"At that time the Lord said unto me, 'Hew thee two tables of stone
like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make thee
an ark of wood; and I will write on the tables the words that were in
the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the
ark.' And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone
like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables
in mine hand. And He wrote on the tables, according to the first
writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the
mount out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly; and
the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the
mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they
be, as the Lord commanded me." (Ver. 1-5.)
The beloved and revered servant of God seemed never to weary of
rehearsing in the ears of the people the interesting, momentous, and
significant sentences of the past. To him they were ever fresh, ever
precious. His heart delighted in them. They could never lose their
charm in his eyes; he found in them an exhaustless treasury for his
own heart, and a mighty moral lever wherewith to move the heart of
Israel.
We are constantly reminded, in these powerful and deeply affecting
addresses, of the inspired apostle's words to his beloved
Philippians--"To write the same things to you, to me is not grievous,
but for you it is safe." The poor, restless, fickle, vagrant heart
might long for some new theme; but the faithful apostle found his deep
and unfailing delight in unfolding and dwelling upon those precious
subjects which clustered, in rich luxuriance, around the Person and
the cross of his adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He had found
in Christ all he needed for time and eternity. The glory of His Person
had completely eclipsed all the glories of earth and of nature. He
could say, "What things were _gain to me_, those I counted _loss for
Christ_. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I
may win Christ." (Phil. iii. 7, 8.)
This is the language of a true Christian, of one who had found a
perfectly absorbing and commanding object in Christ. What could the
world offer to such an one? what could it do for him? Did he want its
riches, its honors, its distinctions, its pleasures? He counted them
all as dung. How was this? Because he had found Christ; he had seen an
object in Him which so riveted his heart that to win Him and know more
of Him and be found in Him was the one ruling desire of his soul. If
any one had talked to Paul about something new, what would have been
his answer? If any one had suggested to him the thought of getting on
in the world or of seeking to make money, what would have been his
reply? Simply this: I have found my ALL in Christ; I want no more. I
have found in Him "_unsearchable_ riches"--"_durable_ riches and
righteousness." In Him are hid _all_ the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. What do I want of this world's riches, its wisdom, or its
learning? These things all pass away like the vapors of the morning;
and even while they last, are wholly inadequate to satisfy the desires
and aspirations of an immortal spirit. Christ is an eternal object,
heaven's centre, the delight of the heart of God; He shall satisfy me
throughout the countless ages of that bright eternity which is before
me; and surely, if He can satisfy me forever, He can satisfy me now.
Shall I turn to the wretched rubbish of this world--its pursuits, its
pleasures, its amusements, its theatres, its concerts, its riches, or
its honors to supplement my portion in Christ? God forbid! All such
things would be simply an intolerable nuisance to me. Christ is my all
and in all, now and forever.
Such, we may well believe, would have been the distinctly pronounced
reply of the blessed apostle; such was the distinct reply of his whole
life; and such, beloved Christian reader, should be ours also. How
truly deplorable, how deeply humbling, to find a Christian turning to
the world for enjoyment, recreation, or pastime! It simply proves that
he has not found a satisfying portion in Christ. We may set it down as
a fixed principle that the heart which is filled with Christ has no
room for aught beside. It is not a question of the right or the wrong
of things; the heart does not want them, would not have them; it has
found its present and everlasting portion and rest in that blessed One
that fills the heart of God, and will fill the vast universe with the
beams of His glory throughout the everlasting ages.
We have been led into the foregoing line of thought in connection with
the interesting fact of Moses' unwearied rehearsal of all the grand
events in Israel's marvelous history from Egypt to the borders of the
promised land. To him they furnished a perpetual feast; and he not
only found his own deep, personal delight in dwelling upon them, but
he also felt the immense importance of unfolding them before the whole
congregation. To him, most surely, it was not grievous, but for them
it was safe. How delightful for him, and how good and needful for
them, to dwell upon the facts connected with the two sets of
tables--the first set smashed to atoms, at the foot of the mountain,
and the second set inclosed in the ark.
What human language could possibly unfold the deep significance and
moral weight of such facts as these? Those broken tables! how
impressive! how pregnant with wholesome instruction for the people!
how powerfully suggestive! Will any one presume to say that we have
here a mere barren repetition of the facts recorded in Exodus?
