Lessons on Divine Grace
(No. 2833)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 31, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING, IN
THE SUMMER OF 1861.
"But by the Grace of God I am what I am." 1 Corinthians 15:10.
THIS confession, suitable on the lips of Paul, is equally appropriate
in the mouth of each one of us who have known and proved the Grace of
God. We must consider Paul, according to his own account of himself, as
being "not meet to be called an Apostle"–though "not a whit behind the
very chief Apostles"–because he had persecuted the Church of God. In
respect of personal merit, he knew that he did not deserve to be
accounted of at all, yet, when the sole ground of approbation was not
the service he had rendered to his Sovereign, but the favor which his
Sovereign had bestowed upon him, he could say, "By the Grace of God I
am what I am." Take the meanest lamb in Jesus' fold, the feeblest heir
of Grace, the most timid and fearing–the most hopeless and helpless of
all disciples, the man most devoid of talent, the man who stands the
very lowest on the list of the saints of God–surely he may and must
say that "by the Grace of God" he is what he is, so far as he is in
Christ–a Believer, with all the privileges that Believers have a
gracious right to claim! Let this be your comfort, you little ones,
that the same Grace that made an Apostle of Paul has made a Christian
of you. The same power that has quickened the mightiest man in the army
of the Lord of Hosts has also quickened you. The Grace that saves the
greatest saves the least. If the largest and brightest gem in the crown
of Christ reflects His Grace and glorifies His love, even so shall you,
though you are as the smallest pearl that shall be set in His glorious
diadem of honor!
Then, next, take the Apostle Paul in the other way he describes himself
in our text. In the preceding verse, he says he is the least of the
Apostles, yet he also says, "I labored more abundantly than they all."
It is equally true, whether you put him in the meanest place among
converts, or in the very forefront of the army of faithful soldiers of
Christ–among the feeblest of pensioners or the most zealous of all the
laborers in the vineyard of the Master–the acknowledgment must be
made, "By the Grace of God I am what I am." Be our attainments never so
eminent, our knowledge never so extensive, our usefulness never so
great, yet still we stand, in the sight of God, on the same footing as
the very meanest member of the Church of Christ! The song which begins
among the little and the timid gathers strength among the great and the
brave. It is not altered in the slightest degree–the language is the
same, the strain the same, the song the same–"By the Grace of God,"
we, all of us, must say, "we are what we are"!
I am going to speak of my text, first, doctrinally. Secondly,
experimentally. And, thirdly, practically.
I. First, DOCTRINALLY. Each one of us who is a Believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ can take this sentence as his creed and say, "By the Grace
of God I am what I am."
That is to say, first, I am not what I am as the result of something
good which God foresaw would be in me. God has not vouchsafed His love,
His favor, His mercy to me because He foresaw that I would repent of my
sin and trust in His dear Son. No, there is a deeper cause for His love
than anything that could be found in me! Indeed, there is nothing that
could be found in me that is lovely in His sight, but it would be
proved, immediately, that He had, first of all, freely given that
lovely thing to me, or created it within me. If I am a child of God, an
heir of Heaven, the wellspring of God's love to me is in His own
Sovereign Grace. Nothing in my disposition or character could move His
heart to me. His heart must have moved spontaneously–it must have
welled up because of its own deep love–and it must have flowed towards
me
in its own Divine channel simply because God, in His Sovereignty, would
have it so! "By the Grace of God," I am elected unto eternal life–
"Grace first inscribed my name, In God's eternal book."
'Twas Grace which set me apart, in distinguishing love, before the
stars were made! 'Twas Grace that separated me from the mass of
mankind. 'Twas Grace that laid hold of me while I was but as a pebble
in the brook–and ordained that I should be a bright diamond in Christ'
s crown! It was God who, in the beginning, by His own Grace, decreed
that I should be what I am and, therefore, to begin there, we take this
as our creed, "By the Grace of God"–as manifested in eternity and, by
that alone have I been caused to be "what I am."
