xxv. 10. _For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord
rest._
"Rest!" As a father's hand on the head of his first-born, blessing
and protecting his child. That mountain is impregnable which rests
under the shadow of God's hand.
+I. Of every enterprise we should ask, "Is it right?"+ If wickedness
be in "the mountain," God's protecting hand will not rest upon it. A
just cause creates a good conscience, and hence inspires strength. It
is only the just man who feels that God "teaches his hands to war and
his fingers to fight, so that a bow of steel is broken by his arms."
"The righteous is bold as a lion." The good man can patiently wait
and confidently expect God's blessing (James v. 7).
+II. Material force allied with injustice will eventually become weak
as straw, vile as a dung-heap.+ The strong places of Moab had no
inherent lastingness, because built in a godless spirit (Ps.
cxxvii. 1).
+III. Forts and castles, ironclads and armies, can never save an
unrighteous nation from decay.+ National selfishness, oppressive
enterprises, weaken the strongest defences, corrupt the richest
treasurers. Babylon became a marsh, Nineveh a forsaken mound, Tyre a
deserted rock. In the Colosseum at Rome where martyrs bled, the fox,
the bat, and the owl now make their home. The walls of Moab were
levelled with the dust. By justice only can peoples be strong. If God
be in the city, its walls will be lasting as the hills.--_William
Parkes._