needful spirit and faith to lead the revolution? Was there no one but
the son of Joash? We do not find him fully equipped, nor as the years go
by does he prove altogether worthy to be chief of the tribes of God.
Were there not in many Hebrew towns souls perhaps more ardent, more
spiritual than his, needing only the prophetic call, the touch of the
Unseen Hand to make them aware of power and opportunity? The leadership
of such a one as Moses is complete and unquestionable. He is the man of
the age; knowledge, circumstances, genius fit him for the place he has
to occupy. We cannot imagine a second Moses in the same period. But in
Israel as well as among other peoples it is often a very imperfect hero
who is found and followed. The work is done, but not so well done as we
might think possible. Revolutions which begin full of promise lose their
spirit because the leader reveals his weakness or even folly. We feel
sure that there are many who have the power to lead in thought where the
world has not dreamt of climbing, to make a clear road where as yet
there is no path; and yet to them comes no messenger, the daily task
goes on and it is not supposed that a leader, a prophet is passed by.
Are there no better men that Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah must stand in the
front?
One answer certainly is that the nation at the stage it has reached
cannot as a whole esteem a better man, cannot understand finer ideas. A
hundred men of more spiritual faith were possibly brooding over Israel's
state, ready to act as fearlessly as Gideon and to a higher issue. But
it could only have been after a cleansing of the nation's life, a
suppression of Baal-worship much more rigorous than could at that time
be effected. And in every national crisis the thought of which the
people generally are capable determines who must lead and what kind of
work shall be done. The reformer before his time either remains unknown
or ends in eclipse; either he gains no power or it passes rapidly from
him because it has no support in popular intelligence or faith.
It may seem well-nigh impossible in our day for any man to fail of the
work he can do; if he has the will we think he can make the way. The
inward call is the necessity, and when that is heard and the man shapes
a task for himself the day to begin will come. Is that certain? Perhaps
there are many now who find circumstance a web from which they cannot
break away without arrogance and unfaithfulness. They could speak, they
could do if God called them; but does He call them? On every side ring
the fluent praises of the idols men love to worship. One must indeed be
deft in speech and many other arts who would hope to turn the crowd from
its folly, for it will only listen to what seizes the ear, and the
obscure thinker has not the secret of pleasing. While those who see no
visions lead their thousands to a trivial victory, many an uncalled
Gideon toils on in the threshing-floor. The duties of a low and narrow
lot may hold a man; the babble all around of popular voices may be so
loud that nothing can make way against them. A certain slowness of the
humble and patient spirit may keep one silent who with little
encouragement could speak words of quickening truth. But the day of
utterance never comes.
To these waiting in the market-place it is comparatively a small thing
that the world will not hire them. But does the church not want them?
Where God is named and professedly honoured, can it be that the smooth
message is preferred because it is smooth? Can it be that in the church
men shrink from instead of seeking the highest, most real and vital word
that can be said to them? This is what oppresses, for it seems to imply
that God has no use in His vineyard for a man when He lets him wait long
unregarded, it seems to mean that there is no end for the wistful hope
and the words that burn unspoken in the breast. The unrecognized thinker
has indeed to trust God largely. He has often to be content with the
assurance that what he would say but cannot as yet shall be said in good
time, that what he would do but may not shall be done by a stronger
hand. And further, he may cherish a faith for himself. No life can
remain for ever unfruitful, or fruitful only in its lower capacities.
Purposes broken off here shall find fulfilment. Where the highways of
being reach beyond the visible horizon leaders will be needed for the
yet advancing host, and the time of every soul shall come to do the
utmost that is in it. The day of perfect service for many of God's
chosen ones will begin where beyond these shadows there is light and
space. Were it not so, some of the best lives would disappear in the
darkest cloud.
XII.
"_THE PEOPLE ARE YET TOO MANY._"
JUDGES vi. 33-vii. 7.
Another day of hope and energy has dawned. One hillside at least rises
sunlit out of darkness with the altar of Jehovah on its summit and
holier sacrifices smoking there than Israel has offered for many a year.