Then, next, my text also means I am not what I am as the result of any
creature strength, or any means of my own. I am not what I am because I
chose to be what I am, for if I had been what I chose to be, I would
still have been "dead in trespasses and sins." If I had followed my
poor, blind free will, it would have been, to this day, leading me to
Hell! It would never have led me Heaven. If I had made it my guide, I
would have wandered further and further, and further away from God.
With my back to the Savior, I would never have moved towards God. It is
the same with all of us–if there is anything good in any of us, we
must confess that God Himself put it there. He taught our souls to
pray. He made us feel our need of Divine Grace. He stripped us of our
boastful pride. He delivered us from our refuges of lies. He leveled
the legality of our hearts by bringing us low with labor, exhausting
all our strength. Twas He who cast the first ray of hope into our soul!
He opened our blind eyes to see the beauty of Christ! He gave us the
first glimmering of faith! He enabled us to see that our sins were
washed away by the precious blood of Jesus and He has kept us alive to
this day and will not let us go!
We will maintain this Truth of God against all comers, that saints are
what they are "by the Grace of God" and not by their own free will! I
have sometimes heard men preach doctrines contrary to this. They have
said that men are what they are as the result of the improvement of
"universal Grace," and that the distinction which is apparent in them
is made by themselves. God gave them a Grace which they were to
use–not a Grace which operated upon them, but a grace which they
operated upon. According to that teaching, Divine Grace is given to men
as a tool with which they are to work, not as a seal which God sets
upon a man–Grace is subservient to man–he is not subservient to
Grace. Yet I must say that although I have heard such doctrine as that
preached from the pulpit, I have never known it to be practically
received in the heart of a child of God. When you come to the point and
ask a true Believer, "Why are you, now, a child of God and an heir of
Heaven?" he tells you, once and for all, "God made the difference." He
will, perhaps, tell you that men can do much towards their own
conversion, but He will deny that he has done anything towards his. He
will loyally put the crown on the head of Christ, even though being
clouded in his understanding, he may have talked as if he denied the
Truth. But, Brothers and Sisters, what we hold is the Doctrine of the
effectual working of God in the hearts of His chosen ones, as the Lord
said to Zerubbabel, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, said
the Lord of Hosts." And as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "according to
the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ, when He
raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the
heavenly places."
Now let us look at our text in another aspect. Some suppose that even
if Divine Grace begins the work, we must at least carry it on. It
cannot be denied that the living child of God has power, but it must
not be forgotten that the power of the living child of God is not in
himself, but in his Heavenly Father. For it is as true of him as of any
sinner–"dead in trespasses and sins" that, without Christ, he can do
nothing. The living child of God is still as powerless as the dead
sinner apart from the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the
constant inflowing of the Divine Life into his soul. "By the Grace of
God" we not only are what we are, but we also remain what we are. We
would long ago have ruined our-selves–and damned ourselves–if Christ
had not kept us by His Almighty Grace!
There has not been one hour in our whole Christian experience in which
we have preserved ourselves! We cannot look back to any stage in our
history and say, "Here I worked mighty marvels by my own unaided
power." We dare not say, when we have been made to stand on our high
places, that we stood there by our own wisdom. Nor can we say, when we
have run without weariness, that we did it in our own strength. No,
Beloved, whenever we discover our own strength in our pilgrimage, it is
in going backward and in tumbling down–never in going forward, or in
mounting upward.
With the Psalmist, we have to say to the Lord, "All my springs are in
You" and, as all the springs are in the Lord, so are all the streamsas
well. As for myself, I must continually sing–
"Oh, to Grace, how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be"
Not only am I debtor to Grace, once and for all, but each day adds to
the debt and each hour the bulk of my obligation grows. I must still
say, "By the Grace of God I am what I am." Some of you could say this
20 years ago, but you can say it with even greater emphasis now! And
when you get gray-headed and totter down to Jordan' s brink, you will
not be able to say, "By my own goodness I am what I am." Even there
must you give all the glory to that Divine Grace which, having been the
Alpha, will also be the Omega–which, having been the beginning, will
also be the end.
