The Ethiopian
(No. 2536)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 15,
1884.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may
you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 13:23.
Jeremiah had a friend who was a black man. Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian
eunuch, had a great and tender concern for Jeremiah when he was shut up
in the miry prison. He took ropes and covered them with rags that they
might not cut the poor Prophet's armpits, and drew him up out of that
filthy well into which he had been cast for the Truth of God's sake. I
suppose, from the way Ebedmelech afterwards treated the Prophet
Jeremiah, that they were great friends. And as we usually talk of
people of whom we are fond, it was natural that Jeremiah should use the
Ethiopian as an emblem. I do not know that any other Prophet did so.
Perhaps there was no other Prophet who took to a Negro so thoroughly as
Jeremiah did, but, anyway, he had that black man's face imprinted on
his mind and when he was speaking to the people, the Holy Spirit moved
him to use a simile with which he had become familiar. I wish that
every thought and experience I have ever had could be used in speaking
for my Lord. I would like to never set my eyes on anyone or anything
without trying to turn all to good account for the Master's work. And
if those of us who are teachers of others will only go about with our
eyes open, we shall find plenty of illustrations of the Truths we have
to proclaim. There will not be a black man cross our path but we shall
learn something or other from him.
Let us go at once to our text and notice that it contains a question
which admits of only one answer–"Can the Ethiopian change his skin?"
Of course he cannot! And this fact suggests to us a spiritual
question–Can a man who is accustomed to do evil, so change himself as
to do good? Of course he cannot, any more than the Ethiopian can change
his skin! When we have talked over that question which admits of only
one answer, I shall put another question which admits of the opposite
reply In that latter part of our subject may the Lord be pleased to
send comfort to those who are despairing and who know that they can no
more change their own nature than the Ethiopian can change his skin, or
the leopard his spots!
I. First, we are to consider a question which admits of only one
answer–"Can the Ethiopian change his skin?"
No one ever heard of such a thing being done. Very wonderful things
have occurred, but no one has ever yet heard of a blackamoor who has
been able to wash himself white. It was an old fable of Aesop as to the
absurdity of attempting to do anything of the kind and, often, when we
want to point out that a thing cannot be done, we use this simile, and
say, "You cannot change the blackamoor's skin."
There are some things that men can do. A white man may be made almost
black, as far as his skin is concerned. There are certain medicines
that operate upon the skin and give it a very strange color–you may
have seen a few such cases in your lifetime. But, though you can put
the color in, you cannot take it out. The man who is white, or the
woman who is very fair, may, either of them, sit in the sun till they
become browned so that they might almost say with the spouse in the
Song of Solomon, "I am black because the sun has looked upon me." But
you could not turn a black man, white, though you can turn a white man
black. You can do what you please by way of spoiling, but you can do
nothing by way of mending. You can make yourself filthy by sin, but you
cannot make yourself spiritually clean, do what you will! There is an
ease about going down–you can jump down a precipice quickly enough,
but who could stand at the bottom of a high cliff and leap to the top
at one bound? Man can come down against his will, but he cannot go up
even with his will. You can do evil all too readily–you can do it with
both hands, greedily, and do it again and again and not grow weary of
it–but to return to the right path, this is the difficulty!
As Virgil said about his arduous task when he went down to the land of
shades, "Easy is the descent to Avernus, but to return to the clear air
again–this is the work, this is the difficulty." You have all seen
persons make themselves black externally–the chimney sweep in pursuit
of his lawful calling becomes quite as black as a Negro, yet, with a
basin of water, he can change the look of his face very speedily
because the blackness is only something outside of him which merely
adheres to him for a time. But the question of our text is, "Can the
Ethiopian change his skin?" That is a part of himself and he cannot
alter it. The Ethiopian can wash himself clean and he ought to do so,
it is his duty to do so. And a man can keep himself moral and he ought
to do so, it is his duty. If the Negro is ever so black, he may be
clean, but he cannot wash himself white, neither can a sinner cleanse
himself from the stains of his guilt.