Let us see what elements of promise, what elements of danger or possible
error mingle with the situation. There is a man to take the lead, a
young man, thoughtful, bold, energetic, aware of a Divine call and
therefore of some endowment for the task to be done. Gideon believes
Jehovah to be Israel's God and Friend, Israel to be Jehovah's people. He
has faith in the power of the Unseen Helper. Baal is nothing, a mere
name--Bosheth, vanity. Jehovah is a certainty; and what He wills shall
come about. So far strength, confidence. But of himself and the people
Gideon is not sure. His own ability to gather and command an army, the
fitness of any army the tribes can supply to contend with Midian, these
are as yet unproved. Only one fact stands clear, Jehovah the supreme God
with Whom are all powers and influences. The rest is in shadow. For one
thing, Gideon cannot trace the connection between the Most High and
himself, between the Power that controls the world and the power that
dwells in his own will or the hearts of other men. Yet with the first
message a sign has been given, and other tokens may be sought as events
move on. With that measure of uncertainty which keeps a man humble and
makes him ponder his steps Gideon finds himself acknowledged leader in
Manasseh and a centre of growing enthusiasm throughout the northern
tribes.
For the people generally this at least may be said, that they have
wisdom enough to recognize the man of aptitude and courage though he
belongs to one of the humblest families and is the least in his father's
household. Drowning men indeed must take the help that is offered, and
Israel is at present almost in the condition of a drowning man. A little
more and it will sink under the wave of the Midianite invasion. It is
not a time to ask of the rank of a man who has character for the
emergency. And yet, so often is the hero unacknowledged, especially when
he begins, as Gideon did, with a religious stroke, that some credit must
be given to the people for their ready faith. As the flame goes up from
the altar at Ophrah men feel a flash of hope and promise. They turn to
the Abiezrite in trust and through him begin to trust God again. Yes:
there is a reformation of a sort, and an honest man is at the head of
it. So far the signs of the time are good.
Then the old enthusiasm is not dead. Almost Israel had submitted, but
again its spirit is rising. The traditions of Deborah and Barak, of
Joshua, of Moses, of the desert march and victories linger with those
who are hiding amongst the caves and rocks. Songs of liberty, promises
of power are still theirs; they feel that they should be free. Canaan is
Jehovah's gift to them and they will claim it. So far as reviving human
energy and confidence avail, there is a germ out of which the proper
life of the people of God may spring afresh. And it is this that Gideon
as a reformer must nourish, for the leader depends at every stage on the
desires that have been kindled in the hearts of men. While he goes
before them in thought and plan he can only go prosperously where they
intelligently, heartily will follow. Opportunism is the base lagging
behind with popular coldness, as moderatism in religion is. The reformer
does not wait a moment when he sees an aspiration he can guide, a spark
of faith that can be fanned into flame. But neither in church nor state
can one man make a conquering movement. And so we see the vast extent of
duty and responsibility. That there may be no opportunism every citizen
must be alive to the morality of politics. That there may be no
moderatism every Christian must be alive to the real duty of the church.
Now have the heads of families and the chief men in Israel been active
in rallying the tribes? Or have the people waited on their chiefs and
the chiefs coldly held back?
There are good elements in the situation but others not so encouraging.
The secular leaders have failed; and what are the priests and Levites
doing? We hear nothing of them. Gideon has to assume the double office
of priest and ruler. At Shiloh there is an altar. There too is the ark,
and surely some holy observances are kept. Why does Gideon not lead the
people to Shiloh and there renew the national covenant through the
ministers of the tabernacle? He knows little of the moral law and the
sanctities of worship; and he is not at this stage inclined to assume a
function that is not properly his. Yet it is unmistakable that Ophrah
has to be the religious centre. Ah! clearly there is opportunism among
secular leaders and moderatism among the priests. And this suggests that
Judah in the south, although the tabernacle is not in her territory, may
have an ecclesiastical reason for holding aloof now, as in Deborah's
time she kept apart. Simeon and Levi are brethren. Judah, the vanguard
in the desert march, the leading tribe in the first assault on Canaan,
has taken Simeon into close alliance. Has Levi also been almost
absorbed? There are signs that it may have been so. The later supremacy
of Judah in religion requires early and deep root; and we have also to
explain the separation between north and south already evident, which
was but half overcome by David's kingship and reappeared before the end
of Solomon's reign. It is very significant to read in the closing
chapters of Judges of two Levites both of whom were connected with
Judah. The Levites were certainly respected through the whole land, but
their absence from all the incidents of the period of Deborah, Gideon,
Abimelech and Jephthah compels the supposition that they had most
affinity with Judah and Simeon in the south. We know how people can be
divided by ecclesiasticism; and there is at least some reason to suspect
that while the northern tribes were suffering and fighting Judah went
her own way enjoying peace and organizing worship.