Certainly no one who reverently believes in the divine inspiration of
the Pentateuch.
No, reader, the tenth of Deuteronomy fills a niche and does a work
entirely its own. In it the lawgiver holds up to the hearts of the
people past scenes and circumstances in such a way as to rivet them
upon the very tablets of the soul. He allows them to hear the
conversation between Jehovah and himself; he tells them what took
place during those mysterious forty days upon that cloud-capped
mountain; he lets them hear Jehovah's reference to the broken
tables--the apt and forcible expression of the utter worthlessness of
man's covenant. For why were those tables broken? Because they had
shamefully failed. Those shattered fragments told the humiliating tale
of their hopeless ruin on the ground of the law. All was gone. Such
was the obvious meaning of the fact. It was striking, impressive,
unmistakable. Like a broken pillar over a grave, which tells at a
glance that the prop and stay of the family lies mouldering beneath.
There is no need of any inscription, for no human language could speak
with such eloquence to the heart as that most expressive emblem. So
the broken tables were calculated to convey to the heart of Israel the
tremendous fact that, so far as their covenant was concerned, they
were utterly ruined--hopelessly undone; they were complete bankrupts
on the score of righteousness.
But then that second set of tables! What of them? Thank God, they tell
a different tale altogether. They were not broken. God took care of
them. "I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the
tables in the ark which I had made; and _there they be_, as the Lord
commanded me."
Blessed fact! "There they be." Yes, covered up in that ark which spoke
of Christ, that blessed One who magnified the law and made it
honorable, who established every jot and tittle of it, to the glory of
God and the everlasting blessing of His people. Thus, while the broken
fragments of the first tables told the sad and humbling tale of
Israel's utter failure and ruin, the second tables, shut up intact in
the ark, set forth the glorious truth that Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Gentile.
We do not, of course, mean to say that Israel understood the deep
meaning and far-reaching application of those wonderful facts which
Moses rehearsed in their ears. As a nation, they certainly did not
then, though, through the sovereign mercy of God, they will by and by.
Individuals may, and doubtless did, enter into somewhat of their
significance. This is not now the question. It is for us to see and
make our own of the precious truth set forth in those two sets of
tables, namely, the failure of every thing in the hands of man, and
the eternal stability of God's covenant of grace, ratified by the
blood of Christ, and to be displayed in all its glorious results, in
the kingdom, by and by, when the Son of David shall reign from sea to
sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth; when the seed of
Abraham shall possess, according to the divine gift, the land of
promise; and when all the nations of the earth shall rejoice under the
beneficent reign of the Prince of peace.
Bright and glorious prospect for the now desolate land of Israel, and
this groaning earth of ours! The King of righteousness and peace will
then have it all His own way. All evil will be put down with a
powerful hand. There will be no weakness in that government; no rebel
tongue will be permitted to prate, in accents of insolent sedition,
against the decrees and enactments thereof; no rude and senseless
demagogue will be allowed to disturb the peace of the people, or to
insult the majesty of the throne. Every abuse will be put down, every
disturbing element will be neutralized, every stumbling-block will be
removed, and every root of bitterness eradicated. The poor and the
needy shall be well looked after, yea, all shall be divinely attended
to; toil, sorrow, poverty, and desolation shall be unknown; the
wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose. "Behold a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be
as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as
rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land."
Reader, what glorious scenes are yet to be enacted in this poor
sin-stricken, Satan-enslaved, sorrowful world of ours! How refreshing
to think of them! What a relief to the heart amid all the mental
misery, the moral degradation, and physical wretchedness exhibited
around us on every side! Thank God, the day is rapidly approaching
when the prince of this world shall be hurled from his throne and
consigned to the bottomless pit, and the Prince of heaven, the
glorious Emmanuel shall stretch forth His blessed sceptre over the
wide universe of God, and heaven and earth shall bask in the sunlight
of His royal countenance. Well may we cry out, O Lord, hasten the
time!
"And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the
children of Jaakan to Mosera; there Aaron died, and there he was
buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his
stead. From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to
Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. At that time the Lord separated
the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to
stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, and to bless in His name,
unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his
brethren; the Lord is His inheritance, according as the Lord thy God
promised him."