So, doctrinally, I state the Truth of my text thus, "By the Grace of
God I am what I am." I am elect. My election is of Grace. I am
redeemed. Redemption is a mighty masterpiece of Grace. I am
called–called by Grace. I am preserved– preserved by Grace and
whatever there is in me that is commendable and virtuous, whatever
there is in me which the Son of God can admire and which gives to my
own soul real comfort, must be all of Grace and of Grace alone! I have
spoken so much in the first person because the text is in the first
person. Will each of you, also, speak in the first person and say in
your heart, "By the Grace of God I am what I am," endorsing the text
from your own experience, setting your seal to this part of God's Word
and declaring it to be true and going forth with this motto emblazoned
on your banner as the Doctrine which you will hear, and which, if you
are called to the ministry, you will preach, "By the Grace of God I am
what I am"?
II. Now, in the second place, I am going to take the text
EXPERIMENTALLY.
By this I mean that there are times in our experience when this Truth
of God starts up in letters of light and we recognize it as an
indisputable fact, not only taught to us as a Scriptural Doctrine, but
proved to us by our own personal experience. Let me just narrate a few
instances.
Brothers and Sisters, have you ever had times when the fountains of the
great deep of your depravity have been broken up? Have you ever been
taken into the chambers of imagery and has the Spirit of God said to
you, "Son of man, I will show you greater abominations than these!" And
has He taken you, first, into one room, and then into another and made
you stand aghast while He has shown you the idols of your heart, the
deep depravity that still remains in you, the pride, sloth and various
forms of sin which still lurk and find shelter there? Have you ever had
the filthy rags unrolled before your eyes? Have you heard the
chattering of the unclean birds in the cage of your heart? Have you
ever been fully conscious of the stench arising from your Old Adam
nature? Has your spirit sickened at the very thought of the depravity
of manhood in general and of yourself in particular? Have you ever had
your secret sins set in the light of God's Countenance? Have you ever
been made to see the blackness of your own sin, side by side with the
brightness of Divine favor? Have you ever been made to taste the
exceeding bitterness of your sin even at the Communion Table–even
while you realized the preciousness of the blood of Chris and renewed
your former fellowship with Him? If so, then I know that my text has
been true to you, as it also has been to me, and that you have said, as
I have often been compelled to say, "By the grace of God I am what I
am."
You have looked at your heart and you have seen its barren soil. And if
there has been any wheat growing upon it, you have said, "This is the
result of the Grace of God." You have looked at the huge black rock of
your Old Adam nature and when you have seen rivers of Living Water
flowing out of the very midst of it, you have been obliged to say,
"This mighty miracle could only have been worked by the Grace of God."
Flimsy views of human depravity lead to very indistinct ideas of the
Grace of God. There is nothing but deep sub-soil plowing that ever
makes a man sound in the Doctrines of Grace–and I will defy any man
who has had a deep experience of his own odious depravity to believe
any other doctrines but the Doctrines of Grace which are commonly
called Calvinism! No, more than that, the mind, unless it is most
graciously taught by the Spirit of God, will be apt to go beyond the
true Scriptural Doctrine and to push the term beyond its legitimate
sphere.
There have been other occasions on which you and I have been forced to
cry, "By the Grace of God I am what I am," namely, after some strong
and terrible temptation. Have you ever known what it is to feel some
old lust which you thought was dead, suddenly come upon you with a
whirlwind power and drive you before it like a sere leaf of the forest
that could not resist its might? I have, sometimes, had this trying
experience. When quietly meditating upon the things of
God, some fierce and fearful impulse to sin has assailed me–as if a
giant had seized me by the neck and pushed me onward until, at last, I
came to the very brink of some awful iniquity and looked down upon it.
And, just as it seemed as if I must plunge into it, my eyes have been
opened and I have seen the horror of great darkness and I have
exclaimed, "O God! How is it that I have not committed that sin? How is
it that You have come to save me just in the nick of time and stretched
out Your hand to rescue me just when 'my feet were almost gone,' when,
'my steps had well-nigh slipped'? Not only had I thought of slipping,
but 'my steps had well-nigh slipped.' Then, Your mercy, O God, held me
up!" I do not know whether you have had strong impulses of that kind.
