over wrong, their faint longing for the right to a spiritual presence
within them and a Divine working. The Unseen appears so remote, man
appears so shut off from intercourse with any supernatural Cause or
Source that he fails to link his own strain of thought with the Eternal.
The word of God is nigh him even in his heart, God is "closer to him
than breathing, nearer than hands and feet." Hope, courage, will,
life--these are Divine gifts, but he does not know it. Even in our
Christian times the old error which makes God external, remote, entirely
aloof from human experience survives and is more common than true faith.
We conceive ourselves separated from the Divine, with springs of
thought, purpose and power in our own being, whereas there is in us no
absolute origin of power moral intellectual or physical. We live and
move in God: He is our Source and our Stay, and our being is shot
through and through with rays of the Eternal. The prophetic word spoken
in our ear is not more assuredly from God than the pure wish or
unselfish hope that frames itself in our minds or the stern voice of
conscience heard in the soul. As for the trouble into which we fall,
that too, did we understand aright, is a mark of God's providential
care. Would we err without discipline? Would we be ineffective and have
no bracing? Would we follow lies and enjoy a false peace? Would we
refuse the Divine path to strength yet never feel the sorrow of the
weak? Are these the proofs of God's presence our ignorance would desire?
Then indeed we imagine an unholy one, an unfaithful one upon the throne
of the universe. But God has no favourites; He does not rule like a
despot of earth for courtiers and an aristocracy. In righteousness and
for righteousness, for eternal truth He works, and for that His people
must endure.
"Jehovah is with thee:" so ran the salutation. Gideon thinking of
Jehovah does not wonder to hear His name. But full of doubts natural to
one so little instructed he feels himself bound to express them: "Why is
all this evil befallen us? Hath not Jehovah cast us off and delivered us
into the hand of Midian?" Unconstrainedly, plainly as man to man Gideon
speaks, the burdensome thought of his people's misery overcoming the
strangeness of the fact that in a God-forsaken land any one should care
to speak of things like these. Yet momentarily as the conversation
proceeds there grows in Gideon's soul a feeling of awe, a new and
penetrating idea. The look fastened upon him conveys beside the human
strain of will a suggestion of highest authority; the words, "Go in this
thy might and save Israel, have not I sent thee?" kindle in his heart a
vivid faith. Laid hold of, lifted above himself, the young man is made
aware at last of the Living God, His presence, His will. Jehovah's
representative has done his mediatorial work. Gideon desires a sign; but
his wish is a note of habitual caution, not of disbelief, and in the
sacrifice he finds what he needs.
Now, why insist as some do on that which is not affirmed in the text?
The form of the narrative must be interpreted: and it does not require
us to suppose that Jehovah Himself, incarnate, speaking human words, is
upon the scene. The call is from Him, and indeed Gideon has already a
prepared heart, or he would not listen to the messenger. But seven times
in the brief story the word _Malakh_ marks a commissioned servant as
clearly as the other word Jehovah marks the Divine will and revelation.
After the man of God has vanished from the hill swiftly, strangely,
in the manner of his coming, Gideon remains alive to Jehovah's
immediate presence and voice as he never was before. Humble and
shrinking--"forasmuch as I have seen the angel of the Lord face to
face"--he yet hears the Divine benediction fall from the sky, and
following that a fresh and immediate summons. Whether from the
tabernacle at Shiloh an acknowledged prophet came to the brooding
Abiezrite, or the visitor was one who concealed his own name and haunt
that Jehovah might be the more impressively recognised, it matters not.
The angel of the Lord made Gideon thrill with a call to highest duty,
opened his ears to heavenly voices and then left him. After this he felt
God to be with himself.
"The Lord looked upon Gideon and said, Go in this thy might and save
Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?" It was a summons
to stern and anxious work, and the young man could not be sanguine. He
had considered and re-considered the state of things so long, he had so
often sought a way of liberating his people and found none that he
needed a clear indication how the effort was to be made. Would the
tribes follow him, the youngest of an obscure family in Manasseh? And
how was he to stir, how to gather the people? He builds an altar,
Jehovah-shalom; he enters into covenant with the Eternal in high and
earnest resolution, and with a sudden flash of prophet sight he sees the
first thing to do. Baal's altar in the high place of Ophrah must be
overthrown. Thereafter it will be known what faith and courage are to be
found in Israel.