The reader must not allow his mind to be disturbed by any question of
historical sequence in the foregoing passage. It is simply a
parenthesis in which the lawgiver groups together, in a very striking
and forcible manner, circumstances culled, with holy skill, from the
history of the people, illustrative at once of the government and
grace of God. The death of Aaron exhibits the former; the election and
elevation of Levi presents the latter. Both are placed together, not
with a view to chronology, but for the grand moral end which was ever
present to the mind of the lawgiver--an end which lies far away beyond
the range of infidel reason, but which commends itself to the heart
and understanding of the devout student of Scripture.
How utterly contemptible are the quibbles of the infidel when looked
at in the brilliant light of divine inspiration! How miserable the
condition of a mind which can occupy itself with chronological
hair-splittings in order, if possible, to find a flaw in the divine
Volume, instead of grasping the real aim and object of the inspired
writer!
But why does Moses bring in, in this parenthetical and apparently
abrupt manner, those two special events in Israel's history? Simply to
move the heart of the people toward the one grand point of obedience.
To this end he culls and groups according to the wisdom given unto
him. Do we expect to find in this divinely taught servant of God the
petty preciseness of a mere copyist? Infidels may affect to do so, but
true Christians know better. A mere scribe could copy events in their
chronological order; a true prophet will bring those events to bear,
in a moral way, upon the heart and conscience. Thus, while the poor
deluded infidel is groping amid the shadows of his own creation, the
pious student delights himself in the moral glories of that peerless
Volume which stands like a rock, against which the waves of infidel
thought dash themselves with contemptible impotency.
We do not attempt to dwell upon the circumstances referred to in the
above parenthesis; they have been gone into elsewhere, and therefore
we only feel it needful, in this place, to point out to the reader
what we may venture to call the Deuteronomic bearing of the facts--the
use which the lawgiver makes of them to strengthen the foundation of
his final appeal to the heart and conscience of the people, to give
pungency and power to his exhortation, as he urged upon them the
absolute necessity of unqualified obedience to the statutes and
judgments of their covenant-God. Such was his reason for referring to
the solemn fact of the death of Aaron. They were to remember that
notwithstanding Aaron's high position as the high-priest of Israel,
yet he was stripped of his robes and deprived of his life for
disobedience to the word of Jehovah. How important, then, that they
should take heed to themselves! The government of God was not to be
trifled with, and the very fact of Aaron's elevation only rendered it
all the more needful that his sin should be dealt with, in order that
others might fear.
And then they were to remember the Lord's dealings with Levi, in which
grace shines with such marvelous lustre. The fierce, cruel,
self-willed Levi was taken up from the depths of his moral ruin and
brought nigh to God, "to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to
stand before the Lord, to minister unto Him, and to bless in His
name."
But why should this account of Levi be coupled with the death of
Aaron? Simply to set forth the blessed consequences of obedience. If
the death of Aaron displayed the awful result of disobedience, the
elevation of Levi illustrates the precious fruit of obedience. Hear
what the prophet Malachi says on this point.--"And ye shall know that
I have sent this _commandment_ unto you, that My covenant might be
with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life
and peace; and _I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared
Me, and was afraid before My name_. The law of truth was in his mouth,
and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and
equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." (Chap. ii. 4-6.)
This is a very remarkable passage, and throws much light upon the
subject now before us. It tells us distinctly that Jehovah gave His
covenant of life and peace to Levi "for the fear wherewith he feared"
Him on the terrible occasion of the golden calf which Aaron (himself a
Levite of the very highest order) made. Why was Aaron judged? Because
of his rebellion at the waters of Meribah. (Num. xx. 24.) Why was Levi
blessed? Because of his reverent obedience at the foot of Mount Horeb.
