"All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe
to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land
which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember _all
the way_ which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in
thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no." (Ver.
1, 2.)
It is at once refreshing, edifying, and encouraging to look back over
the whole course along which the faithful hand of our God has
conducted us; to trace His wise and gracious dealings with us; to call
to mind His many marvelous interpositions on our behalf; how He
delivered us out of this strait and that difficulty; how, ofttimes,
when we were at our wits' end, He appeared for our help, and opened
the way before us, rebuking our fears and filling our hearts with
songs of praise and thanksgiving.
We must not, by any means, confound this delightful exercise with the
miserable habit of looking back at _our_ ways, our attainments, our
progress, our service, what we have been able to do, even though we
are ready to admit, in a general way, that it was only by the grace of
God that we were enabled to do any little work for Him. All this only
ministers to self-complacency, which is destructive of all true
spirituality of mind. Self-retrospection, if we may be allowed to use
such a term, is quite as injurious in its moral effect as
self-introspection. In short, self-occupation, in any of its
multiplied phases, is most pernicious; it is, in so far as it is
allowed to operate, the death-blow to fellowship. Any thing that tends
to bring self before the mind must be judged and refused, with stern
decision; it brings in barrenness, darkness, and feebleness. For a
person to sit down to look back at his attainments or his doings, is
about as wretched an occupation as any one could engage in. We may be
sure it was not to any such thing as this that Moses exhorted the
people when he charged them to "remember all the way by which the
Lord their God had led them."
We may here recur, for a moment, to the memorable words of the apostle
in Philippians iii.--"Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended; but this one thing I do, _forgetting those things which
are behind_, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus."
Now, the question is, what were the "things" of which the blessed
apostle speaks? Did he forget the precious dealings of God with his
soul throughout the whole of his wilderness-journey? Impossible!--indeed
we have the very fullest and clearest evidence to the contrary. Hear
his touching words before Agrippa--"Having therefore obtained help of
God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great." So
also, in writing to his beloved son and fellow-laborer, Timothy, he
reviews the past, and speaks of the persecutions and afflictions which
he had endured; "but," he adds, "out of them all the Lord delivered
me." And again, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all
forsook me; I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by
me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might
hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion."
To what then does the apostle refer when he speaks of "forgetting
those things which are behind"? We believe he refers to all those
things which had no connection with Christ--things in which the heart
might rest, and nature might glory--things which might act as weights
and hindrances,--all these were to be forgotten in the ardent pursuit
of those grand and glorious realities which lay before him. We do not
believe that Paul, or any other child of God or servant of Christ,
could ever desire to forget a single scene or circumstance in his
whole earthly career in any way illustrative of the goodness, the
loving-kindness, the tender mercy, the faithfulness of God. On the
contrary, we believe it will ever be one of our very sweetest
exercises to dwell upon the blessed memory of all our Father's ways
with us while passing across the desert, home to our everlasting rest.
"There with what joy reviewing
Past conflicts, dangers, fears,
Thy hand our foes subduing,
And drying all our tears.
Our hearts with rapture burning,
The path we shall retrace,
Where now our souls are learning
The riches of Thy grace."
But let us not be misunderstood. We do not, by any means, wish to give
countenance to the habit of dwelling merely upon our own experience.
This is often very poor work, and resolves itself into self-occupation.
We have to guard against this as one of the many things which tend to
lower our spiritual tone and draw our hearts away from Christ. But we
need never be afraid of the result of dwelling upon the record of the
Lord's dealings and ways with us. This is a blessed habit, tending
ever to lift us out of ourselves, and fill us with praise and
thanksgiving.
Why, we may ask, were Israel charged to "remember _all_ the way" by
which the Lord their God had led them? Assuredly, to draw out their
hearts in praise for the past, and to strengthen their confidence in
God for the future. Thus it must ever be.
"We'll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that's to come."
May we do so more and more. May we just move on, day by day, praising
and trusting, trusting and praising. These are the two things which
redound to the glory of God, and to our peace and joy in Him. When the
eye rests on the "Ebenezers" which lie all along the way, the heart
must give forth its sweet "halleluiahs" to Him who has helped us
hitherto, and will help us right on to the end. He _hath_ delivered,
and He _doth_ deliver, and He _will_ deliver. Blessed chain! Its every
link is divine deliverance.