But remember, dear Friends, that, even if an Ethiopian could change his
skin, that would be a far smaller difficulty than the one with which a
sinner has to deal, for it is not his skin, but his heartwhich has to
be changed. There are some creatures in which, if they lose a limb, it
will grow again, or another will come in its place, but there is no
creature living that could lose its heart and then grow another. There
is a tree of a certain sort and you can, if you please, graft upon it
and it will produce a different kind of fruit. Or you can take off one
limb of a tree and another branch may grow–but you cannot change the
tree's heart. Even if it were possible for the Ethiopian to change his
skin, that would be a change, as we say, only skin-deep, and that is no
parallel to the sinner and his sin–the leprosy lies deep within. It is
the heart that is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
It is the center and source of thought and action which is polluted and
a change must be worked there. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" No,
but if he could do so, could a sinner change his heart? Assuredly not!
Observe, dear Friends, that the question is about an Ethiopian changing
his skin himself. That cannot be done, certainly, but, if it could be
done, a man could not, himself, change his own heart. For an evil heart
to make its own self good is inconceivable. Darkness never did beget
light. You may sit as long as you like in the sepulcher amid the dry
bones, but life will never be born of death–life must come from quite
a different source. The earth warms the seeds in her bosom and
nourishes them into growth, but if those seeds were dead, all the
genial seasons could not make them spring up. And even if the earth
could make dead seeds to live, that is not the kind of miracle of which
we are speaking– the miracle would be for the dead seed to make itself
alive. That is utterly beyond the bounds of possibility! The figure in
our text is a very strong one. As I have said before, the Ethiopian
cannot change his own skin, but even that figure is not strong enough
to express the utter helplessness of human nature as to its own
renewal, for the change is greater and deeper–and it is quite
impossible that it ever should come from fallen human nature.
Let me try to set forth, in some small measure, the difficulty of this
business. The first difficulty is because the evil that man has is in
his nature. If sin were merely an accident, then it might be prevented.
But it is not so. If sheep were to fall down into the mud, they might
soon be up again, and it would be possible to keep them from falling.
But when the swine go down into the mud, they roll in it because they
delight in wallowing! As long as there is any mire about and the sow
can get there, she will return to her wallowing as long as she remains
a sow, for the filthiness is in her nature as well as in that which
surrounds her! And it is so with us so far as sin is concerned. The
Ethiopian could wash himself clean, but the blackness of his skin is a
part of his Ethiopian nature and he cannot get rid of that. The
leopard's spots are not accidental to it, but it has spots because it
is a leopard.
So, sin is not accidental to human nature, but it is part and parcel of
ourselves. When you see a man, you see a sinner! And if you could look
into his heart, you would see the seed-plot of all manner of mischief
which only needs congenial surroundings to fully develop itself. How
can a man change his own nature? I do not suppose that, by any
possibility, I could ever become an Ethiopian. I do not think that if I
were to set my mind to the task, I could ever, by any possibility, turn
into a Dutchman because I was not born so–it is not according to my
nature. I must remain an Englishman, Essex-born, as long as I live.
Only a miracle could make me anything different from that! And the
sinner is a sinner right through. Wherever you look at him, he is a
sinner, and so he always will be unless a superior power shall
intervene to change him.
Alas also, this evil nature of man brings with it the fact that his
willis altogether perverted. A man will not cease to do evil and learn
to do well because he has no heart to do it. Sinners do not want to be
saved. "Oh," says one, "I do!" But do you understand what it is to be
saved? Every sinner would like to escape from going to Hell, but that
is not what is meant by salvation. To be saved means to be saved from
loving evil, from seeking after it and living in it. Do you want to be
saved from that? Do you want to be saved from falsehood, saved from the
indulgence of your passions, saved from strong drink, saved from pride,
saved from covetousness? The most of men have not a heart inclined to
that–there is some sweet sin of theirs which they would like to sip,
at least now and then upon the sly. That is to say, evil, as evil, is
not abhorrent to the natural will, but the natural will of man goes
after that which is evil as surely as ever children seek after that
which is sweet! Sin is sweet to man and he will have it if he can. How,
then, can his nature be changed while he has no will to it? The will
is, as it were, the rudder of the ship. My Lord Will-be-Will, according
to John Bunyan, is the Lord Mayor of the town of Mansoul. And so he is,
and he carries it in a very lordly way. He will have this and he will
have that–and he will not have the other–and he is the master of the
man. Till the will is changed, till what is called, "free will," is
made, in truth, to be free will–free from the chains of evil and the
love of sin–the man cannot rise to happiness and God any more than the
Ethiopian can change his skin!
