"Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to
possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and
fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the
Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, 'Who can
stand before the children of Anak!'" (Ver. 1, 2.)
This chapter opens with the same grand Deuteronomic sentence, "_Hear_,
O Israel." This, we may say, is the key-note of this most blessed
book, and especially of those opening discourses which have been
engaging our attention. But the chapter which now lies open before us
presents subjects of immense weight and importance. In the first
place, the lawgiver sets before the congregation, in terms of deep
solemnity, that which lay before them in their entrance upon the land.
He does not hide from them the fact that there were serious
difficulties and formidable enemies to be encountered. This he does,
we need hardly say, not to discourage their hearts, but that they
might be forewarned, forearmed, and prepared. What that preparation
was we shall see presently; but the faithful servant of God felt the
rightness, yea, the urgent need of putting the true state of the case
before his brethren.
There are two ways of looking at difficulties; we may look at them
from a human stand-point, or from a divine one; we may look at them in
a spirit of unbelief, or we may look at them in the calmness and
quietness of confidence in the living God. We have an instance of the
former in the report of the unbelieving spies in Numbers xiii; we have
an instance of the latter in the opening of our present chapter.
It is not the province, nor the path, of faith to deny that there are
difficulties to be encountered by the people of God; it would be the
height of folly to do so, inasmuch as there are difficulties, and it
would be but fool-hardiness, fanaticism, or fleshly enthusiasm to deny
it. It is always well for people to know what they are about, and not
to rush blindly into a path for which they are not prepared. An
unbelieving sluggard may say, There is a lion in the way; a blind
enthusiast may say, There is no such thing; the true man of faith will
say, Though there were a thousand lions in the way, God can soon
dispose of them.
But, as a great practical principle of general application, it is very
important for all the Lord's people to consider, deeply and calmly,
what they are about, ere they enter upon any particular path of
service or line of action. If this were more attended to, we should
not witness so many moral and spiritual wrecks around us. What mean
those most solemn, searching, and testing words addressed by our
blessed Lord to the multitudes that thronged around Him in Luke
xiv?--"He turned and said to them, 'If any man _come to Me_, and hate
not his father and mother, his wife and children, and brethren and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My
disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not
down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to
finish it? lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not
able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This
man began to build, and was not able to finish.'" (Ver. 26-30.)
These are solemn and seasonable words for the heart. How many
unfinished buildings meet our view as we look forth over the wide
field of Christian profession, giving sad occasion to the beholders
for mockery! How many set out upon a path of discipleship under some
sudden impulse, or under the pressure of mere human influence, without
a proper understanding, or a due consideration of all that is
involved; and then when difficulties arise, when trials come, when the
path is found to be narrow, rough, lonely, unpopular, they give it up,
thus proving that they had never really counted the cost, never taken
the path in communion with God, never understood what they were doing.
Now, such cases are very sorrowful; they bring great reproach on the
cause of Christ, give occasion to the adversary to blaspheme, and
greatly dishearten those who care for the glory of God and the good of
souls. Better far not to take the ground at all than, having taken it,
to abandon it in dark unbelief and worldly-mindedness.
Hence, therefore, we can perceive the wisdom and faithfulness of the
opening words of our chapter. Moses tells the people plainly what was
before them; not, surely, to discourage them, but to preserve them
from self-confidence, which is sure to give way in the moment of
trial, and to cast them upon the living God, who never fails a
trusting heart.
"Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is He which
goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire He shall destroy them, and
He shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them
out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee."
Here, then, is the divine answer to all difficulties, be they ever so
formidable. What were mighty nations, great cities, fenced walls, in
the presence of Jehovah? Simply as chaff before the whirlwind. "If
God be for us, who can be against us?" The very things which scare and
stumble the coward heart afford an occasion for the display of God's
power, and the magnificent triumphs of faith. Faith says, Grant me but
this, that God is before me and with me, and I can go any where. Thus
the only thing in all this world that really glorifies God is the
faith that can trust Him and use Him and praise Him; and inasmuch as
faith is the only thing that glorifies God, so is it the only thing
that gives man his proper place, even the place of complete dependence
upon God, and this insures victory and inspires praise--unceasing
praise.
But we must never forget that there is moral danger in the very moment
of victory--danger arising out of what we are in ourselves. There is
the danger of self-gratulation--a terrible snare to us poor mortals.
In the hour of conflict we feel our weakness, our nothingness, our
need. This is good and morally safe. It is well to be brought down to
the very bottom of self and all that pertains to it, for there we find
God, in all the fullness and blessedness of what He is, and this is
sure and certain victory and consequent praise.