(Ex. xxxii.) Why are both grouped together in Deuteronomy x? In order
to impress upon the heart and conscience of the congregation the
urgent necessity of implicit obedience to the commandments of their
covenant-God. How perfect is Scripture in all its parts! how
beautifully it hangs together! and how plain it is to the devout
reader that the lovely book of Deuteronomy has its own divine niche
to fill, its own distinctive work to do, its own appointed sphere,
scope, and object! How manifest it is that the fifth division of the
Pentateuch is neither a contradiction nor a repetition, but a divine
application of its divinely inspired predecessors! And, finally, we
cannot help adding, how convincing the evidence that infidel writers
know neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, when they dare to
insult the oracles of God--yea, that they greatly err, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God![7]
[7] We have, in human writings, numerous examples of the same thing
that infidels object to in Deuteronomy x. 6-9. Suppose a man is
anxious to call the attention of the English nation to some great
principle of political economy, or some matter of national importance;
he does not hesitate to select facts however widely separated on the
page of history, and group them together in order to illustrate his
subject. Do infidels object to this? No; not when found in the
writings of men. It is only when it occurs in Scripture, because they
hate the Word of God, and cannot bear the idea that He should give to
His creatures a book-revelation of His mind. Blessed be His name, He
has given it notwithstanding, and we have it in all its infinite
preciousness and divine authority, for the comfort of our hearts and
the guidance of our path amid all the darkness and confusion of this
scene through which we are passing home to glory.
At verse 10 of our chapter, Moses returns to the subject of his
discourse. "And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time,
forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me at that
time also, and the Lord would not destroy thee. And the Lord said unto
me, 'Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in
and possess the land which I sware unto their fathers to give unto
them.'"
Jehovah would accomplish His promise to the fathers spite of every
hindrance. He would put Israel in full possession of the land
concerning which He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it
to their seed for an everlasting inheritance.
"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord _thy_ God require of thee, but to
fear the Lord thy God, to walk in _all His ways_, and to love Him, and
to serve the Lord _thy_ God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
To keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I
command thee this day, _for thy good_." It was all for their real
good--their deep, full blessing to walk in the way of the divine
commandments. The path of whole-hearted obedience is the only path of
true happiness; and, blessed be God, this path can always be trodden
by those who love the Lord.
This is an unspeakable comfort, at all times. God has given us His
precious Word, the perfect revelation of His mind; and He has given us
what Israel had not, even His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, whereby we
can understand and appreciate His Word. Hence our obligations are
vastly higher than were Israel's. We are bound to a life of obedience
by every argument that could be brought to bear on the heart and
understanding.
And surely it is for our good to be obedient. There is indeed "great
reward" in keeping the commandments of our loving Father. Every
thought of Him and of His gracious ways, every reference to His
marvelous dealings with us--His loving ministry, His tender care, His
thoughtful love--all should bind our hearts in affectionate devotion
to Him, and quicken our steps in treading the path of loving obedience
to Him. Wherever we turn our eyes we are met by the most powerful
evidences of His claim upon our heart's affections and upon all the
energies of our ransomed being; and, blessed be His name, the more
fully we are enabled, by His grace, to respond to His most precious
claims, the brighter and happier our path must be. There is nothing in
all this world more deeply blessed than the path and portion of an
obedient soul. "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing
shall offend them." The lowly disciple who finds his meat and his
drink in doing the will of his beloved Lord and Master, possesses a
peace which the world can neither give nor take away. True, he may be
misunderstood and misinterpreted; he may be dubbed narrow and bigoted,
and such like; but none of these things move him. One approving smile
from his Lord is more than ample recompense for all the reproach that
men can heap upon him. He knows how to estimate at their proper worth
the thoughts of men; they are to him as the chaff which the wind
driveth away. The deep utterance of his heart, as he moves steadily
along the sacred path of obedience, is,--
"Let me my feebleness recline
On that eternal love of Thine,
And human thoughts forget;
Childlike attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and serve Thee while 'tis day,
Nor leave Thy sweet retreat."
In the closing verses of our chapter, the lawgiver seems to rise
higher and higher in his presentation of moral motives for obedience,
and to come closer and closer to the hearts of the people. "Behold,"
he says, "the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God,
the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight
in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even
you above all people, as it is this day." What a marvelous privilege
to be chosen and loved by the Possessor of heaven and earth! what an
honor to be called to serve and obey Him! Surely nothing in all this
world could be higher or better. To be identified and associated with
the Most High God, to have His name called upon them, to be His
peculiar people, His special possession, the people of His choice, to
be set apart from all the nations of the earth to be the servants of
Jehovah and His witnesses. What, we may ask, could exceed this, except
it be that to which the Church of God and the individual believer are
called?