Nor is it merely upon the signal mercies and gracious deliverances of
our Father's hand that we are to dwell, with devout thankfulness, but
also upon the "humblings" and the "provings" of His wise, faithful,
and holy love. All these things are full of richest blessing to our
souls. They are not, as people sometimes call them, "mercies in
disguise," but plain, palpable, unmistakable mercies, for which we
shall have to praise our God throughout the golden ages of that bright
eternity which lies before us.
"Thou shalt remember _all_ the way"--every stage of the journey, every
scene of wilderness-life, all the dealings of God, from first to last,
with the special object thereof, "to humble thee, and to prove thee,
_to know what was in thine heart_."
How wonderful to think of God's patient grace and painstaking love
with His people in the wilderness! What precious instruction for us!
With what intense interest and spiritual delight we can hang over the
record of the divine dealings with Israel in all their desert-wanderings!
How much we can learn from the marvelous history! We, too, have to be
humbled and proved, and made to know what is in our hearts. It is very
profitable and morally wholesome.
On our first setting out to follow the Lord, we know but little of the
depths of evil and folly in our hearts. Indeed, we are superficial in
every thing. It is as we get on in our practical career that we begin
to prove the reality of things; we find out the depths of evil in
ourselves, the utter hollowness and worthlessness of all that is in
the world, and the urgent need of the most complete dependence upon
the grace of God every moment. All this is very good; it makes us
humble and self-distrusting; it delivers us from pride and
self-sufficiency, and leads us to cling, in childlike simplicity, to
the One who alone is able to keep us from falling. Thus, as we grow
in self-knowledge, we get a deeper sense of grace, a more profound
acquaintance with the wondrous love of the heart of God, His
tenderness toward us, His marvelous patience in bearing with all our
infirmities and failings, His rich mercy in having taken us up at all,
His loving ministry to all our varied need, His numberless
interpositions on our behalf, the exercises through which He has seen
fit to lead us for our souls' deep and permanent profit.
The practical effect of all this is invaluable; it imparts depth,
solidity, and mellowness to the character; it cures us of all our
crude notions and vain theories; it delivers us from one-sidedness and
wild extremes; it makes us tender, thoughtful, patient, and
considerate toward others; it corrects our harsh judgments and gives a
gracious desire to put the best possible construction upon the actions
of others, and a readiness to attribute the best motives in cases
which may seem to us equivocal. These are precious fruits of
wilderness-experience which we may all earnestly covet.
"And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with
manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that He
might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by
every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man
live." (Ver 3.)
This passage derives special interest and importance from the fact
that it is the first of our Lord's quotations from the book of
Deuteronomy in His conflict with the adversary in the wilderness. Let
us ponder this deeply; it demands our earnest attention. Why did our
Lord quote from Deuteronomy? Because that was the book which, above
all others, specially applied to the condition of Israel at the
moment. Israel had utterly failed, and this weighty fact is assumed in
the book of Deuteronomy from beginning to end. But notwithstanding the
failure of the nation, the path of obedience lay open to every
faithful Israelite. It was the privilege and duty of every one who
loved God to abide by His Word under all circumstances and in all
places.
Now, our blessed Lord was divinely true to the position of the Israel
of God. Israel after the flesh had failed and forfeited every thing;
He was there, in the wilderness, as the true Israel of God, to meet
the enemy by the simple authority of the Word of God. "And Jesus,
being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And
in those days He did eat nothing; and when they were ended, He
afterward hungered. And the devil said unto Him, 'If Thou be the Son
of God, command this stone that it be made bread.' And Jesus answered
Him, saying, '_It is written_, that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.'" (Luke iv.)
Here, then, is something for us to ponder. The perfect Man, the true
Israel, in the wilderness, surrounded by the wild beasts, fasting for
forty days, in the presence of the great adversary of God, of man, of
Israel. There was not a single feature in the scene to speak for God.
It was not with the second Man as it was with the first; He was not
surrounded with all the delights of Eden, but with all the dreariness
and desolation of a desert--there in loneliness and hunger, but there
for God!
Yes, blessed be His name, and there for man,--there to show man how to
meet the enemy in all his varied temptations, there to show man how to
live. We must not suppose for a moment that our adorable Lord met the
adversary as God over all. True, He was God, but if it were only as
such that He stood in the conflict, it could not afford any example
for us. Besides, it would be needless to tell us that God was able to
vanquish and put to flight a creature which His own hand had formed.