It is the call of God that ripens a life into power, resolve,
fruitfulness--the call and the response to it. Continually the Bible
urges upon us this great truth, that through the keen sense of a close
personal relation to God and of duty owing to Him the soul grows and
comes to its own. Our human personality is created in that way and in no
other. There are indeed lives which are not so inspired and yet appear
strong; an ingenious resolute selfishness gives them momentum. But this
individuality is akin to that of ape or tiger; it is a part of the
earth-force in yielding to which a man forfeits his proper being and
dignity. Look at Napoleon, the supreme example in history of this
failure. A great genius, a striking character? Only in the carnal
region, for human personality is moral, spiritual, and the most
triumphant cunning does not make a man; while on the other hand from a
very moderate endowment put to the glorious usury of God's service will
grow a soul clear, brave and firm, precious in the ranks of life. Let a
human being, however ignorant and low, hear and answer the Divine
summons and in that place a man appears, one who stands related to the
source of strength and light. And when a man roused by such a call feels
responsibility for his country, for religion, the hero is astir.
Something will be done for which mankind waits.
But heroism is rare. We do not often commune with God nor listen with
eager souls for His word. The world is always in need of men, but few
appear. The usual is worshipped; the pleasure and profit of the day
occupy us; even the sight of the cross does not rouse the heart. Speak,
Heavenly Word! and quicken our clay. Let the thunders of Sinai be heard
again, and then the still small voice that penetrates the soul. So shall
heroism be born and duty done, and the dead shall live.
XI.
_GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER._
JUDGES vi. 15-32.
"The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour:"--so has the
prophetic salutation come to the young man at the threshing-floor of
Ophrah. It is a personal greeting and call--"with thee"--just what a man
needs in the circumstances of Gideon. There is a nation to be saved, and
a human leader must act for Jehovah. Is Gideon fit for so great a task?
A wise humility, a natural fear have held him under the yoke of daily
toil until this hour. Now the needed signs are given; his heart leaps up
in the pulses of a longing which God approves and blesses. The criticism
of kinsfolk, the suspicious carping of neighbours, the easily affronted
pride of greater families no longer crush patriotic desire and overbear
yearning faith. The Lord is with thee, Gideon, youngest son of Joash,
the toiler in obscure fields. Go in this thy might; be strong in
Jehovah.
But the assurance must widen if it is to satisfy. With me--that is a
great thing for Gideon; that gives him free air to breathe and strength
to use the sword. But can it be true? Can God be with one only in the
land? He seems to have forsaken Israel and sold His people to the
oppressor. Unless He returns to all in forgiveness and grace nothing
can be done; a renewal of the nation is the first thing, and this Gideon
desires. Comfort for himself, freedom from Midianite vexation for
himself and his father's house would be no satisfaction if, all around,
he saw Israel still crushed under heathen hordes. To have a hand in
delivering his people from danger and sorrow is Gideon's craving. The
assurance given to himself personally is welcome because in it there is
a sound as of the beginning of Israel's redemption. Yet "if the LORD be
with us, why then is all this befallen us?" God cannot be with the
tribes, for they are harassed and spoiled by enemies, they lie prone
before the altars of Baal.
There is here an example of largeness in heart and mind which we ought
not to miss, especially because it sets before us a principle often
unrecognised. It is clear enough that Gideon could not enjoy freedom
unless his country was free, for no man can be safe in an enslaved land;
but many fail to see that spiritual redemption in like manner cannot be
enjoyed by one unless others are moving towards the light. Truly
salvation is personal at first and personal at last; but it is never an
individual affair only. Each for himself must hear and answer the Divine
call to repentance; each as a moral unit must enter the strait gate,
press along the narrow way of life, agonize and overcome. But the
redemption of one soul is part of a vast redeeming purpose, and the
fibres of each life are interwoven with those of other lives far and
wide. Spiritual brotherhood is a fact but faintly typified by the
brotherhood of the Hebrews, and the struggling soul to-day, like
Gideon's long ago, must know God as the Saviour of all men before a
personal hope can be enjoyed worth the having. As Gideon showed himself
to have the Lord with him by a question charged not with individual
anxiety but with keen interest in the nation, so a man now is seen to
have the Spirit of God as he exhibits a passion for the regeneration of
the world. Salvation is enlargement of soul, devotion to God and to man
for the sake of God. If anyone thinks he is saved while he bears no
burdens for others, makes no steady effort to liberate souls from the
tyranny of the false and the vile, he is in fatal error. The salvation
of Christ plants always in men and women His mind, His law of life, Who
is the Brother and Friend of all.