But our treacherous and deceitful hearts are prone to forget whence
the strength and victory come; hence the moral force, value, and
seasonableness of the following admonitory words addressed by the
faithful minister of God to the hearts and consciences of his
brethren: "Speak not thou _in thine heart_"--here is where the
mischief always begins--"after that the Lord hath cast them out from
before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in
to possess this land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord
doth drive them out from before thee."
Alas! what materials there are in us! what ignorance of our own
hearts! what a shallow sense of the real character of our ways! How
terrible to think that we are capable of saying in our hearts such
words as, "For my righteousness"! Yes, reader, we are verily capable
of such egregious folly; for as Israel was capable of it, so are we,
inasmuch as we are made of the very same material; and that they were
capable of it is evident from the fact of their being warned against
it; for, most assuredly, the Spirit of God does not warn against
phantom dangers or imaginary temptations. We are verily capable of
turning the actings of God on our behalf into an occasion of
self-complacency; instead of seeing in those gracious actings a ground
for heartfelt praise to God, we use them as a ground for
self-exaltation.
Hence, therefore, we would do well to ponder the words of faithful
admonition addressed by Moses to the hearts and consciences of the
people; they furnish a very wholesome antidote for the self-righteousness
so natural to us as well as to Israel. "Not for thy righteousness, or
for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their
land; but for the wickedness of those nations the Lord thy God doth
drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word
which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Understand, therefore, that the Lord giveth thee not this good land to
possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people.
Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to
wrath in the wilderness; from the day that thou didst depart out of
the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been
rebellious against the Lord." (Ver. 5-7.)
This paragraph sets forth two great principles, which, if fully laid
hold of, must put the heart into a right moral attitude. In the first
place, the people were reminded that their possession of the land of
Canaan was simply in pursuance of God's promise to their fathers. This
was placing the matter on the most solid basis--a basis which nothing
could ever disturb.
As to the seven nations which were to be dispossessed, it was on the
ground of their wickedness that God, in the exercise of His righteous
government, was about to drive them out. Every landlord has a perfect
right to eject bad tenants; and the nations of Canaan had not only
failed to pay their rent, as we say, but they had injured and defiled
the property to such an extent that God could no longer endure them,
and therefore He was going to drive them out, irrespective altogether
of the incoming tenants. Whoever was going to get possession of the
property, these dreadful tenants must be evicted. The iniquity of the
Amorites had reached its highest point, and nothing remained but that
judgment should take its course. Men might argue and reason as to the
moral fitness and consistency of a benevolent Being unroofing the
houses of thousands of families and putting the occupants to the
sword, but we may depend upon it the government of God will make very
short work with all such arguments. God, blessed forever be His holy
name, knows how to manage His own affairs, and that, too, without
asking man's opinion. He had borne with the wickedness of the seven
nations to such a degree that it had become absolutely insufferable;
the very land itself could not bear it. Any further exercise of
forbearance would have been a sanction of the most terrible
abominations; and this, of course, was a moral impossibility. The
glory of God absolutely demanded the expulsion of the Canaanites.
Yes; and we may add, the glory of God demanded the introduction of the
seed of Abraham into possession of the property, to hold as tenants
forever under the Lord God Almighty--the Most High God, Possessor of
heaven and earth. Thus the matter stood for Israel, had they but seen
it. Their possession of the land of promise and the maintenance of the
divine glory were so bound up together that one could not be touched
without touching the other. God had promised to give the land of
Canaan to the seed of Abraham as an everlasting possession. Had He not
a right to do so? Will infidels question God's right to do as He will
with His own? Will they refuse to the Creator and Governor of the
universe a right which they claim for themselves? The land was
Jehovah's, and He gave it to Abraham His friend forever; and although
this was true, yet were not the Canaanites disturbed in their tenure
of the property until their wickedness had become positively
unbearable.
Thus we see that in the matter both of the outgoing and incoming
tenants the glory of God was involved. That glory demanded that the
Canaanites should be expelled, because of their ways; and that glory
demanded that Israel should be put in possession, because of the
promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But, in the second place, Israel had no ground for self-complacency,
as Moses most plainly and faithfully instructs them. He rehearses in
their ears, in the most touching and impressive manner, all the
leading scenes of their history from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea; he refers
to the golden calf, to the broken tables of the covenant, to Taberah
and Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah; and sums all up, at verse 24, with
these pungent, humbling words, "Ye have been rebellious against the
Lord from the day that I knew you."