But to see One who was, in every respect, a man, and in all the
circumstances of humanity, sin excepted,--to see Him there in
weakness, in hunger, standing amid the consequences of man's fall, and
to find Him triumphing completely over the terrible foe, it is this
which is so full of comfort, consolation, strength, and encouragement
for us.
And how did He triumph? This is the grand and all-important question
for us,--a question demanding the most profound attention of every
member of the Church of God--a question the magnitude and importance
of which it would be utterly impossible to overstate. How, then, did
the Man Christ Jesus vanquish Satan in the wilderness? Simply by the
Word of God. He overcame, not as the almighty God, but as the humble,
dependent, self-emptied, and obedient Man. We have before us the
magnificent spectacle of a Man standing in the presence of the devil
and utterly confounding him with no other weapon whatsoever save the
Word of God. It was not by the display of divine power, for that could
be no model for us; it was simply with the Word of God, in His heart
and in His mouth, that the Second Man confounded the terrible enemy of
God and man.
And let us carefully note that our blessed Lord does not reason with
Satan. He does not appeal to any facts connected with Himself--facts
with which the enemy was well acquainted. He does not say, I know I am
the Son of God; the opened heavens, the descending Spirit, the
Father's voice, have all borne witness to the fact of My being the Son
of God. No; this would not do; it would not and could not be an
example for us. _The_ one special point for us to seize and learn from
is, that our great Exemplar, when meeting all the temptations of the
enemy, used only the weapon which we have in our possession, namely,
the simple, precious, written, Word of God.
We say, "all the temptations," because in all the three instances our
Lord's unvarying reply is, "_It is written_." He does not say, "I
know"--"I think"--"I feel"--"I believe" this, that, or the other; He
simply appeals to the written Word of God--the book of Deuteronomy in
particular,--that very book which infidels have dared to insult, but
which is pre-eminently the book for every obedient man, in the face
of total, universal, hopeless, wreck and ruin.
This is of unspeakable moment for us, beloved reader. It is as though
our Lord Christ had said to the adversary, Whether I am the Son of God
or not is not now the question, but how _man_ is to live, and the
answer to this question is only to be found in holy Scripture; and it
is to be found there as clear as a sunbeam, quite irrespective of all
questions respecting Me. Whoever I am, the Scripture is the same: "man
doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of the Lord."
Here we have the only true, the only safe, the only happy attitude for
man, namely, hanging in earnest dependence upon "every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord." Blessed attitude! We may
well say there is nothing like it in all this world. It brings the
soul into direct, living, personal contact with the Lord Himself, by
means of His Word. It makes the Word so absolutely essential to us, in
every thing; we cannot do without it. As the natural life is sustained
by bread, so the spiritual life is sustained by the Word of God. It is
not merely going to the Bible to find doctrines there, or to have our
opinions or views confirmed; it is very much more than this; it is
going to the Bible for the staple commodity of life--the life of the
new man; it is going there for food, for light, for guidance, for
comfort, for authority, for strength--for all, in short, that the soul
can possibly need, from first to last.
And let us specially note the force and value of the expression,
"_every_ word." How fully it shows that we cannot afford to dispense
with a single word that has proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. We
want it all. We cannot tell the moment in which some exigence may
present itself for which Scripture has already provided. We may not
perhaps have specially noticed the scripture before, but when the
difficulty arises, if we are in a right condition of soul--the true
posture of heart, the Spirit of God will furnish us with the needed
scripture, and we shall see a force, beauty, depth, and moral
adaptation in the passage which we had never seen before. Scripture is
a divine and therefore exhaustless treasury, in which God has made
ample provision for all the need of His people, and for each believer
in particular, right on to the end. Hence we should study it all,
ponder it, dig deeply into it, and have it treasured up in our hearts,
ready for use when the demand arises.
There is not a single crisis occurring in the entire history of the
Church of God, not a single difficulty in the entire path of any
individual believer, from beginning to end, which has not been
perfectly provided for in the Bible. We have all we want in that
blessed volume, and hence we should be ever seeking to make ourselves
more and more acquainted with what that volume contains, so as to be
"thoroughly furnished" for whatever may arise, whether it be a
temptation of the devil, an allurement of the world, or a lust of the
flesh; or, on the other hand, for equipment for that path of good
works which God has afore prepared that we should walk in it.