Many of God's people have, and especially those who, before conversion,
plunged deeply into sin. You have sometimes had almost on your lips the
oath which you have hated in your inmost heart. Iniquity has come
before you in a fascinating guise and, although you abhorred it, yet,
for the moment, a strange hallucination of dazzling witchery seemed to
lay hold of your spirit–and if you had yielded to it, you would have
been like Samson when he fell into the hands of the Philistines! So it
is that we are often compelled to say, as we look back upon marvelous
Providences and Divine interpositions, "Truly, by the Grace of God we
are what we are, and by that Grace, alone, have we been preserved from
falling into sin."
I think, too, that this Truth has often been brought home to us when we
have witnessed the fall of others. You have, perhaps, walked to and
from the House of God with some notable professor of religion and he
has instructed you on many points. He seemed to be a man of deep
experience and devout life. Your heart has been knit to him and you
have said, "Here, indeed, is a Brother," and you have, possibly, envied
him his great attainments and his fluent speech. Then, all of a sudden,
you heard that he had fallen into some terrible sin. You made enquiries
and you found that it was only too true. You were present, one night,
at the Church meeting when the solemn sentence of excommunication was
pronounced upon him–and while the minister uttered it, all the members
wept and prayed that the poor fallen one might be brought to repentance
and that his soul might not be the prey of Satan. At such a time as
that, you have said, "By the Grace of God I am what I am," and you have
said, with good John Newton–
" When any turn from Zion's way, (Alas, what numbers do)! I think I
hear my Savior say, ' Will you forsake Me too?' Ah, Lord, with such a
heart as mine, Unless You hold me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline,
And prove like they at last!'
Such instances may act as beacons to warn us of pride and to teach us,
again, the lesson that by the Grace of God we are what we are.
Then, Brothers and Sisters, I think there are other seasons when we
learn this lesson. That is, in times of great dullness in spiritual
matters. Heavenly trade is not always brisk, even in the best
market–that is, in the breast of the Believer. Spiritual mariners do
not find that the wind always blows and thus, though we should always
have our sails up, (which, alas, is not always the case with us), even
then the wind would not always blow, for it "blows where it wishes."
Like the sea, we have our ebb as well as our flood-tide. Do you not
know what it is to go to the Throne of Grace when– as for words, you
can find plenty of them, but as for heart and soul, and vigor in
prayer–if your salvation depended upon your fervency, you must perish?
Have you not gone to the Mercy Seat and groaned there–and groaned most
of all because you could not groan as you ought? You have taken your
needs to the Throne of Grace, but you have had to bring them away
again. You have gone up to the House of God and though you could find
no fault with the sermon, there was, somehow or other, nothing in it
for you.
You went home to read your Bible and though you knew that it was a
precious Book, it did not seem precious to you. It might be like a
honeycomb, but you could not get any of the honey out of it. You had
lost all spiritual appetite and you felt as if you were drawing near to
the gates of death. You remember, too, how you then sought the society
of the godly, yet you received no consolation from them. Heavenly
things seemed to be but dreams–the substantial things of eternity did
not affect your spirit as they should have done and you could only cry,
with the Psalmist, "My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken You me
according to Your word." And at such times, and especially if your
prayer has been graciously heard, you have been compelled to say, "It
is my natural state to be cold and dull and if, at any time, I run
swiftly in the heavenly race–if my sails are filled and my boat is
carried towards Paradise–surely this is by the Grace of God."
Just one more remark upon this point. Times of great mercy often
operate upon some of us so as to bring us very low and to make us feel,
"By the Grace of God we are what we are." Simon Peter had this
experience. When his boat was full of fish, so that it began to sink,
he fell on his knees before his Master and said "Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord." Their greatness of God's mercy to him
convinced him of his own unworthiness and it has been the same with
some of us. The more the Glory of God's Grace has been revealed to our
souls, the humbler have we been made to lie at His feet. When the Lord
has piled up His mercies till they were like the great mountains and
His faithfulness has been like the bottomless depths, then have we been
obliged to say, "These great things are, indeed, of God–they could not
have come of man." At such times we have felt that we could sit before
the Lord, as David did, and ask, "Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my
house, that You have brought me to this point?" God sometimes
overwhelms His children with mercy quite as completely as He ever does
with affliction. Pride may be overcome in two ways. It is sometimes
overcome by trouble that crushes a man, but, at other times, the same
result is produced by Almighty Grace which, in overwhelming waves of
love, rushes in upon the man's spirit, till, submerged in love and
mercy, he can only resign himself to its depths and feel–yet always
feel that he cannot feel enough–the wonders of God's Grace and his own
littleness in comparison with God's amazing favor! God sometimes
humbles His children by putting them in the dark, but He sometimes does
it in another way, as David said, "When I consider Your heavens, the
work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained;
what is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You
visit him?" How often have we also had to say, with David, "How
precious, also, are Your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum
of them!" So I hope it will be with each one of us, that the greatness
of God's mercy to us, as a Church, and as individuals, will lead us to
say, "By the Grace of God we are what we are."
