourselves._ Those who think that no one
cares for them, are apt not to care for themselves; but consciousness
that we are observed leads us to circumspection and self-control. If
the observation be friendly and approving, it is a stimulus to
endeavour to merit it. Respect kindles self-respect. Remembering how
God looks upon you, you will shrink from doing anything that will
lessen His "joy" in you; you will not voluntarily permit faults or
vices to mar the nobleness and beauty that call it forth, any more
than the roses, if they had power of self-defence, would give a
lodgment to those insects which blight the beauty that causes
beholders to joy in them. 3. _Kindly, loving feelings toward God will
spring up in you._ Friendliness and love tend to call forth
friendship and love; just as the sunshine and rain that in early
summer descend from the natural heavens cause flowers to spring forth
from the earth.
Consider what joy God must have had in the young man Jesus of
Nazareth, and why He had it, and resolve that the same causes for
this Divine joy shall exist in you.
+II. God's feelings towards orphans and widows.+ "Mercy on their
fatherless and widows." A more familiar thought, but let us not
therefore overlook its preciousness. How frequent and how emphatic
are the declarations of God's pity for the orphans and widows (Exod.
xxii. 22; Deut. x. 18; Ps. x. 14, 18; lxviii. 5; lxxxii. 3; cxlvi. 9;
Jer. xlix. 11, &c.) Yea, we are taught that at least one-half of
religion consists in being like God in this respect (Jas. i. 27).
God's pity is practical; let those to whom it is promised trust in it
confidently.[2] And let God's people make it their business--put
themselves to pain and trouble--to be like Him in this respect:
_this_ is the way to secure His favour for themselves.