And we should, further, give special attention to the expression,
"_Out of the mouth of the Lord_." This is unspeakably precious. It
brings the Lord so very near to us, and gives us such a sense of the
reality of feeding upon His every word--yea, of hanging upon it as
something absolutely essential and indispensable. It sets forth the
blessed fact that our souls can no more exist without the Word than
our bodies could without food. In a word, we are taught by this
passage that _man's_ true position, his proper attitude, his only
place of strength, safety, rest, and blessing, is to be found in
habitual dependence upon the Word of God.
This is the life of faith which we are called to live--the life of
dependence--the life of obedience--the life that Jesus lived
perfectly. That blessed One would not move a step, utter a word, or do
a single thing save by the authority of the Word of God. No doubt He
could have turned stone into bread, but He had no command from God to
do that; and inasmuch as He had no command, He had no motive for
action. Hence Satan's temptations were perfectly powerless. He could
do nothing with a man who would only act on the authority of the Word
of God.
And we may also note, with very much interest and profit, that our
blessed Lord does not quote Scripture for the purpose of silencing the
adversary, but simply as authority for His position and conduct. Here
is where we are so apt to fail; we do not sufficiently use the
precious Word of God in this way; we quote it, at times, more for
victory over the enemy than for power and authority for our own souls.
Thus it loses its power in our hearts. We want to use the Word as a
hungry man uses bread, or as a mariner uses his chart and his compass;
it is that on which we live, and by which we move and act and think
and speak. Such it really is, and the more fully we prove it to be all
this to us, the more we shall know of its infinite preciousness. Who
is it that knows most of the real value of bread? Is it a chemist? No;
but a hungry man. A chemist may analyze it, and discuss its component
parts, but a hungry man proves its worth. Who knows most of the real
value of a chart? is it the teacher of navigation? No; but the mariner
as he sails along an unknown and dangerous coast.
These are but feeble figures to illustrate what the Word of God is to
the true Christian. He cannot do without it. It is absolutely
indispensable, in every relationship of life and in every sphere of
action. His hidden life is fed and sustained by it; his practical life
is guided by it. In all the scenes and circumstances of his personal
and domestic history, in the privacy of his closet, in the bosom of
his family, in the management of his affairs, he is cast upon the Word
of God for guidance and counsel.
And it never fails those who simply cleave to it and confide in it.
We may trust Scripture without a single shade of misgiving. Go to it
when we will, we shall always find what we want. Are we in sorrow? is
the poor heart bereaved, crushed, and desolate? What can soothe and
comfort us like the balmy words which the Holy Spirit has penned for
us? One sentence of holy Scripture can do more, in the way of comfort
and consolation, than all the letters of condolence that ever were
penned by human hand. Are we discouraged, faint-hearted, and cast
down? The Word of God meets us with its bright and soul-stirring
assurances. Are we pressed by pinching poverty? The Holy Ghost brings
home to our hearts some golden promise from the page of inspiration,
recalling us to Him who is "the Possessor of heaven and earth," and
who, in His infinite grace, has pledged Himself to "supply all _our
need_ according to _His riches_ in glory by Christ Jesus." Are we
perplexed and harassed by the conflicting opinions of men, by the
dogmas of conflicting schools of divinity, by religious and
theological difficulties? A few sentences of holy Scripture will pour
in a flood of divine light upon the heart and conscience, and set us
at perfect rest, answering every question, solving every difficulty,
removing every doubt, chasing away every cloud, giving us to know the
mind of God, putting an end to conflicting opinions by the one
divinely competent authority.
What a boon, therefore, is holy Scripture! What a precious treasure we
possess in the Word of God! How we should bless His holy name for
having given it to us! Yes; and bless Him, too, for every thing that
tends to make us more fully acquainted with the depth, fullness, and
power of those words of our chapter, "Man shall not live by bread
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord
doth man live."
Truly precious are these words to the heart of the believer! And
hardly less so are those that follow, in which the beloved and revered
lawgiver refers, with touching sweetness, to Jehovah's tender care
throughout the whole of Israel's desert-wanderings. "Thy raiment," he
says, "waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these
forty years."