Moreover, in connection with this natural depravity, and the perversity
of the human will, there comes to be the power of habit. Oh, what an
awful force the power of evil habit has upon a man! It begins at first
only like a cobweb–he can break it when he pleases. It grows into a
thread and he is somewhat restrained by it. It changes to a cord and he
is in a net. It hardens into iron and the iron becomes further hardened
into steel–and the man is shut up in it. He becomes like the starling
that cried, "I cannot get out! I cannot get out!" The sad thing is that
the man is in a cage of his own making! It is a sort of living cage
which has grown up all around him and he cannot escape from it! How
often is this the case with strong drink! The man at first only took a
very little, but how much does he take now? Mr. Wesley, when dining
once with a friend of his who had greatly helped him in the district,
saw him, after dinner, rise from the table and get just a little brandy
and water, Mr. Wesley said to him, "My Friend, what is that?" "I am
very much troubled with indigestion," he answered, "but I only take a
tablespoonful of brandy in a little water." "Well," said Mr. Wesley,
"that is certainly very little, but, my Friend, you will want two
tablespoonfuls before long to do for you what you think that one does.
And then you will want four. And then you will want eight and, unless
you give it up, I fear that you will become a drunk and disgrace the
cause of God." After Mr. Wesley was dead, that man still lived a
drunkard–he had lost his reputation, disgraced the people with whom he
had been connected and brought untold sorrow upon himself.
Now, as it is with that one particular sin, so it is with every other!
If a sin comes, alone, to your house the first time, it will come the
next time with seven other devils more wicked than itself–and those
seven will very soon bring seven each and you will have a legion of
devils! And when you get one legion, it is highly probable that another
legion will come into the barracks of your heart and stay there. The
beginning of sin is like the letting out of water–just a little drop
trickles through the wall of the dike. Then it becomes a tiny rivulet
which a child's hand can stop–then it increases to a stream and soon
the dike begins to heave, break, crack and, by-and-by, it is broken
down and a torrent rushes over town and village and carries away
multitudes of men with it. Beware! That evil habit is a dreadful
thing–he who yields to an evil habit is preparing himself for the
bottomless pit!
In addition to this habit, I grieve to say that there generally springs
up a kind of delight in sin. There are, no doubt, some men who, for a
time, feel an intense satisfaction in sin. Yes, and not only in their
own sins, but they take pleasure in the sins of others. I hope you
never hear them talk. If it has ever been your misfortune to do so, you
know that they will talk about some piece of filthiness as if it were a
brave thing. They will boast about what some boy has done under their
abominable tuition and they seem to take a delight in seeing how
precocious he is in everything that is vile. Some men are never happy
except when they are destroying souls and, while the deepest pleasure
under Heaven is to bring a soul to God, the most diabolical pleasure
out of Hell is certainly that of helping to damn a soul! Yet there are
many who seem to take a delight in that terrible work. How some
skeptics endeavor to entrap a youthful Believer! How some licentious
persons seem to lay themselves out to try and seduce others! How many
there are who have become ripe in iniquity and their evil seed is
scattered broadcast, sowing sin and everlasting ruin upon every wind
that blows! Can such an Ethiopian as that change his skin or such a
leopard as that his spots? Of course he cannot–the case is utterly
hopeless so far as his own power is concerned.
Further than this, the force of sin increases upon men. If a stone is
let fall from a tower, it multiplies the pace of its fall in a
mathematical ratio. It drops very much faster the last part of its
descent than it did at the first. Set anything rolling down a hill and
see how the momentum increases. A railway truck has got on a
decline–it is running down. It starts slowly enough at first, you
might easily stop it. But let it go on and see how it accumulates force
as it rushes along till it breaks through every obstacle. Well, just
such is the power of sin in men–they seem as if they cannot sin
enough. Having once given themselves up to the demon power, it comes
upon them stronger and yet stronger till the appetite grows within them
into a passion and a fury–and a fire that burns like the flame of
Gehenna that cannot be slowed or quenched. I know what they think at
first–that they will go just so far and then stop. Well, try it–no,
do NOT try it! It would be an awful experiment to set a house on fire,
intending to let it burn just so much and no more. Can you say to the
fire, "You shall come this far, but no farther"? Even if you could say
it to fire among standing corn, blown by the wind, yet you would say it
in vain to sin! Sin swiftly grows from a pigmy to a giant and, ever
increasing in its awful power, it crushes down the man who is in its
grip and holds him under its dreadful sway.