Such then is the state of matters so far as the tribes are concerned at
the time when Gideon sounds the trumpet in Abiezer and sends messengers
throughout Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. The tribes are partly
prepared for conflict, but they are weak and still disunited. The muster
of fighting men who gather at the call of Gideon is considerable and
perhaps astonishes him. But the Midianites are in enormous numbers in
the plain of Jezreel between Moreh and Gilboa, having drawn together
from their marauding expeditions at the first hint of a rising among the
Hebrews. And now as the chief reviews his troops his early apprehension
returns. It is with something like dismay that he passes from band to
band. Ill-disciplined, ill-assorted these men do not bear the air of
coming triumph. Gideon has too keen sight to be misled by tokens of
personal popularity; nor can he estimate success by numbers. Looking
closely into the faces of the men he sees marks enough of hesitancy,
tokens even of fear. Many seem as if they had gathered like sheep to the
slaughter, not as lions ready to dash on the prey. Assurance of victory
he cannot find in his army; he must seek it elsewhere.
It is well that multitudes gather to the church to-day for worship and
enter themselves as members. But to reckon all such as an army
contending with infidelity and wickedness--that would indeed be a
mistake. The mere tale of numbers gives no estimation of strength,
fighting strength, strength to resist and to suffer. It is needful
clearly to distinguish between those who may be called captives of the
church or vassals simply, rendering a certain respect, and those others,
often a very few and perhaps the least regarded, who really fight the
battles. Our reckoning at present is often misleading so that we occupy
ground which we cannot defend. We attempt to assail infidelity with an
ill-disciplined host, many of whom have no clear faith, and to overcome
worldliness by the co-operation of those who are more than half-absorbed
in the pastimes and follies of the world. There is need to look back to
Gideon who knew what it was to fight. While we are thankful to have so
many connected with the church for their own good we must not suppose
that they represent aggressive strength; on the contrary we must clearly
understand that they will require no small part of the available time
and energy of the earnest. In short we have to count them not as helpers
of the church's forward movement but as those who must be helped.
Gideon for his work will have to make sharp division. Three hundred who
can dash fearlessly on the enemy will be more to his purpose than
two-and-thirty thousand most of whom grow pale at the thought of battle,
and he will separate by-and-by. But first he seeks another sign of
Jehovah. This man knows that to do anything worthy for his fellow-men he
must be in living touch with God. The idea has no more than elementary
form; but it rules. He, Gideon, is only an instrument, and he must be
well convinced that God is working through him. How can he be sure? Like
other Israelites he is strongly persuaded that God appears and speaks to
men through nature; and he craves a sign in the natural world which is
of God's making and upholding. Now to us the sign Gideon asked may
appear rude, uncouth and without any moral significance. A fleece which
is to be wet one morning while the threshing-floor is dry, and dry next
morning while the threshing-floor is wet supplies the means of testing
the Divine presence and approval. Further it may be alleged that the
phenomena admit of natural explanation. But this is the meaning. Gideon
providing the fleece identifies himself with it. It is his fleece, and
if God's dew drenches it that will imply that God's power shall enter
Gideon's soul and abide in it even though Israel be dry as the dusty
floor. The thought is at once simple and profound, child-like and
Hebrew-like, and carefully we must observe that it is a nature sign,
not a mere portent, Gideon looks for. It is not whether God can do a
certain seemingly impossible thing. That would not help Gideon. But the
dew represents to his mind the vigour he needs, the vigour Israel needs
if he should fail; and in reversing the sign, "Let the dew be on the
ground and the fleece be dry," he seems to provide a hope even in
prospect of his own failure or death. Gideon's appeal is for a
revelation of the Divine in the same sphere as the lightning storm and
rain in which Deborah found a triumphant proof of Jehovah's presence;
yet there is a notable contrast. We are reminded of the "still small
voice" Elijah heard as he stood in the cave-mouth after the rending wind
and the earthquake and the lightning. We remember also the image of
Hosea, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." There is a question in the
Book of Job, "Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of
dew?" The faith of Gideon makes answer, "Thou, O Most High, dost give
the dews of heaven." The silent distillation of the dew is profoundly
symbolic of the spiritual economy and those energies that are "not of
this noisy world but silent and Divine." There is much of interest and
meaning that lies thus beneath the surface in the story of the fleece.
Assured that yet another step in advance may be taken, Gideon leads his
forces northward and goes into camp beside the spring of Harod on the
slope of Gilboa. Then he does what seems a strange thing for a general
on the eve of battle. The army is large but utterly insufficient in
discipline and morale for a pitched battle with the Midianites. Men who
have hastily snatched their fathers' swords and pikes of which they are
half afraid are not to be relied upon in the heat of a terrible
struggle. Proclamation is therefore made that those who are fearful and
trembling shall return to their homes. From the entrenchment of Israel
on the hillside, where the name Jalid or Gilead still survives, the
great camp of the desert people could be seen, the black tents darkening
all the valley toward the slope of Moreh a few miles away. The sight was
enough to appal even the bold. Men thought of their families and
homesteads. Those who had anything to lose began to re-consider and by
morning only one-third of the Hebrew army was left with the leader. So
perhaps it would be with thousands of Christians if the church were
again called to share the reproach of Christ and resist unto blood.