What marvelous grace shines out in these words! Only think, reader, of
Jehovah looking after His people in such a manner, to see that their
garments should not wax old or their foot swell! He not only fed them,
but clothed them and cared for them in every way. He even stooped to
look after their feet, that the sand of the desert might not injure
them. Thus, for forty years, did He watch over them, with all the
exquisite tenderness of a father's heart. What will not love undertake
to do for its object? Jehovah had set His love upon His people, and
this one blessed fact secured every thing for them, had they only
understood it. There was not a single thing within the range of
Israel's necessities, from Egypt to Canaan, which was not secured to
them and included in the fact that Jehovah had undertaken to do for
them. With infinite love and almighty power on their side, what could
be lacking?
But then, as we know, love clothes itself in various forms. It has
something more to do than to provide food and raiment for its objects.
It has not only to take account of their physical but also of their
moral and spiritual wants. Of this the lawgiver does not fail to
remind the people. "Thou shalt also consider," he says, "_in thine
heart_"--the only true and effective way to consider--"that, as a man
chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee."
Now, we do not like chastening; it is not joyous, but grievous. It is
all very well for a son to receive food and raiment from a father's
hand, and to have all his comforts provided by a father's thoughtful
love, but he does not like to see him taking down the rod. And yet
that dreaded rod may be the very best thing for the son; it may do for
him what no material benefits or earthly blessings could effect,--it
may correct some bad habit, or deliver him from some wrong tendency,
or save him from some evil influence, and thus prove a great moral and
spiritual blessing for which he shall have to be forever thankful. The
grand point for the son is, to see a father's love and care in the
discipline and chastening just as distinctly as in the various
material benefits which strew his path from day to day.
Here is precisely where we so signally fail in reference to the
disciplinary dealings of our Father. We rejoice in His benefits and
blessings; we are filled with praise and thankfulness as we receive,
day by day, from His liberal hand, the rich supply of all our need; we
delight to dwell upon His marvelous interposition on our behalf in
times of pressure and difficulty; it is a most precious exercise to
look back over the path by which His good hand has led us, and mark
those "Ebenezers" which tell of gracious help supplied all along the
road.
All this is very good and very right and very precious, but then there
is a great danger of our resting in the mercies, the blessings, and
the benefits which flow, in such rich profusion, from our Father's
loving heart and liberal hand. We are apt to rest in these things, and
say with the Psalmist, "In _my prosperity_ I said, 'I shall never be
moved. Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast made _my mountain_ to stand
strong.'" True, it is "by Thy favor," but yet we are prone to be
occupied with _our_ mountain and _our_ prosperity; we allow these
things to come in between our hearts and the Lord, and thus they
become a snare to us. Hence the need of chastening. Our Father, in His
faithful love and care, is watching over us; He sees the danger and He
sends trial, in one shape or another. Perhaps a telegram comes
announcing the death of a beloved child, or the crash of a bank
involving the loss of our earthly all; or, it may be, we are laid on a
bed of pain and sickness, or called to watch by the sick bed of a
beloved relative.
In a word, we are called to wade through deep waters which seem, to
our poor, feeble, coward hearts, absolutely overwhelming. The enemy
suggests the question. Is this love? Faith replies, without
hesitation and without reserve, Yes; it is all love--perfect love; the
death of the child, the loss of the property, the long, heavy, painful
illness, all the sorrow, all the pressure, all the exercise, the deep
waters and dark shadows--all, all is love--perfect love and unerring
wisdom. I feel assured of it, even now; I do not wait to know it by
and by, when I shall look back on the path from amid the full light of
the glory; I know it now, and delight to own it to the praise of that
infinite grace which has taken me up from the depth of my ruin, and
charged itself with all that concerns me, and which deigns to occupy
itself with my very failures, follies, and sins, in order to deliver
me from them, and to make me a partaker of divine holiness, and
conform me to the image of that blessed One who "loved Me and gave
Himself for me."
Christian reader, this is the way to answer Satan, and to hush the
dark reasonings which may spring up in our hearts. We must always
justify God. We must look at all His disciplinary dealings in the
light of His love. "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that, _as
a man chasteneth his son_, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." Most
surely we should not like to be without the blessed pledge and proof
of sonship. "_My son_, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for _whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth_, and scourgeth _every son_ whom He receiveth. If ye endure
chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof
all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of
spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after
their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers
of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." (Heb. xii.
5-13.)
It is at once interesting and profitable to mark the way in which
Moses presses upon the congregation the varied motives of obedience
arising from the past, the present, and the future. Every thing is
brought to bear upon them to quicken and deepen their sense of
Jehovah's claims upon them. They were to "remember" the past, they
were to "consider" the present, and they were to anticipate the
future; and all this was to act on their hearts, and lead them forth
in holy obedience to that blessed and gracious One who had done, who
was doing, and who would do such great things for them.