There are many drunks who now have within them a compulsion to drink.
They seem as if they could not pass by the door of the bar. There is
many an adulterer who cannot glance without a lascivious thought. As
for the gambler–and I dare to say that there is no sin that does more
swiftly send men down to Hell than gambling–having once begun with his
shilling and his pound, he will plunge till he has lost his all! There
is an awful infatuation about this evil–it is a stream that catches
the boat and bears it swiftly along, noiselessly, but with irresistible
force, till it comes to the cataract of endless ruin! Oh, that you
could escape! But there are some who never can and never will–and
there is not one of us who can escape unless He who is mighty to save
shall come in with His own right hand and His holy arm and get unto
Himself the victory! For when once the force of sin really grasps a
man, we may ask concerning him, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?"
and answer, "No, he cannot."
Added to all this there is another horrible evil–after a while the
understanding refuses to see. The man who, at first, knew a thing to be
wrong, may continue in it till he does not believe it to be wrong at
all. There are men who can utter language which would have chilled
their blood when they first began to swear. But now it drops from them
as an ordinary word. I believe that the filthy talkers of our street,
or the most of them, do not mean anything by what they say–they have
got so hardened in misusing the Lord's name and using obscene language
that their understanding does not convict them of having done wrong.
They have given Mr. Conscience so much opium that he has gone to sleep!
Now and then, perhaps, he wakes up and makes a great noise–but they
soon lull him to sleep, again–and they go on sinning without
compunction. We read of David, on one occasion, that his heart smote
him. It is an ugly knock when your own heart smites you, for that blow
comes home. But it is also a blessed knock and, if any of you have
never felt it, I am very sorry for you. If your heart never smites you,
it must be because your conscience has fallen into a dead sleep, or is
seared as with a red-hot iron! When a man reaches that stage that he
can lie and swear, and then can wipe his mouth and say that there is
nothing in it, oh, how shall such a man be changed? "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good
that are accustomed to do evil."
Then, again, as a man's conscience is sent to sleep, so his heart is
hardened against every holy influence that might move him. He used to
go to a place of worship, once, but he will not go now. He rails at
such places and pours contempt upon Gospel ministers and all Christian
people. Though he is as bad as he can be, yet he thinks that he is
better than they are and he tries to trample under his feet the saints
of God. Though such a wretch as he is not worthy, even, to unloose the
laces of their shoes, he cannot have sufficiently bad names for them.
In former times, when there came sickness into the house, he used to
pray. And in time of trouble he sought the Lord. He has had many a
trouble, since, but he is not at all disturbed about it–he only gets
angry against God and becomes more and more hardened in sin. His dear
wife used to have a wonderful influence over him for good, but he has
even broken away from that. And there is that dear girl of his–he
loves her very much and she has pleaded with her father. And there is
somebody else there, for a little child has led him, but now he feels
that all that is a kind of weakness and he will get beyond it. Ah, he
is hardening himself! As for his Bible–alas, he never reads that. If
there is a word spoken to him by some kind friend who takes an earnest
interest in his welfare, he lets it go in one ear and out the other–or
else he gets into a furious passion and asks who he is that he is to be
talked to like that! He is as good as anybody else, though he knows,
all the while, that he is rotten right through.
What is to be done with a man like that? He is determined to go over
hedge and ditch to Hell. His father, a dear gray-headed old saint, has
blocked the way, but he has pushed him aside. His mother has come and
said, "My Boy, do not ruin yourself," and she has hung about his neck
and tried to keep him from sin. But he has shaken her off. In spite of
wife, child, and friends, he is determined to destroy himself! And do
you tell me that such a man is able to change himself? Yes, when
Ethiopians change their skins and when leopards change their own spots,
then will it be done, but not till then! The case is hopeless if it
remains with the man, himself–the work cannot be accomplished.