Assuredly, our privileges are higher, inasmuch as we know God in a
higher, deeper, nearer, more intimate manner than the nation of Israel
ever did. We know Him as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and as our God and Father. We have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us,
shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, and leading us to cry,
Abba, Father. All this is far beyond any thing that God's earthly
people ever knew or could know; and, inasmuch as our privileges are
higher, His claims upon our hearty and unreserved obedience are also
higher. Every appeal to the heart of Israel should come home with
augmented force to our hearts, beloved Christian reader; every
exhortation addressed to them should speak far more powerfully to us.
We occupy the very highest ground on which any creature could stand.
Neither the seed of Abraham on earth nor the angels of God in heaven
could say what we can say or know what we know. We are linked and
eternally associated with the risen and glorified Son of God. We can
adopt as our own the wondrous language of 1 John iv. 17, and say, "As
He is, so are we in this world." What can exceed this, as to privilege
and dignity? Surely nothing, save to be, in body, soul, and spirit,
conformed to His adorable image, as we shall be ere long, through the
abounding grace of God.
Well then, let us ever bear in mind--yea, let us have it deep, deep
down in our hearts, that according to our privileges are our
obligations. Let us not refuse the wholesome word "obligation," as
though it had a legal ring about it. Far from it! it would be utterly
impossible to conceive any thing further removed from all thought of
legality than the obligations which flow out of the Christian's
position. It is a very serious mistake to be continually raising the
cry of "Legal! legal!" whenever the holy responsibilities of our
position are pressed upon us. We believe that every truly pious
Christian will delight in all the appeals and exhortations which the
Holy Ghost addresses to us as to our obligations, seeing they are all
grounded upon privileges conferred upon us by the sovereign grace of
God, through the precious blood of Christ, and made good to us by the
mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost.
But let us hearken still further to the stirring appeals of Moses.
They are truly profitable for us, with all our higher light,
knowledge, and privilege.
"Circumcise therefore _the foreskin of your heart_, and be no more
stiff-necked. For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords,
a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons,
nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and
widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment."
Here, Moses speaks not merely of God's doings and dealings and ways,
but of Himself, of what He is. He is high over all, the great, the
mighty, and the terrible. But He has a heart for the widow and the
fatherless--those helpless objects deprived of all earthly and natural
props, the poor bereaved and broken-hearted widow, and the desolate
orphan. God thinks of and cares for such in a very special way; they
have a claim upon His loving heart and mighty hand. "A father of the
fatherless, and a Judge of the widow is God in His holy habitation."
"She that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God, and
continueth in supplications and prayers night and day." "Leave thy
fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows
trust in Me."
What a rich provision is here for widows and orphans! How wondrous
God's care of such! How many widows are much better off than when they
had their husbands! how many orphans are better cared and provided for
than when they had their parents! God looks after them! This is
enough. Thousands of husbands and thousands of parents are worse, by
far, than none; but God never fails those who are cast upon Him. He is
ever true to His own name, whatever relationship He takes. Let all
widows and orphans remember this for their comfort and encouragement.
And then the poor stranger! He is not forgotten. "He loveth the
stranger, in giving him food and raiment." How precious is this! Our
God cares for all those who are bereft of earthly props, human hopes,
and creature-confidences. All such have a special claim upon Him, to
which He will most surely respond according to all the love of His
heart. The widow, the fatherless, and the stranger are the special
objects of His tender care, and all such have but to look to Him, and
draw upon His exhaustless resources in all their varied need.
But then He must be known in order to be trusted. "They that know Thy
name will put their trust in Thee; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek Thee." Those who do not know God would vastly prefer an
insurance policy or a government annuity to His promise; but the true
believer finds in that promise the unfailing stay of his heart,
because he knows and trusts and loves the Promiser. He delights in the
thought of being absolutely shut up to God--wholly dependent upon Him.
He would not, for worlds, be in any other position. The very thing
which would almost drive an unbeliever out of his senses is to the
Christian--the man of faith, the very deepest joy of his heart. The
language of such an one will ever be, "My soul, wait thou _only_ upon
God; for my expectation is from Him. He _only_ is my rock." Blessed
position! precious portion! May the reader know it as a divine
reality, a living power, in his heart, by the mighty ministry of the
Holy Ghost. Then will he be able to sit loose to earthly things. He
will be able to tell the world that he is independent of it, having
found all he wants, for time and eternity, in the living God and His
Christ.