The thoughtful reader can hardly fail to observe in this constant
presentation of moral motives a marked feature of this lovely book of
Deuteronomy, and a striking proof that it is no mere attempt at a
repetition of what we have in Exodus; but, on the contrary, that our
book has a province, a range, a scope, and design entirely its own. To
speak of mere repetition is absurd; to speak of contradiction is
impious.
"Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to
walk in His ways, and to fear Him." The word "therefore" had a
retrospective and prospective force. It was designed to lead the heart
back over the past dealings of Jehovah, and forward into the future.
They were to think of the marvelous history of those forty years in
the desert,--the teaching, the humbling, the proving, the watchful
care, the gracious ministry, the full supply of all their need, the
manna from heaven, the stream from the smitten rock, the care of their
garments, and of their very feet, the wholesome discipline for their
moral good. What powerful moral motives were here for Israel's
obedience!
But this was not all: they were to look forward into the future; they
were to anticipate the bright prospect which lay before them; they
were to find in the future, as well as in the past and the present,
the solid basis of Jehovah's claims upon their reverent and
whole-hearted obedience.
"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks
of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and
hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates, a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou
shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in
it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest
dig brass."
How fair was the prospect! how bright the vision! How marked the
contrast to the Egypt behind them and the wilderness through which
they had passed! The Lord's land lay before them in all its beauty and
verdure, its vine-clad hills and honeyed plains, its gushing fountains
and flowing streams. How refreshing the thought of the vine, the
fig-tree, the pomegranate, and the olive! How different from the
leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt! Yes, all so different! It was the
Lord's own land: this was enough. It produced and contained all they
could possibly want. Above its surface, rich profusion; below, untold
wealth--exhaustless treasure.
What a prospect! How the faithful Israelite would long to enter upon
it!--long to exchange the sand of the desert for that bright
inheritance! True, the desert had its deep and blessed experiences,
its holy lessons, its precious memories; there they had known Jehovah
in a way they could not know Him even in Canaan;--all this was quite
true, and we can fully understand it; but still the wilderness was not
Canaan, and every true Israelite would long to set his foot on the
land of promise, and truly we may say that Moses presents the land, in
the passage just quoted, in a way eminently calculated to attract the
heart. "A land," he says, "wherein thou shalt eat bread without
scarceness, _thou shalt not lack any_ _thing in it_." What more could
be said? Here was the grand fact in reference to that good land into
which the hand of covenant-love was about to introduce them. All their
wants would be divinely met. Hunger and thirst should never be known
there. Health and plenty, joy and gladness, peace and blessing, were
to be the assured portion of the Israel of God in that fair
inheritance upon which they were about to enter. Every enemy was to be
subdued; every obstacle swept away; "the pleasant land" was to pour
forth its treasures for their use; watered continually by heaven's
rain, and warmed by its sunlight, it was to bring forth, in rich
abundance, all that the heart could desire.
What a land! what an inheritance! what a home! Of course, we are
looking at it now from a divine stand-point--looking at it according
to what it was in the mind of God, and what it shall most assuredly be
to Israel during that bright millennial age which lies before them. We
should have but a very poor idea indeed of the Lord's land were we to
think of it merely as possessed by Israel in the past, even in the
very brightest days of its history, as it appeared amid the splendors
of Solomon's reign. We must look onward to "the times of the
restitution of all things," in order to have any thing like a true
idea of what the land of Canaan will yet be to the Israel of God.
Now, Moses speaks of the land according to the divine idea of it. He
presents it as given by God, and not as possessed by Israel. This
makes all the difference. According to his charming description,
there was neither enemy nor evil occurrent: nothing but fruitfulness
and blessing from end to end. That is what it would have been, that is
what it should have been, and that is what it shall be, by and by, to
the seed of Abraham, in pursuance of the covenant made with their
fathers--the new, the everlasting covenant, founded on the sovereign
grace of God, and ratified by the blood of the cross. No power of
earth or hell can hinder the purpose or the promise of God. "Hath He
said, and shall He not do it?" God will make good, to the letter,
every word, spite of all the enemy's opposition and the lamentable
failure of His people. Though Abraham's seed have utterly failed under
law and under government, yet Abraham's God will give grace and glory,
for His gifts and calling are without repentance.