This was plain dealing with heart and conscience. The solemn review of
their whole career was eminently calculated to correct all false
notions about themselves; every scene and circumstance in their entire
history, if viewed from a proper stand-point, only brought to light
the humbling fact of what they were, and how near they had been, again
and again, to utter destruction. With what stunning force must the
following words have fallen upon their ears!--"And the Lord said unto
me, 'Arise, get thee down quickly from hence, for _thy_ people which
_thou_ hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they
are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they
have made them a molten image.' Furthermore, the Lord spake unto me,
saying, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked
people; _let Me alone, that I may destroy_ them, and blot out their
name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and
greater than they.'" (Ver. 12-14.)
How withering was all this to their natural vanity, pride, and
self-righteousness! How should their hearts have been moved to their
very deepest depths by those tremendous words, "Let Me alone, that I
may destroy them"! How solemn to reflect upon the fact which these
words revealed--their appalling nearness to national ruin and
destruction! How ignorant they had been of all that passed between
Jehovah and Moses on the top of Mount Horeb! They had been on the very
brink of an awful precipice. Another moment might have dashed them
over. The intercession of Moses had saved them, the very man whom they
had accused of taking too much upon him. Alas! how they had mistaken
and misjudged him! How utterly astray they had been in all their
thoughts! Why, the very man whom they had accused of self-seeking and
desiring to make himself altogether a prince over them, had actually
refused a divinely given opportunity of becoming the head of a greater
and mightier nation than they! Yes, and this same man had earnestly
requested that if they were not to be forgiven and brought into the
land, his name might be blotted out of the book.
How wonderful was all this! What a turning of the tables upon them!
How exceedingly small they must have felt, in view of all these
wonderful facts! Surely, as they reviewed all these things, they might
well see the utter folly of the words, "For my righteousness the Lord
hath brought me in to possess this land." How could the makers of a
molten image use such language! Ought they not rather to see and feel
and own themselves to be no better than the nations that were about to
be driven out from before them? For what had made them to differ? The
sovereign mercy and electing love of their covenant-God. And to what
did they owe their deliverance out of Egypt, their sustenance in the
wilderness, and their entrance into the land? Simply to the eternal
stability of the covenant made with their fathers, "a covenant ordered
in all things and sure," a covenant ratified and established by the
blood of the Lamb, in virtue of which all Israel shall yet be saved
and blessed in their own land.
But we must now quote for the reader the splendid paragraph with which
our chapter closes--a paragraph eminently fitted to open Israel's eyes
to the utter folly of all their thoughts respecting Moses, their
thoughts respecting themselves, and their thoughts respecting that
blessed One who had so marvelously borne with all their dark unbelief
and daring rebellion.
"Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I
fell down at the first; because the Lord had said He would destroy
you. I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, 'O Lord God, destroy
not _Thy people_ and _Thine inheritance_, which Thou hast redeemed
through Thy greatness, which Thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with
a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; _look
not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor
to their sin_; lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say,
Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He
promised them, and because He hated them, He hath brought them out to
slay them in the wilderness. _Yet they are Thy people, and Thine
inheritance_, which Thou broughtest out by Thy mighty power, and by
Thy stretched-out arm.'"
What marvelous words are these to be addressed by a human being to the
living God! What powerful pleadings for Israel! what self-renunciation!
Moses refuses the offered dignity of being the founder of a greater
and mightier nation than Israel. He only desires that Jehovah should
be glorified, and Israel pardoned, blessed, and brought into the
promised land. He could not endure the thought of any reproach being
brought upon that glorious Name so dear to his heart, neither could he
bear to witness Israel's destruction. These were the two things he
dreaded; and as to his own exaltation, it was just the thing about
which he cared nothing at all. This beloved and honored servant cared
_only_ for the glory of God and the salvation of His people; and as to
himself, his hopes, his interests, his all, he could rest, with
perfect composure, in the assurance that his individual blessing and
the divine glory were bound together by a link which could never be
snapped.
And, oh, how grateful must all this have been to the heart of God! How
refreshing to His spirit were those earnest, loving pleadings of His
servant! How much more in harmony with His mind than the intercession
of Elias against Israel hundreds of years afterward! How they remind
us of the blessed ministry of our great High-Priest, who ever liveth
to make intercession for His people, and whose active intervention on
our behalf never ceases for a single moment!
And then how very touching and beautiful to mark the way in which
Moses insists upon the fact that the people were Jehovah's
inheritance, and that He had brought them up out of Egypt. The Lord
had said, "_Thy_ people which _thou_ hast brought forth out of Egypt;"
but Moses says, "They are _Thy_ people, and _Thine_ inheritance, which
_Thou_ broughtest out." This is perfectly exquisite. Indeed this whole
scene is full of profound interest.