And the church of Christ must be filled with His Spirit, animated by His
law of life, or be unworthy the name. It exists to unite men in the
quest and realization of highest thought and purest activity. The church
truly exists for all men, not simply for those who appear to compose it.
Salvation and peace are with the church as with the individual believer,
but only as her heart is generous, her spirit simple and unselfish.
Doubtful and distressed as Gideon was the church of Christ should never
be, for to her has been whispered the secret that the Abiezrite had not
read, how the Lord is in the oppression and pain of the people, in the
sorrow and the cloud. Nor is a church to suppose that salvation can be
hers while she thinks of any outside with the least touch of Pharisaism,
denying their share in Christ. Better no visible church than one
claiming exclusive possession of truth and grace; better no church at
all than one using the name of Christ for privilege and excommunication,
restricting the fellowship of life to its own enclosure.
But with utmost generosity and humaneness goes the clear perception that
God's service is the sternest of campaigns, beginning with resolute
protest and decisive deed, and Gideon must rouse himself to strike for
Israel's liberty first against the idol-worship of his own village.
There stands the altar of Baal, the symbol of Israel's infidelity; there
beside it the abominable Asherah, the sign of Israel's degradation.
Already he has thought of demolishing these, but has never summoned
courage, never seen that the result would justify him. For such a deed
there is a time, and before the time comes the bravest man can only reap
discomfiture. Now, with the warrant in his soul, the duty on his
conscience, Gideon can make assault on a hateful superstition.
The idolatrous altar and false worship of one's own clan, of one's own
family--these need courage to overturn and, more than courage, a
ripeness of time and a Divine call. A man must be sure of himself and
his motives, for one thing, before he takes upon him to be the corrector
of errors that have seemed truth to his fathers and are maintained by
his friends. Suppose people are actually worshipping a false god, a
world-power which has long held rule among them. If one would act the
part of iconoclast the question is, By what right? Is he himself clear
of illusion and idolatry? Has he a better system to put in place of the
old? He may be acting in mere bravado and self-display, flourishing
opinions which have less sincerity than those which he assails. There
were men in Israel who had no commission and could have claimed no right
to throw down Baal's altar, and taking upon them such a deed would have
had short shrift at the hands of the people of Ophrah. And so there are
plenty among us who if they set up to be judges of their fellow-men and
of beliefs which they call false, even when these are false, deserve
simply to be put down with a strong hand. There are voices, professing
to be those of zealous reformers, whose every word and tone are insults.
The men need to go and learn the first lessons of truth, modesty and
earnestness. And this principle applies all round--to many who assail
modern errors as well as to many who assail established beliefs. On the
one hand, are men anxious to uphold the true faith? It is well. But
anxiety and the best of motives do not qualify them to attack science,
to denounce all rationalism as godless. We want defenders of the faith
who have a Divine calling to the task in the way of long study and a
heavenly fairness of mind, so that they shall not offend and hurt
religion more by their ignorant vehemence than they help it by their
zeal. On the other hand, by what authority do they speak who sneer at
the ignorance of faith and would fain demolish the altars of the world?
It is no slight equipment that is needed. Fluent sarcasm, confident
worldliness, even a large acquaintance with the dogmas of science will
not suffice. A man needs to prove himself a wise and humane thinker, he
needs to know by experience and deep sympathy those perpetual wants of
our race which Christ knew and met to the uttermost. Some facile
admiration of Jesus of Nazareth does not give the right to free
criticism of His life and words, or of the faith based upon them. And if
the plea is a rare respect for truth, an unusual fidelity to fact,
humanity will still ask of its would-be liberator on what fields he has
won his rank or what yoke he has borne. Successful men especially will
find it difficult to convince the world that they have a right to strike
at the throne of Him who stood alone before the Roman Pilate and died on
the Cross.