Moses fully understood all this. He knew how it would turn out with
those who stood before him, and with their children after them, for
many generations; and he looked forward into that bright future in
which a covenant-God would display, in the view of all created
intelligences, the triumphs of His grace in His dealings with the seed
of Abraham His friend.
Meanwhile, however, the faithful servant of Jehovah, true to the
object before his mind, in all those marvelous discourses in the
opening of our book, proceeds to unfold to the congregation the truth
as to their mode of acting in the good land on which they were about
to plant their foot. As he had spoken of the past and of the present,
so would he make use of the future; he would turn all to account in
his holy effort to urge upon the people their obvious, bounden duty to
that blessed One who had so graciously and tenderly cared for them all
their journey through, and who was about to bring them in and plant
them in the mountain of His inheritance. Let us hearken to his
touching and powerful exhortations.
"When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy
God for the good land which He has given thee." How simple! how
lovely! how morally suitable! Filled with the fruit of Jehovah's
goodness, they were to bless and praise His holy name. He delights to
surround Himself with hearts filled to overflowing with the sweet
sense of His goodness, and pouring forth songs of praise and
thanksgiving. He inhabits the praises of His people. He says, "Whoso
offereth praise glorifieth Me." The feeblest note of praise from a
grateful heart ascends as fragrant incense to the throne and to the
heart of God.
Let us remember this, beloved reader. It is as true for us, most
surely, as it was for Israel, that praise is comely. Our grand primary
business is to praise the Lord. Our every breath should be a
halleluiah. It is to this blessed and most sacred exercise the Holy
Ghost exhorts us, in manifold places. "By Him therefore let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to His name." We should ever remember that nothing
so gratifies the heart and glorifies the name of our God as a
thankful, worshiping spirit on the part of His people. It is well to
do good and communicate,--God is well pleased with such sacrifices; it
is our high privilege, while we have opportunity, to do good unto all
men, and especially unto them who are of the household of faith; we
are called to be channels of blessing between the loving heart of our
Father and every form of human need that comes before us in our daily
path;--all this is most blessedly true, but we must never forget that
the very highest place is assigned to praise. It is this which shall
employ our ransomed powers throughout the golden ages of eternity,
when the sacrifices of active benevolence shall no longer be needed.
But the faithful lawgiver knew but too well the sad proneness of the
human heart to forget all this--to lose sight of the gracious Giver,
and rest in His gifts; hence he addresses the following admonitory
words to the congregation--wholesome words, truly, for them and for
us. May we bend our ears and our hearts to them, in holy reverence and
teachableness of spirit.
"Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His
commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command
thee this day. Lest _when thou hast eaten and art full_, and hast
built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy
flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all
that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou
forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led thee through that great and
terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of
the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which
thy fathers knew not, that He might humble thee, and that He might
prove thee, _to do thee good at thy latter end_; and thou say in thine
heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is He that giveth
thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He
sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do
at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve
them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall
surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your
face, so shall ye perish, _because ye would not be obedient unto the
voice of the Lord your God_." (Ver. 11-20.)
Here is something for us to ponder deeply. It has most assuredly a
voice for us, as it had for Israel. We may perhaps feel disposed to
marvel at the frequent reiteration of the note of warning and
admonition, the constant appeals to the heart and conscience of the
people as to their bounden duty to obey in all things the word of God,
the recurrence again and again to those grand soul-stirring facts
connected with their deliverance out of Egypt and their journey
through the wilderness.
But wherefore should we marvel? In the first place, do we not deeply
feel and fully admit our own urgent need of warning, admonition, and
exhortation? Do we not need line upon line, precept upon precept, and
that continually? Are we not prone to forget the Lord our God--to rest
in His gifts instead of Himself? Alas! alas! we cannot deny it. We
rest in the stream, instead of getting up to the Fountain; we turn the
very mercies, blessings, and benefits which strew our path in rich
profusion into an occasion of self-complacency and gratulation,
instead of finding in them the blessed ground of continual praise and
thanksgiving.
And then, as to those great facts of which Moses so continually
reminds the people, could they ever lose their moral weight, power, or
preciousness? Surely not. Israel might forget and fail to appreciate
those facts, but the facts remained the same. The terrible plagues of
Egypt, the night of the passover, their deliverance from the land of
darkness, bondage, and degradation, their marvelous passage through
the Red Sea, the descent of that mysterious food from heaven morning
by morning, the refreshing stream gushing forth from the flinty
rock,--how could such facts as these ever lose their power over a
heart possessing a spark of genuine love to God? and why should we
wonder to find Moses again and again appealing to them and using them
as a most powerful lever wherewith to move the hearts of the people?