III. Now, in closing, let us consider our subject PRACTICALLY. What is
the practical use of this text, "By the Grace of God I am what I am"?
Surely, as I have already reminded you, it is designed to keep us
humble. Depend upon it, if we do not take this text for our motto every
day, there is the rod of the Covenant ready for us. He will soon be in
a storm who does not see God's Grace in the sunshine. If His mercies
surround us and our days roll happily along, but we begin to ascribe
our greatness and our riches to ourselves, it will not be long before
God will bring us down. It may be so in your experience, especially if
you soar upon the wings of self-confidence. As surely as you begin to
get strong in your own strength, there is an hour of weakness close at
hand! Whenever you are full of self, it will not be long before you
learn your own emptiness, for he who begins to grow rich in himself is
next door to poverty–no, he is already clothed in rags. No, my
Brothers and Sisters, there is no safe walking unless we make this the
staff on which we lean–"By the Grace of God we are what we are." While
we stick to this as our hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly,
everlasting motto, we shall not go astray, nor shall we experience
those terrible downcastings which are the inevitable result of our
flying up in self-confidence. Come then, Beloved, from this day let us
learn humility, let us tread our pride in the dust and say, "Why should
we be proud? By the Grace of God we are what we are."
Then, in the light of our text, let us learn charity Why should I be
harsh towards those who are not what I am? I wish that some persons who
think themselves very sound in Doctrine, would recollect our text. If
another Brother is thought to be unsound, they are ready to cut him in
pieces! It would be better if they were to say, before using their
sword for such a purpose, "By the Grace of God we are what we are."
Though you should be ever so sound and right, yourselves, be gentle
with the Brother who has not received so much Grace as you have. Good
John Newton used to say that for a Calvinist to be proud was the most
inconsistent thing in the world, because, by his own profession, there
were Truths of God which no man could receive or understand of
himself–so, why should he boast of his own attainments and why should
he blame others for not doing what he knows they cannot do of
themselves? If our Brothers and Sisters cannot see as well as we can,
why should we be angry with them because our eyes are better than
theirs? I see no reason for being angry with a blind man because he
cannot see–that is the very reason why we should pity his infirmity.
So, let us seek to relieve those who are burdened, to bring back those
who have wandered, to strengthen the weak hands, confirm the feeble
knees and, to the best of our power, lead others into that glorious
Light of God in which we ourselves are walking, for, by the Grace of
God we are what we are!
Moreover this should teach us hopefulness concerning other men. There
is a drunken man–you think he can never be converted, but why not? The
Grace that saved you is sufficient to save him. You sometimes meet with
an infidel. Per-
haps you have one in your family–a father, or brother, or sister–and
you are apt to say, "Well, it is no use trying to get such an one to go
to the House of God–all he would do would be to mock and jeer. If the
minister should make a mistake, he would seize upon it and use it as
his stock-in-trade for the abuse of the week. If there is a fault among
God's children, he is sure to notice it and to make it the theme of his
reproach, so he had better be kept away from them." But again I say the
Grace that saved you is sufficient to save him–never give anyone up,
even as God did not give you up! I always think that as God has
converted me by His Grace, He can convert anybody! The conversion of
any other sinner is not any more difficult to Omnipotence, neither is
it any easier, for Omnipotence knows nothing of degrees. What marvelous
things Christ has done and done in some of us, too! Some of you must
weep over that verse in which the Apostle says, "And such were some of
you, but you are washed." And you say, "Yes, and to God be all the
Glory that He has made us what we are." Therefore let us continue to
look after those whom Satan has ensnared–even the most hardhearted
sinners–and seek to bring them under the saving influence of the Grace
of God.