Under the banner of a popular Christianity many march to stirring music
who if they supposed struggle to be imminent would be tempted to leave
the ranks. Yet the fight is actually going on. Camp is set against camp,
army is mingled with army; at the front there is hot work and many are
falling. But in the rear it would seem to be a holiday; men are idling,
gossiping, chaffering as though they had come out for amusement or
trade, not at all like those who have pledged life in a great cause and
have everything to win or lose. And again, in the thick of the strife,
where courage and energy are strained to the utmost, we look round and
ask whether the fearful have indeed withdrawn, for the suspicion is
forced upon us that many who call themselves Christ's are on the other
side. Did not some of those who are striking at us lift their hands
yesterday in allegiance to the great Captain? Do we not see some who
have marched with us holding the very position we are to take, bearing
the very standards we must capture? Strangely confused is the field of
battle, and hard is it to distinguish friends from foes. If the fearful
would retire we should know better how we stand. If the enemy were all
of Midian the issue would be clear. But fearful and faint-hearted
Israelites who may be found any time actually contending against the
faith are foes of a kind unknown in simpler days. So frequently does
something of this sort happen that every Christian has need to ask
himself whether he is clear of the offence. Has he ever helped to make
the false world strong against the true, the proud world strong against
the meek? Many of those who are doubtful and go home may sooner be
pardoned than he who strikes only where a certain false _eclat_ is to be
won.
"Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat--
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote....
We shall march prospering--not thro' his presence;
Songs may inspirit us--not from his lyre;
Deeds will be done--while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire."
In the same line of thought lies another reflection. The men who had
hastily snatched their fathers' swords and pikes of which they were half
afraid represent to us certain modern defenders of Christianity--those
who carry edged weapons of inherited doctrine with which they dare not
strike home. The great battle-axes of reprobation, of eternal judgment,
of Divine severity against sin once wielded by strong hands, how they
tremble and swerve in the grasp of many a modern dialectician. The sword
of the old creed, that once like Excalibur cleft helmets and
breastplates through, how often it maims the hands that try to use it
but want alike the strength and the cunning. Too often we see a
wavering blow struck that draws not a drop of blood nor even dints a
shield, and the next thing is that the knight has run to cover behind
some old bulwark long riddled and dilapidated. In the hands of these
unskilled fighters too well armed for their strength the battle is worse
than lost. They become a laughingstock to the enemy, an irritation to
their own side. It is time there was a sifting among the defenders of
the faith and twenty and two thousand went back from Gilead. Is the
truth of God become mere tin or lead that no new sword can be fashioned
from it, no blade of Damascus firm and keen? Are there no gospel
armourers fit for the task? Where the doctrinal contest is maintained by
men who are not to the depth of their souls sure of the creeds they
found on, by men who have no vision of the severity of God and the
meaning of redemption, it ends only in confusion to themselves and those
who are with them.
Ten thousand Israelites remain who according to their own judgment are
brave enough and prepared for the fight; but the purpose of the
commander is not answered yet. He is resolved to have yet another
winnowing that shall leave only the men of temper like his own, men of
quick intelligence no less than zeal. At the foot of the hill there
flows a stream of water, and towards it Gideon leads his diminished army
as if at once to cross and attack the enemy in camp. Will they seize his
plan and like one man act upon it? Only on those who do can he depend.
It is an effective trial. With the hot work of fighting before them the
water is needful to all, but in the way of drinking men show their
spirit. The most kneel or lie down by the edge of the brook that by
putting their lips to the water they may take a long and leisurely
draught. A few supply themselves in quite another way. As a dog whose
master is passing on with rapid strides, coming to a pool or stream by
the way stops a moment to lap a few mouthfuls of water and then is off
again to his master's side, so do these--three hundred of the ten
thousand--bending swiftly down carry water to their mouths in the hollow
of the hand. Full of the day's business they move on again before the
nine thousand seven hundred have well begun to drink. They separate
themselves and are by Gideon's side, beyond the stream, a chosen band
proved fit for the work that is to be done. It is no haphazard division
that is made by the test of the stream. There is wisdom in it,
inspiration. "And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men
that lapped will I save you and deliver the Midianites into thine hand."