Moses felt the mighty moral influence of these things himself, and he
would fain lead others to feel it also. To him, they were precious
beyond expression, and he longed to make his brethren feel their
preciousness as well as himself. It was his one object to set before
them, in every possible way, the powerful claims of Jehovah upon their
hearty and unreserved obedience.
This, reader, will account for what might, to an unspiritual,
unintelligent, cursory reader, seem the too frequent recurrence to the
scenes of the past in those wonderful discourses of Moses. We are
reminded, as we read them, of the lovely words of Peter, in his second
epistle,--"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you _always in
remembrance of these things_, though ye know them, and be established
in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this
tabernacle, _to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance_; knowing
that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus
Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able,
after my decease, to have _these things always in remembrance_."
(Chap. i. 12-15.)
How striking the unity of spirit and purpose in these two beloved and
venerable servants of God! Both the one and the other felt the
tendency of the poor human heart to forget the things of God, of
heaven, and of eternity, and they felt the supreme importance and
infinite value of the things of which they spoke; hence their earnest
desire to keep them continually before the hearts and abidingly in
the remembrance of the Lord's beloved people. Unbelieving, restless
nature might say to Moses, or to Peter, Have you nothing new to tell
us? Why are you perpetually dwelling on the same old themes? We know
all you have got to say; we have heard it again and again. Why not
strike out into some new field of thought? Would it not be well to try
and keep abreast of the science of the day? If we keep perpetually
moping over those antiquated themes, we shall be left stranded on the
bank, while the stream of civilization rushes on. Pray give us
something new.
Thus might the poor unbelieving mind--the worldly heart reason, but
faith knows the answer to all such miserable suggestions. We can well
believe that both Moses and Peter would have made short work with all
such reasonings. And so should we. We know whence they emanate,
whither they tend, and what they are worth; and we should have, if not
on our lips, at least deep down in our hearts, a ready answer--an
answer perfectly satisfactory to us, however contemptible it may seem
to the men of this world. Could a true Israelite ever tire of hearing
of what the Lord had done for him, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in
the wilderness? Never! Such themes would be ever fresh, ever welcome
to his heart. And just so with the Christian. Can he ever tire of the
cross and all the grand and glorious realities that cluster around it?
can he ever tire of Christ, His peerless glories and unsearchable
riches, His Person, His work, His offices? Never! No, never,
throughout the bright ages of eternity. Does he crave any thing new?
Can science improve upon Christ? can human learning add aught to the
great mystery of godliness, which has for its foundation God manifest
in the flesh, and for its top-stone a Man glorified in heaven? can we
ever get beyond this? No, reader, we could not if we would, and we
would not if we could.
And even were we, for a moment, to take a lower range, and look at the
works of God in creation; do we ever tire of the sun? He is not new;
he has been pouring his beams upon this world for well-nigh six
thousand years, and yet those beams are as fresh and as welcome to-day
as they were when first created. Do we ever tire of the sea? It is not
new; its tide has been ebbing and flowing for nearly six thousand
years, but its waves are as fresh and as welcome on our shores as
ever. True, the sun is often too dazzling to man's feeble vision, and
the sea often swallows up, in a moment, man's boasted works; but yet
the sun and the sea never lose their power, their freshness, their
charm. Do we ever tire of the dew-drops that fall in refreshing virtue
upon our gardens and fields? do we ever tire of the perfume that
emanates from our hedge-rows? do we ever tire of the notes of the
nightingale and the thrush? And what are all these when compared with
the glories which cluster around the Person and the cross of Christ?
what are they when put in contrast with the grand realities of that
eternity which is before us?
Reader, let us beware how we listen to such suggestions, whether they
come from without or spring from the depths of our own evil hearts,
lest we be found, like Israel after the flesh, loathing the heavenly
Manna and despising the pleasant land; or like Demas, who forsook the
blessed apostle, having loved this present age; or like those of whom
we read in the sixth of John, who, offended by our Lord's close and
pointed teaching, "went back, and walked no more with Him." May the
Lord keep our hearts true to Himself, and fresh and fervent in His
blessed cause, till He come.