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find."
But let us specially note the provision which God makes for the
stranger. It is very simple--"food and raiment." This is enough for a
true stranger, as the blessed apostle says to his son Timothy, "We
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith
content."
Christian reader, let us ponder this. What a cure for restless
ambition is here! what an antidote against covetousness! what a
blessed deliverance from the feverish excitement of commercial life,
the grasping spirit of the age in which our lot is cast! If we were
only content with the divinely appointed provision for the stranger,
what a different tale we should have to tell! how calm and even would
be the current of our daily life! how simple our habits and tastes!
how unworldly our spirit and style! what moral elevation above the
self-indulgence and luxury so prevalent amongst professing Christians!
We should simply eat and drink to the glory of God, and to keep the
body in proper working order. To go beyond this, either in eating or
drinking, is to indulge in "fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul."
Alas! alas! how much of this there is, specially in reference to
drink! It is perfectly appalling to think of the consumption of
intoxicating drink amongst professing Christians. It is our thorough
conviction that the devil has succeeded in ruining the testimony of
hundreds, and in causing them to make shipwreck of faith and a good
conscience, by the use of stimulants. Thousands ruin their fortunes,
ruin their families, ruin their health, ruin their souls, through the
senseless, vile, and cursed desire for stimulants.
We are not going to preach a crusade against stimulants or narcotics.
The wrong is not in the things themselves, but in our inordinate and
sinful use of them. It not unfrequently happens that persons who fall
under the horrible dominion of drink seek to lay the blame on their
medical adviser, but surely no proper medical man would ever advise
his patient to _indulge_ in the use of stimulants. He may prescribe
the use of "a _little_ wine, for the stomach's sake and frequent
infirmities," and he has the very highest authority for so doing; but
why should this lead any one to become a drunkard? Each one is
responsible to walk in the fear of God in reference to both eating and
drinking. If a doctor prescribes a little nourishing food for his
patient, is he to be blamed if that patient becomes a glutton? Surely
not. The evil is not in the doctor's prescription, or in the stimulant
or in the nourishment, but in the wretched lust of the heart.
Here, we are persuaded, lies the root of the evil; and the remedy is
found in that precious grace of God which, while it bringeth salvation
unto all men, teacheth those who are saved "to live _soberly_,
righteously, and godly in this present world." And be it remembered
that "to live soberly" means a great deal more than temperance in
eating and drinking; it means this, most surely, but it takes in also
the whole range of inward self-government--the government of the
thoughts, the government of the temper, the government of the tongue.
The grace that saves us not only _tells_ us how to live, but _teaches_
how to do it, and if we follow its teachings, we shall be well content
with God's provision for the stranger.
It is at once interesting and edifying to notice the way in which
Moses sets the divine example before the people as their model.
Jehovah "loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye
therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
This is very touching. They were not only to keep before their eyes
the divine model, but also to remember their own past history and
experience, in order that their hearts might be drawn out in sympathy
and compassion toward the poor homeless stranger. It was the bounden
duty and high privilege of the Israel of God to place themselves in
the circumstances and enter into the feelings of others. They were to
be the moral representatives of that blessed One whose people they
were, and whose name was called upon them. They were to imitate Him in
meeting the wants and gladdening the hearts of the fatherless, the
widow, and the stranger. And if God's earthly people were called to
this lovely course of action, how much more are we who are "blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." May
we abide more in His presence, and drink more into His spirit, that so
we may more faithfully reflect His moral glories upon all with whom we
come in contact.
The closing lines of our chapter give us a very fine summing up of the
practical teaching which has been engaging our attention. "Thou shalt
fear the Lord thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou
cleave, and swear by His name. He is thy praise, and He is thy God,
that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine
eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and
ten persons, and now the Lord hath made thee as the stars of heaven
for multitude." (Ver. 20-22.)
How thoroughly bracing is all this to the moral being! This binding of
the heart to the Lord Himself by means of all that He is, and all His
wondrous actings and gracious ways, is unspeakably precious. It is, we
may truly say, the secret spring of all true devotedness. God grant
that the writer and the reader may abidingly realize its motive power.