You will say that now, surely, I have gone far enough in my description
of this man. And so I have, painfully far, but what can he do by which
he can change his nature and make a new man of himself? All outward
means are unavailing. He may go and hear sermons. Well, I know that
sermons of mypreaching will never turn a heart of stone into flesh.
Without the Spirit of God there will be no result whatever produced!
The man may be christened, or he may be baptized, but what is there in
water drops or water floods that can alter his sinful nature? Why,
there have been villains upon earth who have gone through every
religious ceremony and yet have ended at the gallows! You may scrub an
Ethiopian till you scrub his skin away, but he will be as black as ever
when you have done with him. So is it with the sinner. You may put him
through every form and ceremony of the church–and you may make him
think that he has accepted the orthodox creed and you may even alter
his outward life to a considerable extent–yet, when it is all done,
nothing at all will really have been done towards his soul's salvation!
Somebody, perhaps, asks, "Why, then, do you preach to these people?"
Well, I do it principally because I am sent to do it. You see, if God
were to send me to preach to the mountains and to bid them move, I
would go and do it–and expect to see them move! If He were to bid me
go and stand on the shore, and say to the salt sea waves, "Turn into
fresh water," I would do it, not because I think the sea, which is
salt, can make itselffresh, but because my Lord never sent me on a
fool's errand and He will honor the message He tells me to deliver! I
heard somebody say that to tell a dead sinner to live was as if you
were to stand at a grave and bid a dead body live. That is exactlyit,
my dear Friends, and you say it is ridiculous. Yes, it is very
ridiculous if you leave God out of it, but as we are told to do it, we
leave the responsibility of it with the Lord–and we intend to go on
with this thing which men call ridiculous! Like Ezekiel, we are
commanded to say, "O you dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord."
Somebody objects that dry bones cannot hear–that does not matter to
us–we are bid to tell them to hear and we expect that the Lord will
enable them to hear what He has commanded us to say to them!
Another reason why we do it is because, when we have been preaching the
Gospel to these Blackamoors, when we have been holding up Jesus Christ
and Him crucified to these Ethiopians, we have seen them turn white! So
we shall keep on, dear Friends, for, though they could not turn
themselves white, yet when we have come in the name of the Lord and
said to the Ethiopian, "Be white," he has become white before our very
eyes. I have seen, not only hundreds, but I have seen many thousands of
persons from whose lips I have heard the story that though they were
formerly persecutors of Christ and His people, they have become His
followers! Or, though they were fond of drink and every evil thing,
they have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. So I
shall keep on bidding sinners do this impossible thing, for, God
working with me, the withered hand shall be stretched out and the dead
Lazarus shall come forth from the grave at the bidding of the Lord!
II. I said that I would finish up with another question and another
answer. I have only two or three minutes in which to speak about them.
The question of the text is, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" The
answer is–No, no, no, no, no, no! Here is the other question–Can the
Ethiopian's skin be changed? The answer to that is–Yes, yes, yes, as
emphatically as we have just now said no, no, no! Can the Ethiopian's
skin be changed? Can the sinner's nature be renewed? Yes, for God can
do everything. He changed primeval darkness into light! He changed
chaos into order and God can turn that poor ruined man–that wretched
drunk, swearer, adulterer, into one who is chaste, pure, ad lovely and
honest, for all things are possible with God! He who made us can newly
make us! There is nobody who can put your clock in order so well as the
man who made it. If your clock has gone wrong, you had better send it
to the maker if you can find him. And there is nobody who can put a
heart in order like the God who made the heart. Send your heart to Him,
for He can make it new by His blessed Spirit.
Remember, also, that it is provided in the Covenant of Grace that the
Holy Spirit should make us new. It is written, "A new heart, also, will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." God the Holy
Spirit, as a Spirit, is master of our spirits. My dear Friend with a
bad temper, the Holy Spirit can conquer that evil! You who have such a
forgetful memory, he can conquer that! You who are so proud, He can
make you humble! You who feel so hard, He can dissolve the heart of
stone, or take it altogether away! Do not doubt that the Ethiopian can
have his skin changed by a power outside him and above him!
Further, know you this–the Lord Jesus Christ has come to save the
lost. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God. If
you believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, you shall be
saved. To put it in other words, "He that believes on the Son has
everlasting life." Or, to give you the whole Gospel as Christ told us
to preach it, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." If you
will come, not to do, but to have all done for you–not to
meritsal-vation, but to receive it as a gift of God's free favor–if
you will come just as you are, altogether without desert or anything to
plead before God–and you will just say in your heart, "Lord, I adore
the love which moved You to give Your Son to die for sinners, and I
believe in the great Propitiation which He offered for sin," go your
way, you are saved! If you thus believe, it is not only that you shall
be saved, but you are saved.
Have you anything to trust to beside Christ? Then you are lost, for you
have a mingled faith that is not of God's making! But if you wholly,
solely, alone, heartily and entirely fix your hope on the blood and
righteousness of Him whom God has set forth to be a Propitiation for
sin–then you are saved and I know that your heart says, "Blessed be
God for that! Now that I love God, what can I do for Him?" That is the
way!
I noticed, yesterday, when I was talking to some 40 persons who had
recently found Christ, that they were, all of them, either hard at work
for the Lord, or they were asking what they could do for Him. Could I
tell them something they could do for their dear Lord who had saved
them? There is far more done out of love than there is out of law. We
will not, cannot do anything to be saved, but, when saved, what is
there that we cannot do? Live, and then do! Not, do and live. Live in
Christ and then serve Him, but do not put the cart before the horse!
Come, dear Friends, and trust in Christ. The Lord bless you by His
Divine Spirit leading you to do so, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM78:9-72.
This story of the children of Israel, after they came out of Egypt, is
like a mirror in which we may, with great sadness, see ourselves
reflected.
Verse 9. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle. They had every opportunity of serving
their God. He had provided them with fit weapons for the war, but they
were cowardly, so they "turned back in the day of battle."
10, 11. They kept not the Covenant of God, and refused to walk in His
Law; and forgot His works, and His wonders that He had showed them. Let
each one of us ask, "Does the Psalmist describe me?"
12, 13. Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the
land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, and caused
them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as an heap. What
a marvelous miracle that dividing of the Red Sea was! Did it not make
an abiding impression upon them? I will be bound to say that many of
them said, "We shall never doubt God again." Yet, they soon did doubt,
murmur and rebel against Him!
14-16. In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night
with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, andgave
them drink as out ofthe great depths. He brought streams also out of
the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. It seemed as if
there was nothing that the Lord would not do for them–all that they
needed for food and refreshment was given to them freely.
17, 18. And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High
in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat
for their lust He had given them food for their necessities, but now
they must have meat for their lusts.
19. Yes, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in
the wilderness? So you see, dear Friends, what speaking against God
really is! I am afraid that we, also, have often done that. To question
God's power is to speak against Him. Perhaps you have thought lightly
of your unbelieving speeches, but God does not think lightly of them–
to my mind it seems that there is hardly anything that so grieves Him
as the doubts of His people concerning Him.
20. Behold, He smote the rock, that the watersgushed out, and the
streams overflowed; can He give breadalso? Can He provide flesh for His
people? There ought to have been no question as to the Lord's
power–the God who could fetch water out of a rock could, if He
pleased, make loaves of bread out of the sand under their feet, or
cause the very stars to drop with meat for them if necessary.
21. Therefore the Lord heard this, and was angry. He was really angry
with His people because they doubted Him. He loved them and because He
loved them, it cut Him to the quick that they should have questioned
His power to bless them.
21-23. So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up
against Israel because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His
salvation: though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened
the doors of Heaven. Unbelief is very hard to kill. God opens the doors
and windows of Heaven to feed His people yet, nevertheless, the next
time they are in trouble, they begin to stagger at the promise. Oh,
shameful unbelief!
24-29. And rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of
the corn of Heaven. Man did eat angels ' food: He sent them meat to the
fullest. He caused an east wind to blow in the Heaven: and by His power
He brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust,
and feathered fowls like as the sand ofthe sea: andHe letit fall in the
midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat,
and were well filled: for He gave them their own desire. Yet that was
not a blessing to them and, Brothers and Sisters, let us always be
afraid of our own desire, unless that desire comes from the Lord. You
know how David puts it in the 37th Psalm–"Delight yourself, also, in
the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart." If,
however, you find your delight in any earthly thing, it shall be a
plague to you to have the desire of your heart! "He gave them their own
desire."