Gideon was not unfit to render high service. He was a young man tried
in humble duty and disciplined in common tasks, shrewd but not arrogant,
a person of clear mind and a patriot. The people of the farm and a good
many in Ophrah had learned to trust him and were prepared to follow when
he struck out a new path. He had God's call and also his own past to
help him. Hence when Gideon began his undertaking, although to attempt
it in broad day would have been rash and he must act under cover of
darkness, he soon found ten men to give their aid. No doubt he could in
a manner command them, for they were his servants. Still a business of
the kind he proposed was likely to rouse their superstitious fears, and
he had to conquer these. It was also sure to involve the men in some
risk, and he must have been able to give them confidence in the issue.
This he did, however, and they went forth. Very quietly the altar of
Baal was demolished and the great wooden mast, hateful symbol of
Astarte, was cut down and split in pieces. Such was the first act in the
revolution.
We observe, however, that Gideon does not leave Ophrah without an altar
and a sacrifice. Destroy one system without laying the foundation of
another that shall more than equal it in essential truth and practical
power, and what sort of deliverance have you effected? Men will rightly
execrate you. It is no reformation that leaves the heart colder, the
life barer and darker than before; and those who move in the night
against superstition must be able to speak in the day of a Living God
who will vindicate His servants. It has been said over and over again
and must yet be repeated, to overturn merely is no service. They that
break down need some vision at least of a building up, and it is the new
edifice that is the chief thing. The world of thought to-day is
infested with critics and destroyers and may well be tired of them. It
is too much in need of constructors to have any thanks to spare for new
Voltaires and Humes. Let us admit that demolition is the necessity of
some hours. We look back on the ruins of Bastilles and temples that
served the uses of tyranny, and even in the domain of faith there have
been fortresses to throw down and ramparts that made evil separations
among men. But destruction is not progress; and if the end of modern
thought is to be agnosticism, the denial of all faith and all ideals,
then we are simply on the way to something not a whit better than
primeval ignorance.
The morning sun showed the gap upon the hill where the symbols had stood
of Baal and Astarte, and soon like an angry swarm of bees the people
were buzzing round the scattered stones of the old altar and the rough
new pile with its smoking sacrifice. Where was he who ventured to rebuke
the city? Very indignant, very pious are these false Israelites. They
turn on Joash with the fierce demand, "Bring out thy son that he may
die." But the father too has come to a decision. We get a hint of the
same nature as Gideon's, slow, but firm when once roused; and if
anything would rouse a man it would be this brutal passion, this sudden
outbreak of cruelty nursed by heathen custom, his own conscience
meanwhile testifying that Gideon was right. Tush! says Joash, will you
plead for Baal? Will you save him? Is it necessary for you to defend one
whom you have worshipped as Lord of heaven? Let him ply his lightnings
if he has any. I am tired of this Baal who has no principles and is good
only for feast-days. He that pleads for Baal, let him be the man to
die.--Unexpected apology, serious too and unanswerable. Conscience that
seemed dead is suddenly awakened and carries all before it. There is a
quick conversion of the whole town because one man has acted decisively
and another speaks strong words which cannot be gainsaid. To be sure
Joash uses a threat--hints something of taking a very short method with
those who still protest for Baal; and that helps conversion. But it is
force against force, and men cannot object who have themselves talked of
killing. By a rapid popular impulse Gideon is justified, and with the
new name Jerubbaal he is acknowledged as a leader in Manasseh.
False religion is not always so easily exposed and upset. Truth may be
so mixed with the error of a system that the moral sense is confused and
faith clings to the follies and lies conjoined with the truth. And when
we look at Judaism in contact with Christianity, at Romanism in contact
with the Protestant spirit, we see how difficult it may be to liberate
faith. The Apostle Paul wielding the weapon of a singular and keen
eloquence cannot overcome the Pharisaism of his countrymen. At Antioch,
at Iconium he does his utmost with scant success. The Protestant
reformation did not so swiftly and thoroughly establish itself in every
European country as in Scotland. Where there is no pressure of outward
circumstances forcing new religious ideas upon men there must be all the
more a spirit of independent thought if any salutary change is to be
made in creed and worship. Either there must be men of Berea who search
the Scriptures daily, men of Zurich and Berne with the energy of free
citizens, or reformation must wait on some political emergency. And in
effect conscience rarely has free play, since men are seldom manly but
more or less like sheep. Hence the value, as things go in this world, of
leaders like Joash, princes like Luther's Elector, who give the
necessary push to the undecided and check forward opponents by a
significant warning. It is not the ideal way of reforming the world, but
it has often answered well enough within limits. There are also cases in
which the threats of the enemy have done good service, as when the
appearance of the Spanish Armada on the English coast did more to
confirm the Protestantism of the country than many years of peaceful
argument. In truth were there not occasionally something like
master-strokes in Providence the progress of humanity would be almost
imperceptible. Men and nations are urged on although they have no great
desire to advance; they are committed to a voyage and cannot return;
they are caught in currents and must go where the currents bear them.