Then, lastly, if we are what we are "by the Grace of God," this should
teach us greater thankfulness. Children of the Heavenly King, never
forget to praise your God! We sometimes fail in this duty. We have had
many meetings for prayer to ask God to bless us in our manifold labors.
Now let us have some meetings for praise–to bless the Lord for His
great goodness to us. I have heard that in some parts of New England,
there used to be a day of fasting every month to mourn for the iniquity
of the land and so on. And, at last, some senator proposed that they
should have a feast and thank God for the mercies which they had
received–and, truly, he was in the right. It is not good always to be
fasting–we must sometimes feast! An old Puritan says that we take in
breath by prayer by a sort of heavenly Inspiration–and that we breathe
it out again by praise. Dear Brothers and Sisters, if you and I were to
sing as heartily as we ought to sing, what a joyous song of praise
there would be! If our voices could but be tuned to the goodness of
God, what songs and sonnets would make glad this wilderness!
You remember Ralph Erskine's sonnet on the battle in Heaven–the great
contention of the bards in Paradise? He pictures them all contending as
to who should have the lowestplace and which should most loudly praise
the Lord! There were the babes snatched from their mothers'
breasts–they claimed the lowest place because they had gone straight
to Heaven without any trials or troubles. But the gray-headed men who
had been Divinely supported under the afflictions of many years said
that theyowed the most to Sovereign Grace. Then came those who had been
converted in their early years and who said that they had already had a
Heaven below, so they could sing the loudest of all. Then came the
penitent thief who said that he had the greatest cause to praise the
Lord for he had been converted at the last. While some declared that
they must praise God most because they had been the blackest sinners,
others said that they would praise Him most for the restraining Grace
which had kept them from sin. And so the strife went on until they
agreed, each one, to sing with all his might to the praise of that
Everlasting Love which inscribed their names in the Lamb's Book of
Life, that great Love which bought them with Jesus' precious blood and
that Omnipotent Love which attended them all their journey through and
landed then at last in Heaven!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: NUMBERS4:1-33.
Verses 1, 2. And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Take
the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their
families, by the house of their fathers. There were three families,
those of Kohath, Gershon and Merari–and to each of these families a
different service was allotted. First, they were to be numbered. "The
Lord knows them that are His," and He takes count of all His people.
3. From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, all that
enter into the service, to do the work in the tabernacle of the
congregation. They were to take up this work as a warfare, for, though
it was a peaceful work, yet it is described as being a warfare. And he
who serves the Lord, though that service is perfect peace, will not
serve Him without also finding it to be a warfare.
4. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of
the congregation, about the most holy things. They were to have to do
with the Most Holy Place, to carry it and to carry the vessels of it–a
very honorable position.
5, 6. And when the camp sets forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons,
and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the Ark of
Testimony with it: and shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skin,
and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the
staves thereof. These Kohathites might not so take the Ark as to handle
it, much less might they ever look at it. But the priests and the sons
of Aaron went in first and, after carefully covering the Holy Place,
they covered up the sacred Ark with a cloth of blue. Blue was the token
of holiness–of separation. Hence, every Israelite wore a border of
blue upon his garment, but this, which was the symbol of the Divine
Presence, was "all of blue." It is all holiness. We wear, alas, but a
border of blue, but this holy thing was "all of blue."
7. And upon the table of showbread they shall spread a cloth of blue,
and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers
to cover all: and the showbread shall be thereon. When they moved the
sacred table, the bread was always there–twelve cakes for the twelve
tribes–for the bread of God's House is never lacking.
8-10. And they shall all spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover
the same with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put in the staves
thereof And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick
of the light and its lamps, andits tongs, andits snuffdishes, andall
the oil vessels thereof, wherewith theyminister unto it: and they
shallput it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers'
skin and shallput it upon a carrying beam. There were means for
handling these vessels without touching them. I mean the Ark had
staves, and the vessels were put upon a bar for carrying them.