30. They were not estranged from their lust For the more lust gets, the
more lust wants. It is like the daughter of the horse-leech that always
cries, "Give! Give!" God can satisfy the longing soul, but all the
world cannot satisfy the cravings of lust.
30, 31. But while theirmeat wasyet in theirmouths, the wrath ofGod came
upon them andslew the fattest ofthem, and smote down the chosen men of
Israel They received what they pined for, but they had a curse with it.
Affliction with a blessing is far better than prosperity with a curse!
32. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous
works. They were dyed ingrain with unbelief, so that it seemed as if it
could not be washed out of them.
33. Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in
trouble. A great part of our trouble is the fruit of our own unbelief.
It is like hemlock in the furrows of the field. They who distrust God
are making a rod for their own back and, before they have done with it,
they will have to rue the day in which they thought themselves wiser
than God!
34-36. When He slew them, then they sought Him: and they returned and
enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock,
and the High God, their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter Him
with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. Some men
are like dull animals that will not go without the whip. Many of us
cannot be kept right without constant affliction. If our God gives us a
little smooth walking, we go half-asleep, or we trip and stumble. And
so He is compelled, as it were, to make our way very rough, and often
to strike us with the rod to keep us from falling altogether into
sinful slumber. How many there are who, when they seem to turn to God
in times of sickness, are not truly penitent! A death-bed repentance
may be true, but, oh, what a risk there is that it may be false!
37-51. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they
steadfast in His Covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave
their iniquity and destroyed them not: yes, many a time turned He His
anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that
they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again. How
oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the
desert! Yes, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One
of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered
them from the enemy. How He had worked His signs in Egypt, and His
wonders in the field of Zoan: and had turned their rivers into blood;
and their floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of
flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto
the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees
with frost. He gave up their cattle, also, to the hail, and their
flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of His
anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels
among them. He made a way to His anger; He spared not their soul from
death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; and smote all the
firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of
Ham. This is what God did with their enemies who had oppressed them,
that He might set His people at liberty. After all that, ought they not
to have trusted Him as a little child trusts its mother, without ever a
question or a doubt? While He thus overthrew their enemies, see what He
did for His own people.
52-56. But made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them
in the wilderness like a flock. And He led them on safely, so that they
feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them
to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right
hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen, also, before them, and
divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to
dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God,
and kept not His testimonies. This sad note seems to come over and over
again, as if they never could have too much of grieving God. Yet the
Lord was still tender towards them. Well may we sing–
"Who is a pardoning Godlike Thee? Or who has Grace so rich and free?"
57-64. But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they
were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger
with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their graven
images. When God heard this, He was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel:
so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed
among men; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory
into the enemy's hands. He gave His people over, also, unto the sword;
and was angry with His inheritance. The fire consumed their young men;
and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the
sword; and their widows made no lamentation. They were dumb with excess
of grief. When God chastises His children, He does not play at it.
Sometimes, when He is angry at their sin, He lays on the blows fast and
heavy till their very bones are broken, so that they may hate sin as
God hates it, and seek after holiness even as God loves it. So, dear
Friends, I pray that if any of us have lost the consolations of God and
are feeling the weight of His rod, we may begin to inquire what secret
thing it is in us which has angered Him, and go back to Him, and seek
to stand before Him as once we did. For, otherwise, He will smite, and
smite, and smite yet again and again. But notice that the Lord never
delights in chastening His children. He is glad to have done with the
necessary correction. So, when their enemies were most cruel with
them–
65-69. Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, andlike a mighty man
that shouts by reason of wine. AndHe smote His enemies in the hinder
parts. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover He refused the
tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the
tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His
sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He has established
forever. You see that we are getting into clear water now–it was all
broken water, storm and hurricane, while we heard of what Israel
did–but when we come to deal with God in Christ, of whom David is the
type, then how sweetly everything goes!
70-72. He chose David, also, His servant, and took him from the
sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young He brought him to
feed Jacob, His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he fed them
according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the
skillfulness of his hands. Blessed be God who puts away the sin of His
people, because He delights in mercy!