Certainly in such cases there is not the ardour, and men cannot reap the
reward belonging to the thinkers and brave servants of the truth.
Practically whether Protestants or Romanists they are spiritually inert.
Still it is well for them, well for the world, that a strong hand should
urge them forward, since otherwise they would not move at all. Of many
in all churches it must be said they are not victors in a fight of
faith, they do not work out their own salvation. Yet they are guided,
warned, persuaded into a certain habit of piety and understanding of
truth, and their children have a new platform somewhat higher than their
fathers' on which to begin life.
At Ophrah of the Abiezrites, though we cannot say much for the nature of
the faith in God which has replaced idolatry, still the way is prepared
for further and decisive action. Men do not cease from worshipping Baal
and become true servants of the Most Holy in a single day; that requires
time. There are better possibilities, but Gideon cannot teach the way of
Jehovah, nor is he in the mood for religious inquiry. The conversion of
Abiezer is quite of the same sort as in early Christian times was
effected when a king went over to the new faith and ordered his subjects
to be baptized. Not even Gideon knows the value of the faith to which
the people have returned, in the strength of which they are to fight.
They will be bold now, for even a little trust in God goes a long way in
sustaining courage. They will face the enemy now to whom they have long
submitted. But of the purity and righteousness into which the faith of
Jehovah should lead them they have no vision.
Now with this in view many will think it strange to hear of the
conversion of Abiezer. It is a great error however to despise the day of
small things. God gives it and we ought to understand its use.
Conversion cannot possibly mean the same in every period of the world's
history; it cannot even mean the same in any two cases. To recognise
this would be to clear the ground of much that hinders the teaching and
the success of the gospel. Where there has been long familiarity with
the New Testament, the facts of Christianity and the high spiritual
ideas it presents, conversion properly speaking does not take place till
the message of Christ to the soul stirs it to its depths, moves alike
the reason and the will and creates fervent discipleship. But the
history of Israel and of humanity moves forward continuously in
successive discoveries or revelations of the highest culminating in the
Christian salvation. To view Gideon as a religious reformer of the same
kind as Isaiah is quite a mistake. He had scarcely an idea in common
with the great prophet of a later day. But the liberty he desired for
his people and the association of liberty with the worship of Jehovah
made his revolution a step in the march of Israel's redemption. Those
who joined him with any clear purpose and sympathy were therefore
converted men in a true if very limited sense. There must be first the
blade and then the ear before there can be the full corn. We reckon
Gideon a hero of faith, and his hope was truly in the same God Whom we
worship--the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet his faith
could not be on a level with ours, his knowledge being far less. The
angel who speaks to him, the altar he builds, the Spirit of the Lord
that comes upon him, his daring iconoclasm, the new purpose and power of
the man are in a range quite above material life--and that is enough.
There are some circles in which honesty and truth-speaking are evidence
of a work of grace. To become honest and to speak truth in the fear of
God is to be converted, in a sense, where things are at that pass. There
are people who are so cold that among them enthusiasm for anything good
may be called superhuman. Nobody has it. If it appears it must come from
above. But these steps of progress, though we may describe them as
supernatural, are elementary. Men have to be converted again and again,
ever making one gain a step to another. The great advance comes when the
soul believes enthusiastically in Christ, pledging itself to Him in full
sight of the cross. This and nothing less is the conversion we need. To
love freedom, righteousness, charity only prepares for the supreme love
of God in Christ, in which life springs to its highest power and joy.