11. And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and
cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall insert its poles.
A type of the holiness veiled in our Lord's Humanity–the badger skin
made apparent the simplicity, the poverty, the humility of our
Lord–covering evermore that wondrous cloth of blue.
12, 13. And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, herewith
they minister in the sanctuary, andput them in a cloth of blue, and
cover them with a covering of badgers' skins and shallput them on a
carrying bar: and they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and
spread a purple cloth thereon. A royal altar is this, always grand and
glorious in our eyes, covered with a purple cloth.
14-20. And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith
they minister about it, even the censers, the forks, and the shovels,
and the basins, all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread
upon it a covering of badgers' skins, andinsert itspoles. And when
Aaron andhis sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, andall
the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after
that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not
touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the
son of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to the office
of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, pertains the oil for the light
and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing
oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that therein
is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof. And the LORD spoke
unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, Cut you not off the tribe of the
families of the Kohathites from among the Levites: but thus do unto
them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach unto the most
holy things: Aaron andhis sons shall go in, and anoint them, everyone
to his service and to his burden: but they shall not go in to see when
the holy things are covered, lest they die. This is a very awful thing.
I mean something which should produce a great awe and solemnity in our
hearts. These men were chosen to carry the vessels of the Most Holy
Place, yet they must never see them! They must be covered up by the
hands of the priest–and they must never touch them. They must bear
them by their staves, or upon the carrying bar upon which they were
placed. Oh, how terrible a thing it is to draw near to God! The Lord
our God is a jealous God. He will be served with holy reverence or not
at all. Hence he says to Moses and Aaron, "Take care that you do not
lead these men into any mistake. You go in first, and point out to each
man what he is to carry. See that all is covered up, for if you do not,
they may die in their work. Do not be accessories to their act and
bring upon them this terrible judgment."
I often wish that God's people would be careful not to cause sin in any
of His servants when they are engaged in the ministry. Perhaps in
preaching, or otherwise, there may be something done which vexes the
Holy Spirit and causes trouble and sin. And, oh, he who stands in the
holy place and bears the holiest of the vessel, needs to fear and
tremble before God! And he needs to ask his brethren to see that they
do nothing which might inadvertently cause him to sin.
21-24. And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Take also the sum ofthe
sons ofGershon, throughout the houses of their fathers, of their
families, from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shall
you number them; all that enter in to perform the service, to do the
work in the tabernacle ofthe congregation. This is the sequence ofthe
families
of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens. They were to bear the
external coverings of the Holy Place. The Most Holy Place was in the
custody of the Kohathites, but the Gershonites were to carry as
follows–
25-28. And they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the
tabernacle of the congregation, its covering, and the covering of the
badgers' skins that is above upon it, and the hanging for the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and
the hanging for the door of the gate of the court, which is by the
tabernacle and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the
instruments of their service, and all that is made for them: so shall
they serve. At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the
service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens, and in
all their service: and you shall appoint unto them in charge all their
burdens. This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon in
the tabernacle of the congregation: and their charge shall be under the
hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron, the priest. There was a wise decision
of labor. I wish we had the same kind of thing in every church, and
that every member occupied himself in that to which God has appointed
him. But there are some who want to do what they cannot do, and who do
not care to do what they can do.
29-32. As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them after their
families, by the house of their fathers; from thirty years old and
upward even unto fifty years old shall you number them, every one that
enters into the service, to do the work of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And this is the charge of their burden, according to all
their service in the tabernacle of the congregation, the boards of the
tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and sockets
thereof, and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets,
and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with
all their service: and by name you shall reckon the instruments of the
charge of their burden. They had the heaviest load to carry, but they
were the more numerous. They carried the solid columns upon which the
covering of the tabernacle rested. And notice that they had also to
carry the pins. Sometimes God's servants dislike carrying pins. They
feel themselves too big–but blessed is that servant who, in his place,
can be content to carry "their sockets, and their pins, and their
cords, with all their instruments."
33. This is the service of the families of the sons ofMerari, according
to all their service, in the tabernacle of the congregation, under the
hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest.